1. Amy Brackenridge
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
As part of my coursework, I produced TWO ANCILLARY PRODUCTS to accompany my final music
video. The first ancillary product was a 6-SIDED DIGIPAK that would contain the artist’s album and
the second was a POSTER that would appear in a music magazine, promoting the artists new album.
It was important when developing these ancillary products to create a SYNERGY between them and
my final product, in order to make the overall product easily recognisable to consumers. To ensure
an effective synergy was created I used a consistent house style in all products and used similar
imagery and iconography, particularly shown in my final music video. Below are images of my final
ancillary projects.
Similarly to my final product, I RESEARCHED in detail existing digipak’s and album posters to help me
gain an in depth understanding of their conventions and how these could be translated into my
ancillary products. As part of my research I analysed the album poster of Tom Odell’s single ‘Another
Love’, which proved to be highly useful, especially in terms of the content which should be included
in album posters and the layout. It was clear that the information included should be MINIMAL AND
SIMPLISTIC with the most important details bolder than the rest, such as the album name and
release date. Furthermore, Tom Odell’s poster included STAR RATING’S from leading music
magazines, to add CREDIBILITY to the album; therefore I choose to do a
similar thing when producing my ancillary task. When researching
digipaks for my first ancillary task I focused in particularly on the types of
IMAGERY used. It was clear that bold, striking images were the most
effective in attracting audience’s attention
(Beyoncé’s ‘4’). These images tended to be close
up and mid shot images, where the rule of thirds
had been applied; therefore this is something we
considered when shooting the images for our
digipak. The imagery produced for both digipaks
also had to relate in some way to the music

2. Amy Brackenridge
video we had produced, in order to create a synergy. To do this, we took images which were of a
very similar style to the music video’s present day shots. The images were taken at the SAME
LOCATION as the shots within the music video and were edited to have a DARKER TONE, in order to
reflect the overall theme of the song. This also helps to reflect the indie/alternative genre
effectively.
In terms of the LAYOUT for our ancillary tasks, we generally
followed conventions in order to make the product appear
as realistic as possible. For the album poster, the
positioning of the text was fairly BASIC in order to make the
text easy to read and stand out on the page. All the text
was CENTERED, with the most important information (Album name and band name) being
positioned at the top and other less significant information positioned towards the bottom of the
page. We felt like this was the MOST EFFECTIVE way of positioning the text, as it was similar to that
of other album posters we analysed and it meant the text stood out on the page and was easy to
read. It was important that the overall layout of our digipaks was similar to our album poster to
create a synergy between the products. For our digipak we replicated the heading which had been
used for the album poster to maintain a consistent house style. The TYPOGRAPHY AND STYLE of the
text was exactly the same, as well as it’s positioning at the top of the product. This is effective as it
means the text is instantly related to the band and their new album, so they when they see both
products along with the music video the audience will know that they are all related.
Also in relation to the digipak, the features were similar to that of existing media products which we
analysed. Similarly to the album poster, this was done in order to create a PROFESSIONAL LOOKING,
realistic product. Like most digipaks we researched, we positioned the
TRACK LISTING for the album on the back page of the digipak in a
vertical column, as we felt this was the most effective way of
positioning the text. Also we made sure that imagery was used on
every side of the digipak to ensure that it was visually interesting for
the audience, this again is a typical feature of existing digipak’s.
To conclude, our combination of ancillary products and final product is
HIGHLY EFFECTIVE. We have maintained a consistent house style
throughout all products, as reflected by the imagery used and the positioning of text in the two
ancillary products. By doing so, we have been able to create a SYNERGY between the three
products. Furthermore, we generally FOLLOWED CONVENTIONS when developing our ancillary
products, especially in relation to the imagery and positioning of text, we felt this was the most
effective way of creating professional-looking, high quality products.