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1. Evaluation Question 2
‘How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?’
Abigail Baxter

2. Main Product – Music Video
• The main task consisted of the production of a music video. We chose the song ‘1-800-273-8255’ and
as this is an R&B song that deals with social issues it was important for us to follow the conventions of
the R&B genre. For me, it was essential that I only finalised both the website and the digipak after the
music video was completed to ensure that all of my products worked well together. Since the music
video required the most time and effort, I started this weeks before my website and digipak and
therefore the music video served as a type of base which my digipak and website were designed and
produced based around. The production of the music video itself was very useful in the development of
my skills both using the equipment and editing – it enabled me to become more experienced and skilled
working with software like Adobe Premier Pro.
• The overall design of my ancillary texts was based on an important element of the music video which
was the flashbacks. Despite being added quite late in the production process, they were essential in the
communication of the narrative – the flashbacks were what established to the audience this previous
friendship that the characters had and why they weren’t friends anymore. The flashbacks were also
effective because when placed in the correct places, they provided an immediate contrast between the
past and present (when they were friends and now they aren’t). To ensure that the flashback footage
was obviously memories from the past we edited them with a black and white effect. Based on the
importance of the flashback element of the music video I decided to make all of the digipak black and
white and I did this through editing in Adobe Photoshop.
Ancillary Text 1 - The Digipak

3. Ancillary Text 1 - The Digipak
Front Cover
As the front cover of my digipak was black and white and also featured
manipulation through the use of shapes, it was important for me to take these
elements into account when designing my website. I knew that the front cover
would appear on my website so it was really important to have synergy
between the two ancillary products. For the front cover, I decided to use two
images of my artist – one layered on top of the other but both images were still
visible. There were various reasons behind my choice to use these two images
on the front cover of the digipak; the first reason was because the specific
images conveyed two different emotions. In the first photo, the artist looks
confident and this is highlighted by the fact that I had enlarged it against the
other image. In the second image, the artist is smaller and looking down which
makes it look like he’s thinking about something, perhaps something
provoking feelings of sadness. The reason these two images worked so well
together was because the contrast between the two images and the way the
artist looks links strongly with the narrative of the music video which
throughout there are many immediate contrasts between being happy and
sad.
Through the images on the front cover I was able to communicate the emotions provoked in the music video. It was
also really important for me to have an image/s of the artist on the front cover rather than anything else as it would
provide a strong brand image. This is enhanced by the artist logo I produced which was also placed on the front
cover and the album title. Image manipulation through shapes was also a key element of my editing which I used on
the front cover images and inside left image of my digipak. I continued this editing technique on some images
featured on my website to make sure they were all connected. R&B artists are often unique with their album artwork
and that is why I decided to feature image manipulation on my album – this was something unique to my artist’s
artwork, making him notably different and memorable to audiences.

4. Ancillary Text 1 - The Digipak
Back Cover
As for the back cover, I decided to keep it relatively simple by using a concert
image – to keep the black and white theme I first added a mask layer to make
the image itself black and white. Once I’d made two of the covers black and
white I decided that it wouldn’t look right if I didn’t continue this onto the
others so I decided all of the digipak would follow the black and white theme
which overall has strong links with the music video and the lyrics of the song.
Although I wanted to keep it simple, I felt as though just having the image in
black and white was quite boring and didn’t really express my skills so I
decided to find a texture image and use this behind the image to make it more
unique. I think the texture worked well as it made the image look more
professional. As for the text on the back cover, I decided to keep it simple – the
same font in fact I have used on my website to ensure they connect. I used the
same font for the song names but made this smaller because I didn’t feel it was
as important as the album title. At the bottom I added my production logo, a
barcode and some legal information – all elements which are essential on
every digpak – following conventions.
As for the inside left, I decided to keep this quite simple whilst also adding my own
touch and showing my editing skills. To start of with, I used another image of my artist,
actually the same image I had previously used on my front cover but a smaller version.
Normally I would have been against the idea of using the same image twice but because
I edited both images differently I think they both worked. So for my inside left I used the
same image of my artist on this side it was smaller meaning that it was a full body image
in comparison to the medium close up evident on the front cover. I then made the image
black and white to match with all of the others. As for the image manipulation through
shapes, I found a geometric shape image/pattern and used this as another layer and
changed the opacity, ensuring that both layers appeared how I wanted them to.

5. Ancillary Text 1 - The Digipak
As for the inside right, I also decided to keep this
one quite simple with no actual image
manipulation or editing. For the inside of the CD
I choose another picture of my artist – edited in
black and white to fit the theme. For the
background I figured that if I used another image
of the artist, this would be quite repetitive but
also most of it wouldn’t be seen so I decided to
use the same texture background I used on the
back cover only I did not alter the opacity. The
textured background I chose to use was really
significant because it was burnt and crumpled
paper – this links strongly with the visuals at the
beginning of the music video with the lighter and
the photo looking like it was about to be burnt.
Overall, in the production of my digipak, the images and the way I edited them were
really essential in ensuring synergy between all 3 of my products, specifically with the
music video as it was the main task.

