The document discusses the effectiveness of combining a music video with ancillary texts such as album artwork and advertisements. It describes how the student group created a CD digipak, advertisement, and inserts that complemented their drum and bass music video for the song "Innocence" by Nero. The ancillary materials use similar black and white coloring, costumes, locations, and characters as seen in the music video to create synergy across platforms and clearly promote the ideas in the video. The document analyzes how elements like images, fonts, and styles were chosen to appeal to the target teenage/young adult audience and effectively sell the dark storyline of the song.

1. Evaluation Question 2Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your
music video and ancillary texts?

2. SynergySynergy
Synergy is the term used to describe a
situation where different entities cooperate
advantageously for a final outcome. Simply
defined, it means that the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts. The media institution
exploit various platforms to sell various
products. In the music industry, different
media platforms will be created in order to
promote the song along with its music video.
This will be posters and adverts within
magazines to promote the new release of a
song and also to spread awareness of it
through advertising and word of mouth.

3. The Products we createdThe Products we created
CD Digipak:
Advert:
I feel positive that our ancillary task suits our finished music video and
follows the same themes throughout. It captures the essence of the
drum n bass genre and it is clear both products link together making it
clear to the audience what they are promoting.

4. The cover of our digipakThe cover of our digipak
The cover of our digipak can be seen in the image on
the left (top). As you can see, our design for the album
cover is much different from Nero’s actual album
cover. As we were creating our own ideas for the song,
we didn’t want to make ours similar to Nero’s original
designs atall and therefore tried to make ours different
and original. We wanted to make it clear that our
digipak was promoting the music video and therefore
followed themes throughout such as the black and
white filter along with the costumes and other mise en
scene elements that the audience will be seeing within
the music video. Nero’s actual album over is quite sci-fi
based which is very different to our grunge look but I
still think ours is just as effective. I wanted to add the
characters that are within the music video because
then synergy is created across both platforms and fully
promotes the ideas within the video. It also gives the
audience an idea of what they will be seeing within
the music video. A drum n bass band such as Nero
never uses their actual identities within their music
videos so we didn’t want to do the same and
therefore used two main characters who are not part
of the band. Although we wanted to be original, we
still felt that we needed to follow some similar aspects
to make sure we follow some conventions of drum n
bass products and videos.

5. Continued…Continued…
We decided to include the band title on the over in the same font as the original Nero
cover, this is because this is Nero’s band logo and therefore would be identified by the
audience and their fans will be able to identify this also. Logos are a critical aspect of
marketing. As the products that we created are trying to sell the bands song, a logo is
important to include and anchors a company's brand and becomes the single most
visible manifestation of the company within the target market. For this reason, a well-
designed logo is an essential part of any company's overall marketing strategy and
this is why it is important we included Nero’s logo on their album cover along with their
poster.
We also added credits on the bottom of our album cover which is what was include
on Nero’s original album cover. We felt that it was also important to include this
because it is important to show this information so the audience can see who was
involved in the creation of the album. Many album covers do this in order to promote
the record label and the producers of the album. It is also to make sure they are
recognised for their hard work.

6. The insert…The insert…
Again, the inside of our album cover follows the
themes that are within the video and the rest of
the album designs. This image is of Lara on her
own rather than an image of the two together.
This image does differ from the others because
here, Lara appears upset and disturbed whereas
in the other images, she looks happy and in love.
We thought that including the image would get
the audience’s attention and hopefully make
them curious as to what is within the music video
because from the cover you can see that the
music video will show some kind of story- thus
promoting the album further. The image also
follows the same grunge theme and also black
and white look. We added some text to the
inside such as ratings from music related
companies and also other artists such as Skrillex
who writes music of a similar genre. This will bring
in audiences who are interested in this genre of
music therefore promoting the album further
because if an artist who is of a similar genre is
promoting the album, then fans will identify this
and think that the album includes content of
their fancy and are more likely to buy it.

7. The CD…The CD…
Before creating our music video, we took these
images with the green screen which we thought
we would be using for our digipak. However,
after a number of group discussions and after we
had started to film, we decided that these
images may not be the best ones to use
because we took others which followed the
themes that are within our music video e.g.
costumes and location. To help us decided, we
gathered some feedback from our target
audience and the majority said that they felt like
the image of Lara was effective and stood out.
We wanted to incorporate the image
somewhere within our digipak so in the end we
decided to use it for the face of our CD. We
thought this was the best idea because the
reasons we didn’t want to use these images were
because she wasn’t wearing the same costume
as within the music video, but for the CD this
didn’t matter because you cant see her outfit.
After adding a black and white filter, I think it still
follows the themes however, after finishing the
digipak, I would have liked to have added the
name of the album on the CD in small print as
most album CD’s do this.

