The student created a music video for Beyonce's song "Mine" as a class project. To promote the music video, the student created additional materials like a digital album packaging (digipak) and magazine cover. Creating these promotional materials helped the student understand how to appeal to the target audience and the professional standards of the music industry. The student researched conventions of hip hop/R&B music videos to incorporate into their video. They conformed to conventions like close-ups of the artist and depicting a relationship problem through characters' costumes and settings. However, they did not include excessive displays of wealth to better fit the song's slower, more emotional tone.

1. Sanam Harrinanan
In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and
conventions of real media product?
The music video me and Emily Cherry created was to the song ‘Mine’ by Beyonce ft. Drake.
This is a hip-hop/ R&B song released in 2013 by Columbia Records. For this project me and
Emily Cherry had to create our own music video to this song as well as promote it. To do this we
had to conduct a lot of research based upon our chosen genre, plan and create a Digi Pak,
magazine cover and a storyboard. Other tasks such as using media platforms like, Blogger,
Youtube, Prezi, Slideshare and other online digital technology was included in helping me to
present and create my work.
By creating the above ancillary text, (Digipak and magazine cover),
helped us to promote the song as well as the artist we had created.
Carrying out this task of creating a digipak helped me to understand
how to appeal to my chosen target audience. It also allowed me to
gain a better knowledge in the professionalism needed to go into the
production of this and allowed me to explore the creativity within
myself. I have also grasped a better understanding in the use of
copyright and why it is essential to have when creating a product such
as a
digip
ak.
As well as this, creating a magazine cover along with a digipak has
allowed me to promote and advertise my music video more. This
was also another way in which I promoted my music video. To
create this magazine cover, I tried to include as many generic
conventions such as social media sites, the artist’s official website,
our record label along with a release date as well as a QR code for
additional ways in which audiences can find out more information.
The generic conventions of a hip-hop/R&B music video are as follows;
➢ Low angled shots as well as close ups to show the artist has power over the audience

2. Sanam Harrinanan
➢ Men are surrounded by women, in clubs, next to cars, in bedrooms.
➢ Money is often shown off as well as jewelry, houses and
cars
➢ Dark lighting if often used
➢ Females are portrayed as innocent or ‘the good one’ in a
relationship
Examples such as Ignition, R-Kelly (2009) or It wasn’t me, Shaggy
(2008) use women in a sexual way or have the artist surrounded by
them. However in ‘It wasn’t me’, portrays the woman as being in the right as the man cheated
on her but there is also a contrast as the women he cheated on her with can be shown in a bad
way for getting with a guy who was supposedly in a relationship.
In our music we conformed to these forms and conventions by using the typical story type of a
relationship between a boy and girl. ‘Sorry not sorry’ by Bryson Tiller (2015) is an example of a
song where the artist is singing about a problem based on his relationship. Another song is ‘I’m
not the only one’ Sam Smith (2014), which is yet again based on a problem in a relationship.
The song mine can be classed as a slow song, as it has a slow
instrumental beat and is slow paced. Some generic conventions of a slow
music video in a hip-hop/r&b genre is using soft lighting such as grey or
white. Slow hip-hop/r&b music video’s also follow a narrative which
includes having other stars apart from the main artist in it. There can also
be a lot of sexual scenes, with a slow motion effect and close up shots of
kissing, hugging or anything passionate. An example of this is ‘ I invented sex’, Trey Songz
(2009). As well as this, slow hip-hop/r&b music videos consist of love, breaking up or a
relationship so the music video will not contain as much nudity as a fast hip-hop/r&b music
video. Women will be seen in a reasonable amount of clothing, often bright colours such as
white to represent purity and innocence. However if the narrative is based on a break up, the
typical convention will show the characters in dark coloured clothing and will typically use dark
background colours such as black or be set in a house.
In our music video, we conformed to these conventions by having many
close up shots of the artist singing with a white background as well as
having her in a open field to represent she feels lonely and by herself. As
well as this, we stuck with the narrative of a couple having some difficulty
in their relationship. We also followed the typical costume designs of
having the male dress in dark clothing, chains and being in a club
environment. On the other hand, the female character was dressed in
white clothing to represent the opposite of the male by being shown as
innocent and also goddess like. We also included shots of the characters
kissing and holding hands which is shown in many slow hip-hop/r&b
music videos. The main artist is not shown as much as the two
characters as the artist is singing about the problems faced in this relationship whilst the
characters act it out.

3. Sanam Harrinanan
We did not include many conventions such as expensive cars, money, excessive jewelry or
women in minimal clothing as our song was not a fast song. We tried to stick with the generic
conventions typically used in slow hip-hop/r&b music videos as this is what our chosen song
was. This was proven to be successful because if we included
those conventions it would not have fit in with our song and would
have not made sense. By having a narrative helps the audience to
connect and understand the song better. Using money or cars does
not link with a love song so therefore it would have been in
irrelevant convention to use. Songs such as ‘Wanna get to know
you’ G-Unit ft. Joe and ‘Power trip’ J Cole ft. Miguel are some
examples of hip-hop/r&b songs which such soft lightening and slow
motion scenes to show the love and passion between the
characters.
I demonstrated these conventions through the editing of the music video. I tried to include as
many slow motion scenes to fit in with the rhythm of the song. As well as this I edited the lighting
to a slightly grey/ neutral colour to represent loneliness whilst the artist is singing. Whilst filming
the music video, I captured many close up shots of the artist singing to fit in with the convention
of close up shots. I was inspired by ‘I’m not the only one’ Sam Smith (2014), as I loved the way
the narrative of song was shown through the two characters. I thought the music video fit with
the lyrics of the song and it helped to show a contrast between how a female and male are
shown. This inspired me to want to have a narrative in our music video, so we were able to
show a different side to hip-hop/r&b rather than just, money, cars, drugs, jewelry and other
conventions.