2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We all wanted to be consistent throughout our media products and to constantly convey the bands quirky and unique image, which is presented in our music video. By communicating a similar portrayal of the band throughout the music video, digipaks and posters it would allow our target audience to be able to recognise more with the band and to consistently portray the bands image making it an effective combination of our media products.

For my digipak I have tried to keep consistency throughout its image by corresponding it with the music video. I have done this by the images that I have used and also the overall colouring and text of digipak. In our music video, as previously stated, there are many different outdoors locations used, and this is something that I wanted to prominently portray in my digipak too. I included 3 images in my digipak that are in outdoors locations, they are very natural and have warm colours which is something that we have included in the music video by editing the colouring of it, making them correspond with each other. I frequently had to change many of the images that we took as I needed the lighting and the images to be correct in order for them to fit in well with the way that the music video also looked, this led me to do many different drafts of my digipaks in order to achieve the best corresponding images.

I also wanted to keep the bands originality and carefree nature as a prominent element within my digipak, as we have done in our music video, and I have achieved this by using quite natural images where we are all laughing and generally appear to have a good time. From using similar images in the music video this makes a good combination throughout the video and for my digipak. I also include subtle elements which portray the bands genre; I include a small image of a guitar in the corner of the title ‘After Midnight’ which corresponds well with the music video as the image of the guitar frequently appears. The typography that I used is also used in our music video, and I really liked the way it looked because it was quite simple but it was bold, which I think corresponds well with the bands overall image. I have included an exclusive DVD in the digipak which makes it seem more unique, which the band are presented as being, and also making it more special for the target audience. By including details of the bands facebook and twitter it makes them appear as they are organic as they would want to be able to interact with their fans. It also relates well with the target audience as they would be able to relate to the social networking aspect of the band. From doing this it again shows the normality of the band which is something we have frequently conveyed within our music video. The front image on the digipak is quite natural an silly, similarly to many images included in the music video, and it portrays them as fun and quirky which is similarly portrayed in the music video.

I feel that my digipaks communicates the bands image well as it includes what they are all about. It represents them as carefree and also highlights their youth which relates well with the audience and links back to the light-hearted and fun representation of them in the music video. I feel that the digipak sticks to conventions and by doing so portrays their indie genre but also highlights the uniqueness of the band too.

The front image is also the image that I used for the background for my poster advertisement. I done this to keep consistency throughout my digipaks and my poster and also for the audience to be able to recognise it easily; it’s also used to make it seem a lot simpler. I use the same text on the poster too, again keeping consistency, and to also make a bold statement as the text is large and focuses more on the bands name rather than their image. Again, I use social networking logos on the poster to keep the consistency throughout the digipak and the poster. I feel that the simplicity of my poster is effective as it is advertising the digipak in a simplistic way and highlights the importance of music to the band conveying them as organic and corresponding with indie conventions, rather than advertising their image as many. Also by using the same image as the front of the digipak for my posters background it further adheres to conventions of advertisements as this is frequently used by other artists which I have researched. It also additionally portrays the bands quirkiness with the fun image reinforcing their uniqueness.

I feel that the combination of my digipak, my poster and the music video is very effective as it all portrays the band equally in the way that I intended too, which presents their genre and also making them appear as a fun and unique band which is what we initially wanted to portray for the audience.