The document provides details on the development process for ancillary texts for a music project. It describes how initial designs were created using online images but were later replaced with original photos. Details are given on editing photos and layouts for the CD cover, inside pages and back cover. Text effects, colors and positioning were adjusted over multiple iterations to improve aesthetics and relevance to the music's themes. Locations for artist photos were also considered for the poster design, which went through several revisions before a final version was selected.

1. Development of Ancillary Texts

2. Front of CD Case The original designs were planned using images from the internet and have since been replaced for the final product with original photos which we have taken and edited ourselves. So the CD front cover which firstly was created to look like this… … has been edited to look like this:

3. All the items encircled have been replaced and improved upon in the process. Instead of looking like some randomly placed rose petals, they now look more fitting to the colour scheme with the red on the petals and rose appearing more vivid to stand out from the background. The leaves and stem of the rose were decided to be left bright green, instead of editing them to look black as in the first design, as, although this would be more appropriate for the black and red colour schemes the CD front cover also acts as an advertisement of the product and therefore the brighter green is more eye catching.

4. Inside of CD cover (left) The photo was taken in the dark with the standard flash on the camera. This was the create the idea of perspective and shadow in the distance. It also shows the reflection of the keys in the piano. (A theme of our music video) We cropped this image to the size appropriate to fit the inside of the CD case and inserted the lyrics of the song in red text. We used the colour red because it stands out clearly from the black and white background and red is one of our themes throughout all aspects of the music video. This is due to the connotations it holds and their association with the modern rock genre.

5. The text did not fit in one column and be large enough to read clearly so we created a new text box and cut some of the text across. We found that the text looks more aesthetically pleasing when centralised. To the red text we then added the white shadow effect. This gives the idea of smoke and incorporates another of our continuing themes. We next added our logo, as our recognition of branding, which was created separately in Photoshop to make it easy to pull across into our other Photoshop files, where our other ancillary texts have all been created.

6. The planning stages of this area of the CD case started with the assumption we would be including the use of a piano in the main film. We therefore thought, as it would be one of the main aspects, to incorporate it into our ancillary texts. However, since creating our film and eventually making the decision to not include any of our footage, including the piano, keyboard or otherwise, it has become apparent that including images of the piano or keyboard we were going to use, would be inappropriate and inconsistent with our themes. Therefore we have created a new design for this part of the CD case…

7. This is our final design to go on the left hand side of the inside of the CD case. It has been created through a series of stages of development from looking at real examples of the inside of CD cases of the rock genre. We found the inside designs to be fairly simplistic and sometimes with the lyrics or with some information of the band.

8. This side of the inside of the CD case has been developed to look more appropriate to one of the main themes which has been manipulated to represent the breakdown of the relationship (the main narrative) as a symbol: roses and rose petals. Therefore through taking various photos and cutting out the individual petals in each to combine into a collage effect, the background, as it appears here, has been created. However the colours have been further manipulated by altering the brightness and contrast of the petals as a whole background (to save time and ensure consistency over all) to enhance the bright red and accentuate the shadows. The lyrics were then inserted in two columns to make them clearer and easier to read by the audience, as, through this ,they could be shown in a larger font. The text was also centralised because it looked more fitting in comparison to the text being projected from the left. The Kiko Productions logo was finally inserted into the bottom right hand corner as a symbol of our branding.

9. Inside of CD case (right) Through research we have discovered that the designs used in real CD cases are quite simplistic, if not non-existent, due to the plastic packaging moulded to fit the CD distorting the view of the images or text behind it. Where a design is not used behind where the CD fits, often there will be a design on the CD instead in the form of a sticker, made to fit the circular shape. For the purpose of this aspect of our ancillary texts we have chosen to create the square option to make it look more consistent across the inside covers. In addition we wanted to incorporate the idea of ripples such as would be created when something is thrown into water. This is in relation to where, in our main product, a rose is torn apart and thrown into a large pond. This aspect of the video we have focused on as one of the most significant areas as it is of significance to the girl in the flashbacks. She returns to the scene where it is shown previously to hold happy memories of the couple and therefore sums up the narrative of the relationship breakdown and heartbreak.

10. During the initial stages of creating this aspect of the ancillary text we experimented with various effects in Adobe Photoshop, to use the main colour scheme of red, black, and in some cases white, where contrast was needed. We found the ripple effect where a large round ripple extending from the centre of the canvas to be highly relevant to our main film. However, through further investigation we found the ability to smudge an image, and for the purposes of this work, continually in a circle. This created the appearance as though there were ripples through the colour. As the design we distorted was a transition of a light purple through to a more beige colour, these ‘ripples’ were more noticeable than if it was through a block colour. The blurring and merging effect I have described above had to be done by hand, and so is not entirely symmetrical. However, it does arguably look more effective this way.

