Evaluation 2 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Rumena Begum

IntroductionHow effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? In this evaluation post, I will be talking about my three products that I have created which are:

- Digipak/album

- Magazine Poster

- Music Video

I will talk about how I have used synergy through-out the three products and construction of representation, and the reason behind the design, layout, mise-en-scene, colour scheme and editing.

Digipak/AlbumMy digipak/album design was inspired by the reason behind the group name and the fact that this is a debut album. The members jumping in the air with the sunrise in front of them shows a 'rise' in talent and industry as it is a new start. I chose the colour scheme of purple as it is a unisex colour. This is for the target audience as it is directed at both males and females. There are some other colours including black, which is the colour of the silhouette of the people jumping in the air. The back cover includes tracks that are some about love, and some upbeat songs to have a balance of emotions that the audience can relate to it. The song of my music video, Shut Up and Dance, is included in this which is the title of the track/song for my music video. At the back I also added the logo of which company this band is from which is ‘MINA Entertainment and a copyright logo to keep it safeguarded from others who try to plagiarize.

Digipak/AlbumThe CD cover is black and white, and I decided to use these two contrasting colours as it stands out. The black silhouette hands above the white background grabs attention. The contradiction of black and white is also for the audience, to show that it is aimed at people from all different backgrounds as diversity is important to respect in society. Other than the CD, I decided to maintain the colour scheme throughout the digipak so it looks professional rather than switching from colour to colour which may be confusing. Inside the album, I chose two pictures, one being of a fingerprint and the other of the band. [2]. One is to represent the identity to show the meaning behind ‘Be yourself’ of having your own identity. The sunrise represents the upbeat atmosphere which are the other half of the album songs for example Shut Up and Dance. The CD had 4 hands holding the centre which are the four people in the band, the silhouette follows the theme as it’s unknown as everyone has their own identity.

Magazine PosterIn my magazine poster, I included the ‘jumping’ picture of the silhouette in the sunrise background. I decided to keep the magazine poster the same colour scheme to my digipak so that it is recognised by the audience when they see this. The font is similar also for the recognition. In the magazine poster, I included more texts such as ‘Debut Album’ since this is a debut album of a band called Rosette. I also added reviews from news articles, I decided to use The Times because it is a well known news reporting business, so this would intrigue my target audience to be more interested in buying the album because of this fantastic review. This follows the hypodermic needle theory as the audience would feel the urge to buy something by hearing the opinions of the audience which in this case is The Times. I also added a star rating of 5 which will also grab the attention of the audience through reviews.

Magazine PosterIn other forms of advertising, I decided to use social media to help advertise this album. Social media is very popular as many people use this on a daily basis. I decided to use two out of a few most popular social media websites/apps to gain acknowledgement not only from the magazine poster itself, but so that people can learn more about the album, the songs and the band through social media. At the bottom of the magazine poster, I included Facebook and Twitter pages with the logo beside it so that people recognise the symbol. This is a great form of marketing as there are many things that can go viral over these networking sites for example in Twitter, there can be Twitter trends by using a hashtag as people can ‘retweet’ or ‘favourite’ a tweet so that others can see. I decided to use #RosetteBY as the ‘BY’ stands for Be Yourself which is the album name. People then would see this on the poster and perhaps be curious about it and want to know more, which they can search for through the hashtag on Twitter or by searching for the page on Facebook.

Magazine Poster

Next to the Facebook and Twitter logos on the magazine poster, I also included the company logo/name which is ‘MINA Entertainment’ so that the company is credited also that the audience can recognise this company so that not only the album get’s recognised but the company name too. Right at the bottom of the poster there is a little bit of information about the album which is, ‘Be Yourself’ the album name, ‘The First Album’ to show that this is the Debut Album, ‘Rosette’ which is the band name and ‘2016’ to show the year of which it is releasing in.

Music Video - Shut Up and DanceThe song Shut Up and Dance was a very popular song in the summer due to it’s very ‘dancey’ and upbeat rhythm that made everyone want to dance. I decided to create a music video to this song because I felt that creating a music video to make people want to dance not only through the song but the scenes in the music video was a challenge, yet do-able and fun to create as it tested my creative skills. Starting from the beginning of the music video when a teenage girl walks in an empty hall. The ‘pan’ camera movement I purposely used to show the movements in her head, as if the audience watching this is looking at the hall the same way she is. AS it comes behind her head, she see’s her two friends calling her to dance which then leads to the title of the song and the band name. This is a short intro so the audience gets an excited feeling because they then know that something is about to happen after this teenage girl walks in the room, being called by her friends that appear unexpectedly. This is to represent the word ‘memories’ and many people have memories with music that remind them of a certain event, therefore I wanted the start to seem like the teenage girl is reminiscing about her fun and exciting days with her friends, where the song Shut Up and Dance is part of this memory.

Music VideoThe video starts off with a kaleidoscope to show the different colours, creating a ‘colourful’ atmosphere from the start. It then changes to the scenes of the phone with the mouth singing to the lyrics. This was filmed in the green screen room which I changed the colour of the background when it came to editing. I decided to use a variety of bright colours to create a fun and bright atmosphere that links well with the song. I used a variety of effects such as fade in from white, vignette and other effects to make the video look different at each scene which makes it interesting to look at. This follows Pop conventions as it should be interesting to look at and the scenes should link to the beat of the music, in this case, the song is very upbeat and bold.

Music VideoThe phone in front of the mouth emphasises the ‘Shut up’ in the song title, ‘Shut Up and Dance’. The mouth is covered so it’s mute, however there is a video of a mouth singing the words to show that you can’t stop singing to this song because it’s catchy. I added in scenes of the teenage actors ‘having fun’ in the social room which is to show that this song is something to have fun with as it makes you want to dance and create a ‘happy’ vibe.

Music VideoNear the bridge, I decided to use a dark background with spotlights to create a calm atmosphere to match the beat of the song as the song also slows down. It then speeds up back to the final chorus in which I also added effects and used short clips to match the beat of the song. At the end, there is a scene of four people walking slowly then jumping in the air. It ends on a freeze frame which is similar to the picture from the digipak album and the magazine poster. This links all three elements together as the audience recognise this still image. At the end I added in my logo for my production company ‘Mina Entertainment’ so that the audience recognise the production company of which the band is signed to.

Effectiveness of the 3 piecesI have linked three pieces together in terms of colour scheme, the theme of the song and band as a whole and the elements which I have included in all three pieces. The colour

scheme I have made it consecutive as in the digipak the colour scheme is the same as the magazine poster. This is similar to the music video as I used vibrant colours to show the boldness of the colours. The distinctive picture of the ‘jumping in the air’ as a silhouettes

also in the magazine poster and the digipak which was also shown at the end of the music video as a clip which ends with the jump as a freeze frame to end the music video. I

decided to use this so it becomes an icon so it is a form of advertisement. Following the Dyer’s Star Theory, not only idols are famous but also can be objects, sayings, actions to

represent them. I’ve decided to make this action of jumping in the air on a freeze frame the icon of Rosette as people will recognise this from the album, the magazine poster and the music video. I also added in the title of the song and the band name in all three pieces so

that the audience also recognise the name of the band and the name of the song. This makes the main elements of advertising effective in all three pieces as they all link

together and it is clear for the audience to see.