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.

Costumes and Props

These are the props and costumes I plan on using within my music video

First off we have the letter and notebook the character uses to right to his sister. The notebook is basic and has lined paper inside, the outside won't be shown so the blue colour doesn't have any significance. 

Reccee Shots

The first area I plan on using in my video is the above bedroom. I chose this location to be used for the scenes where the main character portrayed is in bed in the first part of the video. I chose this room as it is quite small and I wanted to show the character's loneliness whilst still showing that someone had been in his life previously, shown by the double bed to signify 2, and the flowery wallpaper which isn't stereotypically associated with masculinity. I plan on making the room messier to enhance the idea that he is depressed.

This second room is what I plan on using for the scene where the character looks under the bed. I chose this particular room as it is more feminine whilst having similar wall paper to show how the two are connected. I will remove the towel rack and tidy up the room, hopefully achieving the idea that it hasn't been touched in a while.

This is the corridor the character walks down.

This is the staircase. The curtain at the bottom could potentially be used to create an interesting shot by rapidly changing the lighting as the character walks past.

Here is the graveyard I hope to film in. It is easily accessible and with few visitors so hopefully filming there won't disturb there. I took this photo in the evening in order to create the eerie effect I hope to portray in my video. I chose this particular graveyard as all the graves are lined up which should make it obvious where the character is. It is also surrounded by trees so no cars or vehicles should ruin the mood of the shot.

Storyboards and Shot List

Before creating my storyboards I prepared a shot list so I knew what i was doing.

I had ___ shots in total, as presented below.

Email to Ed Sheeran's Manager

I sent a request to Ed Sheeran's manager, via the email I found at rocketmusic.com. I asked them whether or not I could use Ed Sheeran's song as part of my music video and have stated I will give full credit for the song to the artist and company and will not claim the song as my own.

31st October 2016- As of the 31st October I have not yet received an email reply from Ed Sheeran's manager..

Lyric Analysis - Photograph

"Photograph"

Loving can hurt
Loving can hurt sometimes
But it's the only thing that I know
When it gets hard
You know it can get hard sometimes
It is the only thing that makes us feel alive

The first five lines of the songs are pretty self explanatory, stating how the singer can see the both sides portrayed through the words "hurt" and "feel alive". On one hand he is saying that love can be painful and difficult to deal with at times. On the other hand he is saying its amazing and you won't truly feel alive until you experience it. Despite how much he gets hurt it's the only thing he knows so he sticks with it. The repetition of the words 'hurt' and 'hard' as well as 'loving' put emphasis on the idea of the two being linked. 

We keep this love in a photograph
We made these memories for ourselves

These next two lines focus on the idea of holding onto the greater moments of a relationship through a photograph as it truly captures the love you feel at the time it was taken. There isn't really any metaphors or connotations to be discussed from these lines as they are pretty self explanatory. 

Where our eyes are never closing
Hearts are never broken
Times forever frozen still

The next three lines almost create three juxtapositions which suggest that love can make the impossible happen. It is impossible to keep your eyes open forever. It is impossible to never have a broken heart at one time or another. It is impossible to freeze time. These three lines put emphasis on the previous two lines by conveying how important it is the capture and remember the loving moments through means such as a photo.

So you can keep me
Inside the pocket
Of your ripped jeans

Holdin' me closer
'Til our eyes meet

You won't ever be alone
Wait for me to come home

"So you can keep me" and "wait for me to come home" suggests that the singer is going somewhere so he is given or gives someone else a photograph to remember him by in the hopes that their eyes will "meet" again. "You won't ever be alone" is a metaphor for how the photograph will mean whoever gave it to him will always be there in memory.

Loving can heal
Loving can mend your soul
And it's the only thing that I know (know)

"Loving can heal" refers to how they use memories/photographs to mend the sadness of the separation. 

I swear it will get easier
Remember that with every piece of ya
And it's the only thing we take with us when we die

"The only thing we take with us when we die" refers to the memories they have made and shared together. It suggests that when people die the only thing they take with them are their memories.

We keep this love in this photograph
We made these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closing
Our hearts were never broken
Times forever frozen still

So you can keep me
Inside the pocket
Of your ripped jeans
Holdin' me closer
'Til our eyes meet
You won't ever be alone

The pre-chorus and chorus then return, with the music intensifying accentuating the emotion and therefore strengthening the message.

