1. H O W E F F E C T I V E I S T H E C O M B I N A T I O N O F
Y O U R M A I N P R O D U C T A N D A N C I L L A R Y
T E X T S ?
Question 2
2. Brief note
It is important to understand the website is a ‘stand
alone’/separate ancillary text.
The advert promotes the album and the music video
However, the website promotes the band in general,
so doesn’t focus on the particular album or song we
chose or it would risk being constantly outdated
when new material would be released by Passion Pit.
3. Themes
In general, I believe that one way that the combination of
the advert and music video is made effective is through
the use of a particular theme being carried over
consistently.
In both of these, there is a theme of addiction, love,
alcoholism and darkness
This makes each product seem like they ‘belong’ together
rather than being separate media texts.
E.g there is alcohol visible
in both these images
screenshots taken from the
music video and album
advert
4. Idea of Dark vs Light
The video makes use of dark vs light. The narrative
taking place in the day and the lip synching occurring at
night.
In the album advert the colours are also contrasting, with
light colours for the text and a juxtaposition style dark
background, much like the dark vs light in the video.
I used the Levi Strauss ‘Binary opposition’ theory to fuel
this theme and again it makes both products effectively
carry over a house style which can be seen in many
related media products today.
5. Direct references
The album advert has references to both the main
and other ancillary text. It states that one of the hit
songs is ‘constant conversations’ (our music video)
so therefore it is giving a mention of our video/song.
It also has the website mentioned at the bottom of
the advert, so it also effectively links both physical
and digital texts together.
6. The website
The website is perhaps the least effective part of the
combination. Not because it doesn't do its job at
promoting the band, but because it is the weakest
link in the collection of products.
I purposely intended for this to be the case as I didn’t
want the website to solely focus on just the album,
but instead act as a pivot for users to discover more
things about the band.
The colour schemes too are a direct contrast from the
colours used in all the other products.
7. Effectiveness
Again, some elements aren’t may not be considered
as effective. For example, as a combination of
products the website could be seen as a little too
distant and separate from the other products. While
the house style has slightly been carried over, the
visible different colour tones make this seem more
stand alone, not efficiently combining all three
products. Yes, some of the colours
are the same but overall it
has slightly brighter feel
which is a quite different
from the other two
products.
8. Website
However, in my opinion by far the most efficient
connecting piece of mise-en-scen is the inclusion of the
Constant Conversations. It was a last minute decision, but
before users access the homepage the music video comes up
with the advert as the background image. This is the only
place where all three products can be seen working together
and it is here where the users can judge how well the
ancillary texts complement the main product (and each
other).
9. Feedback
Below this Slideshare, watch the video to see to what
extent the target audience think that the main and
ancillary texts are an effective combination.
