1. How effective is the combination of your main product
with ancillary texts?
I believe that the combination I have with my music video and with my ancillary texts
are very effective. I believe that I have done this through creating recurring themes
between all 3, both in terms of visuals and meaning.
With my digipak I feature many relevant themes. The font I used was ‘ALGERIAN’
and this I believed had many connotations. It is a harsh text to read, and so can link
to what the lyrics of the Watchtower are about, that of death and suffering. It also
links in to my magazine advertisement as it is the main font I used with that product
too.
The use of colour is clearly demonstrated across all 3 products, with the digipak and
magazine advertisement the use of the colour red is prominent. This allows the
theme of blood to be shown across both formats. This is has connotations to our
video, as within this there are references to blood – ‘blood drips down the
foundations’.
I decided not to use a picture of the band or any members on my digipak to try and
keep the overall design simple. Some people may feel that this doesn’t prove very
effective in combination with either my video or magazine advertisement. However I
decided that the bands profile would have been raised with the video and magazine
advertisement, and identifying with the digipak would not prove difficult for a
variety of reasons. One of these is that the advertisement features the same
desolate landscape as the digipak, as well as overall colour scheme. Both products
also feature the band symbol, which allows increased recognition – and so prove
very effective. On the front of the digipak I also have a large watchtower – this has
proved one of the most effect things in working in combination with the large ‘The
WatchTower’ on the advertisement, and of course the song name for the video.

2. On the magazine advertisement however I decided that I needed to use a group shot
of the band. This was because I thought that I needed to create the greatest amount
of exposure for the band in terms of getting people to identify that they had a
digipak coming out. I used a different picture to that of one from the video, this was
to not give the impression to the audience that the band did not only have one song
– and so I believe this proved effective.
During the video when the lead singer James, screams, the lighting goes very dark
and harsh. I have recreated this with both the digipak and magazine advertisement
so that they can complement each other.
Here is an example of Slipknots use of the digipak in conjunction with the magazine
advertisement. It is easy to see that both feature a very similar background, allowing
audience members to easily link them both. I have done this with both of my
ancillary texts. The use of the colours black and red are also heavily used; once again
this is the same in my products. More information is carried on the advertisement
than the digipak as well, and so also complies with my products. This shows that my
products are very effective. However, the same picture is used in both of the
products, and mine do not, and so this could be seen to show naivety on my behalf
of creating a simple design for my digipak.