Evaluation: Question 2

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

The next step to take after finishing the music video production was to complete the whole promotional Package for our unsigned band. This would involve creating a DigiPack and Magazine advert that successfully adhered to the bands genre and appealed well to our target audience. To do this we had to create images that either visually, thematically or generically linked with the music video. To be in keeping with the genre I looked at other examples of similar artists and how they had linked their own album productions to that of their music videos. Artist from the same genre include Arctic monkeys, The Beautiful South, Mumford and Sons And even Of Monsters and Men, despite all being in a similar genre each of these bands has a very unique style and way of presenting themselves and their music. Of the artists mentioned above Arctic Monkeys in particular appealed to me when I was thinking about how to create my Digipack. They have become well known for highlighting the image of Broken Britain within their music videos and often are depicting a much deeper meaning to what seems to be fairly upbeat and bright tempoed music. The idea that they are linked with portraying this darker image of Britain is reiterated with the use of semi famous actor Paddy Considine in one of their music videos. Considine also features in the dark, gritty film This is England which is based around the time of mass unemployment and the fall out of the Falkland's War; Thatcher's Britain. I wanted to create something with a similarly edgy feel as my own music video highlights a darker side to Britain and youth culture today.

Panel 1
The first panel incorporates the faces of my two actors merged into one to make sure it linked back to the music video. The divide in their faces connotes to the divide the two lovers experience within the music video. The male characters half is brightly coloured representing the fact that in the music video it is he that is alive, whereas the girls is a faded sepia colour giving the impression she is just a distant memory for him. The fact that she is the one in the video that commits suicide shows that she is the unhappy one and having the contrast between the bright side of the male character and the darker side of hers allows people to make the connection between who is the victim in this situation. Having used both the same actors for the print production as the music video allowed me to continue there story onto another dimension therefore promoting the entire production in a clear coherent way.

Panels 2 & 3
Panel two and three are the inside panels of my DigiPack. As these are in the middle the idea of these is to not so much attract the audience but to continue the theme of the DigiPack and to continue to represent the genre of the band. The subtle sepia tone of panel two once again is reprenting a memory and reflecting on the past which is a recurring theme throughout the music video where we used flashbacks to promote this idea that the couple were once happy but like many young relationships something went wrong. The fact that the image with the sepia tone is the shot of our female character was a deliberate move in order to make sure the audience knows that it is her who is forgotten rather than the male. Another idea I was trying to experiment with was a more complicated one, as you get to see the reverse panel you will notice the whole DigiPack creates a 360 degree head using one half of the girl and the other of the boy. The idea here was that the two characters are still connected together in some way but the split in the middle shows they have gone their separate ways since the breakup. The boy onto a happier place, the girl unfortunately to a much darker one.

Panel 4
The back panel completes the 360 degree image I was attempting to create with my DigiPack, as you can see this side is not dissimilar the front although shows the backs of the characters heads as opposed to their faces. In terms of keeping thematically with the video the back panel simple connotes the same ideas as that of the other three as its a pretty similar image to panel 1.

Magazine Advert
The magazine advert needs to still be linked to the music video in order to preserve the genre and present the artists work in a creative and exciting way to the audience. Whilst my advert still links in with the rest of the theme of the DigiPack and music video I have used a slightly different style of image to present an item with stand out appeal. Once again I have used the same two characters within the advert although this time both of them are involved in the same image rather than two separate ones. The sharpened brightness of the image is in keeping with generic indie/folk themes, however is a contrast to the music video which has a dark nature. The key image here is to promote the artist and having the characters used previously allows a connection to be made, and these characters become associated with the bands image, I would even go as far to say that they become the face of the band if you like as that is what the target audience will see so that is what they will refer to in terms of the band. This is a recurring motif and thus allows the band to be given a coherent brand and marketing style. Therefore this enables the DigiPack, Music video and Magazine advert to all link together to promote the bands work.