11. This is the final design of this part of the CD ancillary text. We thought that although with the plastic packaging being moulded to hold the CD, this image would be slightly distorted, it still looks rather unexciting and possibly not very relevant specifically to our product. Therefore we have inserted text of words and phrases from the lyrics of the song. We have then altered the colour and size of the different elements of text as we feel this looks more interesting than if they were all the same size and block black, for example.

12. Back of CD case The planning stages of the back of the CD case involved the use of images from the internet while we were gathering original images of our own. However, they served the purpose of outlining our eventual design, which consists of entirely original images. We decided we wanted to include images of the couple who act in the music video as a representation of the narrative and an image of Burnham Beeches, one of the locations included in the film. Furthermore, as photos were also a predominant theme throughout the music video these were incorporated into the design. Here is a rough version of the initial ideas for the back of the CD case.

13. This photo was taken at the location of one of the flashbacks. It represents several things with the changing colour of the leaves. The leaves die, like the relationship has in the storyline of the music video. Autumn represents change through the changing of the leaves and essentially the landscape as it would metaphorically to the characters in the music video. This photo has been used as the background to this aspect of the ancillary text. It has been manipulated by converting it to black and white and inserting text with the title of the song, and the length of it, in time. A further text box was inserted saying ‘Avril Lavigne’, the artist. We changed the colour of the text to red to continue with the colour themes throughout this project, in conjunction with the connotations associated with these themes. The red also really stands out from the background and so adds to the effect of the design in this respect.

14. The image encircled you can see has been scribbled through. This was done with the rubber tool, so the black and white effect of the background image can be seen where the image over the top has been rubbed out. This, we discovered, looks far more effective than a plain black or white background where parts of the image have been deleted. The distortion of the imposed image was done with the intention of representing the scribbling over photos in the music video. So the progression down the photos of the couple ends on one which has been ‘scribbled over’ which is in accordance with the order of narrative in the music video. We inserted three images of the couple and of two of them interacting to show a physical as well a emotional attachment. Various positioning was considered however, that shown here with the images staggered was decided upon to look most effective. The photo background also had to be cropped to fit the required size ratio’s without blurring or distorting the design unintentionally, which explains the progression in this respect from the previous slide to this.

15. Spine Designing the spine was quite straight forward in terms of we knew that we definitely wanted there to be the name of the track and artist on there. In addition to some form of textual recognition of the rock genre. This we chose to do through the theme font of text. We firstly did it with the colours red and black as our main colour scheme with a black background and red lettering:

16. This design has been improved upon with the effect of the paintbrush tool appearing to highlight areas of the words as though there is a rippling effect from dark to light, and back again, through the text. Without it the text looked too dark and unclear on the dark background. This design would therefore be effective and relevant to our colour themes and fitting in accordance with the codes and conventions of a rock genre ancillary text. However…

17. … with further attempts at various application of effects, colour and text variations, this was another product of our design: The incorporation of the roses (which have been altered to appear more strikingly colourful) are relevant to the narrative of our film and the use of such are typical to the rock genre and the associations with it. The style of lettering is ‘swirly’ like the effect smoke makes, which is also of relevance to our film. Unfortunately…

18. … .This design does not fit into the specified ,the spine of a CD cover must be, according to the digipac format. This dictates that it may be no wider than 0.65mm and no longer than 125.5mm and by reducing this design to these dimensions the text becomes illegible and the images of roses become distorted. To overcome this the roses alongside the text have been removed but for one which is now at the end of the text at the top, as a symbol of the single and what it represents. The text style has been kept the same due to its relevance to the rock genre, and more effective in comparison to the first design. (for the purpose of visual clarity the image has been enlarged)

19. Advertisement- Poster style This photo would act as the main background to this advertisement to be edited and altered to fit the desired look. The process of this shall be outlined in the following few slides.

