How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?BY SORREL GRUNDY

Digipak – Panel 1My ancillary texts combine well with my main product to create a coherent promotional package as the images used in my ancillary texts are from my music video. This is the first panel of my digipak, the image I chose to use was a powerful one of the female performer lying on the road.

I chose this image because it is shown throughout the music video and so will be familiar to the audience, also it is a striking image which I was able to enhance during editing. This links not only to the visual of the music video but also to a key part in the storyline as at this point the female performer had just been hit by a car and so brings up many questions about whether she is injured or even if she survives.

This image is linked to the main product as it links to the representation of the drivers guilt which is reflected in the recurring flashbacks to the girl in the music video. This image is striking in that it has been reversed which further reinforces the recurring flashbacks experience by the traumatised driver.

Digipak – Panel 2+3 These are my two central panels which includes the disk tray for my CD. The images for these panels are both taken from my music video and edited. I chose these images because they link both to the main product but also to each other well as they will be seen together I thought that this was an important aspect of these two panels. Both images are overlays and include a shot of Earlham Park which is a popular park in Norwich and so reinforces the locality of the main and ancillary products. Both images link to the themes of confusion and guilt from the music video. The confusion is shown through the use of overlays and so the distortion of the image and the guilt is shown through the images of a road in panel 2 and a car door in panel 3 as this links to the car accident.

Digipak – Panel 4 This is the final panel of my digipak and includes both a track list and bar code. The image I have chosen for this panel is also from my music video although it has been changed through editing. I decided to keep the image in mostly black and white even though all of the other panels are in full colour so that it would stand out and get the consumers attention. I chose this image because of the composition as it worked well with the track list. I also chose this image because of the placard as they were a vital part of the music video and so links the ancillary text to the main product once again which increases the relation to the audience. This image also links to the other images of the female performer in the digipak as in all of the images a road is part of the composition of the image which reinforces the themes of guilt and key parts of the storyline.

Real Productions These are examples of real productions for artists who are similar to Scarlett Parade. The cover art for their albums is modest and does not have an image of either the performers or artist on them. The font used by the Arctic Monkeys on their cover art for “Leave Before The Lights Come On” is stylised, this is done to catch the eye of the consumer as there is no underlying image on this cover art. The cover art for the Arctic Monkeys is commonly abstract, an example of this is their cover art for the album “AM” as they have used an image of a sinusoidal wave which could be interpreted as many different things. However the cover art for Marcus Foster, who is also a similar artist to Scarlett Parade, for the album “Nameless Path” uses an image of a house which seems to be in the middle of nowhere. This has a strong connection to both the title of the album but also many of the tracks on said album.

The convention of having the performer or artist on an album cover seems to be, from my research, used more by mainstream artists than independent ones. This is shown through the album art for Ed Sheeran on his album “+” and Rhianna on her album “Loud”. Something which I found interesting about this was that both album covers were using the same convention and yet the image of Rhianna is both erotic (Mulvey) and voyeuristic (Goodwin) whereas the image of Ed it not.

Magazine Advert This is my magazine advert for my main product. This links to my digipak and my main product in relation to the title of the track and the title of the album and the composition of the images that I have used. The title of the track is “Summer Song” and this links all of my ancillary texts to my main product as in all three mediums the trees are in full leaf and the sun is out which are connotations of summer. Another link between my ancillary texts and my main product is the title of the album which is “Betrayal”. In my digipak the final panel has the female performer holding a placard which says ‘betrayal’ and the image on my magazine advert has the two performers sitting apart and not looking at each other which also signifies betrayal.

I used a screen shot from my raw footage for the image on my magazine advert which is a convention of film posters as shown by the “Black Swan” poster, this is an image shown throughout the film and it an important part of the story. I chose to do this for my ancillary texts so that there was a clear link between them and my main product.