Question 2:

For the course I didn’t just have to create a music video, it was the epicentre of the three media texts: [SHOW ALL THREE ON SCREEN] Digipak, advertisement and the music video. By doing this everything had to appear as a professional media product as each text had to come together to produce a sense of brand identity and synergy. My record label was named Ruby Records [SHOW LOGO] with the logo of a rose falling apart – an image that [SHOW DISPERSION VIDEO] I Photoshopped using a technique called dispersion. This logo can be seen on [SHOW BACK OF DIGI PAK AND BLOG] the back of the Digipak next to the disclaimer message, as well as the background o my blog. It is important that the audience can always refer to the record label so that the products are always under the same name and not scattered and unorganized, but iconic and gives a visual reinforcement of my institution. Another way this can be done is by keeping the same design throughout the products down to the smallest detail, as previously seen. [SHOW ALL TIME LOW SIMILARITIES] Before deciding these details, however, I had to give it a lot of thought in the content of what would be expected for a product of my genre?

I used Photoshop for both the Digipak and the advert [SHOW DIGIPAK IN PHOTOSHOP], just as I did for the record label logo. By doing this I could make sure that aspect such as font[SHOW DOWNLOADED FONT], colour scheme and patterns [SHOW DOWNLOADED BRUSHES]stayed the same – allowing each of the ancillary text to be familiar to each other. [PUT THEM SIDE BY SIDE] For both the Digipak and the advert I first did a Photo-shoot of Matthew, who plays he signer and protagonist SHOW HIM IN VIDEO], in the studio. [SHOW PHOTOS FROM PHOTOSHOOT] I had him in a number of poses that I had taken inspiration from in other albums that matched my genre [SHOW PANIC! AT THE DISCO ALBUM COVER], in different lighting and camera settings to see every alternative. After finding the one I liked I preceded to Photoshop it using a number of brushes I had downloaded specifically for this [SHOW SITE THAT BRUSHES WHERE DOWNLOADED FROM]. I made sure to save these to my folders so that I could use the same brushes again when it came to other parts of the ancillary texts. I wanted to use the colour scheme of black and white that is well known for old rock albums. [SHOW ROCK ALBUMS IN BLACK AND WHITE] I felt that it fit quite well with how the song was both slow and sad, yet proceeded into a faster, louder chorus with more emotion. This is associated with the colour’s that represent depression and loneliness – the two main feelings portrayed in the song.For my Digipak I used the four-panel template, [SHOW TEMPLATE] for the front and back cover, the inner front over and the CD panel. [SHOW SONG LIST] The song list was on the back, [SHOW TITLE AND MAIN IMAGE] the title and main image on the front, [SHOW CD DESIGN] and the CD design on the inside matching with images that were used for the background. The two main [SHOW TREES AND PAINT SPLATTER DESIGNS] designs were trees branches and paint splatters. I believed this went well with my music video as the two main setting were the [SHOW FIELDS AND ART CLASSROOM] fields that were surrounded by trees, and the art classroom were the video finished with the paints falling.

My magazine advert used the exact same themes, creating a collective identity [FLASH THROUGH SIMILARITIE IN MY PRODUCTS] for my products and helping it to be recognisable to the audience. As with many other commercial aspects of the music industry star image has been used in the same genre: Rock, [SHOW OTHER ROCK ALBUMS WERE SINGER IS MAIN STAR IMAGE] were the main singer is the main member of the group shown – again, to help their star image more iconic to the audience. I used a different image of Matthew for the [SHOW BOTH ORIGIONAL IMAGES THAT WERE USED FOR ADVRT AND DIGIPAK] poster that I felt would fit with the design I’d sketched out. I then continue by adding the paint splashes and tree branches after turning the images black and white. I also made sure to use the same [SHOW FONTS OF POSTER AND ALBUM COVER] font as I did for the Digipak for the title of the group and album name – again for collective identity and recognition. The reviews for the album [SHOW REVIEW FONTS] were in a different font to help separate the outside opinions from the record labels creative control decisions. The names of the reviews were used [ZOOM IN ON THE NAMES OF CRITICS] as they were well know as music critics and even institutions that have their own music channel [SHOW LOGOS OF INSTITUTIONS OF MUSIC CHANNELS CONNECTED] – therefore deciding further the ease of access the audience would have to the products.I believe that the design choices for all parts of my product have went well as they all have important and easily noticeable links to each other, again reinforcing synergy. But the most important part is that it all comes back to the main product, the music video, and the codes and conventions shown through both the visuals and the music.