Evaluation Q2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

Script:

• I feel as if I created synergy across my A2 Media Studies project really successfully. All 3 of my products linked really well and all represented the same main selling point. Overall, the synergy used really strengthens the campaign of selling my artist and his record. This will contribute to attracting my target audience of boys and girls aged 18-25. Both the music video and the ancillary texts had a strong genre of love through my brand image of simple contrasting colours and isolated images of the artist using direct modes of address.

• When designing the 3 products, I was very conscious of the themes and layouts I used. When taking the head shots of my artist for the ancillary texts, I made sure he was in the center of the lens and the mise en scene around him was simplistic, as I wanted him to be the main focus. I decided to have a black background as I thought this bought more attention to him and make the mood of the album and advert become more soft. I draped yellow fairy lights around him to accentuate the soft nature of the album and also to provide a glowing, angelic light around him. I wanted him to use a strong direct mode of address but not with a harsh expression. I told him to look ‘in love with the camera’ or to give a ‘confused puppy dog look’. When shooting the music video, I gave Luke similar instruction, this is how all 3 products managed to synergise well. I also ensured that the background of where Luke was lip singing was the same as the mise en scene of the album and advert artwork. I did this because I thought it would make it more recognisable to the audience.

• Through the use of the same image for my digipack and the advert and music video, makes the artist more recognisable to his audiences. It also represents him as the same kind natured guy in 3 different scenarios, which is also confirmed in the music video where we see him offering to dedicate his love to the girl he loves. Using a typical theme of love meant that my audience could really relate to the story I was trying to show, whether they had been through it themselves or had simply seen another loved one go through the same. As the uses and gratifications model would explain that they could interpret their own experience into my narrative based music video. The simple design of my ancillary texts could also illustrate how simple his emotions are to the girl. They texts and images are plain and straightforward, they are simple but not boring. The strong use of direct mode of address has been used in many love albums such as James Vincent McMorrow album covers.

• The theme through my products is focused more on emotion due to the emotive lyrics. I decided to focus on the fact that the male in the situation is very passionate for the girl, and the fact that he was so strong when he sang about it, it gave me the feeling that perhaps she did not feel the same or at least was unsure/didn’t feel as strongly. So when shooting my music video, I made sure that the male and female were never in the same shot. I also wanted to capture the passion in the singers facial expressions, so I asked him to sing the song as if he were pleading. The layout throughout my product was fairly simple, due to the fact that I wanted the album to look very pure and raw, rather than a brand image focused artist. 

• The colour scheme on the ancillary texts was simple. I wanted to recreate the lip singing scene from the music video, but make Luke, the singer, even more of the focal point. I did this but lowering the dimmed overhead lighting in the room and attaching fairy lights around his torso to create a softer up glow around him. This made him look as if he himself was glowing. I didn’t have to Photoshop the image much because the lighting I set up, created the mood of the image perfectly. The colour scheme in the music video was slightly different though. The parts that featured Luke were the same as on the ancillary texts, but slightly brighter, but the rest of the music video was set on a warm day so was reasonably bright. However, I editing the RGB balance of the footage to create an almost cold greeny-blue tinge to the footage. This was done to represent the tension between the girl and boy, and also to highlight their isolation.  

• The typography I chose was called “Blake”. I decided to use this font as it was not stereotypical of a love album font. I felt as if I was challenged when choosing the font of my ancillary texts because of the fact that my artist was male, I did not want to chose a font that was considered ‘too feminine’. I also did not want my ancillary texts to look as if he was being type casted, I wanted my album to show that he was not just a love song writer and that he does have other abilities, although he is primarily a love song writer. I believe the use of the different font is what attracts my audience further, due to them being intrigued by the uniqueness and the juxtaposition between the images and typography. The composition of all the text and image in the digipack and advert is centralised as we wanted it to stand out and be simplistic to again show the main importance is the music. The songs on the back of the album change in size, this was done to add character to the design so it wasn’t ‘boring’.

• The 3 products work well in targeting my audience as they are not gender specific but they do look mature. So this works well with my age group of 18-25 year olds, who are at the age where love is becoming a more important feature in their lives, so the stories told in song are more and more relatable, or if not relatable, they are fascinating.