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

When combining our music video and digipak we felt it of great importance to adopt a house style that could be continued through all products to give our them their own unique and recognisable edge. However subverting this idea, the font of the poster differs from the album cover and CD which i believe should have been the same to ensure continuity but we wanted to intertwine a sense of modernity with our 1940's theme to attract the audience who enjoy up and coming music. Our genre is alternative and found through research that the audience are into new modern music as well as older music, therefore we wanted to combine the two. I felt as though it was of great importance to have media products that share similar resemblance's therefore being recognisable as our own produce.

The colours of the digipak are continuous monochrome colours, this conforms to existing media products in the alternative genre as they are frequently black and white. I believe the selling point of this digipak is the professionalism. All products other than the poster were created on photoshop which is a professional programme and help assist the quality of the outcome of products.
The lyrics of the song 'Save you' that was used in our music videos suggest that of a romantic nature, therefore we wanted to capture this romanticism in the digipak and appeal to those who enjoy romantic narratives and would enjoy our music video. The video correlates with the digipak as it hints what the music video is about through photographs of the male and female actors.


Throughout our products it was important that the costumes and make-up were continuous in order to maintain the 1940's time period and not confuse our audience. We aimed to constantly refer back to the narrative in all our products so that they would all coincide and resemble one another.

i believe that there are several improvements that could be made to thedigipak, for example as mentioned before the continuity breaks with the poster and i feel as though the audience are not going to see a resemblance between the digipak album and poster. However the poster is used to sell the album therefore as long as we successfully promote the album then it will have achieved it's purpose. I would have liked to adapt to a font that would have been used through both the music video and all parts of the ancillary task, but I think that each font suits it's product and makes the entire project more creative due to experimenting with different styles, attracting a range of different audiences.

To conclude, i believe that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts are effective because they all resemble one another creating a unique and recognisable style that can be identified as our product. The fact that it is recognisable will in turn make it more memorable to our audience, and help successful advertising.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 1

The narrative of my music video subverts conventions of real media products due to the fact the specific genre (alternative muisc) tends to have performance based music videos, however this can vary between different bands/artists. I believe this is due to the fact that alternative music is the combination of both pop music and rock music so we were able to be experimental with drawing elements from both genres. The narrative is disimilar from typical narratives found in the alternative rock genre. The normal narratives tend to be modern exploring current and relevent societal issues, whereas ours reverts conventions of narratives found in our targeted genre as it follows a 1940's couple during wartime. The narrative makes our video have a cinematic feel due to tragic nature which is not usually found within a alternative music video.

When analysing music videos for the aternative genre i found that a large selection of them had black and white filters. This is somehing we strongly considered to do with our music video, especially since the video is set in the 1940's where TV and media was in black and white . As a group we came to the unamimous agreement that we all liked the colours in the frame of our shots and felt as though a black and white filter would drain the video of artistic elements and eye-catching vibrancy. When participants took our music video survey one of them suggested the flashbacks be in black and white, but we felt it was important within our group to all agree on what we felt was right for the video by taking the majority opinion rather than the minority. We also felt that exploring different filters would help us divide flashbacks of our music video with funeral/sad scenes by the colours connoting with the mood. For the flashbacks of the couple together we used a filter on Imovie called film grain, this filter has a slight yellowish tint and yellow connotes with feelings of happiness due to the brightness, whereas the sad scenes were shot with a lack of colour and a slightly blueish tint with black being a frequent colour within frames to signify mourning.


While the song fits perfectly into the genre of alternative music therefore conforms to conventions of real media products the video is from a female perspective while the singer is male which subverts the norm, After exploring the Laura Mulvey 'Male Gaze' theory we believed that it was important to have a female lead as this theory explains that the auidence look through the eyes of a hetrosexual male- meaning men find the video asthetically pleasing whilst woman can aspire to be/look like the female lead and connect on an emotional level with her. The female actress also has more camera time to signify that the video is from her perspective. I believe that the pop genre tends to use the Mulvey theory more frequently as for example Justin Biebers "Sorry" music video features all girls dancing to his song which is sung from a male perspective. Therefore we have broken the boundary between pop and alternative to link the two together as the song 'Save You' falls under the category of pop rock as well as alternative, this therefore draws in a wider audience of people who listen to rock, pop and indie music.

There are a variety of theories that I have researched to apply to the narrative of our video in order to make it engaging to our audience through the art of storytelling. While our narrative follows the idea of Todorov's equilibrium and disequilibrum it contrastingly a new equilibrium is not regained, making the narrative subvert conventions of existing products. This is to evoke sadness from the audience making the video more memorable. The use of in media res makes the action heavily loaded from start to finish maintaing the audiences interest, it also creates a sense of intrigue and mystery playing on the enigma codes a theory that Barthes founded. The video gives hints towards Max's death yet never directly shows his death, this gives the audience a sense of pleasure yet sadness and devastation when it turns out that they correctly guessed that he died. Our video subverts Propp's theory because the narrative only flows the action of two characters rather than a variety that Propp suggested this is due to the fact I wanted the video to be focused on the couples relationship only as love is the contemporary theme. 

