By John Okello

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

We were tasked with creating a series of ancillary products. In other words, producing a poster and CD cover to accompany our music video as a promotional tool for selling our artist. The most important thing to think about when designing the ancillaries is the link they have with each other and whether one can associate both music video and CD Cover/Poster with each other.

MISE-EN-SCENE (COSTUME/PROPS)It was important to keep the artists costume consistent. As illustrated we’ve gone for the dark, casual style to stay within R&B conventions and convey his masculinity. It is easy to see that we’ve stayed loyal to the conventions and definitely created an effective link between the ancillaries and music video. We’ve made it easier for audiences to create a link between the two.

TYPOGRAPHY/LOGOThe style of font we used for the music and ancillaries isn’t similar visually however as we wanted them to have slightly different effects. The gold/brown colour scheme of the logo is so passers by; audience etc. can easily identify what artist this is because of the iconic logo which is going to be featured on all ‘Singnature’ products. In theory he becomes his own brand – popular and easy to remember from not just his music but his logo as well. Whereas the style of font used in the video (black and white) is to keep the consistency with the artists costume and to keep within certain characteristics of typical film credits – simple, sophisticated and not overshadowing the action on screen. To summarise, the ‘Singnature’ title is like the brand image and the credits in the music video compliment the title making our artist seem almost like a film star as well as a music artist.

REPRESENTATION (OF ARTIST)

We wanted to convey our artist as less of a tough, no nonsense, conventional R&B star and more of a character to be empathised with. We wanted him to seem approachable and relatable to our target audience – for him to have the strong masculine side but to also have a deep introspective side to him as well. The locations we picked also aided towards our artist representation.

In both our ancillaries and our production we utilise our setting well capturing shots of our cast in and around Central London which keeps the consistency between the two products and also represents our artist as a mainstream ‘city-boy’ but also as a deep emotional musician who speaks his heart through his lyrics which is clearly linked with the CD Front cover and the shots of the couple together in the music video.

COLOURSIt was important to keep the use of colours consistent throughout our products. I think we demonstrated this effectively firstly with the CD cover. We have the background in black and white while having Jamal still in colour this suggests that he isn’t just ‘part of the background’ but more important also it links to our music video where we used black and white shots to relate back to the idea of our music video containing post modernist techniques (credits etc.). The colour seems to compliment each other and really convey our artist as being the introspective and sophisticated type and like a film star – important and not just ‘part of the background’ that is normal everyday life. We kept the colour ‘red’ trending throughout both productions as you can see. Red being used to connote passion, desire, love for the character of Sarai as well as Jamal. The poster’s red strip is a visual link to Sarai’s dress. He’s even staring at the red bar implying that he is thinking about her which again links to the CD Cover which we could also use to imply that he is think about her and that their relationship is strong as red is a colour that also connotes strength and bonds.

LOCATIONSThe locations we chose to be used within our production projects stayed consistent throughout all pieces of work. Our group was able to get our performers in a variety of locations in different camera angles in different directions. Central London was our main filming location and allowed us to explore new and exciting settings for which we wanted our music video to be based. It’s kept consistent as you can see from our CD Cover work and various shots within our music video. This is so the audience can associate with both products and link the two together. We make it easier for the audience by doing so and keeping these certain minor aspects consistent and therefore establishing our artist as someone who is concise, sophisticated, but isn’t afraid to let loose once in a while.

LAYOUT (STYLE)The initial aim for our production was to branch off traditional R&B conventions of bling/money/girls e.tc. and instead opt for a slightly artist direction. Influences such a John Legend and Angie Brown for our ancillary tasks – keeping the colours simple but still convey meaning – Sepia tone = natural, black and white = sophisticated/mature. We carried on this trait throughout the music video shown through the many locations we shot and the variety of artistic green screen footage shown all the while keeping that constant link between video and ancillaries i.e. our black and white scenes.