20. Advertisement- Poster style A large problem arose when a memory stick with the most recent version of the poster style ancillary text failed to continue to open anymore files. However, since this discovery and the poster style re-designed similarly to the one lost, (yet made up with all original images) some work has been found including an un-editable version of the poster! Due to technical difficulties the same changes have not been able to be applied to the more recent designs of the poster, such as the ‘smoky’ effect on the text. This was originally considered to be a highly effective and relevant aspect to the design because of the smoke effect used during the lip synching shots of our music video. However, from this problem we have learnt : Firstly to ensure several versions of all of our work have been saved in various places on various hard drives to prevent further similar issues and… Secondly that we have been able to try to develop the poster in alternative ways which shall be expanded on in the following few slides. We considered various locations for where to take the photos of the singer as she is in both forms of our ancillary texts as part of our representation of star construction. We also considered projecting the image cut out of the singer into a different background. However, overall the following was decided upon incorporating both inserting various images into this singular one and keeping the main photo including the original location.

21. If effects had been applied to make the colours appear more vivid, this would also not be suitable as it is not in conjunction with our main colour scheme of red and black. The photo on the bottom right was not appropriate because of the irrelevant background, this could have been altered, however, was not tried. Here are a few of the photos we took of the places we considered incorporating into our ancillary texts. There are several reasons why out of all of these photos the one shown on the next slide was eventually decided upon, such as the association of leafy Burnham Beeches with black and white flashbacks, besides the sequence of shots involving the ripping up of the rose. Neither of these effects would have been so appropriate for the poster style, in comparison to where this image was eventually used for the reverse of the CD case. As the purpose of posters is for them to act as Advertisements of our product, this would not have been very effective with the image generally consisting of neutral colours.

22. This is another of the photos we took in this location. However, the props (or lack of) are more appropriate, whereas the expression of the artist is not. Therefore the prop of the flowers has been cut from this image and edited into the original alternate background (shown on previous slide), including the subtle shadow cast onto the magazines . The props by the girl’s feet upon reflection are irrelevant, in the image being used, and so have been edited out. The space has been filled with a blank base appearance to the cabinet. The area circled by the girl’s feet has been used to help cover the space where the clutter would be in the poster. Furthermore the radiator and blank wall in the background does not look very appealing so the image was altered to extend the curtains to the floor. This includes the blank wall behind the wooden ‘shelf’. In addition, to fit the continuing theme of red and roses, we took individual photos of some roses and incorporated these into the space which has been cleared in the original image to look like a clear surface.

23. As wings of this design shall be worn in the music video they have been inserted into this poster as though the girl in the photo is wearing them. The wings were cut out of the photo below. In Adobe Photoshop software the wings were then edited to look darker and fit the colour scheme of the poster more appropriately. Unfortunately this photo was lost with the poster style which could be edited, so another was taken of the wings and inserted into the more recent version of the poster. It has also now become apparent that the wings in the version on the top right, have been inserted up-side down.

24. So this photo of the wings was incorporated into this version of the poster. The colours of the wings, after alternation, are not so effective here due to the light differences between the two photos of the wings. However, there are other aspects of this version of the poster which have an advantage over the previous.

25. Here is the first version of this poster style And this is the most recent

26. Alternative Poster style This is an alternative poster style which we have designed to compare the positive and negative aspects of the two, to then possibly take aspects from one and include them in the other to improve on it.

27. The lighting on the original photo used for this poster was effective in lighting up mainly the artist’s face with a darker background. A feature on the camera was used to defocus the background which emphasises the importance of the subject. Alan and Vicki were positioned to the side to create the shadows of themselves to link the poster more directly to our music video. The red background was used to fit with our colour theme of red and black, which also explains the colour of dress the singer is wearing.

28. The text inserted was coloured red and white to stand out against the background and also to fit with our colour themes throughout the whole product creation process. The wings were also inserted in the back ground as whenever the singer is shown in the music video she is wearing them and the audience will therefore be able identify more easily associating this ancillary text with the music video. They have been edited to appear more bold and black, unlike the original design which was more washed out. This way the image comes across as more striking. The wings do slightly ‘hide’ the shadows of the couple in the background, however, it is of more importance for the wings to be positioned as though the girl is wearing them and proportional to her body.

29. This design shall be used as our final poster for a few main reasons: Firstly the presence of the roses links the poster with the other main aspects of this project. As this is not the case for the first poster design of this style, this one has been decided upon as being more relevant. Secondly although the wings do look more effective in the other design they are not exactly lacking in this one. The smoke effect of the text in the other version is also more effective, however the text used in this design is clearer and effective in its own right. In comparison to the alternative poster style, it is not of standard proportions for a poster and would therefore potentially be more effective as a advertisement on a billboard, or incorporated into a design for the CD front cover. To crop the image would mean cutting out aspects which means the subject is framed correctly and the couple’s shadow in the background (one of the other important aspects of the design). The design of this poster is far more dominantly red than the alternative style, which is an important part of relating the ancillary texts with the main product.