1. How effective is the combination of your
product and ancillary texts?
Shajahan Ahmed
2. When we were looking at our options of creating either 2 out of the 3 which included digipak, website and
magazine advert we all decided that the two that we would create for our ancillary tasks would be a website and
magazine advert. We chose these two as we felt a digipak is hardly used by media institutions anymore as we have
moved into a digital age where nearly everything is found online. This was the key factor in choosing a magazine
advert and a website. A magazine advert is still often used by media institutions as it is a good way to advertise
products to certain target audiences which include young teens as magazines are popular with teens and a website
is also preferred as our target audience consist of young teens. Young teens are often using the internet so a
website will be better as that is where our target audience will most likely look at and will be more effective in
advertising than a digipak. This is because a digipak(album cover) is often attached to a CD Album. With the
introduction of many popular online media outlets like ITunes CD albums have become redundant so we felt it will
be ineffective in attracting our target audience if we made a digipak.
Music Video
Website Homepage
Magazine
advert
3. Music Video
Website Homepage
Magazine
advert
There is clear evidence that the 3 media productions are linked using
costume, theme, colour schemes and the genre of our song. This will
provide synergy of our media productions in relation to the others so the
audience can easily identify each production being linked. This alllows the
audience to identify the different media platforms as being connected to
one media product which is the music video. This creates an image of the
artist that the audience may remember as we show his casual shirt
throughout all of our media productions. This makes the audience not
forget the image of the character as they will remember him wearing that
costume and will find it easier to find the music video due to this.
5. Magazine Advert
• In order to create our magazine advert we used Photoshop, as this was the best software that was able to
edit photos and create the magazine advert we envisioned. Many mainstream artists use Photoshop in
order to create their magazine advert so we felt more confident, knowing that we were not restricted by
constraints like having inferior software. We wanted the magazine advert to be similar to Lana Del Rey’s
magazine advert in that there is a mid shot of the main character with the Polaroid pictures of certain
scenes of the music video behind him in a similar way to how the sky is behind Lana Del Rey. We decided
to change from a natural background of the sky like Lana Del Rey to a more unnatural background using
green screen as we felt it would provide more of a link between the magazine advert and the music video
if there was pictures of certain scenes that were in the music video. This keeps the audience engaged and
the choice of pictures also raises curiosity for the audience. In the magazine advert there are two boys
with one girl and the way they are holding hands and the body language shown shows a relationship
which raises the curiosity of why is she with two different men. This was a good way to promote our music
video, as creating curiosity amongst an audience is an effective way of marketing.
6. Magazine advert Draft
• In the first draft we wanted there to just be a white background but after discussing it further
we decided it was too plain and will not excite audience members so we decided to go with
the polaroid pictures behind the main character. Another way we created a link between the
music video and magazine advert was that the main character is wearing one of the
costumes that he is seen to be wearing in the music video. This is to create a brand identity
as in both the music video and the magazine advert he is shown to be wearing the same shirt
and this may cause the audience to immediately recognize him due to him wearing the same
shirt in both media products.
7. Final Magazine advert
• When we looked at other magazine advert like one of Lana Del Rey’s magazine advert we found that the
star is positioned in the middle ,often being the Centre of attention. Another convention that we found in
magazine adverts was the use of camerawork being used to show the artist looking directly at the camera
which may cause the representation that the artist is looking directly at his audience. This may cause the
audience to be engaged in the magazine advert if they feel the artist may be looking directly at them. In
our magazine advert we adopted this technique as it not only would cause the audience to be more
engaged with the magazine advert but it may cause similarities with our music video as throughout our
music video the artist is shown to be singing directly to the audience and there is a mid shot to show the
artist in our music video which is exactly the shot we used in our magazine advert.
8. Combination of Magazine advert and
website
Not only did we create a link between the music video and the magazine advert but we also created a
connection between the magazine advert and the website. We included the website at the bottom of the
magazine advert in order to entice the audience to visit the website where they can gain information about the
artist and other media productions that he may have created. This is a form of synergy as it advertises another
piece of media platform.
The magazine advert is not alone in providing synergy between the two media products as the website also
provides synergy between the two as if the audience go on to the website then they will see the magazine
advert on the website. The magazine advert is purposely large on the website as we wanted it to be the first
thing that audiences see as it has the title of the music video so may encourage the audience to watch the
music video.
9. Homepage
The website was also effective in providing a combination of our product and the ancillary task as it showed the
USP of our music video effectively. It focused upon the blend of both R&B and Hindi on our website which is
our USP. A USP is something that audiences would immediately associate with a particular brand. This is what
our website done very well. The main image of our website particularly showed our USP as the main image was
that of the lead artist in traditional Asian clothing. This was to show the Hindi side of our music video as our
USP is to blend the genre of both Hindi and R&B.
The colour of the costume worn in the main image was picked out carefully as we wanted it to have deeper
connotations. The costume colour was red which has underlying connotation of love and passion which is the
theme of our music video. The main image also had a black background, which suggested to the audience that
the artist was lost as the colour black often has the connotations of being lost. We wanted to create the
representation of the artist being lost as he is actively searching for answers in regards to love as he is lost in
love. The artist looking up also provides a link to the music video as the songs title is “looking for love” and him
looking up represents him looking for love. The colour scheme of our website was red and black in order to
match the website of the colours shown in the main image in order to convey the meanings of love and passion
but also the meanings of being lost.
Another link to the music video may be the addition of
pictures on the website that are seen in the music
video. We included some pictures of the music video as
it will attract our target audience to watch the music
video as they will be curious as to where those pictures
originate from. As the costume is similar in the
magazine advert they will ease their curiosity as they
now have the music videos title so will be encouraged
to watch the music video in order to satisfy their
curiosity.
