Conventions Of R&B Music Video

CINEMATOGRAPHY
In most R&B music videos it is conventional to use many of the following:

• Close Up Shots
• Long Shots
• Mid Shots

These are popular shot types among R&B music videos because they tend to display to the audience, the artists emotional state in that particular shot. In Jordin Sparks music video for her single 'No Air' featuring Chris Brown, I denote a number of close up shots being used throughout the vast majority of the video. This is an effective shot to use, particularly in R&B music videos because R&B is a genre generally designed to evoke emotion from the audience, and the close ups of the artist's face in the music video allow the audience to relate to how the artist is feeling, further drawing some form of emotion from the audience.

Close Up Shot

In R&B music videos, close up shots generally encourage a relationship to be developed between the audience and the artist. If we look at the image above which is a close up shot of Jordin Sparks face, we can clearly tell through her facial expressions that she is feeling hopeless, vulnerable and somewhat unloved which may be something that the audience may feel that they can emphasize with. The direct eye contact with the camera may make the audience feel as if Jordin Sparks is sending a message through her song directly to them, which builds up the audience-artist relationship. The close up shot also focuses on the artist's beauty as well as her emotional state, which may be something that males may find attractive, or females may find inspirational.

Mid Shot

Mid shots are another type of camera shot that are popular in music videos. Mid shots are used when trying to draw a little more attention to the artist, rather than the mise en scene. They are an effective type of camera shot because they do not restrict the viewers from seeing what the artist is doing, and the viewers can still see the location of the music video without viewing it in too much detail. Mid shots also still allow the viewers to see the artists facial expression to a certain degree. For example, in the image above, we can see that the artist is leaning on a railing by a river and through her facial expressions, we can tell that she is contemplating. She is isolated within the shot which enhances the idea that she is in deep thought.

Long Shot

Long shots are another type of shot used in many music videos. Long shots are also used to show the audience what exactly the artist is doing in the video. They provide viewers with a full detailed body shot of the artist so that we can see their leg movements as well as their upper body whilst they are performing. This type of shot tends to focus on the artists facial expression in less detail and actually focuses on the location of the shot in more detail. In the image above, we can see clearly that Jordin Sparks is sitting alone in a big white/cream room, connoting her loneliness and pain.

MISE EN SCENE