How effective is the combination of your

main product and ancillary texts?Emily Cherry

When producing a music video and a song promotion is combined, in order for the audience to fully understand what the artist is about they need to release ancillary texts to help this. My magazine poster and digipak front cover are very similar, I used the same picture that I created on Adobe Photoshop as I

believe it is simple but effective. The recurring theme of the album is silhouettes, I believe silhouettes have philosophical meanings. The image is simplified, the audience or viewer is not distracted from a

broader subject concentration and also by the finer details of what the artists are wearing or their appearance (skin colour and if they’re attractive), this allows them to be more interested in the design

and the music rather than just the artist. Not only this but it makes the audience concentrate and generalize the image more and will hopefully relate to the music as well as the artists. A simple and

desired effect is captured from using silhouettes which helps people to remember this easily, the artists will then be more popular and well known to a wider audience.

DigipakFrom my previous research into the chosen genre I gained knowledge of where hip hop originated from, this is why I

included New York into the ancillary texts to make it obvious for anyone who knows about this genre. Dark and light colours are contrasted throughout the digipak and is a recurring theme as this is the same with the magazine poster. Grey is an

emotional colour, it is also a compromising colour so it allows me to gradient from black to white. The closer grey is to black makes it more mysterious and dramatic which shows within both my ancillary texts, and the closer it is to white brings the

more lively side out, songs produced by hip-hop artists are normally lively too. A tendency of loneliness, isolation, depression and sadness can be represented from having too much grey, this can mirror the songs from the artists.

Monochrome colours such as grey, black and white are a generic convention of hip-hop and R&B music, Jay Z - Empire state of mind and Forever young is filmed in black and white as are many music videos out there in the same genre.

DigipakThe inside of the digipak shows the two artists faces instead of using another silhouette, however they are faded into another picture of New York behind them. I carried on the idea of them being ‘disguised’ as this portrays their feelings about the backgrounds of each

of the artists songs. Colours are associated in this picture but again they are dark neutral colours. Finally the back of the digipak is where the theme of New York disappears, however, it stills stays within that type of category. The silhouettes are above New York's

skyline symbolising how prestige and powerful the artists are, on the back within their silhouettes shows clouds and a plane wing. This suggests they are on cloud 9 and are higher than everyone else in the world. As this is a positive representation the colours had to

match this too, using bright colours helped creating this effect. In the past artists such as Jay Z, Ja Rule and The Weeknd have used monochrome colours and dark colours.

I believe my digipak matches hip-hop/R&B from the theme and colours used. I am happy with my final piece as it is simple and effective, I used conventions that are vital, copyright is an example of this. However my digipak did not match my planning, the final product is a different theme, the colours are very similar. On the hand even though it is not the same as my planning I would rather

have my final piece I produced as it has more meaning.

Magazine posterMy magazine poster is the typical layout which is portrait, it included all the generic conventions you would expect to see such as

social media websites etc. I kept it the same theme to match with the digipak, the audience will recognise it more that way and again it goes with my chosen genre. As the colours are monochrome the social media sites logos stand out more drawing attention to that

which intentionally makes the audience want to visit the artists sites to see more of them. Again I kept the font the same to make the audience aware and to make it noticeable for whenever they see it, Beyonce, Drake and Eminem have all used black and white and dark colours. It is evident that my magazine posters fits into the category of hip-hop/R&B due to the generic conventions and the use

of dark colours. The dark colours help the audience feel the theme of love and separation between the two artists.

I believe my magazine poster came out the way I expected visually as it matches with my original plan. Before the poster was finalised I made a few tweaks as I was not 100% happy with the appearance. The poster was very plain making it very boring and no

conventional. I think darkened the colour and made a gradient just like I done for my digipak album cover.

By creating a magazine and digipak it allowed the music video to be produced and advertised. I made these ancillary texts to help the audience get a better understanding of what the album will be about. It helped me finalise the music video as I knew exactly what

theme and what conventions needed to be used. Throughout the music video girls are presented in a positive light which goes against the genre as girls are seen as ‘Male Gaze’ which gives them a sex appeal, in this video shows them to be more sensitive and not in an explicit manner. The male in the video is shown to be quite aggressive by pushing his girlfriend, he is shown to be a party animal and

to drink alcohol too. Overall I believe all three creations worked well to synergize my music video and to help promote it to a larger audience.

Vladimir Propp’s Narrative Theory links well with my music video, he concluded that characters are resolved into 7 character functions:

1. The villain

2. The dispatcher

3. The helper

4. The princess - prize

5. The donor

6. The hero

7. The false hero

There were only four characters in our music video but these characters shared these character roles.