Question 2 How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?

How have you connected all three products?

Our 3 Products

Digipak

Magazine advert

Music video https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gwsbIlPDSC4

I developed three products including a music video, digipak and magazine advert where synergy was a key aspect in their construction. I intended to connect the three products well enough to increase the identifiability of the artist them-self, the song, their album and any logos/titles that would be associated with them across all three products.

Synergy was a crucial element in the creation of the products and I believe that my products were successful in achieving it e.g. in the text/font and the use of the artist.

Main artist featured as main focus in all 3 products

Mise-en-scene: Wears the same jacket in all three products

Use of main artist in all 3 products This is the main synergistic element as it links all three products

the most. The main artist features in all three products making him recognizable matter what product you are looking at. We wanted to have a single image that linked the three products and felt that the use of the artist as a focal point was the most effective as it gave all three products a shared identity

The artist dominates the frames of both the magazine advert and the digipak clearly showing that he is a key figure within all three products.

His costume is the same in all three products as he wears a very current teenage look (bomber jacket, black jeans and trainers), suggesting that the artist is young and in tune with current fashion, making him more relatable to a young audience.

Modern setting - background with buildings

Modern setting (Bus), red lighting to convey modernity

Main artist featured as main focus in all 3 products

Modern setting - London (Piccadilly Circus, busy streets with people

Similar shots in both the digipak and magazine advert

Same location

Another link between the 3 products is the focus on setting portraying and modernity. For example with the poster, the main focus is initially the main artist himself, but the background displays faded buildings, relating to the modern aspect of the three products. It relates to the music video as all the shots occur in modern settings, with things like lights, buildings and busy London streets so it was important to capture a shot that portrayed some sort of modernity in the magazine advert.

Shots: Richmond

Shots: Twickenham

Bus – showing transport between locations Twickenham riverside

Twickenham high-street

Artist as focal point

Shots: Central London

Landmarks to shown to the make location clearer

Busy Locations: Lots of people

Modern setting

Digipak We conducted photo-shoot during our first day of filming mainly

to capture the same elements in the music video as we would need for our magazine advert and digipak. For example we had to ensure that there was a similar type of weather in all three products as you can see a very dark, grey sky in the digipak and magazine advert as well as sections within the music video. This therefore maintained a sense of realism and authenticity with our products.

Our initial digipak cover featured a close up of the main artist with a faded carousel in the background, displaying various bright blue, yellow and pink colours. After receiving audience feedback we were told that this cover however did not link well enough to our other two products as colours and background contrasted to the settings of our music video and magazine advert. We concluded therefore that it didn’t display the desired synergy we wanted to achieve with our product, and decided on an alternative mid-shot taken on our first day of filming, very similar to the mid shot used on our magazine advert.

Shots were also taken of objects featured on the digipak (backpack and penny board). The significance of the penny board is that it is a personal, valued item of the artist and if we had more time to shoot there would have been shots of him riding the board. Due to time constraints this could not be achieved so we therefore left the board to be used on the digipak and a reference to the significance of the item to the artist.

Inspiration To make the digipak realistic and look

professional we drew inspiration from professional products; in particular Drakes: ‘Nothing Was the Same’ cover where Drake (the artist) uses pictures of himself on both the front and back covers, with a consistent blue sky/clouds background

This inspired my digipak cover as I have used a front portrait, a shot of the artist looking sideways and one of his back for variation within the covers and creating a larger awareness of who the product represents.

The use of the artist as the main image on this product and the other products increases the synergy as they can be associated with every products, instantly linking them together.

Magazine advert • For the digipak and magazine

advert we took a variation of shots in Richmond where we cold capture shots with interesting backgrounds. For example with our magazine advert were able to capture a combination of a natural and urban setting with the surrounding shrubbery and the background urban buildings faded into the background.

• We used the similar images on our magazine advert as we did on our digipak, they were taken in the exact same location whoever they aren't the same shot for the main image. The main image in both, relate to the music video as they both portray a main image of the artist himself, clearly showing his face, making the artist identifiable to the audience.

TypographyIdentical font used to for the song title

Identical font used to for the artists name

Consistent font used throughout the magazine advert

Same font used throughout the digipak, only variation is the change in colours to white on the back cover to increase visibility and demonstrate a difference between the album title and the track list.

What have your target audience said about how effective your

products are? “The piece was artistic however the story line could have been clearer”

“The vibe matched the music very well, the piece could have included more central characters and perhaps one female character”

“I liked the bright colours and lights in the bus scene, it linked to the house theme, I would have liked to see more of that”

“Your intended story line wasn’t very clear but after you explained it to me and I watched the video again I could sort of see it”

“I love the main image of the boy (the artist) on your magazine advert and digipak. I can see straight away that the products are linked because the artist in the video is the main image on every product”

From the audience feedback of the three products it is clear to see that the music video was not as successful as the ancillary texts and had much more potential than it achieved. There is however some positive feedback on it suggesting that parts of the video matched the house genre as well as the pace and style of the song itself.

How did you feel about the final products? How could you have developed your products to

increase their synergy?

I believe that the products were collectively successful in their representation of the song itself and the artist as well as their potential to promote both of these. In particular I am pleased with how the magazine adverts and digipaks turned out because of their similarity and the synergy that they had, e.g. with text, main image of the artist and locations.

To have improved the products synergistically I would use the same location in all three products to make them link better, for example, in hindsight using a location such as a busy London street, or a location with tall buildings would have been better suited for our digipak and magazine advert to match the music video better. Alternatively, given more time I would have re-taken the footage from Richmond and kept it in the music video to show that link between the shots in Richmond on the digipak and magazine advert.