The student created three products - a music video, digipak, and magazine advert - for an artist to showcase their song. Synergy between the products was important. The artist is featured prominently in all three to connect them. Similar locations, costumes, and modern aesthetics are used. Feedback indicated the story in the video could be clearer but the ancillary products were effective in showcasing the artist. With more time, stronger location links between all three products could improve their synergy.

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

2. How have you connected all
three products?

3. Our 3 Products
Digipak
Magazine
advert
Music video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature
=player_embedded&v=gwsbIlPDSC4

4.  I developed three products including a music video,
digipak and magazine advert where synergy was a
key aspect in their construction. I intended to
connect the three products well enough to increase
the identifiability of the artist them-self, the song,
their album and any logos/titles that would be
associated with them across all three products.
 Synergy was a crucial element in the creation of the
products and I believe that my products were
successful in achieving it e.g. in the text/font and
the use of the artist.

5. Main artist featured as
main focus in all 3
products
Mise-en-scene: Wears
the same jacket in all
three products

6. Use of main artist in all 3 products
 This is the main synergistic element as it links all three products
the most. The main artist features in all three products making
him recognizable matter what product you are looking at. We
wanted to have a single image that linked the three products and
felt that the use of the artist as a focal point was the most effective
as it gave all three products a shared identity
 The artist dominates the frames of both the magazine advert and
the digipak clearly showing that he is a key figure within all three
products.
 His costume is the same in all three products as he wears a very
current teenage look (bomber jacket, black jeans and trainers),
suggesting that the artist is young and in tune with current
fashion, making him more relatable to a young audience.

7. Modern setting -
background with
buildings
Modern
setting (Bus),
red lighting
to convey
modernity
Main artist featured as main
focus in all 3 products
Modern setting -
London (Piccadilly
Circus, busy streets
with people
Similar shots in both the
digipak and magazine advert
Same location

8.  Another link between the 3 products
is the focus on setting portraying and
modernity. For example with the
poster, the main focus is initially the
main artist himself, but the
background displays faded buildings,
relating to the modern aspect of the
three products. It relates to the music
video as all the shots occur in modern
settings, with things like lights,
buildings and busy London streets so
it was important to capture a shot that
portrayed some sort of modernity in
the magazine advert.

9. Shots: Richmond

10. Shots: Twickenham
Bus – showing transport
between locations
Twickenham
riverside
Twickenham high-
street
Artist as
focal point

11. Shots: Central London
Landmarks to shown to
the make location
clearer
Busy Locations:
Lots of people
Modern
setting

12. Digipak
 We conducted photo-shoot during our first day of filming mainly to
capture the same elements in the music video as we would need for our
magazine advert and digipak. For example we had to ensure that there
was a similar type of weather in all three products as you can see a very
dark, grey sky in the digipak and magazine advert as well as sections
within the music video. This therefore maintained a sense of realism and
authenticity with our products.
 Our initial digipak cover featured a close up of the main artist with a
faded carousel in the background, displaying various bright blue, yellow
and pink colours. After receiving audience feedback we were told that
this cover however did not link well enough to our other two products as
colours and background contrasted to the settings of our music video
and magazine advert. We concluded therefore that it didn’t display the
desired synergy we wanted to achieve with our product, and decided on
an alternative mid-shot taken on our first day of filming, very similar to
the mid shot used on our magazine advert.
 Shots were also taken of objects featured on the digipak (backpack and
penny board). The significance of the penny board is that it is a personal,
valued item of the artist and if we had more time to shoot there would
have been shots of him riding the board. Due to time constraints this
could not be achieved so we therefore left the board to be used on the
digipak and a reference to the significance of the item to the artist.

13. Inspiration
 To make the digipak realistic and look
professional we drew inspiration from
professional products; in particular Drakes:
‘Nothing Was the Same’ cover where Drake
(the artist) uses pictures of himself on both the
front and back covers, with a consistent blue
sky/clouds background
 This inspired my digipak cover as I have used
a front portrait, a shot of the artist looking
sideways and one of his back for variation
within the covers and creating a larger
awareness of who the product represents.
 The use of the artist as the main image on this
product and the other products increases the
synergy as they can be associated with every
products, instantly linking them together.

14. Magazine advert
• For the digipak and magazine advert
we took a variation of shots in
Richmond where we cold capture shots
with interesting backgrounds. For
example with our magazine advert
were able to capture a combination of a
natural and urban setting with the
surrounding shrubbery and the
background urban buildings faded into
the background.
• We used the similar images on our magazine
advert as we did on our digipak, they were
taken in the exact same location whoever
they aren't the same shot for the main image.
The main image in both, relate to the music
video as they both portray a main image of
the artist himself, clearly showing his face,
making the artist identifiable to the
audience.

15. Typography
Identical
font used
to for the
song title
Identical
font used
to for the
artists
name
Consistent font
used
throughout the
magazine
advert
Same font used throughout the digipak,
only variation is the change in colours
to white on the back cover to increase
visibility and demonstrate a difference
between the album title and the track
list.

16. What have your target audience said
about how effective your products are?
 “The piece was artistic however the story line could have been clearer”
 “The vibe matched the music very well, the piece could have included more central characters and
perhaps one female character”
 “I liked the bright colours and lights in the bus scene, it linked to the house theme, I would have liked to
see more of that”
 “Your intended story line wasn’t very clear but after you explained it to me and I watched the video again
I could sort of see it”
 “I love the main image of the boy (the artist) on your magazine advert and digipak. I can see straight
away that the products are linked because the artist in the video is the main image on every product”
From the audience feedback of the three products it is clear to see that the music video was not as successful
as the ancillary texts and had much more potential than it achieved. There is however some positive feedback
on it suggesting that parts of the video matched the house genre as well as the pace and style of the song itself.

17. How did you feel about the final products? How could
you have developed your products to increase their
synergy?
 I believe that the products were collectively successful in their
representation of the song itself and the artist as well as their
potential to promote both of these. In particular I am pleased
with how the magazine adverts and digipaks turned out
because of their similarity and the synergy that they had, e.g.
with text, main image of the artist and locations.
 To have improved the products synergistically I would use the
same location in all three products to make them link better,
for example, in hindsight using a location such as a busy
London street, or a location with tall buildings would have
been better suited for our digipak and magazine advert to
match the music video better. Alternatively, given more time I
would have re-taken the footage from Richmond and kept it in
the music video to show that link between the shots in
Richmond on the digipak and magazine advert.