1. How effective is the combination
of your main product and
ancillary tasks?

2.  When making the music video, album didgipack
and website we made sure that there were
significant high levels of constant branding and
synergy across all products in order to create an
effective campaign. Consistent branding was key
in order to create a strong identity for the band in
this particular project as making a debut album
and music video meant that the identity was
essential to come across to the audience as
substantial as possible.

3.  A consistent colour scheme was used across all products, especially for the
website and album in order to create synergy. We kept a black, white and
blue colour scheme across every page of our Wix website. A black and white
theme was chosen as we thought that it was a classic colour scheme which
would get across the era of the band. An additional blue colour was added
in order to add the modern twist onto the band. This combined the music
video to the ancillary products because it links the black and white colour
pallet at the beginning of the music video into the transition of the colour
pallet, (blue). Furthermore, the colour scheme added to the genre and
conventions of the band by the black and white representing a rock band
and the blue representing a pop band, (however today the band would
have be consider to be rock/ indie). The colour scheme was important in
order to merge both the main product and ancillaries together in order for
the audience to establish the on-going theme.

4. Linking to Genre Theory:
 It is crucial that a certain image is portrayed through the debut music video
and album in order to create a formula that is successful in getting the
message across towards the audience. Chandler’s narrative theory would
suggest that due to the narrative created in the music video and ancillary
tasks that ‘pop’ is the typical genre and ‘rock’ being the subversion which
leads onto a further sub-genre of ‘indie’ which makes the combined
products produced a hybrid. However due to genres evolving over time
Altman would suggest that there is “no such things as genre anymore” due
to generic conventions being a thing of the past. I can understand where
Altman is coming from as when The Kinks were around ‘indie’ wasn’t a genre
which existed yet is does today which completely changes marketing
strategies. By combining the music video and ancillary tasks with the same
colour theme it creates a genre which is characterized by negotiation which
Ryall argues. Although genres are surviving due to hybridisation it’s important
to get that theme across to the audience in the debut music video, album
and website in order to gain the audience needed to be successful.

5. The Logo:
 The Kinks logo was added to every page of the
website to ensure that our branding came across
very forcefully in order for the audience to recognise
the bands logo. In order to reinforce this, the logo
was used on every product created; website, album, merchandise etc as the
logo is essentially the bands identity. Synergy was created by the font of the logo
was standardised as in modern day society it is necessary in order for the
audience to recognise any product made by the band. We decided on a font
which looked very similar to The Beatles logo as we knew that it indicated
iconography of the 1960’s. Another reason for this is that in the 1960’s bands
would often take inspiration from one another and try and up one another by
doing something similar but making it their own which is what we did with the
font. The only aspect of the font that we did not keep standardised was the
colour of the logo as on the website it was white and on the album it was black,
reasons for this was that The Kinks in the 1960’s never kept the same logo and
always changed it up. In order to create a similar context for the audience we
decided to change the logo up a little in order to keep the audience on their
feet for looking out for our products. As the music video had no element of the
logo a combination was not created, but the two ancillary tasks did.

6. Album/ Digipack
 We edited the album photos on Photoshop in order to create a
combination of the main products and ancillaries. We added a
warm orange colour pallet to the photo in order to give it the exact
same mise-en-scene that is in the video. We decided on the warm
orange colour as filming was done on particular sunny days and to
set the context of 1960’s as film often had a warm orange tinge to it.

7.  The clothes that we wore during the video was also the same
outfit that we wore in the album photos, as we did an on-set
photo-shoot after shooting the music video. We decided to
do this as it would connote the exact image that we wanted
to portray. The album cover portrayed the band as indie and
slightly rocky which created genre conventions for the
audience to recognise from the music video to the debut
album. A direct relationship between the main product and
ancillaries was created as the location used was a scene
from the music video. The idea being the image was
developed from a practice piece we did at the beginning of
year A2 which we developed in order to fit the conventions
of the band. The poses play on the narrative that was
created which combines both the main product and
ancillaries by the continuous storyline through our debut
products.

8. In Relation to Representation Theory:
 In relations to Barthes negotiated meaning theory the message
conveyed through the music video and ancillary was very culturally
based on the predetermined knowingness of the 1960’s in England.
In order to reinforce the representation of the music video and the
storyline behind it we emphasised Hall’s representation theory of the
dominant/preferred reading that we wanted to portray. As the
directors and producers of the products we wanted to portray the
message that the music video was set in the 1960’s with a modern
twist which is why genre characteristics are emphasised through the
colour pallet and through the carry through of the narrative from the
music video to the ancillary products (album).
 This print screen from the music
video indicates an alley way which with
predominately with the brick work adds
to the mise-en-scene of the 1960’s.

9.  The name of our debut album sums up our debut music video in
one. The definition of ‘Parody’ is “amusing imitation: a piece of
writing or music that deliberately copies another work in a comic or
satirical way.” For example, as we relied on knowing intertextuality
of the 1960’s we took inspiration from ‘The Beatles’ in the
instrumental scene but made it our own in order for the audience to
recognize the iconic scene. Also, as The Kinks had not made a
music video for this particular song we took what we thought of the
song and interpreted our own narrative to the lyrics. By doing this
the music video had a very playful nature for the purpose of the
audience finding the music video entertaining. ‘Parody’ seemed to
fit perfectly because we took an existing song and made a music
video that added comedy. ‘Parody’ was advertised on the website
secondly as the primary advertisement was the music video.
Our Logo The Beatles

10.  One example of where we have an effective
combination of the main product and ancillaries is
through an editing effect used. Jump cuts re -
occur throughout the whole music video and in
order to recreate this on the website we have a
transition of the album front, back and insert cover
on the website which represents the jump cuts.
The images would transition
from the album front cover
to the insert images and
then to the back cover
which
in a way link to the jump
cuts in the video through
the advertisement of the
album.

11.  As and overall package, all the products work well together, with
the ancillary texts referring to each other. For, example on the insert
cover there is a QR code which directly takes the audience to the
bands website by scanning through a mobile phone device which
encourages convergence within all products for easy accessibility.
Package interactivity is created as the album can take the
audience to the website and the website can take the audience to
buy the album and alternative products. The purpose the website is
that it acts as a hub with links to everything that we have made;
including the music video, the album, and general information on
the band.

12.  Interactivity on the website was very high in order to combine
all the products together. The purpose of this was so the
audience could click through the website easily on their own,
watch our videos, purchase merchandise, and sign up. The
opportunity was there to purchase the song and get more
information on the band via social networking in order to
encourage convergence of all products. This shows that all
additional products that we created on the internet
successfully combine together by linking them all up easily
through convergence.