8. The Back Cover…The Back Cover…
Again, you can see we used images of the two characters
within the video for the back of our album cover. This image
is different from the front cover but still uses the same
elements that you see running through the music video and
advert. Lara and James are sitting on a skate ramp in an
abandoned warehouse which is the location we used in the
music video. We felt that is was especially important to
continue using images that had been taken in this location
and also make sure that the characters are wearing the
same clothes that they are in the video. The black and
white filter has still been used to follow the colour scheme
and also portray a grunge type feel. Also on the back is the
names of each song within the album- something that is
typical with album covers for any genre. We have also
added a barcode which is on every album. To further
promote the album, we have included a Facebook and
twitter logo for the Band’s fan pages which is a promotional
tool as social media is one of the major ways in which
albums can be promoted and we thought this would make
the album look more professional. On the bottom, we have
included copyright information- a vital aspect. This prevents
plagiarism of the design and album and is vital to ensure
there is no profit loss. Following the same themes throughout
the album designs really promotes the album as a whole
and can draw in attention from the audience who are the
target audience for the album.

9. The AdvertThe Advert
Our advert follows the themes that we used
within both our music video and our
digipak. This is by using the black and white
filter, same costumes and same location
which keeps all three platforms linked so the
audience can identify there relation to one
another. After looking at other drum n bass
album covers, I noticed that most of theirs
used the same image that their album
cover has for their advert. Although this is
affective, I wanted to use more original
ideas for ours which is why we used a
different image for our advert. However, I
still think this works well because the adverts
follows the same conventions as the
ancillary and it differs from the norm-
making our ideas more individual and fresh
which was the aim of our project. On the
bottom of our advert, we used logos such
as the Spotify logo and the iTunes logo
which promotes the album and shows the
audience where they can purchase it. This is
an example of synergy and further
promotes the album and also shows the
audience that it is an album which is being
advertised and not a film. We also used the
same credits on our advert as is on the
ancillary because again, this links them
both together and follows similar
conventions on both platforms.

10. Inspiration and ideas for theInspiration and ideas for the
advert…advert… During the planning and research stage, I analysed a
number of music videos in order to gain some inspiration for
our own. One of the music videos I analysed was the 1975’s
single Robbers which is where most of my inspiration came
from. The lead singer of the band Matthew Healy stated
"'Robbers' is about a heist that goes wrong - I suppose you
can read it as a metaphor - and a girl who's obsessed with
her professional killer boyfriend. It's a romantic ideal.“ which
is something I wanted to portray in our own music video.
The images on the left show the promotional adverts for the
single and uses the characters and other mise en scene
aspects which are within their music video. This is similar to
the ideas we used in our advert because we wanted to
include images which you will see within the music video
and by doing this had to use the same characters which
are acting in our music video. I think that the Robbers
advert is really affective and definitely tells the audience
what to expect in the music video, which is something that I
wanted our advert to succeed in.

11. Continued…Continued… After analysing other drum n
bass album covers and seeing
that they usually use the same
image for their album cover
and their advert, we felt that
we needed to make it clear to
the audience what album we
were promoting because using
another image can be quite
risky. On the right, you can see
Adele's 21 album advert. She
also uses a different image for
her advert to her album cover
so on her advert she has
included a small image of her
CD cover on the bottom left
hand corner which we decided
to include on ours to make sure
the audience know exactly
which album we are
promoting. We thought this
made our advert more
effective and really promotes
the album.

12. How the digipak and advertHow the digipak and advert
link to the music video..link to the music video..
When creating the ancillary task we wanted to bring elements of our music
video so that the audience remember what they have seen in the music
video and therefore identify which band the album is promoting when they
see the album. I think it was important to add the band’s logo to both the
CD and the advert so the audience realise what band the album is for. All
platforms use the same mise en scene elements such as costume, location,
makeup and colour which means they are all clearly linking together and
therefore promote one another. I think the images are powerful and really
help the audience to remember what they have seen in the music video.
The group have made a number of changes to both the digipak and
advert in order to make sure that both platforms are promoting the final
product, these changes are things like adding images and copyright text
which also make the album more professional. I think they all work really
well together and even though they follow some different conventions of
typical drum n bass digipaks, it is still effective and what we wanted to do
was make ours more individual and create our own ideas. We used
different conventions of other genres in order to create a more individual
piece.

