Evaluation Question Two

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

Our main product was a music video, and our ancillary tasks, which had to be produced to an equally high standard as the main task, were Digipak album artwork, and a magazine advertisement for the Digipak.

The 3 tasks had to create a brand to promote the artist, and the most effective way of doing this is by creating a recognisable and coherent house style throughout the products, as it is the products which are used to promote the music and capture the target audience.

Our target audience is described in this blog.

In short, our target audience is male and female teens and young adults aged between 17 and 25, and are fans of drum and bass/urban/rock/alternative music.

Our brand is effective because there is a cogent, professional, stylish and unique house style throughout the 3 products. The colours we have used in our products are vibrant and dramatic; black is predominant, and strong reds, yellows blues and greens feature. We paid close attention to the lighting, as we wanted to create intense colours and shadows so our video looks professional and of a high quality. The colours are attention-grabbing, captivating our target audience. We also applied a strong contrast in post-production to add intensity and quality to the footage. Smoking is prominent in our music video, and also features slightly on the magazine advertisement - it reveals his uncomfortable and nervous state of mind, as smoking is often done to the relax a person. Smoking, although harmful, is popular among young people, and is often associated with looking 'cool' - many members of our target audience can relate to this.

The photographs we used for the Digipak artwork were taken during the filming process in Leake Street tunnel in Waterloo. Using the same location for the video and the Digipak helps promote a recognisable brand and style for the products. The graffitied walls feature in both the video and Digipak - graffiti links to the urban atmosphere of our products. Also, a use of the artists face throughout the 3 products helps the target audience recognise and connect with the artist, increasing album sales. The below images show artists, including our chosen artist Plan B, whose albums show the use of the artists image in the artwork.

Throughout my research, we have looked at existing media products from the genres our identified target audience would be fans of, such as urban, rock, indie and rap. The music videos we looked at, such as these ones and those by director Anthony Mandler for Rihanna gave us lots of inspiration for angles, effects such as overlays, and colours. Music videos from the genres specified above tended to feature dramatic lighting and shadows, and either intense colours, or a grey/blue tint, expressing the genre of music.

The narrative of our video is not specific; the narrative is only hinted at. This is conventional of most existing music videos. A story is only vague, and the most important parts are included. Usually, in music videos, the lyrics are amplified through the narrative - the story line is based upon an interpretation and adds layers of meaning to the existing lyrics. We used our own interpretation of the lyrics to think up our own storyline, which we believe would appeal to the teen/young adult target audience, about love lost/heartbreak and the emotions you go through, as almost every young person can relate to this. Being able to empathise with the artist creates a connection between fan and musician, increasing sales of their music and even concert tickets.

The fonts in our Digipak, Magazine advert and title to music video are all quite simple, yet effective. We used the same fonts throughout all the products to ensure a recognisable link between them. The fonts used are subtle, but this creates a professional and conventional look for our products, as fonts used in similar existing products are usually simple, as explained and shown in this earlier blog.