7. Ancillary Text 2 - The Website (Homepage)
For the production of my website I decided to take a different
approach than I did to the digipak whilst keeping some elements
the same such as the colours, text and images. My whole digipak
was black and white so I wanted to make my website similar but
not exactly the same. When carrying out my R&B website research,
I found that the most popular colours were black, white, grey, red
and blue. I took this into account when designing my website as
expect for blue these are the colours I used. The main images of the
artist that I used across both the website and the digipak weren’t
very colourful, however the colour I did take from it was the
similar type of red colour that the bus was and my artist’s jumper.
I felt the logo was significant to have on the website but I wasn’t sure how to
feature it without it looking like I just put it somewhere – also due to the
odd shape it would have been difficult to place without it looking funny. I
solved this problem by making the logo itself a button to the homepage.
During my website research I found that many music websites had similar
home buttons and this is what inspired me to make the logo a home button
– in this way you can see how my website research was useful in the
development of my website. Having the logo large and at the top of the
website makes the artist more recognisable. On the homepage I decided to
have the album cover and the song available to listen to as what you see
straight away.
This is was made me make half the album title red whilst keeping the other half a dark grey colour. The // and different
colours a contrast between the two words, making the album title thought provoking. For the background I used a
combination of two images of the artist both of which feature on my digipak as well. I kept the image’s colours as they
were but changed the opacity to make them both visible whilst doing the same image manipulation through shapes
which made the image look unique.
Below this I decided to fill the space with a follow me button to ensure that fans could feel connected with the artist through the website as well as an about
me button with a quote from the artist himself which pulls in the audience and when clicked acts as a link to the about me page. As well as these buttons, I
included an interactive slideshow featuring: new merchandise, tour dates and the new music video – all of which had links to find out more.

8. Ancillary Text 2 - The Website (About Me)
For the ‘About Me’ page I used the
same title font and header style to
make all the pages look somewhat
similar. Next to the basic information
I included a large picture to fill half
of the page because I thought it was
really important to have this picture
as the first thing you see because it
makes the audience feel closer to the
artist and obviously it helps to
establish the ‘star image’.
The rest of the about me page is full of information
personal to the artist including direct quotes from
them and just general information relating to the
artist’s personal music journey. All of this
information allows the audience to feel closer to the
artist. The way I presented the information
included the use of boxes – either square or
rectangle shape. The reason I decided to layout the
information like this is because I’d used shapes to
edit the images on my digipak and this style was
also evident on other pages of my website. In this
way I was making sure that there was synergy
between my website, digipak and music video.

9. Ancillary Text 2 - The Website (Music and Shop)
As for my Merchandise/Shop page I kept the design very
simple with a plain black background and a grid layout
presenting all of the merchandise. I kept the same
background image that is present on all pages expect for
the tour page and the title to ensure they all looked
somewhat similar. The merchandise itself was very
appropriate to the R&B genre. When designing my
merchandise, my website research was very useful – it
showed me that key colours were blacks, white and greys. I
decided to create 10 merchandise items, all black or white
ensuring synergy between the overall website, digipak and
music video. The merchandise itself was also very simple
with the classic artist logo on all of the items – making a
strong brand image whilst also promoting the artist.
The music page followed the same
header layout as the other pages but I
decided to include a picture of the
album cover when hovered on there is
text which serves as a link to a
product page to buy the album. I kept
this page simple with only the
necessary content related specifically
to the artist’s music such as the
newest music video, song release with
the option to listen and details of
songs on the album. This page
connects with the digipak and website
through the same album images and
black and white colour scheme.

10. Ancillary Text 2 - The Website (Tour and Booking & Contact)
As for the tour page I decided to use the same image as
I used on the back cover because I felt it was
appropriate. The page also includes upcoming tour
dates. On the homepage, one slide of the slideshow
was a link to the tour page which means that after
watching the music video or even listening to the song,
if the audience is interested in buying concert tickets
there is easy access to this page. On this page I also
decided to use a button named ‘2018 Tour Merch’ –
this button itself when clicked on acts as a link to the
shop page where merchandise can be bought. I
thought it would be appropriate to place a link to the
shop on this page seeing as most people like to buy
merchandise (clothing) beforehand so they can wear
it to the concert. The concert image I used for the
background worked really well with the colour
scheme as it was quite dark already and featured the
same red shades as evident on my website.
The last page – Booking & Contact follows a
very similar layout to all the other pages with
the same font and strip style with some contact
buttons with links to various social media
pages like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
This social bar provides fans and any visitors
to the website to keep up to date and find out
more about the artist through their various
pages. Below this bar I included an option to
send an email through the website along 4
boxes filled with contact detail for people
associated with the artist. On this page I kept
the colour scheme the same so it matched with
both the other pages and the digipak (through
the black background and white font).

11. How the audience will access these products
• My audience will be able to access my website through the internet and through
the website they will be able to access my artist’s various social media pages
ensuring that they can feel connected to the artist.
• My website has a very simple but effective layout with a clear menu bar at the
top – making sure that the website is easy to navigate around but also that my
target audience can access everything all on one page like my merchandise ect.
• Through my website, my target audience will be able to purchase the album and
single easily through the music page along with the option of MP3 download on
both the merchandise store and the music page.
• In this day and age, there is an increasing demand for MP3 downloads,
increasing the use of sites like Spotify and iTunes however there is still a small
percentage of the market that enjoy listening to music through a CD player ect.
Taking this into account, it was important for me to produce a digipak/CD
version for fans to purchase thereby increasing the accessibility of our product to
a wide market.