How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
- 1. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? By Kevin Wickens
- 2. introduction The main production I made individually was a music video. Alongside this I created a page sized advert in a magazine and a Digipack CD case and album art to promote the music. Because they're all based around one thing, the Music I need them all to connect in style, genre and mode of address to the audience a good rule I've followed is that you should know they're linked before seeing the title. Media companies who wish to promote their film/album successfully always make the products surrounding it all recognisable and linked to the main product to make people more inclined to get it.
- 5. Techniques and things I considered while making all three of these media products include: ● Keeping a consistent style ● All products reflect the Folk genre ● All products reflect Music ● Mis-en-scene all match ● All promotes the music video/song
- 6. Consistent style A way I ensured that these products were successful in combination was by maintaining a similar style from one to the other. I had a colour scheme of yellows, oranges, green and browns, which are consistent through out all three products. These are all very bright colours and are clearly viable in the ancillary tasks and the colour scheme is the same throughout the video albeit with more blues. The font is also consistent throughout the tasks, in all three the title font at least is definitely consistent due to the trading and how the title associated with my product. The fonts in the ancillaries also vary so it follows codes and conventions of their respective mediums. In my opinion I captured the style from all three products thanks to the help of my research into professional versions of the products found on the internet.
- 7. Originally my idea was to have the bubble writing of homeward bound as the title but this font and colour scheme would be breaking the conventions of the usage of a recognisable font as a name so I ended up putting the logo thats used for both the artist and the title logo so I can strengthen the connection between the products. I think this could be improved by putting the artists name in the classic logo/font I have used in the other two products into the music video itself.
- 8. Suggesting Genre As I am creating products around the genre of Western Folk/Americana I tried to really embellish and go over the top in my products to really convey it within my products. This is necessary as the audience its trying to address will know straight away from telltale signs that it is this specific genre and the one for them or even know the genre without the knowledge of it. I made this apparent In three and majorly apparent in the advert with the colour scheme provoking a nostalgic, sepia look. This and the use of the Polaroid a lone artist and the wooden table are all elements of the calm folk genre. One big give away is the little hint of the Simon & Garfunkel CD slightly in frame, this also has connotations of sharing and listening to music which is a big part of the folk genre and that is why its inclusion is appropriate. The use of just a single image of the artist and the minimal design on it goes well with connoting folk as these codes and conventions can be found on many other products.
- 9. Mis-en-scene In the album cover I had just as many links to the folk genre with the use of an instrument and the mis-en-scene as the backgrounds are natural and connote a bit of peaceful serenity which comes with folk. The colour scheme is also present in the album cover/digipack. Most of all however my digipack links to the music video, having many ties such as the same character, however dressed differently for variety, the costumes showing calm and stillness and another showing travel which is a direct link to the music video. Another massive link is the ghost woman on the front page which signifies a missing person who is almost there which is the idea of longing for someone which is reflected in the music video. Also the graphics of trains also promote the travel idea which is also in my music video and the use of calm backgrounds and then one busy backgrounds which is another theme throughout my product, the want to get away from the busy streets and go somewhere calm hence why the end of the music video is in a quiet park.
- 11. I intended the mis-en-scene to be similar in all my products and although they are not identical, they're still representative of all the products and genres of folk, the costumes in all three share the same idea of a folky traveler. He is also almost always with his guitar, cementing this idea and also making him a lot more recognisable. However in my opinion over exaggeration of the mis- en-scene with use of props and such would take away from some of the meaning of the minimalist folk genre.
- 12. Cross Promotion Along with all the connections I attempted to also make the two ancillaries promote the main music video with uses such as the font, the recurring character and the several graphic links such as the trains and traveling style.
- 13. Conclusion In Conclusion I cross promoted my music video very will with all the links in my digipack, but also more links could be added in the advert as the advert kind of leans towards promoting the digipack, my guess is I got carried away as usually all of these products professionally would go towards selling the album rather than promoting a music video. I could have had help with this by getting feedback on all three products looked at as a whole rather than one at a time. If I were to do this again I would make more links in the advert to the music video, as the coursework suggests, rather than the album.