This is the second question in my evaluation for my Media Studies coursework.

1. Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?
Figure 1
Ancillary texts

2. A brief introduction to the ancillary texts
The By-products of the video
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The products we were told to create as a part of synergy for the music
video were a digipak and magazine advert. Creating these two
products to reinforce the music video was quite a hard task as we had
to compile all the themes we had produced in the music video to the
ancillary texts. The them we originally decided on was a surreal
dreamland the character witnesses whilst sleeps (after waking up in
the dreamland).
The Digipak:
The Digipak created had to keep the on-going theme of surrealism we
incorporated in the music video as well as looking like a proper dance
music genre digipak. We used stills we took during the filming of the
music video as I have already mention in question 1. Using the same
theme is important as it converges themes of the music video with
the products that follows.
The Magazine Advert:
The magazine advert much like the digipak had to resemble some of
the music video as we kept the same theme of surrealism and dream
related persona like the digipak. As I have already mentioned in the
digipak we also used stills of filming the magazine for the music video.
Figure 2
The Digipak and the Magazine Advert

3. Ancillary texts
Combination of final product and ancillary texts
• There are many similarities and combinations used in our
ancillary texts to promote and sell the music video. An example
of one of the main similarities we decided to use was the use of
the mise-en-scene in the music video. The locational element of
the music vide (Knavesmire Wood) was a large influence on the
success of the music video and therefore using imagery of the
woodland area where we filmed seemed ideal to use on the
digipak and magazine advert.

4. Ancillary texts
Maintaining a theme
• Theme:
The theme we used was probably the most influential element of
creating our ancillary texts. As I have already mentioned; the
theme of our whole product is dreams and surrealism. Therefore
incorporating a dream and surreal similarity to our ancillary texts
seemed only necessary to the right combination of music video
and ancillary texts. Using the idea of keeping the same theme for
both the music video and ancillary texts is often common in
other products done by artists in the same music genre. For
example; the song End Credits by Chase and Status displays
images of the music video on the digipak they use as well (see
figure 4). The connotations for keeping this theme is that it
resembles the artists work within the music video and it keeps a
strong house style through the synergy and products the song
helps create.
• Another theme we managed to keep was the masked characters
and the illusion the created in the music video. The way we
portrayed this in the ancillary texts were that we maintained the
same character (green coat) in the magazine advert and the
digipak. In the digipak the character in the green coat is wearing
a mask and in the magazine advertisement he is looking at
masks. Creating this difference and theme of ‘real or not real’
between the character being in with the masked characters or
not allows the theme of mystery and interest with the target
demographic.
Figure 4
Chase and Status song; End
credits keeping an English
theme of gritty suburban
England through digipak and
music video. The same
character is on the front cover
of the digipak as well as the
music video.

5. Ancillary texts
Characters
Maintaining a House Style
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In my personal opinion I believe that maintaining ahouse style through ancillary
texts of a product are a large element to the success of the main product (i.e. music
video). For example keeping the house style of colours through the music video
and ancillary texts helps maintain the connection between the main product and
by product.
Characters:
The house style in characters we decided to use in our main product and ancillary
texts were the main character in the green coat and the characters in masks. We
wanted to maintain these characters because they were so important to the music
video so it seemed almost unfair for us to not include them in the ancillary
texts, plus it created the correlation between the music video and
digipak/magazine advert. An example which is similar to this is the digipak and
music video for Pompeii by the band Bastille, they use an image from the music
video on their digipak. However this band is a different music genre to my music
video but it shows intertexualality between music genres and shows the
commonness of this house style. See figure 5: Characters.
•
Fonts
Fonts:
The house style through fonts in our ancillary texts are kept the same through both
the magazine advert and the digipak. The connotations for this are very similar to
the same use of characters because it shows correlation in that it’s the same
through all by-products the artist has done. This is a common convention as nearly
all artists have a font they represent themselves with, for example Avicii has the
font he uses in all of his products and music videos that stays and adds to the urban
and futuristic house style his music portrays. See figure 5: Fonts.
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Magazine Advert
Colours/ backdrops
Colours and Backdrop:
The house style in colours portrayed through the music video and ancillary text are
probably the most similar the target demographic will pick up on. For example the
colours we decided to use are very similar in that they represent the mise-en-scene
we set the music video in. The colours we stuck with were various shades of
greens, browns and black and white in some aspects of our ancillary texts (digipak).
The reason for keeping this parallelism through ancillary texts and the music video
is that they are also a representative of the song and will give the target
demographic the colours that they will represent the song with. See figure 5:
Colours/backdrops.
Figure 5
House style features

6. Ancillary texts
How Digipaks and advets compare
Sub Focus; Endorphins, Group made Magazine
Advertisement
Sub Focus; Endorphins, Real Advertisement
Figure 6
Comparisons of ancillary texts
Sub Focus; Endorphins, Group made Digipak
Sub Focus; Endorphins, Real Digipak cover

7. Ancillary texts
Exhisting Ancillary Texts