Evaluation Question 2

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

When it came to producing my music video and ancillary text, I aimed to show continuity throughout each text to create cohesion. As mentioned in the brief this is a promotional package therefore each text had to compliment each other. During my research I found that continuity was a key convention between media texts promoting a particular artist. Between all three of my media texts the main aspect that brings them together is the use of the rose petals and the color scheme.

After looking at all my three of my products together, I feel that even though they all follow key conventions and effectively work well together I think there could be improvements made. For example even though there is a specific ideology behind not showing the image of the artist on the album front cover and poster, I feel that I should of possibly used an image of the artist on the poster to further enhance the cohesion between all three products. If I was to design my poster again I would possibly use an image of my artist taken from my music video and kept the image overlap of the roses to keep the idea of continuity and cohesion.

Overall I believe I have promoted all three of my media products effectively through combing them all together through various aspects. When all three products are placed together you can see that they are all related texts through the use of imagery, colours and font. When it came to my ancillary texts I used the same aspects within my video, as it resembles that all the products are linked together and are promoting the same artist. It would be unconventional to apply a whole different aspect and theme to the ancillary texts then the video.

I wanted all my products to show continuity and combine well together, however I also wanted my work to be remember-able and unusual, therefore in the ancillary texts I have not used images of the protagonist Dan but have made a concious decision to use images from the video and props from the video as the main images on my ancillary texts, but because these images have featured in the video it shows continuity and that they all combine well together. 

My initial thoughts for my digipak were to have the themes love and emotion, as I wanted the main focus to be on the roses as they are a main symbol used to represent love and is a key prop used in my music video. I wanted my colours to be quite dense and use black and white, as I didn’t want them to be too bright and vibrant, as it would take away the whole aesthetic of the products. To get these images of the roses I had to buy a bunch of flowers and then pull off a single rose and then separate the petals so the flower looked more open and easy to recognize as a rose flower. I used my own iPhone to take these images at home. I chose to use the colours red, black and white as my three main colours as the red represents passion and love, black can have negative connotations like death whereas white connotes purity and innocence which all relate to my underlying message of love. Above is a gif I have created to show each aspect of my digipak and how I have incorporated the above ideas. 

From my research I found that the majority of existing ancillary texts use images from the actual music video as the main focus or style. As shown above I have given an example of how Rihanna has done this from her video ‘The only girl in the world’ they have taken the idea of the close ups used and the style from the video then applied it to the album digipak, this shows how products combine well together to be effective. I have also followed this convention as shown above, how I have used the brick wall concept in the video and then used it on my album front and back cover, this shows continuity and flow between my products.

By doing this it helps if someone was to watch the music video but not remember the name of the artist or song, but could visually recognize a aspect of the video, for example the actress/actor, location and setting which is then used on a Digipak or poster. This again helps the products become effective as a combination of texts together in the promotion of the singer.

Looking back at the pre-production and the images I had taken for my ancillary texts, I had made sure my actor Dan wore the same outfit, and obviously didn’t need any make-up. By doing this it creating continuity throughout all three products I had created.