Task 13: Evaluation Production Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

To show a clear connection between both my ancillary products and my main product, I made the main image on both ancillary texts a picture of the artist to ensure that audiences would immediately know who the products belonged to. I took a range of pictures for my ancillary texts so I could choose which one I felt would work best as the main image on promotion for my artist.

Although it is not made abundantly clear because I didn't want it to be too much of a focus on the ancillary texts, I made both images on both ancillary texts directly linked to the music video. The album cover shows the artist in the same clothes as the music video with the church behind her, I wanted to produce it this way to show how the music video and album are linked. The magazine advert too shows the artist the same as in the video and features the church although it is obviously a little harder to notice as it is a close up compared to the medium shot from the album cover which allows for more a background. By doing this, the same dull colours were used for the advert, the album cover and in the music video and this combines all three products. This therefore shows synergy between my ancillary texts and my main product.

I also chose to use the same font in both ancillary texts although for my magazine advert I made the font bold and extended the writing to have it more recognisable and seen for audiences. I did not choose to have titles on my music video itself as I thought the genre and theme of the song would suit having no titles. That being said, if I chose to include titles I would have used the same font again to show a link between all three texts.

I included when the album is available   on my magazine advert as this is a common feature in magazine adverts as it gives the audience a date that they can actually buy or order the product. Another way I combined both of my ancillary texts was by adding an image of the front cover of my album to the magazine advert. This too is common with magazine adverts as it shows the audience what to look for when shopping or when looking for the album.

I researched existing magazine adverts as I felt this was more difficult in creating than the album digipack. I looked at Ed Sheeran and Beyonce and how their marketing campaigns promotes their albums and their brand. From this I discovered that showing the album's front cover is very popular and used by big artists to show their products. I also found out that it is usually the name of the artist that is the biggest piece of writing on the advert with usually the name of the album being the second largest. Including a release date is another feature that some artists included which is why I thought it would be good to include it too. In order to combine my three products well, following codes and conventions of real media products is crucial (eg including the release date on the magazine advert, the picture of the artist on the album cover and the length of the music video). By doing this I made my products more realistic and more believable as real media products.

My main product and ancillary texts were also combined through the recurring images of a graveyard/church. In my music video my artist is shown repetitively walking through a graveyard, standing in front of a church or near a grave. In my music video I wanted to keep showing this by creating symbolism that someone the artist knew has died which the audience can presume was a partner through flashbacks in the video. In my album digipack I used three panels to show images linking to this theme so a reference would be made to the music video. I used an image of the Gothic cathedral in France, the Notre-Dame as I thought it's gothic connotations would be good to use for an album digipack for this artist. An image of both the church and the artist standing in front of the church was also used on the album digipack as this is a more relevant and specific reference to the music video itself.

In both of my ancillary texts there is an image(s) that is shown through video in my music video. This then shows how my ancillary texts and main product are effectively combined and therefore present my artist as linked to all three products so the audience know that all texts are made by the same artist.