Evaluation question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks

In order to ensure that both our digipak and poster linked as much as possible to our music video there was several different elements we had to consider which include; colour scheme, Fonts, mise-en-scene, and the use of the main characters themselves.

colour scheme 

We had a stringent colour scheme of four main colours both in our music video and our ancillary texts which were gold, black, white and red. Our music video was quite a dark and depressing one, we felt that the use of a wide array of colours would not fit the general the theme of our music video and ancillary task. We wanted each colour on our ancillary texts to be iconic and associate with a different element in our music video. [White – links to the female character in our video, she is young and pure and this is reflected in the white colour, as well as that white is associated with the colour of angels, which brings up questions as to whether she is dead or alive. Black – the black links back to the whole general mood of our music video which is has quite a gloomy, depressing feel to it, (we made the decision to make the male character wear black on the front cover to reflect the dark mental state he is currently in).  Gold – the gold has two meaning, one is that it shows that love was once vibrant and alive between the main two characters in our video. The second is  that it relates back to our research in which RnB/Rap artists include Gold in their promotional texts to show of the wealth which a lot of them tend to speak about in their songs.] the use of such a strict colour schemes created synergy across all of our products.

font

The use of font was also a big part in ensuring that our ancillary texts and our music videos all linked together to create one collective product. To ensure continuity we use the same Birch STD font at the start of our music video, and then on each of the 5 different products of the ancillary texts. This ensured that our audience would then be able to associate the font they have seen on the music video to the font they can see then see on the digipak and poster, the repetition will helps to guarantee that the audience will identify that specific font is with our artist overa long period of time. The font for us was also important because it was manly yet had a gothic type of look to it, which relates with the tone of our music video, if we had used a font like Comic Sans for example which is quite a fun and bubbly font it would have been misleading to the audience as to what type of genre our music video is.

In this collage you can see the strict colour scheme and font come together in a way that links all the ancillary texts back to the video 

mise-en-scene

For our digipack and poster the mise-en-scene was essential in linking the ancillary texts back to our main product. We maintained the iconographic image of bottles throughout both the music video and then carried this on to the front cover in order to create synergy between the two. The bottle was also used as a symbolic tool to engrave the message of alcohol dependency that derives from the plot line and the music video. The use of the rose next to the lit candle relates back to the end of our video where he begins to burn the images of the female character, we wanted to get our point across that he had now burnt the pictures in a bid to forget about her and now maybe he can get some peace which is signified by the use of the candle on the back cover. The use of the rose also was significant of the female character in our music video because roses are seen to be a feminine flower which connote love and romance but also danger and fatality with its red colour, this audience is able to identify the use of the rose back to the plotline of the video where the audience assumes that the male and female character were once romantic before something fatal happened.

use of the main characters 

Lastly what better way to combine the music main product with the ancillary texts than to use the main characters from the music video on the ancillary texts? We used the image of the main characters on our front cover and our poster as a form of connecting the ancillary texts back to our music video. Even though the audience cannot see the female characters face, because of the fact that they are aware of the plotline which tells the story of the hold she has over him, they immediately recognize that it is her as her arms  are wrapped around his neck, to visually represent the confinement within the mental state he is under, in the music video. To conclude I am positive that our combination of our main product and ancillary texts link together effectively, to portray the message which of alcohol dependency and depression which we anticipated.  As well as that my audience feedback assures me that the audience understands the basis behind the choice of the colour scheme and can link the digipack and poster back to our music video, which leads to me to argue that we have been successful in achieving a digipak, poster and music video which combine effectively to create one collective brand/product.