Evaluation Question 2

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

This PowerPoint will cover ideas a range of ideas to help answer this question, including:

Color Scheme Font Images Synergy and Convergence

Why is it important for all 3 media products to combine well?

A band/artist that has multiple media products e.g. website, music videos and album covers that are all combined and link together, creates a sense consistency throughout their products, which is really important. If the products do not present a constant theme, none of their products will sit very well together and this could prevent audiences from supporting them and following them. It can be argued that this is important for a two reasons.

Firstly, it creates an identity for the artist/band to be recognized by. Having an identity for artists is integral to secure their fan base. For example, Lady Gaga has such an absurd identity, which is completely out of the norm, but people instantly recognize her for it. This is important for fans and the audience as it makes it easier for them to relate to the artist and feel that they have a connection with them. The identity of a artist and the way they present themselves e.g. Justin Bieber as a heartthrob, but a bit of a bad boy, is large part of the attraction of his female-focused fan base, as well as his music.

 Secondly, a genre of a band/artist is very important, which has to be present in all media products they create. For example, my music video is in between the genre of pop and indie, as our artist is quite alternative but created a pop sound in his songs. We created a vintage, meaningful video with a somber, slightly depressing mood. If I then designed my website to have bright colours and a really happy, cheerful look to it, this would create uncertainty with the fans that follow the artist John Newman. It may confuse them and put doubts into their mind about John Newmans identity. If their personality is unclear, or if their identity suddenly changes between media products, this could create prevention from fans to want to follow this artist. My music video

My music video

Front cover of my digipack

My website

COLOUR SCHEME
For photos that I used in both my digipack and on my website, I edited to the pictures to add a red/orange tone to them all to reflect the red filter I used throughout my music video. Ella and I decided to use a red filter in our music video to try and add authenticity and create a vintage look throughout the video. We also used orange filters, as well as red ones, in our pictures and music videos to try and create the effect of an old, vintage look to our products. We did this because the identity of our artist, John Newman, has an old-school twist to his songs and his identity. I incorporated this orange tint by editing our music video and the pictures that I used in my digipack and website. I edited a lot of my pictures on iPhoto, where I used the effect Sepia to add this look to my pictures.

Color Scheme
The colours orange and red have certain connotations that are drawn from them. For the color red, connotations such as love, romance and intensity are associated with this color. These were important to incorporate as these were themes that Ella and I tried to incorporate into our music vide. Connotations that are associated with the color orange include change and frustration, which were another 2 themes that we aimed to include in our music video through the narrative and the editing. I decided to create the identity of my chosen artist, John Newman, to be quite mysterious, troubled and misunderstood. I feel that by using the colors red and orange in all 3 of my media products, this was successfully carried out.

Clip from my music video

One of the inside pages of my digipack

Font
I used the colours black and white in the font used in my music video, digipack and website. I decided to do this because these two colours compliment the red/orange color scheme. In addition, I chose to use opposite colors in an attempt to reflect the emotions that are portrayed within my music video. Black is a dark, harsh color which is associated with depression and death, which mirrors the emotions of the main male character who is trying to win his ex-girlfriend back, but then realizes that this relationship is dead. The color black also reflects his emotions as he is in a very dark place, suffering from an addiction that is slowly, but surely, ruining his life. In addition, the color black is the dominating color in my website to show try show that my artist is a character who has a lot of emotion and is quite a mysterious, dark character, which is shown through his lyrics and music.

Contrastingly, I also used the color white in my digipack, music video and website to reflect the opposite feelings and emotions of the female character who was previously involved in this relationship. The color white is accompanied with connotations including innocence, mourning and a sense of space. These mentioned connotations are the feelings and thoughts we represented the female character to have. The female character has moved on from her addiction-stricken boyfriend and has found a new man to be with. This shows that she is in a new space, with a new start, however is still possibly mourning her past relationship.

