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

The genre that we had chosen as a group was Pop Punk as this has a lot of generic conventions that can be used across our ancillary texts and main products (music video, website and digipak). A large amount of research was carried out focusing on Pop Punk music videos to observe how similar each video was from its conventions and its combination with promotional sides such as websites and album artworks, this gave us an idea of how to create our version of products whilst thinking how to connect them all together. Myself and members of our group also explored different generic examples to avoid using wrong conventions and not allowing the audience to become confused and dissatisfied but the concept of diverse research gave us more creative ideas. An example of this is RnB where we conducted analysis on Chris Browns album Fortune which was promoted by its website and album artwork, we immediately brainstormed positive aspects from this that satisfies the audience and makes it identifiable from everything else. The color scheme is mainly blue and white which does represent fresh and future and this is exactly what the actual album is about; the fresh new album from Chris Brown entitled Fortune. The font is presented in a unique coding way which stands out to the audience, this enigma is expressed to the listeners and word of mouth is enhanced since this is not common to see on albums and websites. We also wanted this to happen with our ancillary texts as we desired the audience to perceive the uniqueness of the album yet understand its conventions with the genre and the similarities between the media platforms. The artist is seen in the middle which is the highlight of this album artwork informing the listeners who is Chris Brown actually is, but this is not a generic convention of Pop Punk since most of this generic artwork is weird patterns and mysterious images; this can be related to the unique font of this album as this represents mysteriousness.

Audience who discover there is a new album from an artist tend to visit their website and social feeds to engage what is happening with the main artists life and music, Chris Browns website had actually promoted his album Fortune by changing the whole color scheme and theme. This ensures that everyone can be informed about this new album since they may visit the website and find out what the album is or the audience may know about the album and want to find out more (such as tour dates associated with the album). The key points that we took in with this example of research is that we needed to create a similar aspect between the digipak and the website such as color schemes or maybe a key image, this is to promote both ancillary texts while complimenting the music video that is to be released. There is also needed to be an existence of generic conventions to connect with the music style and conform to the typical attitudes of Pop Punk to be expected, the example from Chris Brown is that the album artwork normally features the main artist in the middle in the RnB genre unlike Pop Punk artwork that is expected to be dark and have a unique look about it, this is the same with websites from this genre. Blink 182 is a rock band which nearer to our genre and we discovered that their albums feature a unusual design or pattern which sticks in the audiences mind, this makes them intrigued to what the music is about and makes them curious as they interpret what the album artwork is presenting to them. We decided that we wanted to create a digipak that makes the audience curious of what the music sounds like and let them make their own views about the artwork. This brings up the reception theory regarding how individuals can be dominating; negotiating or even oppositional views may be expressed. In this example of Blink 182s artwork, dominant views may think that the album is presenting a generic convention of rock as this style of music is rebellious; the logo

made from graffiti supports this as well as the weird design around it. Our group wanted an element of this to happen since we desired the audience to understand our generic conventional messages to them in order for it to be understood. Of course, not everyone thinks alike and some may negotiate from the ideal message. Some individuals may regard the Blink 182 album to be about a child suffering from child abuse from the crossed eyes or encode this message from a battle of young love from the gender colors in the background. There are many interpretations as individuals want to reflect their own views upon it but we also wanted this to happen with our digipak and website so that individuals can observe our music video and ancillary texts to back up their opinion. Views can also be expressed with other groups which enhance word of mouth and therefore promoting the media platforms we have created. I and my group had many designs and concepts of what to include on our digipak but we finalized on the image presented on the right. This had conformed to the generic convention typically shown from Pop Punk albums since most of them are dark and have a dim aspect towards it. We had incorporated that use by setting the background to be black in order for the designs and text to stand out to the audience, this is we used a bright color for the

