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Our A2 coursework uses different conventions from various types of R&B music videos

such as our chosen artists Usher and Alicia Keys, but also includes ideas from the likes

of Rihanna and Jay Z. We thought the scenes from the original “My Boo” video were

professional and useful to use for our coursework and therefore used many conventions

from this to include in our media production.

This can be seen through particular scenes such as our main character walking through a

park with the camera face on, enhancing the focus onto the artist (Kevon). The use of

mis-en-scene at this point is not typical of the chosen genre however we chose to

introduce the R&B setting by beginning the music video with a dance scene.

This dance scene idea came from the original “My Boo” music video, which begins with a 45 second introduction featuring Usher in a club, surrounded by dancing females, a typical R&B setting. We attempted to reflect this idea by having two male characters dancing to introduce the song as there were no words or particular characters singing to have on screen.

Additionally, specific camera angles were used from the real music video which have been interpreted and incorporated into our coursework such as much of the music video being filmed in an outdoor setting. This contrasts with the stereotypical setting of real music videos where they are generally filmed in a nightclub, a capital city, indoors (bedroom, big house etc) and some even use public places such as cafés and water parks. The use of lip syncing worked well and as a group, we considered this a basic necessity for the music video to be successful and appear professional. Lip syncing is used in virtually every single music video and by getting the right people to play the characters, we were able to have this concept throughout the production.

Within the music video we have tried to develop a story throughout, which is not included fully in the real music video. This is evident through the black and white scene towards the end of the song, which portrays the characters reminiscing on the past. This develops the story well and the way the audience see their relationship then and how they feel now. Collectively, we thought this was an effective way to develop the conventions of R&B music videos as we have not seen this idea in many other original productions. The whole music video is filmed outside, which is unusual of R&B productions as mis-en-scene is hard to use effectively. However, the nature environment and a sunset view at the end of the video represent a warming, hearty feeling about the music and relates to the story. Another way mis-en-scene represents warmth and closure to the music video is through the clothing worn, coats, jackets, scarves and hats signify winter which can be seen as a romantic time of year. The last way we have attempted to challenge real media conventions is through using less stereotypical uses of gender. There are only two main characters, one male and female within our version of “My Boo” which contrasts largely with real R&B music videos that largely use a majority of women who typically wear very little clothing and plenty of make up.

Our ancillary texts consisted of an album cover for the music video/song and an advertisement to promote sales of our media product. Both the ancillary tasks follow a simple, bold layout with plain colours such as black and white with small extracts of colour to make it look more exciting.

Through research, we found that in general R&B artists use darker colours as they give out a professional and modern look to album covers. The simple colours and layouts used in our ancillary tasks relate to the music video’s opening credits. On the front cover of each one, the same person is used to represent he artist, which is also the main character in the music video itself. We thought that if all three tasks followed the same pattern of colours and people, it would be more effective and make it like one full task rather than three separate ones.

After thorough research on R&B music album covers, we sought to produce a digipack that was sleek, simple and limited in terms of colours and writing. We attempted to use conventions from Usher's actual album "Confessions" by using a picture that looks professional. By adding small icons such as "parental advisory" at the bottom of the cover, it automatically adds a stylish and realistic look to album cover.The picture used is edited, we enhanced the colours and different shades of the "artists" clothes in order to make it bold and effective. The writing on this album cover has been carefully placed, it was first put in various different places before we came to this conclusion. This particular place was chosen as the lettering stands out and we preferred the professional look of a plain white background. This brought the artist forward so all attention was focused on him.

The back cover of our album works well with our music video production as the colour schemes are similar and includes the “exclusive” song from the album (which is written in italics). As mentioned previously, all three of the ancillary tasks contain the same colour effects and fonts which we think work effectively. The picture chosen looks professional and is placed next to the lyrics to successfully fill out all areas of the back of the cover.

After researching the inside pages of album covers, we found that generally, artists tend to add additional pictures of themselves with the lyrics of a song or a story about how the album was created. We decided to use to idea of lyrics and therefore inserted the lyrics to “My Boo” and highlighted this on the back of the cover by typing that particular song in italics. The first picture has more colour than the front and back as it includes an image of Kevon whilst filming which we thought was effective as the audience can look into how and where the footage was filmed. The lyrics however, again, follow the idea of using simple but bold colours such as black and white to correlate with the other areas of the task.

The spine of our digipack cover represents the artist and album name which runs vertically down the side of the media product. It also has the name of the record label of which the artist belongs too to add a professional look to the digipack. The spine works in line with the other parts of this ancillary task as it follows the same colour scheme as very rarely do you see an album cover with completely different colours on each page. The lettering used is in capitals which adds a bold effect and the idea came from the front cover of Usher’s real album cover to Confessions PT II.

The advert includes the name of the album, reviews from "The Source" and "VBE Magazine", Facebook and Twitter links, a website and iTunes. The use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook in this media product has been used to attract our target audiences through which the popularity of our music video could increase. We have also included iTunes as a source to listen to the song or buy it which is available to anyone who has an iTunes account which in the present day, is a majority of teenagers/young adults.Like the album cover, we tried to use different lighting effects by enhancing the colours on the advert such as lighter skin on side of the body, with darker shadows on the other. This helped the cover look more realistic and places emphasis on different media conventions. Throughout our ancillary tasks we have tried to keep a consistent colour trend, the white background is used in both the album cover and the advert with the same amount of focus on the artist being in the centre of each task.

In the construction of our media product, we used various media technologies such as digital cameras for filming and still shots, mobile phones for still shots and the music in the background whilst filming, Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 to edit the ancillary tasks and Adobe Elements Premier 8 to edit the footage and create our music video.

Firstly, Google has provided us with Blogger, which is the programme allowing us to store and display all our information including research, planning, filming and editing and document it for the world to see. I was able to upload videos, pictures, evidence of filming and editing, examples of different album covers, all of which were crucial to the planning and research for the creation of my media product. From this we were also able to obtain feedback and see how many views our blogs got.

To film, we used digital cameras provided by the school to film the moving pictures needed for our A2 coursework. Many of our clips were filmed freehand and without a tripod, however we used the digital camera to our advantage. This can be seen when we pan across fields to mark the end of the music video and the scene where there is a black and white scene. The camera also enabled us to zoom in/out and film various shots until we were happy with each clip.

The computers in our sixth form provide us with different Adobe editing programmes that were specifically useful in the editing process.

To edit the film (left picture), we used Adobe Premier Elements 8 which is a new software with different ways to add effects, transitions and cutting/inserting clips. I was able to add the music to the background and synchronise the lip syncing in the, clips with the specific part of the song. This was done by cutting clips, shortening them, lengthening them and adding extras if the clip didn’t fit with the song. The outcome was a successful and professional looking R&B video.

The software to edit the ancillary tasks (album cover and advertisement) was called Adobe Photoshop 11, this allowed is to edit the pictures and add texts to the tasks. I used this to edit the back cover, I added text, colour and effects to enhance the look.

For the evaluation, I wanted to make it interesting, something someone would want to read. To do this, I used Microsoft PowerPoint to create slides in which each question was asked with detail, but more colour and images to make it more appealing. Through this programme I was able to add a bold, but colourful, background with attractive pictures on each slide, this was accompanied by white, simple font.

I decided to add a discussion type video on the feedback of the audience. Multiple slides on a PowerPoint can get a bit boring, therefore I thought this could make an evaluation more interesting. To do this, I used my iPhone 5 to film amateur footage of peers in my class about their feedback. I then filmed my reaction to their feedback and evaluative thoughts on what I have learned and what I could have done better in another clip.