Evaluation – Question Two

EVALUATION – QUESTION TWOBy Eleanor Waring

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

One of the main links between the main products and the ancillary texts is the paint splatter theme. This paint theme is featured throughout the digipak, consisting of paint strokes on the front page and inside pages. Paint splats are featured on the CD and DVD in the digipak. These same paint splats have been featured on the green screen in the music video this connects the video to the album, because the digipak features the same paint splatters, which may help the audience recognise the band’s album as they will recognise the paint splatters from the music video which usually is released before the album. Therefore this may help promote more sales of the album as it will make the audience easily recognise the paint splatter theme and therefore recognise the band’s album. This makes the combination of the main products and the ancillary texts compliment each other well.

Also the magazine ad features the same design as the digipak front cover does. This makes the media package effective because it again makes the album recognisable to the audience, possibly leading to more sales. This is because the ad has the same design as the cover of the digipak, making the digipak recognisable to the audience when it is released as they may have seen the poster before the album was released. The paint strokes act almost as an iconic symbol of the band’s album as it is simple, stylish and unique which makes memorable to the audience and as a result the audience will recognise this look and associate it with the band. The paint strokes relate to the paint splats featured inside the digipak and on the music video, which makes the combination of the main products and the ancillary texts compliment each other well. To add to this, the album is called ‘Paint my Town’ because one of the songs featured on the album is named this and the paint design / theme helps relate and compliment this album name. It all works together in an effective way to make the audience recognise the album as it has an artistic / paint theme.


The colour scheme of the album cover consists of mainly orange, black, white. This is consistent throughout the digipak and the advert, which again helps the audience recognise the album because they will learn that these colours are associated with the band because they are consistent throughout the media package. However, these colours aren’t heavily portrayed in the music video, therefore if I was to carry out my coursework again, I would try to incorporate the black, white and orange them into the video so then the video could link with the album more. Despite this, inside the digipak the colours used on the paint splats consisted of orange, pinks, red and yellow. This was featured in the music video when the green screen was featured. Therefore it could be argued that this helps link the digipak and the music video together and is a clever way of hinting to the audience what album the song is featured on.


The main product had a clear narrative which was about love, loss and heartbreak. This is a common theme which is featured in alternative rock / pop bands, for example bands such as The Script and Lawson mainly have a sad reoccurring theme about love and loss. This is effective in the combination of the ancillary texts because the album track list, on the back of the digipak, featured songs which hinted to the audience that the other songs were also about love and heartbreak. Therefore the love and heartbreak theme is consistent throughout the media package and fits in with the chosen genre. Also the colour pink and red was also featured on the disks in the digipak. This continues the theme of love and loss as red and pink can love, lust, anger and danger, which are all themes that can join together and convey feelings of love and heartbreak. And therefore hint to the audience what sort of songs are featured on the album.


Looking back at the media package I have created, I would change a few things in order for the media package as a whole to link together better and overall appear more effective. One of the things I would do in order to achieve this would be to feature some images on the digipak of the band. This would help link the digipak and the music video together more as it would enable both products to feature the artists on it. This may help the artists get more recognition individually and may also promote sales for the album as the audience may recognise the band and be persuaded to buy the album. Also I would have maybe chose a different song choice, for example I could have used the ‘Paint This Town’ song by the script instead. This is because then the paint theme could have been featured more into the video, which could have enhanced the special effects used on the green screen as we could have included a video of paint being splatted everywhere. This was decided not to be used in the video because the paint theme didn’t relate well to the chosen song ‘The Man Who Can’t be Moved’, therefore we didn’t want to focus too heavily on the paint theme in the video. However, if we had gone it the song ‘Paint This Town’ then we could have featured it more. This didn’t happen as the paint theme was a last minute change of mind as the previous drafts for the digipak turned out to not be right as we weren’t satisfied with the look, therefore more planning should have been involved before we had chosen the song and theme.


A final improvement that I would make in order for the combination of my main product and the ancillary texts to be more effective is change the main colour scheme. I would swap the orange stripe for a dark red stripe. This could then relate all the media texts together more as the colour red conveys danger, love, lust, heartbreak and anger. Therefore the front of the digipak and the magazine ad would also convey these love and loss feelings to the audience and hint at the type of songs featured on the album, which would link to the music video as it is a song that involves all of these emotions.

I could have changed the middle stripe and the orange text to a dark red in order to fit into the love and loss theme.

Moreover, the orange was chosen because of the Spanish theme to the band. Therefore this could be said to have linked throughout the whole of the media products because it is heavily featured throughout all products. Which makes the main product and ancillary texts effective as the band has a Spanish name and has Spanish connections which therefore may mean that the demographic associate colours like orange with the band. This will again create recognition of the band.

Education

Evaluation – Question Two