question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
To ensure that my genre was presented clearly throughout my entire project I had to make sure there was continuity between all of my media platforms so that audiences could acknowledge a clear theme between my digipak, my magazine advert and then my final music video.
One of the most obvious ways I achieved this was with a colour scheme. Although my actual video does not have a colour scheme, a large proportion of the video is taken up with a powder paint fight including all the colours of the rainbow. However my photoshoot of the band which took place on the day of filming was editing black and white. At first this posed a problem as there was no way there would be a consistent colour scheme between the two, however, I incorporated the concept of my powder paint fight to the magazine poster by superimposing a stock image of powder paint splatters on top of the black and white photo. Not only did it make the poster look more eye-catching due to the colour contrast, but it also made the two look uniform.
The editing stage of my project involved using overlays which gave a glitch effect to the clips being used, distorting some clips and making them less clear. To try and create the same effect on my ancillary task I used a 3D style effect which I sourced from a photo editing application. This slightly distorted the image and gave the black and white photo some pigments of blue and red - creating a stand still, glitchy look for the digipak. This helped to create a sense of synergy and elements from my music video were used as part of my ancillary task.
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The use of black and white filters helped tremendously to create a uniform style across my music video, magazine advert and digipak as when all are placed alongside each other, there is a clear continuity.
For both ancillary tasks I decided to use a picture of the band to create another link between the two, making them more relevant to each other. By linking the band it also fulfils Maslow’s Need of Belonging, as the audience can connect to the band better as they occur more often. By having them occur more often it also follows conventions of the music industry, which commonly use the band as a focal point of their different products - using the image of the band as a branding strategy.
In terms of representation, I personally feel like the music video, magazine advert and digipak all portray the people in the same light. The video takes on a more serious feel as it has a “day in the life of” theme and a sub focus on drugs (a contemporary serious issue). This has been spread across all platforms of my project as the digipak photo contains the band looking serious helping to identify the genre of the band and the feel of the music video. The same photo is used on the magazine advert however is accompanied by colourful powder paint - which helps to establish the target audience and demographic. This is because colour is usually associated with a younger age group.
By linking the products, it created a clear connection for the audience to understand and gain more publicity by expanding onto more platforms, showing cross media convergence. Whilst designing the digipak, advert and video, I thought about how it would be perceived by the public. My target audience all enjoyed listening to rock sub genres (alternative rock, indie rock etc) and by including young people in the video and on the digipak/magazine advert, it helped the audience to identify and relate to those in the video - a key aspect in the Uses and Gratifications theory.