How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Whilst creating my main products and ancillary tasks which consists of my music video, digipak and advert, I ensured that I made choices that resulted in products that adhere to the same style and genre, being indie pop. This then gave me successful products that are consistent, giving the audience a style to recognise. Each of these products were created to for fill different purposes, my music video being the main media text that I was producing, so therefore my digipak and advert would need to adhere to the same genre and style to this product. My music video’s primary purpose is to entertain, whilst having a secondary purpose of promotion as this media product is produced to be a way in which the artist promotes the song. This could be because music videos entice the audience and are seen as something the viewer can engage with
and take an interest in, adhering to the uses and gratifications theory. Media products usually create a specific mood and consist of certain stereotypical conventions regarding the genres and style of which the product comes under, so the choices made are important as they suggest the genre of the song featured, giving the audience a style to recognise. This recognition makes the products pleasing for the viewer as they are able to then connect with texts that they know are personally intriguing, so its important that then all my products suggest a similar genre so my target audience can recognise the style that links my texts together. Therefore, I made choices that suited the genre of indie pop, being stereotypical so my audience can understand and enjoy my product. Ultimately, I aimed to insert an open narrative that would allow the audience to connect to the emotions dis-
played across my performer, being suggested by their body language and facial expressions, and by the mood that’s primarily created by the choices made regarding the mise-en-scene. Due to the suggested meanings that are inserted in the clips that adhere to a narrative style, this would hand the audience a storyline and a message for the audience to relate to. This open message that is suggested throughout my music video relates to the lyrics, being around the subject of being a strong warrior and fighting for hope and positivity through finding love. Considering that this is quite a deep and meaningful message, this suggested that I would have to make choices in order to make the shots appropriate to this mood and the genre of which the song alludes to. I thought that because my music video has inserted a storyline within my product, this would suggest the genre of indie
Click here to view my music video.
Click here to view my digipak.
or alternative, also being because of the mise-en-scene. I inserted shots which vary from close up to establishing shots, which then allowed me to display the surroundings, usually being the outside environment as this could suggest a tranquil mood that I also tried to create by altering the speed of the clips, by slowing them down. I kept the colours quite dull to adhere to this indie style and the mood thats suggested, editing the colours that are present in my music video during the editing stage on Premire Pro, using a colour wheel. However, the main choices I made to suggest this genre were created by the protagonist that stars in my product. By choosing a young female protagonist who wears stylish, vintage and interesting clothes, this already suggests a particular genre, and the enticing cinematographic shots empathise this. The outfits that my model is wearing could be clothes that perhaps my target audience is interested in, making the product more relatable
and interesting. However, as my music video song could also come under the pop genre, I’ve ensured that I’ve included clips that adhere to this style by including performance style shots during the chorus, to build up the music video to the beat. Shots that have been filmed in a more professional environment, like a black box studio, would be more associated with this pop genre so I decided to include it in my own product. I also used gels to produce more original and creative shots, but this suggests a pop style too, whilst contrasting the narrative shots to give my music video more interest and variety. The contrast of style
in these clips and by including a narrative within these shots ultimately results in an interesting and entertaining product that hypes up the song due to the creativity of the product, so therefore they serve their purpose of which I stated earlier on. Regarding my digipak, I created this with hopes to produce a successful and professional template for my CD case cover. Because of this, I found a template to work around which gave me an idea of what I should include on each page, consisting of 6 pages that I would work on. I thought that by looking at professional existing examples, I would be able to analyse these and notice consistent trends and reflect this research in my own work. As I created this product after my music video, this gave me a style that I would surround my music video around and insert into my other products to make the style consistent, this being important to ensure that I was representing my artist in a simi-
lar way throughout all media texts. Therefore, I selected images which had a indie or alternative style within them by selecting photos that include more neutral colours and represent my protago-nist as an indie character. I took these images in the same locations that I filmed in to ensure that my products all linked and had a similar style to them, making them consistent. When creating my second ancillary task, being my advert, I had the intentions of producing a product that had a purpose of promoting my song that is featured in my music video. I had looked at previous products to find consistent styles and layouts that are involved in successful existing products, to gain ideas that I could incorporate into my own products, to ensure that the aim to promote would be met. The image of which is inserted on this advert
is important to consider as this is a representation of the whole music video and based around this product. I chose to include a close up of my model using a direct dress image to grab the audience’s attention to ensure that this aim is met, using direct address to further grab the viewers attention. I also thought it was important to consider how the artist was being represented, so I chose an image that displayed a similar emotion that is also present in my music video, looking quite vunerable and sad. I also chose to edit this image so I could result in a professional look, altering the colours, levels and also using the spot removal tool. Due to producing this after making my music video, I was able to take the style that I had incorporated in this product and reflect it in my advert to make it consistent. I also ensured that the text that I inserted is in a font that is suitable to this indie pop genre,
being light and angelic which is the representation thats carried on throughout. By ensuring that I kept that product minimalistic and only inserted the appropriate information needed to promote the song, this meant that I had produced a successful and not too crowded product.