The combination of the band's album "Lock & Key" and ancillary texts like the music video, magazine advertisement, and digipak is generally effective at conveying the album's themes and branding the band. The video uses imagery like a breakup and death to represent overcoming difficult experiences. The magazine ad and digipak use dark colors and locked hand imagery to symbolize struggles being restrained. Both promote the band's social media to build their fan base. While the video and magazine ad are professionally made, the digipak lacks quality images and information typically included.

1. Evaluation 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

2. “The Otherside” is literally about being stuck in a bad situation before coming out on the other
side. Therefore we decided to call out album name “Lock & Key” which represents the difficult
parts of life as a chain trapping people and the key as the release, which could be symbolic of a
partner.

3. Both our digipak and magazine advert use the
image of two people holding hands whilst
entwined in a chain, this common imagery sets
the album apart and is easily recognisable.
However we used two different experiences to
show the diversity of pain and that being
trapped is an experience that everyone can
feel. The video demonstrates painful
experiences that can occur in relationships, for
example a break up, infidelity and death, which
is shown in the penultimate shot of our lead
singer at a grave. The final shot, the picture of
the partner being put into the photo album
shows that all painful experiences can be
healed and you can come out on the other
side.

4. The colour of the video uses dimmed colours to give a bleak sense
to the video. In the happy moments, like when Charlie is with his
girlfriend we used the sun to give an optimistic and happy sense, to
the point where it is almost blinding, through the use of lens flares.
At the end of the video the colour scheme is far bleaker, the black
and red of the bands outfit connotes misery and depression as is a
commonly used colour in rock music videos. One of the final shots
of the grave, is grey in the centre with the gravestone, but
surrounded by a vibrant yellow and orange of the leaves, this has
several meanings as it could show that the bleak greyness is
emerging through the happiness and optimism. The use of leaves
that have fallen of the trees is how happiness has fallen from the
band members lives, onto the same level as the depressing colour of
the gravestone. It then cuts to a shot where the gravestone takes up
a large part of the screen, showing the ever growing darkness of the
band members lives.
Another example of the warm lighting in the shots with the photo
album, although the photo album and Christians outfit is black, is
bathed in warm, golden light. The closing of the album is
representative of Christian pulling through, and that better times are
coming

5. The magazine advert uses a deep blue background with a black outline. The
Navy colour shows the emotional depth of the song and video, as blue is
commonly associated with not only sadness, but optimism as well. The use of
the gold chain and colour of the arms show the happiness that can prevail,
however the colours are darkened and the chain is locked by a black padlock,
which demonstrates that the protagonist’s happiness is being restrained. Finally
the White text contrasts to the other colours and makes the band’s name and
album the most eye catching thing on the poster, so the audience will
remember the names. It is also a symbol of good, like angels. This would
suggest that the band are perceived as good, amongst the darker content of the
advert, and may connect to the teenage demographic, who typically struggle to
find themselves amongst the stresses of growing up. The Digipak uses black and
grey backgrounds, which is conventional of a rock album. The Digipak also uses
the same white text to be eye-catching in a store and memorable for the
audience.

6. The digipak and video both also use lots of shots of the band, which is voyeuristic
and makes the audience more connected and sympathetic to the audience. Use of
photos of the band members on the digipak advertises them and helps the Journal
of the Many brand be more appealing to consumers, especially when selling
albums and concert tickets. The photos of the band members in the album cover
show the individual personalities of each of the band members, and this is
amplified by the music video where we show each of the personal lives of the
band members. The costumes also give each individual band member their own
distinct personality, Christians black shirt suggests order and sensibility, but still
being grunge and serious, as is typical of a rock band member. Ryan’s red shirt
gives him a more vibrant and emotional personality, suggesting that he is creative
and passionate. Charlies black t-shirt suggests a more casual character, and is
revealing of his physique, adding another layer of star-image to him. In the video
all of the characters wear black jeans, which could be a sort of uniform for the
band and connects them as a group.

7. The Magazine advert features our social network addresses. As most
of our target audience would use twitter and Instagram it was
important to include this on our marketing, in order to grow and
connect to our audience. If we grow our fan base online we can
access them easily, sharing future releases and advertise merchandise
for free to an audience that is guaranteed to be interested. The
digipak does not have social networks which was a mistake as it is
important to gain this audience from as many sources as possible,
and if someone has bothered to buy the album they are likely to buy
more. Another thing we used on our magazine advert is the ratings
and reviews from several magazines. The three magazines we used
were the magazines we included in our potential magazine post.
These magazines have our target demographic and if someone sees a
good review from a magazine that is about music they like they are
likely to buy our music. The ratings are gold, a colour that connotes
being the best, like a gold medal. Buy also putting the name of the
single in gold we imply that the reviews are crowning the single. Both
the digipak and the Magazine advert have a parent advisory
notification as well, this is more of a formal thing, but is important to
ensure we get the right audience and don’t cause controversy about
bad language.

8. Finally the magazine and digipak use similar design elements, for example a dark blue
and black colour scheme and the same font for the album. The magazine advert uses the
same style text for the band name as the band logo, however we didn't carry this over
the digipak as it made sense for the album to use an individual style and be concurrent
within just the one album. By doing this we grow a strong brand for the band that is
easily recognisable and is more likely to attract new audience members, who recognise
our styling, as well as making it obvious who the band is and where to buy their
merchandise

9. The video is reasonably professional. It is shot in 1080p HD which is very high quality. It is also for the
most part well shot, our narratives are coherent and we employ techniques like pan and zoom very well.
However the performance aspect of the video is not as professional as the band members do not look
like they are playing and the drummer is not in time. On top of this Ryan’s story has no real conclusion
and ends very suddenly, though we hope our audience would interpret this as the ongoing nature of life
based on our plan this was not how we original foresaw it. The magazine advert is highly professional, it
uses coherent font and colouring that is smooth and well selected, in addition to this the imagery (the
locked hands and the city) is emotive and would connect well to an audience. We use a variety of reviews
from our targeted institutions and display all the correct information with a hierarchy of importance; the
album name, the band name, the single and the date. The digipak is not as professional as we had hoped
and uses low quality images on fairly standard, bland backgrounds. There is a lack of variety on the
digipak however it does use voyeurism and star image well. Although it displays the important
information; the band name, album name and track listing, it misses other conventions of a digipak, like
artwork, copy write and collector’s edition bonuses.