This document analyzes the relationship between a music video and its accompanying album artwork and poster. It finds that: 1) There is no visual link between the confusing mise-en-scene of the video and the simple ancillary texts, intentionally portraying different themes. 2) The video uses rapid camera motions to portray confusion while the digital album and poster compositions adhere to rules of thirds, with no camera link. 3) The video and artwork minimize images of the band members to focus on the music itself rather than personalities, unlike many popular artists who prominently feature themselves. 4) The dark video theme is contrasted by the bright artwork which still conveys darkness through imagery, effectively

1. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Mise en scene
- There is no visual link in the mise en scene between the music video and the
ancillary texts. This is because we wanted to portray a sense of confusion in the
video, but juxtapose this with pure simplicity within the ancillary texts. An
example of the link between the mise en scene of a music video and its ancillary
texts with real media products would be The Beatles album “Magical Mystery
Tour”, where the members appear dressed as their anamorphic counterparts on
the front cover, a direct reference from their music video for ‘I Am The Walrus”.
An example similar to our own, where there is no direct link in mise en scene
between the texts, would be the Arctic Monkeys album “Suck it and See”. We
decided to follow this example as we felt it would reinforce the idea of ‘less is
more’. The connotation behind this being that the audience would feel they would
be attracted more by the bands music than their appearance.
Use of camera
- Once again there is minimal combination between the two products. This is
because in the video there is a constant sense of confusion through the rapid
camera motions, however, the digipack and poster were both digitally constructed,
therefore no link can be made between the uses of camera. On the other hand, the
composition of shots in the music video and the composition of the digipack and
poster a very similar in the fact that they adhere to the rule of thirds. An example
of an album cover and music video link would be in Slipknots song “Psychosocial”
for the album “All Hope is Gone”. The album cover comprises of a shot of the band
members stood in a field with a blue tinted effect used. This shot style is
frequently used throughout the music video for “Psychosocial”
Representation of artist/group
- Goodwin stated that the artist/group would be heavily included in close ups in the
video and would generally dominate the album artwork. However, we challenge
both of these theories as our video included minimal footage of the lead vocalist
and our digipack and poster contain no images or reference to the band members
themselves. An example of the conventional representation of the artist would
once again be Slipknots video for ‘Psychosocial’ and the album “All Hope is Gone”.
This is because throughout the video, the are a variety of closeups of all members
of the band, clearly showing their face/mask. This transcends onto the album
cover where we can clearly depict each member standing in the line up. An
example similar to ours would be for Metallica “One” where throughout the video,
we can harpy ever clearly see the band members faces, which is emulated onto the
cover for their album “…And Justice For All”.
Branding of artist/group
- Due to the lack of inclusion of the actual band members in both main product and
ancillary texts, it can be suggested that the band are attempting the brand

2. themselves as ‘all about the music’. This goes against the majority of musical
releases today, where the lead singer or ‘pretty face’ dominate the publicity and
are generally used to sell the product. By challenging this, we attempt to make the
listening experience more about the actual music rather than who is performing it.
A contemporary example of this would be for artists like Rihanna and One
Direction, whose album covers and music videos are dominated with close ups of
themselves. We chose to veer away from this attribute as to conform to similar
bands such as Nirvana who rarely created a brand for themselves within their
music.
Theme
- The dark nature of the video is juxtaposed in the album digipack and poster which
is displayed as bright. However, the contextual nature is, too, dark as seen with
the representation of a skull and missing brain. An example of the theme of a song
being represented on the album cover would be “Magical Mystery Tour” by The
Beatles. This is because the attitude of the song is very light hearted, psychedelic
and happy. This effect is represented on the vibrant and imaginative album cover.
We chose to emulate the mood of the music video in our album cover as we felt it
best reflected the seriousness of the theme of insomnia.
Typography
- There is a direct link between the two ancillary texts, being that they both display
the band’s name in the same text. This adds to the idea of artist branding as the
typography of the name becomes a logo in itself. However, there is no link in the
typography used in the video (at the beginning in the dictionary description) and
the digipack and poster. An example of the use of typography combination over
various texts in contemporary media would be Eminem, who has used the same
font for all albums and videos, also establishing a brand for himself. We chose a
similar approach as we wanted to effectively introduce a logo through the
typography of the band name.