How effective is the combination of you main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation 2 - Bartek Wielblad

My ancillary texts which was the digipak and magazine poster were both produced in order for promotion to my main product which is the music video. During the pre-production of my ancillary tasks I came across a theory by Blumler and Katz’s and the ‘uses and gratifications’. This theory is a image representation theory and therefore it was really useful to my ancillary texts. For example in my music video the main character can be easily identified therefore that is identity gratification. I implied this into the planning of my digipak and magazine poster.Therefore I have used a picture from the music video of the actual artist and then implemented it to the magazine poster however it was with a twist as it was heavily modified and you could not tell that it has been taken from the music video as it had various different filters on it and other effects that gave it a unique look. I have used this picture of the artist on my magazine poster as it is easily identifiable and that is what I intended to do with my magazine poster so that it links with the music video and therefore it would have visual links. This is an effective way of promoting the product and this therefore is also known as synergy.

The album ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ by the artist 50 Cent is a very good example of this as they also used 50 Cent as the main focus/image on their synergy products which were the magazine poster and also the digipak.They used the main artist which was 50 Cent as their focus which is an effective way of getting promotion for the artist as it making him more identifiable and therefore links in with Blumler and Katz’s theory of uses and gratification as the artist is becoming a visual representation and therefore is a identity gratification.My magazine poster uses one shot of the artist in which it is a mid shot, this therefore allows the audience to see the artist as well as the surroundings around him and this then links in with mise-en-scene as the mise-en-scene also is consistent in both the magazine poster and the music video. The mise-en-scene is present in the magazine poster and music video as it displays the artist's image by the light focus and the clothing.The layout is very different when it comes to the magazine poster and the digipak and the reason behind this is for the audience to be able to identify which one is the poster and which is the digipak.

Regarding my digipak and magazine poster they are both similar and they serve one purpose and that is to promote my main production which is the music video. To make these as effective as possible I have applied my knowledge that I gained whilst studying the album from 50 Cent (Get Rich or Die Tryin).This therefore means that I also used the artist on my magazine poster just like 50 Cent was used on his ancillary texts.The artist ‘RunDown’ is used by having a mid shot of himself in one of the locations and then it was used to make the magazine poster. This still makes the artist the main focus.The same thing was done with the ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ magazine poster as the main focus was 50 Cent.

In my magazine poster I have included a smoke filter around the whole magazine poster as I personally think this gives it a much greater effect and also signifies that the smoke around the artist is actual smoke and that it is probably from smoking. The colours of the logo suit the artist's hat and also the background. This therefore makes it look professional. The poster features the album logo which is centralised along with the release date and all of the social media that the artist has. It also has the website which the audience can purchase merchandise and book tickets for his tour. A motion blur filter was added for the 'smoke' effect this therefore help portray the effect of being high. The artist is in the centralised therefore showing that he is the main focus, this therefore still makes him the main icon and by having the artist on the magazine poster makes him more identifiable and therefore gives him that identity gratification. The main colour scheme is green which therefore helps to show that the colour green can be associated with weed which is a drug that the artist enjoys the most. The colour green is a primary colour and from the magazine poster it can be seen that the artist’s favourite colour must be green and this therefore might mean that he picked that colour because it reminds him of drugs and specifically weed as it is the same colour.

Furthermore, in relation to my layout of my ancillary texts.I have used a layout which already exists within an album by Eminem called ‘Curtain Call’. I have previously had a different layout for my digipak and my magazine poster however doing my research and looking at successful existing examples I came to a conclusion that my layout had to be changed and therefore I have now applied this research to my own and therefore changed the positioning of my release date and also the actual album name is in a different place on the magazine poster.I have found for this new layout to be more effective and therefore keeping it this way.The different layout between the digipak and magazine poster make them unique in their own way and they are then identified in a different way and therefore it can be seen that they are not the same thing but instead they are two different things (digipak and magazine poster).During my research I have found out that Steve Neale’s theory suits my digipak and magazine poster and this is because his theory focuses on ‘difference and repetition’ this therefore means that my digipak and magazine poster has to be different from other existing magazine posters and digipaks but still have the same conventions in order for it to still be identified as an ancillary text for a specific genre.This therefore allowed my digipak and magazine poster.

My digipak and magazine are fairly different from existing successful ancillary texts this is because although they have all of the generic conventions that a magazine poster or digipak would have within the hip hop genre they are also different because the date format is different as well as the placement of the text around the magazine poster is fairly different from the existing posters.The title of the song is at the top of my magazine poster whereas the date is just beneath the artist which is ‘RunDown’.The song name and also the date of release was centralised and this was not intended at the planning stage of the magazine poster however after looking at it and coming to a conclusion for the final magazine poster I have found out that making everything centralised it will be more effective and therefore will appeal more to the audience as they can then identify this key information easier.

Moreover my ancillary texts both use the same text for the album name and any other piece of text.I have used the same text across my digipak and also the magazine poster so that it maintains the easy identification which therefore means that people will be able to recognize the product much easier if the same text font is used across all my ancillary texts.However my magazine poster has much more picture of the artist as the artist is the main focus of the magazine poster whereas the digipak does not actually have the artist on it at all.The magazine poster also has the smoke effect on it whereas the digipak does not but instead it has a broken glass filter which could signify violence depending on the viewer's view.

To conclude this piece both my ancillary texts are used to promote my main product which is the music video.I intended for both the digipak and magazine poster to be used the same way to promote the music video and therefore these two ancillary texts contain some similar features such as the same colour scheme and also the same font for the text. This therefore makes it easier to be identified and therefore they help each other to make the promotion even more effective.Therefore overall both my ancillary texts are very effective when combined together as they give my music video more promotion.