Risk Assessment

During the filming of my music video, there may be some risks that could affect the actor and potentially harm them. I have thought about these in advance and will plan on taking the following precautions to assure that no one is injured during the filming of my music video.

The first risk I have assessed is the potentially unstable/ uneven ground at the grave yard. Due to the various graves that will be there, the ground will potentially be uneven

Magazine Advertisement Research

One of our ancillary tasks was to design and create our own magazine advertisement for our artist so before anything else I decided to do some research in to other magazine advertisements and posters from popular pop artists already in the industry.

The first magazine advertisement I looked into was Ed Sheeran's first album. I did this as I am using one of  his songs for my music video and for my artist it would also be his debut album. Ed Sheeran's advertisement consists of a close up of him, his name and information such as his singles. The poster consists of two colours being his signature colour, orange, and white. However the picture of him is black and white which allows the writing to stand out. Out of all the writing on the advertisement the biggest and boldest is Ed Sheeran's name which portrays him as the most important. The poster also shows a wallet photo of his album cover, allowing people to know what to look out for. 

The next advertisement I looked at is for Adele's album, 21. This advert is very minimal, with her name and album name being considerably bigger than Ed Sheeran's, once again being the biggest piece of text on the page. Once again the layout is very simple, with a close up backing shot of the artist, and writing in the foreground. The small writing underneath her name brings up the fact that she is a grammy award winner and also mentions one of her most popular singles, "Rolling in the Deep", similar to Ed Sheeran - expressing the quality of the artist. Also similar to Ed Sheeran's is a wallet sized photo of her album cover. The text "21" and "Available everywhere now" are in green font, unlike the rest of the advert, which makes them stand out more. The fact that it's "out now" along with the "21" suggests they want you to get it "now". 

Above is the magazine advertisement for the Pop artist Jessie J. It is mainly composed of a detailed close up of the artist's face, along with her name and album title. The close up image is what first catches the audience's eye, which will be especially effective with artists familiar with the artist. One of Jessie J's main quirks is how unique her style is, which is shown through her haircut (her long fringe) and her bold colour choices, this occasion being black. The colours contrast the background making her stand out, whilst also contrasting the bold gold writing, making her name and other writing also stand out and easy to read. The writing is classy yet simple and gets across the most important information, being the debut album and a international best seller- "Price Tag", which also brings up another artist, being B.O.B, which will attract audience members from both artist's audiences.

For Olly Murs' advertisement his name is once again the biggest piece of text shown. It also, once again, consists of a big photo of him, this time however is a wider shot so his body is visible. This allows the audience to see what he is wearing and attracts his target audience, which is teenage girls, due to the suave and attractive tendencies of his photo. His gelled up hair, rolled up sleeves and hands in his pockets portray him a cool guy, which is generally attractive to teenage girls. The colours of the writing are made to match what he is wearing, as opposed to contrasting them similar to the previous adverts. This is probably done to contrast the background as no writing covers his body as well as emphasising the appeal to his target audience. Once again it shows another artist, to appeal to a wider audience, and the fact that one of his singles reached no.1 showing his quality as an artist.

The last artist I looked at was Shawn Mendes, which is the most minimal advert out of all the ones shown. It once again features a picture of him, but unlike Olly Murs does not show his whole body, despite their similar target audience. This suggests that despite their similar target audience, their songs are quite different. The colours are very basic and match his album cover, being black, white and blue, with the writing.

In conclusion the following conventions are normally used with a Pop Music poster/ magazine Advertisement-

-Clear Image of the Artist in the Background
-Artist Name - Biggest Writing
-Album Titles
-Minimal colour variety- Obvious Colour Scheme
-Hit Song Included
-Artist's Website
-Record Label Logo at the bottom
-Awards Won

Album Cover Research

In order to create my digipak I needed to do some research in to how other mainstream pop artists compose their's. A digipak is styled packaging usually used for physically copies of CDs, the front cover is often also used for digital copies of albums. Digipaks often consist of information about the band, a CD and possibly song lyrics. The front cover normally shows something related to the artist/s, their name, the song or album title and possibly some artwork in the background. The inside then has the CD, possibly photos relating to the artist and then song lyrics or a leaflet with various information/more lyrics inside.

The first cover I looked at was Ed Sheeran's as he is the artist of the song I have chosen. His album cover is very simple and is just an orange picture of him, it is named after him and doesn't have an alternative title suggesting he wants the focus to be on him and his music. The little other writing on the cover shows the most popular songs on the album, which will capture the audience straight away as they won't have to check the back of the album to see if songs they like are inside. It also has a small promotion to entice you more, saying that if you put the CD in your computer you will unlock extra bonus content.

On the inside there is a removable leaflet, which is also attached to the front cover. Inside this leaflet is song lyrics to the songs on the album.The inside colours are once again black and white keeping it simple.

On the back of the digipak it is once again simple  and includes the songs that on the album. This is helpful for when you want to buy the album as they are usually sealed and therefore you won't be able to look at the leaflet inside. There is also a barcode and the less important stuff in small writing as that isn't what the customer wants to see nor will it entice them in to buying it. This writing also includes his website, which isn't as small but isn't so large that its overly noticeable. It is bolder than the small writing so if the customer wishes to visit his website they won't miss it.

When I looked at digipaks I also looked at artists similar to the artist who's song I have picked. One of the digipak covers have looked at is Justin Beiber, a popular pop artist who is appealing to my target audience. His cover consists of a photo of him with his head down and his hands together, he looks pretty relaxed. The album cover itself has quite a few different patterns over it but in all is quite a simple design. The colours are blue, grey and white, with Justin himself also being black and white which makes the album seem pretty relaxed and calm. The patterns over him are prominent whilst not taking away from the fact the Justin is on the cover as well. The writing on the cover is quite stylised which makes it hard to read. It matches the colour scheme and is once again simple, being one word "Purpose". This adds to the thoughtful and simple effect the album gives off. The title has been placed at the bottom of the cover and I didn't notice it at first, which suggests the creator of the cover wanted to portray Justin more than the title, which makes sense as he is a very popular artist.

The next album I looked at was "Handwritten" by Shawn Mendes. Once again, similar to Ed Sheeran's and Justin Beiber's, it consists of a photo of Shawn in the centre, with simple colour and other things going on, but not enough to take the focus of the artist himself. Very similar to Justin Beiber's, their is writing/ patterns surrounding him, which looks as if it was written on a chalkboard. In this case it is appropriate as the album is called "Handwritten". The title itself includes his name and the name of the album, with his name being bigger and a bolder colour than the title. The style of the handwritten writing on the chalkboard is quite messy and matches that of the writing on the back cover. This consists of the songs in the album, a barcode and then copyright and dedications etc in small below. Once again the album colours are blue, black and white which gives it a clean finish and allows for certain parts to be prominent.

By researching these digipaks/albums I have realised that nearly all, if not all, pop artist's albums follow the same conventions with a simple design including a picture of themselves, a back cover with the song included and little else and bold colour choices which all go together and capture the audience's eye.