How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

Harry Soning

• In order for any song or music video to do well, there needs to be a good form of advertising behind. That is why it is vital that my ancillary texts of my advert and digipack must be a direct relationship.

• During the filming and editing process of our music video, we faced the struggle of bad organization, technologic failure and the endless stages of re-filming over and over again as we never felt our footage was good enough. Because of this the production of both my digipack and advert were made difficult due to the forever changing video which made it impossible to chose screen shots from in order to use on my ancillary texts. With this in mind and the lesson time we had left, I made the decision to use an image, which did not have a direct correlation to the video or band itself. Another reason I decided to use an image without a direct connection to our music video is because of the narrative style we chose. Our video was a narrative/conceptual based, meaning it lacked a performance base. This meant any images or visuals used in the video, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, would not have any connection to any images and visuals used in other Tame Impala videos for songs on their album.

• With that in mind, the image I used on my advert and digipack was an aesthetic shot of a sunset on the ocean that I personally took in the summer. I felt that the calmness and serenity portrayed in the image along with the relaxed type of music Tame Impala produce go well with each other.

The Advert

• Personally, I felt the advert was the hardest piece to produce, as there was a large amount of creativity needed and as there was such a large amount of space to cover which meant I had to cypher through which information to include and what information not to include.

• I decided to use the same text and image as my digipack as I thought it conveyed the codes and conventions of the album and band. I kept everything relatively small and simplistic in order to get across the anti-materialism manor of the band apart from their band name, Tame Impala, the album name, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards and the release date. For the release date I used 3D font in order to get the audiences attention. As the image goes through many different colour schemes it difficult to choose one font that was clearly visible all the way through. Therefore I did two things. Firstly I used a mix of font colors as well as effects. Secondly due to the both dark and light effects of the bottom part of the image, I implemented a clear text box with the opacity turned up in order to make the font more visible. Considering the difficulty with the ever-changing mix of colors the image uses, I decided that it would be beneficial in a way to attract the audience if I kept the wordage to a minimum. Therefore I decided only to use a certain words, which would get the point across as well as pull the audience in. I decided to include social media links in order for the audience to be able to find both Tame Impala and the production company online I also included a special thanks area for people involved with the creation of the music video Also in the box I included the VIDO production logo as well as a ‘VODO productions presents’ banner again, get cement our production company’s name into the audience’s mind. I added a typical puff/pug effect, which many companies use in this industry of throwing something in for free. I included the ‘Free first edition poster’ as another incentive in order to try and persuade the audience to purchase my album. Lastly, in the box, I included the most vital information in a slightly larger font. This is the release date, August 15 th. And where the album is available. I made sure this was different to the rest of the font as I included a 3D effect in order to make it pop.

The Digipack

• Using Photoshop CS6, my digipack incorporated both fonts and images in order to make an attractive product, which the audience would, hopefully desire. I stuck to the typical six-sided digipack as I felt all six sides were needed to portray information to the audience as well as to conform to the typical aspects of the industry.

• The first tile on my digipack was the front cover. I used the same font throughout my entire digipack however to add variation I incorporated different colors and added a blatant 3D effect. The effects contributed directly the WOW factor of the title. I also included the bands name, the production companies’ logo and a simple triangle symbol with a line through it, as this is common in the genre and therefore conforming to the genre conventions

• The next tile on my digipack was the one located on the flipside to the cover on my CD case, facing the back. I used this tile for the track labels where I simply added the name of the band, the album name and the eight tracks on the album. I also included a barcode so shops can scan it and again, my production company logo. While again, this is simplistic, I think it is the most visually pleasing part of my digipack and may attract more customers attention due to the ‘nice to look at’ aspect

• On the next tile I decided to add all the social media links in order to make them assessable to the audience. This is important as social media is a massive form of promotion now days so the introduction of social media links, such as, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram plus others including websites is huge as it saves the audience/customers a great deal of time when searching for them. I also felt it was important to add these links because it is important to keep up to date with the times. And as many albums are now including this sort of page in their digipack, I thought it was important to follow.

• Although I was creating a digipack for an album rather than a single EP, I still thought it was important to include the lyrics to Tame Impala’s song Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, as this is the song I’ve based my coursework around. Like in my advert, I’ve added an opacity box as the part of the image this tile of the digipack lands on has a mix of both dark and light, making it hard to find an appropriate font.

• In this section of my digipack I had to include the CD image. I decided on a traditional and classic black CD with formal font displaying the band, album title, Production Company and finally the words ‘debut album’. I though it was important to include that it was a debut album as again, this may attract more audience members to buy this product as it makes it seems like the album is special.

• On the final tile of my digipack I decided to split into three separate sections. Firstly I decided to include a brief yet detailed summery of the band while in the second section I included a thank you message, personally from the band while adding a group picture underneath before finally adding a quote from the bands inspiration. I decided to use this on my digipack as often audience members are left feeling disconnected from the band members themselves. In an attempt to prevent this from happening I added this basic yet semi-personal information as an attempt to rely a false relationship between the band and their audience.

• While my the combination of my main product, my music video, and my ancillary texts consisting of my advert and digipack may not have clear and direct correlation, they are in fact an effective combination. They’re effective because they both connote the simplistic and relaxed feel of the band from both the imagery and scenery used in the video to the imagery used in my ancillary texts. They also relate deeply through the colors used on the digipack as well as the colors used as tints and shades represented on my video as there is an continues happy feel around the video which is also connoted due to the colors used in my ancillary texts. In hindsight, I could of related the main product and ancillary texts more, however, there we factors involved which made this difficult which I touched on earlier, consisting of difficult group work, logistical errors and technological failures which made this difficult