Critical Reflection

 Here is the critical reflection of the project I completed as a group with my friends.

My team and I were required as per the component three brief given to us on the first day of the project to produce a music video covering an existing song with the purpose of creating and promoting a star and his music career. In order to complete the task at hand, we would first need to take a closer look at some of the conventions of different music videos. It was the decision of the group to utilise the R&B genre of music, which has made a name for itself revolving mostly around relationships, love, as well as challenges one might face in the pursuit of love. One such R&B song that stood out to us the most is Bruno Mars’ “Leave the Door Open” which granted us the opportunity to create a persona around our artist who we called JMUSE.  It was our intention to make JMUSE an approachable and relatable character who is a hopeless romantic, looking for love in his late teenage years. The dominant reading of this project is to ensure audiences can follow along with the idea that JMUSE struggles with his love life as a teenager while on the other hand also maintaining a certain level of refreshing charisma in his persona.

Branding, persona and image in the media assists audiences to identify certain symbols, typefaces, and even colour palettes with a star. Included in our group’s music video was our star’s branding which was portrayed by certain eye catching elements in the storyline which told the story, consistency within the visual department, as well as the meaning behind the acting performed by the star.  Given that our song represents a story of romance, the lighting in the video was warm which conveys a sense of affection and passion. Our star’s persona of being laid back, romantic, as well as down to earth which will ultimately lead to audiences finding it easy to connect and relate to him. Part of our character’s development is ensuring that he faces a problem which is facing a heartbreak. In order to bolster this characteristic, we decided to shoot our footage in natural surroundings such as the beach and sunset settings which portray a sense of reminiscing as well as reflection. The themes that were shown in the music video was a struggle to recover from losing someone he loved and escaping by going to alcohol and reflecting on his life on the beach as a metaphor for self healing.

Conventions of R&B music videos are laid back, slow paced, and relaxing. On the other hand, the stars are portrayed as being smooth and clean. This is something we conformed with as our star was always well dressed but not overly formal. The camera movements that are the conventions of R&B are slow and smooth which tells a story of love and emotion. JMUSE was frequently filmed close up as well as medium shot which shows his feelings and emotions of a heartbreak. We decided to subvert from the conventions by making our star hopeless at love. This subverts conventions because R&B stars tend to be masters of the art of love. Some of the scenes in our music video had dark colours of nature in contrast to a life of luxury in a mansion. 

Digipaks are a form of promotion of an artist’s album in physical form which includes the star’s branding and persona. We researched the conventions of R&B digipaks and we found that the conventions were serif fonts, dark backgrounds, and the face of the star. Facial expressions on these digipaks were very often serious with a face of determination. We featured JMUSE sitting on a beach facing the sunset with a serif font as the album name. This is consistent with our branding of JMUSE as he is a nature loving hopeless romantic. The couch on the inside symbolises a romantic atmosphere where JMUSE wishes to spend quality time. The green of the couch really exemplifies a natural bond between JMUSE and nature. These pictures that we chose for our digipak were very good as they conveyed the message perfectly that JMUSE is a hopeless romantic but is still looking to make himself happy in ways that involve embracing his surroundings and enjoying them.

Our music video represents and reflects the plight of male teenagers and their pursuit of love. Researching conventions for this was particularly difficult as there was not much I could find, but I came to the conclusion that R&B conventions on music videos and representing teens is to empower teens to raise up healthy relationships. Our star, JMUSE, is not necessarily portrayed as a weak or a strong masculine man. Rather, he is portrayed as someone who is seeking ways of forgetting his past failure with women and now he is in pursuit of happiness through spending time alone at the beach, going for a bike ride. This makes him more relatable to his audience and increases his authenticity. Warm tones in the lighting played a role in setting the mood as romantic and happy. Our music video represents teenagers as being able to move forward and still be happy despite the memories. 

Social media was very effective in engaging with JMUSE’s audience. JMUSE often posted personal pictures of himself or with relatives as well as teasers to his new music video. According to Uses and Gratification by Blumler and Katz, audiences may want to consume JMUSE’s social media content to strengthen their social relationships or divert from reality. Tools that we used to develop the social media page were PowerPoint, CapCut, and Instagram and were all converged together to form the JMUSE Instagram page. It also gives fans an opportunity to connect and bond with JMUSE. Conventions of R&B social media accounts are that posts are very regimented and high quality, suggesting they’re run by someone else. On the other hand, we wanted JMUSE to be down to earth and in touch with his base of support, always engaging with his audience. That’s why a lot of the social media posts look amateur.

In conclusion, I learnt that it is not easy to produce this kind of content. It requires a very deep understanding in how branding and persona go hand in hand to create a successful artist. All the visuals and mise-en-scene need to also go hand in hand to match the persona and branding of an artist. Small details such as lighting can really change the mood and have a large effect on the overall product. Attention to detail is a must when completing this project as a lot of hard work must go into research and development. Conventions are important as they serve as the guidelines to how we should develop our products. 

Here is my Critical Reflection document - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_TxH-GOdOEa2KXC0r2c29VxQN70mxlPWEM8CZgulA8I/edit?usp=sharing