Key Points:

1 - Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.Conforms- The lyrics match to the video e.g a picture of the deceased male is shown as the lyrics sound "too many years have died- why is that?"

2 - Relationship between the music and the visuals.
Conforms- We ensured that the cuts of the transitions were on beat and on time with the song and lyrics.

3 - Music videos have genre characteristics. Conforms/Subverts- whilst the video is not performance based it merges pop genre due to tat narrative with rock genre to create a alternative genre.
4 - close ups of the artist/ motifs that recur across multiple videos. Subverts- There are many close-up shots of the actors however the actors do not represent the performers so in this case it subverts the part of the theory because the artists is not presented.
5 - Male Gaze. conforms- whilst the song is written and sang from a male perspective the video looks through the eyes of a female and focuses very much upon her perspective of the relationship.
6 - Intertexual references.Conforms- The book the couple are reading in the music video is a famous book called 'Alice in Wonderland.' This is recognisbale from other medias, making the narrative slightly more relatable. 


Digipak

The poster for the ancillary task conforms to most magazine advertisements due to the professionalism. The poster is minimalistic  which is similar to most music posters as it is to advertise the music. The poster is vital in advertising the artist as it promotes sales of the album and create more awareness throughout the public making the artist become more well- known and successful. The poster has logos in the left hand corner of ways the music video for 'Save You' can be watched. I chose the most popular social media sites that will create the most impact, these social media sites are often featured on other music posters therefore this convention conforms to real media products. 
There is an equal representation of both the actors featured in the music video. These are recognised figures due to their appearance in the music video. Both myself and the other member of my group have our names featured on the poster. This gives us ownership and the public are also aware of who produced the video, this is evident in other real media products so the public can recognise if the directors/ camerawoman are someone who they have been or can associate with. The poster features the date of release therefore our audience has full knowledge of both when and where they can listen to the artists music and watch the music video. 

The spine of the Album conforms to generic templates found in real media products. The artists name is stated, The name of the album, the serial number and record label. It is simple yet professional and functional for its purpose because it gives the information needed. 

 The back of the album cover shows a serene photograph of nature with the sun leaking through. The two fonts we have used continue through the album creating consistency and flow. The names of the tracks are clearly stated in a bold font assisting the consumer with track number and name. This too conforms to real media products. 

The front of the album cover is a still from the music video we created to the most sold track on the album hence it's popularity. The picture shows a love affair between a couple, this image would likely attract more women as they tend to be more fixated on romantic narratives. Once again the font is continued onto the front making the font become a signature style of the album, therefore making it recognisable. Many albums in the industry have a signature style, for example Arctic Monkeys of whom i analysed their digipak previously to see that they have a continued font. This is something i replicated for my Digipak. 

Digipak Poster Finalised

I used the online programme 'Be Funky' to create the design below, using the template pictured above. This template is for a film festival but I altered it to suit the genre of our music video. The poster is vital in order to sell the album. It is important to have a clear representation of the album, therefore i have used a photograph taken of the two actors of the music video, being recognisable figures. The actors are shown to be smiling and happy, i believed it was important to send out a message to the public which would create a positive message. The actors are wearing 1940's outfits indicating the video is unique and subverts generic alternative music videos. Although they are wearing 1940's outfits there is a contrast with the font and quality of photo, this is because i wanted to inject an element of modernism to attract contemporary audiences who enjoy up and coming music. The yellow on the poster allows it to stand out due to it's contrast against the black and white. The artist name and album name s featured in order for the public to recognise what is being advertised. Alongside this is logos in the left hand corner with well known social media platforms where the video will be available and a release date in the centre therefore the public know when it will be available to them. It was important to pick popular social media sites that would create the most impact in order to promote the video. These social media sites are also available on mobile phones and other technological devices which is helpful as people in modern day society reach the public through an array of different mediums. Underneath the album title is a list of those involved within the production of the music video. The actors names are stated in order for them to be recognised figures within the industry drawing more people's attention. Both myself and the other member of my group are featured on the poster, giving us ownership as as well as the public are being aware of who produced the video especially if we were well-known figures within the industry and people had previously liked our work, then they would be interested in watching the music video. I liked the font featured on the template because i felt that it was sophisticated and professional and contemporary, appealing to modern audiences who typically listen to alternative music. 

After creating the three potential posters i took a smaller sample to decide which two posters should be considered as the final one. Once i had my feedback i took a larger sample using http://doodle.com/create-choice to decide out of the two which should be my official poster. The results showed that out of 36 people, 25 chose the poster pictured above. 

Finalised Digipak

Digipak - Kizoa Movie - Video - Slideshow Maker

Final Video