album name Enigma colored yellow. Black and white contrasts were thought of from the group but we felt this was too common to observe and the audience many negotiate their view towards Hip-Hop/Rap as this style typically has a black and white color scheme. We chose to use the colors yellow and purple as this creates a mysterious vibe and this color scheme can be presented on our website, smoke effects and designs were used also to boost the mysterious theme to the audience. Purple and yellow can also be perceived as good and evil which relates to our main music video which I will explain later, binary opposition is introduced here and this can be incorporated in our website. The skull design and smoke effects were added because they conformed to the Pop Rock genre but also linked with the song name Deathwish that we had chosen. The band name The Format was came up from the group as we needed a name that sounds unique and has a Pop Punk originality about it, most Pop Punk bands dont contain a name of a person or member of their group so we decided to pick a name that sticks in the audience mind. I placed the name in the corner of the digipak in a spotlight effect to present fame while this relates the band names hidden behind the Enigma album name. We wanted the audience to express their own opinion of the digipak and what they can perceive, this is a reason why we named the album Enigma; what can you see from this album? A puzzle to be encountered while intriguing the audience to listen to the album and wanting to observe the bands website.

We needed a connection between the media platforms to create

synergy and promote the main product. I and the group brainstormed ideas such as color schemes, similar designs, layouts etc. The main aspect that we combined together was the color scheme since we wanted this to be consistent with all of the texts; the digipak showed the colors purple and yellow for a mysterious theme and this is the main aim we achieved. The websites background is black for a dark convention and linking with the digipaks artwork, this also attracts the font and images to the audience as well as the pages. Every page that is on this website has the same color scheme and font for consistency and we even added minor details such as the pages being yellow and a thin purple border around it (shown in the image). Rock and Pop Rock are very similar but Pop Rock revolves around childish rebellious behaviour since bands are made up of young individuals, we needed to distinguish this to the audience as they might believe this is purely rock. In order to prevent this from happening, our group added childish element such as large musical notes around the website and blotches of paint which can be seen in the image, the band name shown on the website is presented in font that looks childish since it has the characteristics of being written in a large purple crayon. We also included childish elements subtly in the digipak such as a cartooned skull faded in the background of the purple smoke around it, this was not expressed too obvious as we wanted the Enigma look to it and have the audience make their own reflections upon it.

We understood that we needed more synergetic elements between our media platforms so we modified the font of our subheadings to look like a mild smoke effects. There were limited amount of fonts that we could use but this

is the one that appeared similar the font shown on our digipak. We had used this font with every subheading across the website for consistency and for a professional appearance as a diverse amount of fonts may look unprofessional and not connect with the digipak. Above, I have explained how the two ancillary texts are connected with each other through synergetic aspects but I havent mentioned the main task. This is due to the various ideas of the digipak and websites being introduced before the actual storyline of our music video. This was an advantage to our groups part since we could incorporate the ideas that we had into the music video and the first point we had discussed was the storyline. We already knew that the digipak was to be named Enigma which led us to create a storyline where the audience can interpret it in their own way referring to the reception theory. Many ideas were expressed but we settled on the story of 2 girls after a dream boy but being rejected in the end from another girl, this was the main concept and the pranks and humorous elements were added after as comedic scenes are common with Pop Rock. We didnt know what colors to use with our ancillary tasks but we did want them to be contrasting with each other referring to binary opposition, this can show bad and evil between two characters who are the main ones in our music video. This is why we thought it would be ideal if we used two girls that had opposition with each other such as skin color, hair color or even dress sense; we happened to use all of these since Ffion (the blonde) was used alongside Mikisha (the brunette). Our music video is a performance and narrative since it shows the band in play as well as the storyline but we focused on the narrative more so the audience can guess what happens next (referring the puzzle Enigma). Scenes such as Mikisha having an angry look towards Ffion makes the audience wonder what she is going to do next or the breakdown scene in the music in conjunction with Ffion making cookies makes the audience wonder why a prank war has turned into resolution between the characters; even though they realize later that she happens to mix laxative with the cookies. The band members (including myself) are seen in this music video and we all wearing dark colors as this is a stereotype of Pop Rock band members, we are also seen with live instruments since the branch of Rock music perform their music live instead of computer processing and midi inputting. During the research of Pop rock music videos, we noticed that there were multiple fast cuts between instruments and we incorporated this use with our music video for it to and flow and create excitement for the viewers.