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

House style and theme

Throughout my products I have get a running house style and theme. This was to ensure that my target audience could make a continuing connection between all three of my products and so that they could recognise that they are all products promoting the same song and music video. The metaphor that runs through all of my products is the feel of being intoxicated which can explain the reason for or a reason to solve a person’s sadness and loneliness. There is also an extended metaphor of euphoria, which comes from being around people that bring you happiness and also can argued can stem from being intoxicated.

Music Video

One of the main purposes of my music video is to entertain my target audience (and others). However, when creating my music video, the main intention was to create a character/protagonist that my audience could identify and connect with through her behaviour and actions. Simply, by using a young woman around the age of 18 who has drunk herself into a silly state, I feel that my target audience can

identify with her as many 16-25 year olds have either witnessed or been in a similar situation she has. The quickly cut shots and the fast pace of the song help portray the speed at which my protagonist is drinking, showing her aim is really to get drunk. Also the slowness of the shots where my protagonist is looking straight at the camera takes time out from the reckless drinking and allows the audience to connect on a deeper level with her and her conscious mind through the various stages of her drinking. In contrast, I feel that they fast paced shots of the crowd reinforce the theme of loneliness, which many young people experience in their lives, further making the protagonist more identifiable.

Magazine Advert

The main purpose of the magazine advert was to quite simply promote the music video and to portray the genre of Drum and Bass. I feel that my magazine advert successfully does this, as firstly it includes a photo of my protagonist in the music video, thus meaning that the audience will recognise the posters intentions of promoting the video. As well as this, the house style; purple and white, represents the moody, but vibrant and different attitude of the genre. Drum and Bass; until more recently is a very individualistic genre of music and many of the listeners are defined as individualists as they do not conform and do not aim to fit in with others, showing that they are vibrant in the way they wish to stand out from

other. Thus the house style represents the target audience I am trying to reach out to. Having a ‘moody’ theme to my magazine advert also links to my protagonist in my music video. The alcohol has changed her from being a vibrant and happy person to sad and miserable toward the end of the video. The picture itself was taken in front of black background which was lit up, as my intentions at the beginning were to create a, sulky magazine advert, which I have done. In terms of promotion of the music video, I feel that my music magazine as done so via the reviews, the date of release and also where the audience can purchase it from. The reviews especially will help promote the music video. I have used music magazine associated with the genre of the video to give reviews as my target audience, who obviously enjoy drum and bass, will be able to recognise and see that a music magazine they trust is giving a good review, in turn assisting and possibly increasing sales.

Digipak

The digipak that I have created also maintains the purple and white house style which features of my magazine advert. It also preserves the intoxicated feel of the music video through the effect on the images, which I placed on Adobe Photoshop. I took a picture of my protagonist half smiling and placed an effect on it to make the audience feel like they were intoxicated or their vision is blurry, just like how my

protagonist feels in the music video, allowing them empathize more with her and the state she is in. I also placed a ‘blue tone’ over this picture so that it matches colour and also the laser lights on the opposite page. The image of the crowd promotes the music video as the audience will be able to make a connection from the multiple crowd shots in the music video through to the digipak. I also felt that having this two images reinforces the contrasting narratives and feeling that I have portray in my actual music video, again meaning that the target audience will be able to recognise that the digipak refers to the music video. It could be argued that the digipak does credit the music video to ‘Afterglow’ the most even though it is advertising other songs. However, as the prime aspects of Drum and Bass songs and music video include dancing crowds, intoxication and also laser lights, I feel that it successfully advertises all the songs, in turn making it successful in its overall representation of the genre of Drum and Bass. Moreover, the stages of being intoxicated which is represent by my protagonist behaviour, facial expressions and movement in the music video is also promoted through separating the track list into two parts on the back of my digipak. The first being named ‘9PM-2AM: euphoria’. This time lapse usually associated with the first few stages on being intoxicated, for example feeling positive, happy and ready for a night out, thus the name of the stage being called ‘euphoria’. The second part of the track list is names ‘2AM-5AM: come down’. The words ‘come down’ are

heavily associated with the ‘wearing off’ effect of the drugs and alcohol which again occurs primarily at these times as this is when clubs shut and people stop what they are taking and head home. The image itself also portrays the protagonist’s feelings of isolation as her back is turned from the audience. This could create the empathy and identification that I wanted to create with her even when the target audience are not watching the music video. The image of my protagonist on the front of my digipak, is similar to the one of my magazine advert, meaning that my target audience will be familiar with her face and be able to make the connection between my music video, poster and digipak.

Over all I feel that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts work extremely well together as they promote and maintain each other’s house style, theme and also metaphors of intoxication, alienation and euphoria; in turn promoting the identifiable and entertaining narrative to my target audience.