How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
When starting my A2 media production I knew that I needed to make both a music video and an album cover, digipak and magazine advertisement to go with it. This meant that even from the research and planning stages of my video I had to consider what I wanted in my print artifacts as to make the two products link together.
My main product had a target audience of teenagers and young adults (15-25). To make my overall product appealing to that target audience I needed to ensure that not only my main product was aimed at that age range but also my print artifacts. To do this I knew that I needed to create synergy between the production and artifacts. The main way that I appealed to my audience with my video was the young actors and genre of music. Therefore when I came to making my artifacts these were the aspects that I tried to illuminate most. I researched other artists that people between 15 and 25 listened to and found that these artists were mainly singers such as Adele, Ed Sheeran, Jess Glynne etc. All of these artists have a similar style of music to Phoebe Ryan so I thought that looking at their videos and artifacts would help me with my products. Throughout my research I found that most of the artists had a picture of them as their album cover- usually a close up. I thought that this would be a good feature to include in my own cover as it allows the audience to know straight away who the album is by. I found that other artists that have been in the music industry longer such as Coldplay didn't need a picture of themselves as the album cover as most fans have liked them for a while and know the artists logo or are already aware of the album.
In addition to this, I wanted to make sure that my overall product appealed to both genders which is why my video had male and female protagonists within it. To make my print products gender-neutral I decided that a black and white theme would be the best option with hints of colour to make the key features stand out. My CD cover, digipak and advert all incorporated this theme. I decided against using black and white in the video as I didn't think it was needed. The other videos that I researched which used black and white shots were Ed Sheeran's 'A Team' and Adele's 'Hello' both of which are quite slow, sad songs. I didn't think that the actual song 'Mine' or the narrative for my video was as downcast as the other songs so I didn't feel as though the colour scheme would work. I also tried to include both protagonists in every picture for my ancillary texts and achieved this with the exception of the front of the album cover. I believe that if it is obvious to an audience that actors of both genders were used then it would appeal to a male audience too.
I did however, use the same title and font in both my print products and main production. In my digipak, album cover and the title for the video I ensured that the black and white theme was kept for the font and that the title was exactly the same size, font and colour. I wanted to do this to make sure that my overall product would be recognizable and link together. My advert did have a slight change to it compared to the other print products. I used a pale pink glow rather than a black or white one. I did this because there would have been little colour on the advert otherwise and I felt that It helped the main text to stand out. It also links to my CD cover in which Faye is wearing a pink and white top.
I decided to use different pictures on each ancillary text (apart from the small picture of the album cover featured on the magazine). I believe that this was a good decision because it allows the audience to gain more knowledge about the video and want to watch it more. Otherwise, they might get bored with the same picture being used over and over again and the video isn't advertised as well. I used one outtake and all of the other pictures are taken out of the video. I thought this was vital because again it advertises the video but also gives hints to the narrative. I wanted to use one picture that was not in the video to give the audience something new if they were to buy the album.
I used Photoshop to make all of my print products and word to present them. I used Photoshop mainly when changing parts of my pictures to colour while leaving other parts black and white. I also used Word when making small changes to my products such as adding in writing and logos and finally to present my different ideas in order to receive audience feedback. When creating my video I used Premier Pro, this enabled me to edit my video effectively and confidently as I had used it before. When I needed to take screenshots from my video for my ancillary texts I found the mac's helpful as the screenshots saved as an image on the desktop so were easy to transfer from Premier Pro to Photoshop. In addition to this, I wanted the title at the start of my video to be the same as the one on my album cover, Word and Premier Pro both had the same font, text sizes and effects for writing so I felt that I could create synergy between my products easily and effectively.
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