Monday, March 7, 2011

Evaluation Question 2

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

From when we started this course, we understood that the brief was based around creating a music video along with two two ancillary tasks to help promote the video. We chose to create a CD pack and a magazine advert. We needed to create a brand for these three products, and so this meant creating a sort of house style. Our first obvious thoughts were to use the same characters throughout. The characters are the main focus on all the products, so it was extremely important to make sure that they were portrayed in a way that emphasized their own iconography.


By creating a brand for the product we were not only promoting people to buy the product, but we were ensuring that we were attracting our target audience. The three products needed to match and fit together coherently, so that each product complimented the others. This would ensure the iconography of the product, so that people instantly recognized what band was being promoted when looking at the products.

Right back to the beginning...

The very first thing we had to do was to chose our song. We had already decided that we wanted to create a video with a pop-rock genre, and so we just had to find a song that fitted our category. Once we knew we would be using the song 'chocolate' by snow patrol, we could start looking into exactly who our target audience would be, and despite the fact that I could fall into this target audience myself, I soon found out that there was a lot to know about. Pop-rock is a very diverse genre, as it can appeal to a very wide range of people. Here is a link to one of my earlier posts, about my understanding of the pop-rock genre:


Once we had a clear understanding of our target audience, we could then start working on what the house style should look like. We had to have a good idea of a common style so that we could apply it to all our work. We wanted to create a video that people could empathise with.




When looking at our magazine advert and our digipak side by side like this, it is clear to see the continuity of the house style. The conventions of our house style include:

Imagery
We used the same image on the magazine advert and the front of the CD. This ensured that once people saw the advert, they immediately knew what the album was, creating the character iconography.

Black and White effects
We used a difference clouds effect on both the magazine advert and the digipak, again so that they both looked the same. This effect also relates to the video, from the black and white scenes.

Close-Ups
We have used a close up image of both Rich and Annabel on the CD, as well as on the advert. This is taken from the video. This Helps create the house style as it transfers the emotion from the video to paper.

Clothing
Rich is wearing the same clothing in the magazine advert, the digipak and in part of the video. The creates his iconography.

Text
The same text has been used on the advert and on the digipak.

Overlays
On both the CD cover and on the advert, we have overlayed the images. Annabel is in the background, almost looking over Rich, whilst Rich remains in the foreground, as he is the prominent character. This creates the sense that he has lost Annabel.


No comments:

Post a Comment