Evaluation question 2

1. Evaluation Q2:
How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary
texts?

2. • Our music video is mainly narrative based, however, with how we have displayed the
narrative side can be argued to be a conceptual element as well. We knew from the
beginning we wanted to focus on these types of music videos as believed they would be the
most beneficial and successful element for us to work in due to the genre of our artist and
the narrative of the song. The narrative of our music video was told within the actress singing
about her feelings while her past relationship is shown to the audience in video tape
flashback sequences, which required a conceptual element.
• We decided to use these flashbacks in a video tape sequence as we believed it would work
well with the ghost/supernatural theme we had surrounded our music video around due to
our artists song being ‘Poltergeist’; the idea of the video and marketing being based on a
supernatural theme felt beneficial for our artists success due to the mystery and uniqueness
of this idea compared to other indie artists themes and styles. The video tape style flashbacks
allow us to link in certain themes and connotations from classical and stereotypical
supernatural/horror films such as the iconic 80’s movie ‘Poltergeist’. The idea of editing our
video to be completely black and white helped convey this idea of ghosts and the past to the
audience.
• We were able to direct this idea of using the supernatural into our ancillary texts by creating
a black and white theme with our digipak but also include elements of mystery and ghost like
features by editing smoke over our artist using Photoshop. This was effective with carrying
across this representation of our artist and conveying the message and imagery we wished to
put across to our audience.

3. • With focusing on just the actress and not using actual locations for the singing part of our
music video, I believe this can be seen as ineffective due to the simple use of camera shots,
however, we used this to portray to our audience the raw emotion the actress displays with
lip-syncing our artists song; this allows the music video to feel more emotion with the focus
on her face and the easiness of reading the anger and sadness that is fuelled through the
lyrics.
• This allowed our technical elements within our music video to be limited due to the fact of
the small variation of camera shots being used. However our idea for this was influenced by
the band Then Thickens music video for their song ‘Tiny Legs’. They shot their music video
continuously, limiting them to a close up of their actors face; however this was proven to be a
positive aspect of the video due to the use of conceptual means added in. We were inspired
by this music video which leads to our final music video being limited with camera shots.
Another aspect we were able to take into advantage was how they had famous actor Joseph
Gilgun (known from popular TV shows such as Misfits, This is England and Preacher) lip
synching rather than the leader singer. This was something we took into consideration when
choosing our actress. We decided to use an actress to lip sync rather than our artist to
continue to convey the idea of mystery with our singer, however we did include her in her
music video, starring as the girlfriend//ex; we believed this would create an interesting
opposition to how the artists is usually portrayed within music videos. In some ways it can be
seen to be similar to Hayley Kiyoko’s music videos where she stars as one of the girlfriends
shown in her videos multiple times.

4. • With looking at our costume, the focus on indie aesthetics was taken into consideration with looking at artists such
as The Smiths. With wearing denim jackets was a main fashion trend in the 80’s, it has recently ream merged as a
popular vintage aesthetic for people who are fans of the indie culture and genre of music due to the aesthetic
appeal they carry. With wearing a denim jacket, we chose a black t-shirt to also convey the black and white
aesthetic of our artist and parts of the indie/rock genre; the addition of the shirt having strange markings adds to
the imagery of the indie/rock genre. With the hair cut our actress had, it allowed an indie/rock aesthetic to also be
present as having short hair with bangs can be seen to represent Uma Thurman’s character in ‘Pulp Fiction’,
allowing a classic 80’s film to once again help influence our design work for our music video and to attract our
audience with idea of retro film aesthetics being included.
• The representation used within our music video, we have clearly represented the LGBT community within the
lesbian couple used in the music video, even if they are portrayed in a negative way due to a break up, we have still
been able to present them due to being a minority within music videos in the industry. The representation of
gender is also prominent in our video due to the artist being a woman, we are able to portray woman in a non-
sexual way, which women are mostly seen as during mainstream music videos. Ethnicity is only portrayed in a small
minor way in our music video; this is seen through our artist who stars as the girlfriend/ex in the video as she is
half Indian – an ethnic group which is hardly shown within the indie genre. Overall we have been able to adhere to
most societal groups within our music video which I believe is a large positive within our music video as we will
have a large variety of these social groups present as a key audience for our artist.
• While creating our music video, we had decided to use overlays that will correspond with the green screen; we
believed this could create an interesting effect with different styles of overlays, similar to the Arctic Monkeys ‘Do I
Wanna Know?” We soon discovered during editing that these were not as effective as we thought and they looked
messy throughout the video. So we made the decision to get rid of these, however we discovered the video tape
overlay and decided to keep this one only as we felt it would be more effective, which in the outcome we
discovered was correct.

5. • With looking at our ancillary texts, we focused already on mise-en-scene to complete our
work and make it look as professional as possible. We decided it keep the black and white
colour scheme to continue our supernatural/ghost theme. Our artist is shown to be wearing
simple black skinny jeans and a patterned top, which can be seen to adhere to the indie style
sense of clothing. Before the picture was edited on Photoshop, our artist would be visible
with showing the hat she was wearing, which can be seen as a stereotypical feature for the
indie aesthetic. Within the photo our artist is also shown to be holding an acoustic guitar
which adheres to the indie aesthetic, allowing a positive attitude to come from our magazine
advert, improving our advertisement for our artist. The location used shows a graffitied area,
which reflects on the social group of youth, this can be seen as a negative aspect due to the
reflection of our chosen song being about a toxic relationship. This could give the wrong
impression to our audience; however it can also be seen as an artistic approach to the indie
genre.
• The synergy between all of our product can be seen as overall positive due to how well the
different aspect between the ancillary texts and the music video. This will overall improve the
popularity of our artists work due to the professionalism we have been able to create within
the ancillary texts and the music video.