And if you hurt me
That's OK, baby, only words bleed

Inside these pages you just hold me
And I won't ever let you go

These 4 lines show that despite how much he is hurt by the person it's OK because only the words hurt him and not her and whats important for her is that they love each other. The metaphorical pages that she holds represent a part of him and she has captured him so strongly it's as if their relationship is a story that he never wants to end shown by the line "and I won't ever let you go"

Wait for me to come home [4x]

The "wait for me to come home" line is then repeated 4 times which one again emphasises the line and shows how much he wants the relationship to work.

Oh you can fit me
Inside the necklace you got when you were 16
Next to your heartbeat

Where I should be
Keep it deep within your soul

Here he is saying that she should keep their memories as close to her heart as possible because where he belongs is as close to her soul as possible. He is basically saying they are soulmates and nothing should ever separate them.

And if you hurt me
Well, that's OK, baby, only words bleed
Inside these pages you just hold me
And I won't ever let you go

This is repetition of the previously stated

When I'm away
I will remember how you kissed me
Under the lamppost
Back on 6th street
Hearing you whisper through the phone,
"Wait for me to come home."

The final lines show how he will always remember the little things about their relationship, no matter how far apart they are. The backing track also slows down and simplifies a bit which intensifies the words. He remembers the way she used to talk to him on the phone and once again repeats "wait for me to come home" showing how he wants the relationship to last.

Contemporary Media Landscape

Throughout recent years media, across all platforms, has developed and adapted to fit into culture at increasing rates- an example being the vast increase in online streaming or purchasing music via apps such as Spotify and Itunes, as opposed to buying an physical Album/ CD (or DVDs when it comes to films). This is becoming more and more obvious due to the great development in online abilities and the wider access to media online. As new media technologies are developed people's interest in media experimentation increases, making online access to media more convenient, e.g buying a £10 membership for Spotify each month for unlimited music access is much cheaper than purchasing separate physical albums. Spotify subscriptions have increased from 10 million in 2010 to an average on 68 million in 2015. The recording industry now only makes 39% of their revenue from physical copies due to the increase in popularity of digital albums which make up 45% of their total revenue.

 Music is more accessible due to devices such as mobile phones.

However, despite the huge rise is the popularity of online media outlets, there was a 64% rise in the sales of vinyls in 2015 due to Rock sub genres becoming more popular as retro style vinyls becoming ore popular whether it be for the box art or the vinyl itself. Sales of music on vinyls generated more income for UK artists in 2015 than the social media site Youtube, with British singer/songwriters such as Adele and Ed Sheeran accounting for one in six of all albums sold globally. Ed Sheeran is also the most streamed artist in 2015.

Vinyl sales continued to grow in 2015 with 2million+ LP's sold just in the UK- whih is the most since at least 1994. In the first quarter of 2015, Vinyl sales increased by 69%, which is three times that of that first quarter of 2014.

Audience Questionnaire Results

As I have collected the results to my audience questionnaire questions, I have made graphs to show and summarize the results.

I picked four questions that I thought were most important to look at when it came to making and advertising a music video/song to turn into tables/graphs

The first graph I made was asking people whether they prefer Digital or Physical copies of music. 80% of the people I questioned said Digital whilst the other 20% preferred Physical. The reasons given for preferring digital copies of music were majorly because it's easier to access or harder to lose which suggests people enjoy having music with them at all times whenever they need it. The people who said they preferred physical copies were more attracted to the box artwork, which is normally also apparent when viewing music on apps such as Spotify.

The next question I turned into a pie chart was 'How do you hear about new songs?' I thought this was a good and appropriate question to turn into a pie chart because it relates to the above question in terms of the results- which both hugely favour digital copies of music. The four results I received for this question 

  

The third graph I did showed the mixed opinions on whether or not people like pop music as it is the genre of music I am focusing on. Out of the people I asked, the majority of people enjoy listening to pop music but over a quarter said they did not enjoy the genre.  This suggests that although people do enjoy pop, it may be a good idea to have a sub genre to satisfy those who don't, or at least entice them into watching the video.

My final graph shows a variety of artists that people have listed as their favourites from the pop genre. Out of all the artists given, Shawn Mendes was most popular with 6 votes, closely followed by The 1975 with 5 votes and Ed Sheeran with 4. This links back to my target audience research where the target audience was primarily female. Most of the people I asked were female, suggesting they prefer male artists as all three of the previously listed artists are male/male bands.

The majority of the artists listed on by the people asked are chart leading artists who have had a hit in the top 10 at one time or another. I am surprised that a wider variety of artists weren't listen, due to over