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

2. Similar Product
Research
During my similar product research, I learned that the majority of
artists, particularly those of the indie/rock genre tend to have a
unifying theme throughout their products, often a similar style is
used throughout their videos, album covers, merchandising and
advertisements.
For example, the American indie/rock band Surfer Blood’s
album and single covers appear to be two different pictures
combined into one using a variety of techniques, and this
seems to occur throughout their products.

3. Similar Product
Research
Furthermore, the British indie rock band White Lies tends to use
somewhat strange, gritty and unsettling images with dark lighting
and heavy shadows throughout its products, its videos are also
somewhat unnerving and always very open to interpretation for the
audience. They are often also seen as somewhat controversial.
Video Stills

4. Purpose Of A Music Video
The predominant purpose of a music video is advertising both the
song and the artist, in order to give them more exposure and
publicity, as a form of expanding the audience’s profile. It is also a
chance for the song to be presented to the audience in a visual
form, linking to the theorist Andrew Goodwin who argued that the
content of a music video related to aspects of the song such as
the lyrics. I feel I do this successfully in the fact that I also
illustrate and amplify the lyrics on screen at some points.

5. Purpose Of A Music Video
Furthermore, in certain genres such as pop, hip hop and R n B, a
music video presents the opportunity for the artist to display other
talents they may have such as dancing or other modes of
performing, though this is not usually the case in my chosen
genre of indie/rock.
Overall, the preliminary purpose of a music video in all genres is
for advertising, and causing some form of reaction from the
audience resulting in the song, band and video being memorable
for said audience.

6. Purpose Of A Digipak
The main purpose of a digipak is to sell the album to its target audience, in
addition to providing any important information about the band, album and
record label. The front cover of the digipak is vital as it is mainly used to
advertise the album and appeal to the audience, thus convincing them to buy
the product.
Through my research I found
that the front cover must be
eye catching and stand out,
but perhaps less so that the
magazine advert, thus I
changed the colour of the text
‘Norgaard’ from red to grey as
it felt it fitted better with the
colours of the image, and the
bright eye catching red was
not necessarily needed.
I used the same camera as in the magazine advert, which
I think helped the audience recognise that these products
are part of the same promotional package

7. Purpose Of A Magazine Advert
In regards to my second ancillary task of a magazine advert, its
role is to advertise the album and the artist together. After
analysing existing magazine adverts, I came to conclusion that it
must be extremely eye catching and appealing to the audience in
order to get their attention when competing with other adverts and
articles in a magazine. I therefore decided to use a bold, stencil
front, all in capital letters to display the band’s name and the song
title, using the colours black and red in order to catch the
audience’s eye. I also added drop shadows to make the advert
stand out even more. I used this same text in the same position in
my digipak to show the album title and band name, therefore
almost creating a band logo, and certainly beginning o create a
house style.

8. Purpose Of A Magazine Advert
In addition felt it had to reflect the overall feel and features of the
band, giving the audience an insight into the band before they
have even listened to them. I reflected the quirky, fun ideology of
the band through the image, which was the camera smashed up
with the film coming out the lens, which I felt was visually
interesting and quite abstract, thus causing the audience to think
about the meaning and making it more memorable.

9. Unifying Theme
As a result of this research I decided to create my own unifying
theme throughout my three products, which was the notion of
looking and watching others. My music video features a
somewhat voyeuristic portrayal of my main actress, she appears
unaware of the camera as she is not performing in any way but
merely doing normal actions such as putting on makeup.
This is also enforced by the slightly shaky, home video movement
of the camera, I decided against using a tripod to steady the
camera work as I felt this made it feel more realistic for the
audience to be watching her.

10. Unifying Theme
My digipak and magazine adverts consist of images of an old
camera that is in various stages of being smashed up, thus
keeping with the theme of looking and watching. However it could
be argued these images are a rejection of the notion of looking
due to the smashed lens, therefore leaving the audience to their
own interpretation.

11. Colour Schemes
I also found colour schemes to be a vital part of creating this
unifying theme and house style throughout a musicians products,
Foster The People predominantly used the colours of yellow,
black and white in the creation of products from their most recent
album ‘Torches’. Therefore I decided that a colour scheme
reflecting the genre and the band was vital, and finally settled
upon red black and white. These are colours that are typical of
the indie/rock genre, and may act as a form of key iconography to
attract fans as they will recognise immediately that the products
are of said genre. Red is successful in appealing to my target
audience as it is a symbolic sign of passion, being rebellious and
reckless, all traits that are held highly by the indie/rock ideology,
and traits that are displayed throughout my products.

12. Theme
As my chosen song came from The Vaccines debut album,
I decided to play upon the fact they were new and relatively
unknown. I therefore kept their identities hidden throughout
my main and ancillary tasks, not featuring images of them
in any of my products; I believe it has created a feel on
anonymity.
This will firstly cause the audience to focus upon the music
itself, which is key to the indie/rock genre ideology, but then
will cause curiosity in the audience as to what the band
actually look like. This also can be argued to link with my
unifying theme of looking and voyeurism, as the actual
band members are never seen throughout the products.

13. Conclusion
Overall I feel that my main and ancillary tasks are
successful as independent products, but even more so
when combined together to create a promotional package. I
think the unifying theme and house style make them more
effective as it means they being it aspects of each other
that may not have been noticed by the audience if they
were presented separately from one another, and the
audience can easily recognise they are all from the same
band.
However if I were to create another product to fit into the
promotional package I feel this with heighten their success
as a combination of products.