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

Music Video: ‘Heads Will Roll’ – The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

My music video (my main product) is based around an abusive relationship which the audience are shown snippets of. This eventually drives the female character (Kate) to insanity resulting in the murder of her partner (Jack). We are shown this in reverse order with shots from the beginning of the video also appearing at the end, this is a different way of developing the narrative but is not necessarily unconventional as it is used on occasion. The flashback section towards the end of the video shows the contrasting good and bad parts of the couples relationship followed by the breaking of the clasped hands showing that it is over now. There are also performance sections within the video giving it variety but still using the same characters to create continuity. My video is set to the song ‘Heads Will Roll’ which is also used as the album name on my ancillary texts which creates continuity throughout my products. The inclusion of props (e.g blood) and characters from the video on my ancillary texts and the use of an established colour scheme also helps to create continuity.

Ancillary Texts: Digipak

As part of my ancillary texts I created a digipak, consisting of two disks (regular and deluxe edition), a front cover, two inside panels, a spine and a back cover. I have followed the style of my music video on my digipak to establish a cohesive style which works well as a promotional package. I have done this being including the blood ‘prop’, the characters from the video, the song title and also lyrics from the song.

Ancillary Texts: Magazine Ad

My second ancillary text is a magazine ad used to promote the album I have created. The ad contains all the vital and conventional information needed including the band name, album name, image of artists, release date, reviews, website information, record labels logo and a QR code which directs you to purchasing places. I have continued the style of the digipak and the music video to create a house style and continuity. I have used the same established colour scheme, the same image as on the digipak, etc.

Overview: Effective or not?

On a whole I believe that my products all have individual successes which when combined form an effective promotional package. I feel that due to my previous experience using Photoshop editing software, my ancillary texts are probably the strongest part of my promotional package. For AS Media studies I had to create a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine which meant that I had to get familiar with the Photoshop software and so I already had a lot of knowledge of how to use the programme. This meant that I was much more comfortable with experimenting with what I could achieve with my images, etc. I think that cohesion has been created through my ability to create a house style, therefore I believe that my music video fits well with my ancillary texts and is effective in this way. I also think that there similarities help to attract a consistent and targeted audience.

Overview: Effective or not? (Continued)

Main Product (Music Video)

• Mise-en-scene (costume/setting/props)

• Shots and connotation (low angle of subject to suggest dominance)

• Aesthetics

• Narrative/theme

• Artists style

• Continuity of cast members

Ancillary Texts (Digipak and Magazine Ad)

• Colour scheme

• Artist and album name

• Tracklist

• Font styles

• Layout/presentation

• Representation of genre and narrative

When constructing my products I had to pay particular attention to:

Overview: Brief Peer Feedback

Male – 18‘The products all match and you can tell by looking at them that they relate to each other due to the continuing colour scheme and stuff’

Female – 17‘They all work well individually and then when you put them together you see a clear link between them all via the image use on the ancillary texts and the costumes, props etc used on all three products’

Male – 19

‘There is clearly continuity throughout your products but to make this even more clear the use of blood on the magazine ad would look quite effective’

Female – 18‘I think that they are effective cause they all have interesting aesthetics which link together. It’s also clear that you’ve followed conventions of the indie genre through the colour scheme etc’

‘How effective do you think the combination of my main product and ancillary texts?’