Evaluation Question 2

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

When creating my music video, digipak and magazine advert, I was aware that their purpose was to act as promotional material to promote the artist and the song. This meant that the products should be recognisable as promotional material for the same product, by incorporating similar images, themes and colours. Below are the three media texts that I created:

My video:

This music video was created by my group, of which we all had an input on the ideas and the final outcome.

My digipak 9with demonstration of functionality):

The digipak was created by myself individually, which means that all ideas incorporated are that of my own. 

My magazine advert (with demonstration of functionality):

The magazine advert was created by myself as an individual, which means that all ideas incorporated are that of my own. 

How effective is the combination of the pieces?

Throughout these pieces, I made sure to include imagery that was consistent across the three media texts. 

The opening shot of the music video is a canted long shot of Hannah walking towards the sea. It is the first thing that people see when they watch the music video, and seeing it immediately means that it is the most recognisable shot within the video. I chose to use this shot on the front cover of my digipak and on my magazine advert, too. Using the same image across all 3 media texts meant that they were all recognisable as promotion for the same song. To people seeing them, they can visually tell that the promotional material is linked. The consistency of image and colour use across the music video, digipak and magazine advert gives a sleek appearance to the package, and therefore, it gives it a professional feel. The predominantly blue, white and black colours I have used across the three pieces reflect the protagonists loneliness, but they simultaneously create quite a calming effect. The image I chose also left ample room for me to include text over it, without the text and typography being disturbed by the subject of the image. 

Official typography:

The use of typography in creating recognisable branding of an artist is vitally important. I chose to use a font very similar to that used in the official promotional material for this song. I chose to do this as the font they have used is obviously suitable for promoting the alternative genre of music. Therefore, I decided to use a style similar, to ensure that the typography of my piece would also be suitable for the genre of music. Additionally, when deciding on the font, I had to make sure that it gave a nice overall effect on the piece. When choosing the colour of the texts in the titles of the music video, I had to make sure that it was easily readable on the background of which it was placed.

As I added the titles to the the music video via a video editing app, the font I used was not available for me to use on my other media texts. I searched through the fonts available of Photoshop, which was the platform I used to create my ancillary tasks. Therefore, I had to search through the fonts to find the one that was most similar to the one I had used in the music video. I eventually found one that I thought would be suitable, and as is demonstrated in the grid, the fonts are very similar. Much like in the official promotion material, I made sure to make sure that my text was all in capital letters.

A difference between the typography of the ancillary tasks, and that of the music video, is that I included a line between the name of the artist and the name of the album on the ancillary tasks. When creating the titles for the music video, we did not have the option to add in a line between the names with the editing app that we used. However, I do not think it would have fitted particularly well even if we had had the ability to include it. I chose to use a line between the artist name and the album name on the ancillary tasks, as I believe that this helped you to visually separate the text. It made it stand out more, as encouraged you to read the names separately, making it easier to take in the information. I thought this was particularly useful for marketing purposes.

The combination of my ancillary tasks can be seen visually on my magazine advert. It features an image of the front cover of my digipak, which would be the front cover of the album. Through including this, it not only conforms to conventions of magazine adverts, but it also demonstrates the effective synergy across these two tasks. It is evident that the use of the same image is effective, but also, it demonstrates that there is an effective and slick colour scheme used throughout the two pieces.

In the music video, we introduce colour after the turning point in the video, in which equilibrium is established again; following the final step of Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium, to have equilibrium re-established. This is a key element in the video, as our focus on bright and colourful lights act as a reflection of the focus of the video being the LGBT+ community, and the theme relating to sexuality. I thought it was necessary to include images from this section on my digipak, to make sure that the digipak represents the two sides of the video. Subsequently, including the bright and colourful images, alongside the more melancholy coloured shots, highlights the two different emotional states of the protagonist within the video. This combination of the music video and digipak is effective, as if someone was to watch the music video first, then buy the album, they would understand the story that it is telling. Alternatively, if someone were to buy the digipak first, before watching the music video, it would intrigue them to want to watch the video. They would want to find out more about the stark difference in colour, which would draw them to seek to watch the music video, which would create more viewings, and therefore, more marketing, too.

When conducting research into the codes and conventions of album covers/digipaks and magazine adverts, I found that it was common for them to include relevant social media or web links in relation to the artist. Due to this, I decided that it was necessary for me to include them in my ancillary tasks, to make sure they conformed to conventions appropriately. As demonstrated in the table above, I made sure that the web address I included was the same in each, as in official products, this would be necessary. I chose not to include social media links, and only the web URL on the digipak, as I felt that the back panel would become too cluttered if I were to add other social media information. Additionally, the customer would be able to access the social media platforms of the artist via their website. I chose to include the social media handles on the magazine advert, however, due to the nature of the advert. If an individual is reading a magazine, it is likely that at that moment they have time to go onto their phone and visit the chosen social media platform they wish, at the very moment they are reading it.