13. Continued…Continued…
Colour- the colour scheme is one of the main design elements of our digipak. These colours
are black and white which runs throughout and represents the band logo and also the
band name itself. In the video we have used this colour scheme in order to show the ‘dark’
side to the video and also create a more grunge theme which links to the drug and drink
aspects of the video. The colours give the audience a chance to recognise a link to the
band so when they see it again in a shop for example, they will identify the artist.
Style- The style of the album is current in both the video and ancillary task too. Both are
grunge and capture the audience with the dark and mysterious colours along with the use
of drink and drug abuse. The cover is an example of this as you can see that the characters
are sitting together but drinking and smoking, it shows the characters identity and also the
activities in which they do which can also make the audience see that they are drug
addicts and therefore help to identify the target audience (teenagers/ young adults). The
genre of the music shines through the video and ancillary task and having the characters
involved in both means that a journey is shown throughout, making it more appealing to
the audience.
Font- The font used for the ancillary task is the same throughout. The band logo is an important
factor when promoting their album and therefore is a vital selling point and needed to be used on
both. A logo is used as an identity and the audience will be able to notice this identity this identity
of the artists on both the advert and CD. When looking for the album in stores, one of things that
the buyer will be looking for is the logo so they can see that it is Nero’s album they are buying. We
didn’t really use any text within the music video however, a fault that I identified after finishing the
music video was that at the end of it, ‘ Nero, Innocence’ appears but in a different font to what is
used in our ancillary task. Although this is not a major issue, it is something that I would have liked to
go back and changed if I had time in order to 100% link up all platforms using text.

14. Continued…Continued…
Selling point- The main selling point of the video is the love and hate story line which ties in with drugs and drink
and also the music. This is displayed in both the ancillary and the video, through the story line involving the main
characters which are in all images on both the advert and album. The story line of our music video was inspired
by the ‘We found love’ and ‘Robbers’ music videos which I researched during research and planning. Our music
video shows two teenagers in love and vulnerable, thinking they can enjoy a life of drink, drugs and each other
without a care in the world until the affects of all the drug abuse takes place and they find themselves arguing
and Lara becoming a victim of domestic violence until the point when things go to far and James ends up in a
critical position. This is juxtaposing the lyrics ‘innocence’ as we wanted to subvert the lyrics with the acting in order
to create and affect. I think that this would sell mostly to teens where they can relate to the drink and drug
aspect as most drug taking is associated to young adults and teenagers compared to pensioners. I think that
making the characters in the video the same age helps the audience to identify the target audience.
Image- The image of the characters is the same in both the video and ancillary task. They both appeal to the
teenage audience and work well together as a group. The costumes that the characters wear are supposed to
tie in with a grunge theme and a careless look which can be linked with the activities they are participating in.
The costumes also tie in with the style of music and theme of the video. The video and characters are dark and
grunge like.
Genre- The genre I feel is evident on both projects as the photography and editing on the ancillary task is dark
and mysterious, which is the same as the video. The shots contain many cuts which match the pace of the song.
The whole of the two tasks combined are dark and although there is no mention of a love/hate story in the
ancillary task, the way the characters are shown on the ancillary shows the elements of love that are involved.
The grunge genre is apparent because the video and ancillary both fit well with the audience.

15. ConclusionConclusion
I believe our overall product has been successful and worked really well, it represents not only
the much genre by using black and white colouring and the character costumes along with
the location but also appeals to our target audience of teenagers and young adults. I think
that the Nero logo is iconic to the band, it is also used on all of their past albums. The black
and white colouring works well too with the themes and also the feel of the song. I believe the
ancillary looks very professional and we have used our research as well as developing original
ideas aswell which differ from the normal conventions of drum n bass products. The product
also worked well with the music video itself.
The Effect Of How It All Links Together:
The effect is the audience can see the relationship between the two characters and how this
is juxtaposed with the lyrics of the song. The colour of black and white shows the band are
following a grunge theme and the use of the characters on the cover show they are an
important part of the music video and overall album. The fact the logo is used on both the
advert and album adds to the effect that the artist wants to be recognised and they use this
logo on a number of their products. The selling point of the artist is evident through the poses
of the characters and the editing suggests that they do not take pride in their appearance or
style. Overall I believe that not only do the music video and ancillary task work well together
but they compliment one another whilst keeping the audience’s attention. They clearly show
the genre, style and selling point with the use of colour, font and photography.