Evaluation Question 2

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

From the beginning of the course, I understood that it was important not only to produce the main music video and the ancillary tasks consisting of the magazine advertisement and digipak, but to produce a brand from these three products. The main way we thought of doing this was to use the same character(s) consistently on all of the products. The main character within the video and therefore on the advertisement and the digipak is Rich; therefore he has become the main focus across all three platforms and from my research, it is important to highlight the character's iconography . This is noticed as a music video convention, therefore it is important that we successfully do this to create a product that is similar to existing media products.



By creating a brand we are promoting the product and encouraging people to buy the product. The creation of the brand also means that the products become more recognisable and the target audience will recognise the product without even reading the text or watching the whole video.


We researched existing magazine advertisements and Digipaks to identify the typical conventions and also to give us inspiration for our own products. The main product from the research that stood out most and the look which we decided that we would like to portray in out own products was the magazine advertisement for Plan B's album. However, once I started to create the product in relation to the Plan B products, I realised that it was not really working successfully due to the difference in images and also the mise-en-scene in our own product such as the clothing of the main characters; this did not really work with a black background and spotlight.



After trying different effects and tools on Photoshop, I decided to use the 'difference clouds' effect which create the effect on the background of the advertisement and the digipak. I think that this effect works well as it is eye-catching and due to the fact that I have used it for both ancillary tasks, I think it successfully creates the brand and makes the products successfully recognisable as a complete brand by creating a 'house style'.


I also think that the difference clouds effect reflects the mood of the main characters and sort of uses 'pathetic fallacy' in a way because it is as if the weather (the clouds effect) is showing the characters mood and feelings and also shows the kind of tone of the music video.


I think the images which we used for the ancillary tasks fit the tone and mood of the music video quite well as it is clear that he is in the wrong. This is shown on the front cover if the digipak and also the magazine advertisement. The way that Annabel is 'looking over' Rich shows this and I also think that Rich's facial expression shows his mood and he looks regretful in the same way that he does at the end of the music video.