Here is my answer to question 2 of the evaluation for my media studies A2 course.

1. HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE
COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN
PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY
TEXTS?
Q2

2. BRAND CONCEPT
A brand concept is when a meaning is unique and abstract is
associated to brands.
My brand concept is to be almost like a technological error –
like a virus in a compute, it’s something I tried to convey
throughout my music video and seemed to have stuck with
throughout the entire thing. There’s no true meaning behind
this concept of there being glitches, though others have
interpreted it as being how things are often broken and thus,
footage can be broken as well. I thought this interpreted
meaning worked well with the song and the brand.

3. LOGO I created an intro for my music video and it
can be classed as the logo for the company
when it has been screen shotted. It is simply
a large circle with an effect applied to make
it look like multiple small circles are
dripping off it, like goo, in a sense.
I think this logo fits in with my company
image due to its sharp colours and how the
white stands out from the red. The colours
fit well with the brand image as it’s apart of
the rock genre and this is what colours are
usually seen from a rock group as well as
the sharpness of the edges.
During the intro that this logo is shown in,
there are glitch effects layered over the top,
which fits in well with the brand.

4. CONTINUITY
Continuity was present within the
digipack and the music video as the
brand image was carried throughout
them both, but I don’t think there was
continuity throughout my products as
the website didn’t fit in entirely with the
brands image of glitch and virus.
Though it seemed to represent the idea
of ‘broken’ in its own way with the main
pictures being of the picture burning
and that can represent the brands idea
in its own way – despite it not being the
same as how the other products show
off the brands image.
The digipack and the music video both
show off the brands image, fitting
together well and keeping this glitch and
virus idea up along with the brands
concept. The digipack shows off the
image with having effects placed over to
add a static effect as well as the overlay
effect to try and show an overlap of
video footage. The music video includes
these effects as well, overlaying the
static and the footage overlapping over
one another to create the effect of
someone being there but not as well.

5. CONTINUITY
(WEBSITE)
The image represents “broken”, if
looked at as broken/lost footage due to
the fast movement of the camera
creating that blurred appearance.
The text style we used for
the headings and the band
name was decided as we
thought it would suit the
theme, appearing written
on and contradicting the
theme we had in mind of
glitch and virus which can
also represent this idea of
broken as it’s out of place
compared to any other text
font.

6. ANCILLARIES
I think that the audience would appreciate the extra content which is
the website and the digipack. This is because the digipack has a form,
it is seen as pointless compared to being able to download the song,
but being able to buy the album can be seen as supporting the artist
physically over downloading and getting a digital copy, There's also
the fact that the physical copy can give more than the digital, as lyrics
would be present and the artwork tends to be highly admired and
collectable.
The website on the other hand, can be appreciated as it gives extra
information on the artist, on upcoming tours as well as, again, extra
content to do with the main music video. This would be also be
appreciated thanks to the website giving links to other sites that
allows the audience to communicate with their idols and creates that
fake relationship.

7. DYER'S STAR THEORYDyer's star theory talks about how celebrities
and icons are manufactured for industries to
make more money. He believes that stars are
constructed to represent "real people" but are
not as they are merely made to make money
out of the audience.
This theory could be applied to the website
and the digipack. But it could be applied more
to the website as the website allows for the
audience to communicate with the artist. This
can create a sense of a relationship between
the audience and the artist.
The fashion that is worn by the artist is one
that is recognizable to the audience as a
stereotypical type for a certain social group,
emos.
Though this is, of course, fake, as there is
thought to be a certain attitude thought to be
held by the artist which is seen as more of a
silent and wary type but in actuality, it's the
opposite. It was only something made to fit
the theme of the song and the music video.
I believe people would try to replicate how the
artists act and are portrayed in the music
video over how they act through the use of
social media that I created on the website for
the audience to communicate with the artist.
There's an idea of how the artist may cause
the audience to think that saying swear words
is okay as presented in the music video. This
could be influential as the artist influences
the audience – also known as "hegemony".

8. INSTITUTION
The media institution that would
distribute my products would be
YouTube – to distribute my main
product, the music video, but this
can also advertise the website and
the digipack though the digipack
would be distributed on apps like
iTunes, Spotify, etc.
Brand image would be important to
these institutions as they would want
something with an original look to it,
something that would stand out from
the rest and that’s what I think my
products could do.
Brand image is important to the
industry itself as, again, it helps the
brand stand out, it can make them
identifiable amongst others and the
audience will see their image as
something recognisable and will be able
to tell them apart from others because
of the brand image.

9. SYNERGY
Definition: "A state in which two or more things work together in a
particularly fruitful way that produces an effect greater than the sum
of their individual."
I believe my products worked better together than individually, if I was
to present them each as separate products instead of having them
working together, they would most likely not work well at all. They
would look odd on their own but with them working together, they
have a continuous flow that produces a greater effect together.

10. IN CONCLUSION

11. Overall, I think the combination of my main product (the music video)
and the ancillary texts (digipack and website) work together effectively
and can appeal to the audience because it covers all areas of the genre
‘rock’ and the subgenres that I wanted to cover. I also think that this
combination will work well within the industry as many artists have
done similar with an odd combination of how the website, album and
the music video work together and they’ve been successful with such a
thing.
The combination helped to create the brand concept, which is the idea
of broken with the field of purely lost footage, that is shown
throughout each of the products in its own little way.