Evaluation - Question Two (DRAFT)

How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

•  When designing my Digipak and Advert, I had a very clear idea in mind that I intended to create which was the design that I finished with. I wanted to keep both the ancillary texts as minimal looking as possible because for the genre and style I was trying to replicate it meant that this was the road I particularly wanted to go down. The lack of imagery and minimal wording across both the texts was something that was done purposely to give a sense of 'mysteriousness' to the band we had created, also because our video is fairly quirky and perplexing then I wanted that to be represented in the digipak and advert. This is mainly because the band that we took the most inspiration from, Arcade Fire, are very different to most artists on the market and they also have a mystifying nature about them and they tend not to give a lot of themselves away in both their music videos and also their digipaks and magazine adverts. This was where the initial idea lay, however throughout development I found that The XX's album cover (as well as many others) was something that I knew that I wanted to replicate. With the clear style of our style from the get go, and my original idea of filming in a white room, we knew that we were going down the direction of the products being very minimalistic and effortless. Also, because of this minimalism theme it can be easily seen throughout my ancillary texts and also the music video; this is because the music video only has two people and a limited mise-en-scene, which can then be seen throughout my digipak and advert.

•  I had an idea in my mind throughout the whole start of this process in what I wanted my ancillary texts to look like and continued with that original prospect in mind whilst continuing with the research and planning. However, whilst in the developing process on Photoshop I did see how others ideas might turn out, although I stuck with the motif of the circles on the album cover and the magazine advert. The font used throughout my digipak also is something that was replicated in the music video, with the writing on the opening shots announcing the band name and song title. Even though these fonts are clearly not the same, they have the same style and structure making them more relevant to each other. In saying that, both products have a clear style and link together both through colour and style.

• I wanted both the music video and the ancillary texts to have a polished and cultivated effect to them, this was achieved through the use of measures of accuracy. Whether that be the grid effect on Photoshop to make sure that everything is lined up to be exactly as it should be, and also the use of Final Cut Pro to crop and alter the clips we filmed in order to achieve the look of sophistication and professionalism. All of these things needed to be very specific in order to achieve the look of the genre we were emulating, therefore meaning that both the ancillary texts and the music video were linked through this method.

• One thing that I also tried to achieve was the lack of photography throughout the ancillary texts. This was purposely done because of the fact that most products within the Indie/Alternative genre do not normally tend to include images of the band on their products. In Arcade Fire's case, this is very true for them; they are one of the band's that have a distinct style running throughout their albums and each one of them is completely different than the previous. They use an artistic element throughout all of their albums and tend to have illustrations and images on their products, something that I definitely tried to replicate.This genre, however, is known for focusing on the artistry of the band rather than their appearance. Something that is clearly shown throughout our video as well, because of the fact that even though there is some star appeal with the use of our lead singer (Cam) it is still quirky enough and the narrative is so intense that the appearance doesn't come into any context. This therefore shows a distinct link between both the ancillary texts and the music video.

• Interest for the band was also shown throughout both products, because we all wanted to keep the band very mysterious it meant a level of distance was needed throughout both products to enable the audience to gain more curiosity behind what they stood for. The lack of imagery on my ancillary texts was to prove this point, as this is a common occurrence within most other products in the Indie/Alternative genre. However throughout the music video as well there is a level of obscurity as to who this band are and where they are, even though in our video we have only included the lead singer to add that star quality to our product.