How effective is the combination of your main production and ancillary texts?

Priya Mehta

We carried out a lot of research before making our Digipack and magazine advert, as we wanted to make sure we used all the codes and conventions.

We looked at the front cover of the digipacks and we realised that for rock genre CD’s, the theme mainly seems to be black and white, with either the album name or band name in colour. This inspired us to have our front cover black and white. I also found out from the research that the names of the album were only a few words long. It can also be the name of their main song.

• All four band members can be seen. Unlike the nirvana album, they are not looking directly into the camera. However cleverly, this still builds a relationship between the fans and the band, as the picture is almost as if the fans are watching them practise their music in their personal time.

The colour theme of this cover also seems to be black and white The font is block capitals. The album name is in colour, so it stands out.

The Kooks

The back cover relates to the front cover as the image on the font is the same as this one except it is taken from a different angle.

The picture is blurred out as the main focus is the tracks.

• I noticed how digipacks have each side of the cover all reflecting each other. As in, the background of all sides of the digipacks are all connecting in some way, like a wallpaper.

Draft• In our first draft, we did not take this into consideration, therefore the back side of

the digipack did not go with the rest of the sides. Here is what it looked like before

we changed it.

This was the back side of the Digipack with the songs.

This is the front cover. As it can be seen, they do not flow as a sequence as they should.

• Therefore we had to change that, and after looking at other example of digipacks, we came up with a final idea after confirming it with our target audience who all approved it. So this was our final production of the digipack.

Our final product consisted of the conventions of a rock genre digipack

Analysis of our product.We stuck with all the codes and conventions of digipacks of the rock genre. For example, we had made sure that it was black and white, to give it the dark, edgy look. We also used block capitals for our font. We were inspired from other rock bands such as nirvana, the kooks and the killers. Our front cover consists of the general conventions that were spoken about previously. We were inspired by the kooks cover, where the band member were not looking directly into the camera but all doing their own thing. When a fan looks at this, it is almost as if they are there watching the band in their personal time-off stage. This can bring a relationship between a fan and the artist closer as they begin to look at them as ordinary people, just like them-instead of big stars,in which it is harder to connect to them.

Second insert.• On the second insert, we had a picture-still in black and white, of the lead singer. We did this

as usually lead singers get more importance. The attitude and character of the lead singer reflects on the band as a whole, therefore we wanted the fans to get an idea of what the band ‘New Conscience’ was all about. We kept the list of songs in the insert using the same font.

Third and fourth insert.The third and fourth insert links with the theme of the first and second insert-with the

black and white theme, and the fading background. The fourth insert includes the special features available on disk two, such as interviews of the band. This feature connects the fans with the band as they not only listen to their songs, but they also get a visual insight of each band members personality and characteristics.

Magazine advert.• To promote the Band, we had to make an advert that would go in a magazine. We

researched this, and found out that the digipack presentation usually was kept the same. So the images and themes used in the front cover of the digipack is the same as the images and themes used in the magazine advert.

• This is done so the audience can recognise the band that is being promoted straight away, and it also turns into a type of logo, which fans can easily relate to. This creates a relationship between the fans and the band. This will create a loyal fan base.

This was our final product of the magazine advert. As it can be seen we have included the same image as the one on the front of the digipack.