FONT
- After researching the real John Newmans website and past CD covers, I discovered that for the headings of the website and the titles on the CD covers, he used capital letters. I decided to use capitals in my Digipack and website to give a subtle impression of importance and power, whilst at the same time keeping it traditional by using a plain font and not making it bold, underlining it or putting it in italics. By using capital letters for the title of the Digipack, the song list on the back cover and the headings on my website shows a consistency throughout my media products.

My digipack back cover and the real John Newmans back cover

FONT What would I have done differently?

After creating my music video I realized that both at the very beginning and end of my video I wrote down the title of the song name and the artist. However, I did not write this in capital letters and instead in lower case with capitals only for the first letters of the names and title. In addition, the font I used in the music video did not reflect the font used in my website and digipack. If I were to revise my media products, I would have paid more attention to the importance of the combination of my main product and ancillary texts. I would do this by distinguishing before I had finished my music video the theme for the font that I wanted to follow.

IMAGES
Before I started to create my digipack and website, my partner Ella conducted a photo shoot of our main singer Barney because we wanted to have professional-styled photos that we could use. For this photos hoot we asked him to dress in a checked shirt, which was worn by some band members in the music video. We also asked him to bring an oversized denim jacket that we knew he owned to trying give him a retro look

IMAGES
In all 3 of my media products I have used similar images, in an attempt to create a coherent link between my digipack, website and music video. I used a lot of photos from the shoot Ella conducted in both my digipack and my website, which I edited to give them a red-tint to ensure that they would fit into my color scheme. I thought that it was really important to focus more heavily on representing the artist in my ancillary text, rather than the narrative that I included in my music video. The first reason I decided to do this was partly due to the fact I decided to create an album for my digipack rather than a single specifically for the song chosen for my music video. I really liked the pictures Ella took of Barney and decided that I wanted to use these for all sides of my digipack, rather than taking a snapshot from my music video. Additionally, after I tried to edit a snapshot taken from my music video on the program Corel PHOTO-PAINT, the picture was of very bad quality and unclear, which prevented me from using it. The other reason I decided to focus on using pictures of just Barney in my Digipack and website was because I wanted to try and create an identity for my artist that would be recognized by my target audience (boys and girls aged 15-23), and someone they could connect to.

IMAGES
Another reason I chose to use pictures solely of Barney was because I wanted to follow E. A. Kaplans theory of the artist acting as a key-anchoring motif. I think it is really important for there to be a direct mode of address between the artist and the audience, which incorporated in my music video by using lots of close up shots of Barney singing straight down the camera. It is very difficult to try and add a mode of address in a digipack and website, so instead I decided to use very close up images of Barney looking straight down the camera in my digipack and website. I think that by choosing to use close up images of Barney in my digipack and website, it allows for there to be intimacy between the audience and the artist as the audience are able to look straight into the artists eyes. This is important for the audience because it allows them to feel a connection with Barney, which is important for an artist to establish a relationship with his audience.

SYNERGY AND CONVERGENCE

Synergy is the interaction of two plus organisations to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects
I incorporated synergy in the process of creating my media products, to ensure that all three are clearly linked effectively and that all of the products are promoted.

SYNERGY EMBEDDING CLIPS

On the Music page on my website, I embedded my music video to showcase my artists music. I embedded the link of my music video as the most recent single to allow my target audience to make the important link between the artists website and the music that he produces. By posting my music video on this unofficial John Newman website, I was able to promote my music video on an additional source, in addition to showcasing it at school, posting it on my blog and posting it on social media websites such as Facebook.
As well as posting my music video on the Music page of this website, I also included videos of remixes of other John Newman songs, that we did not make. On the Music Page I embedded the real John Newmans page on SoundCloud, to allow the audience to listen to other songs by the same artist in an attempt to make my website look as real as possible. These were the two main ways I incorporated synergy into one of my ancillary products.

CONVERGENCE
On my website, I was able to connect to a few different technologies such as YouTube and SoundCloud. I also decided to increase the convergence I used on my website by creating direct links to the real John Newmans social network such including the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.