As our task was to create a music video, magazine advert and digipack for an unsigned artist as part of a promotional pack, I thought it would be a good idea to have reoccurring themes feature throughout the products. This would allow my target audience and people outside my target audience to associate each individual product to my unsigned artist. Ultimately this would help to increase his awareness and hopefully his popularity, both outcomes hugely important for unsigned artists. Hence I tried to include intertextual references between my promotional products.

On reflection it was a lot easier to link reoccurring themes in the ancillary products than it was in the music video. I think the main reason for this is that the ancillary products both consisted of a photo that typically challenged conventions of the acoustic genre. For example the photo was taken on quite a grey day, whereas acoustic music is often associated with sun and summer, as seen in the music video we created. There was an opportunity to use a screen shot from the music video as a photo for the digipack cover and magazine advert, however I choose to take an alternative approach. The reason behind this is because I thought a screenshot would be a low quality photo to use, making it look unprofessional. Also I had permission to use Lewis’s promotional photography which I thought would make a much more interesting and powerful digipack cover and magazine advert. One reoccurring theme shared in all of my promotional products is the key chain necklace that Lewis wears. We arranged for him to wear it as part of his costume for our music video as it has become a trademark of his, particularly noticeable with his fans. Hence we thought it would be an appropriate theme to continue this image in the promotional photographs he arranged. This will allow my target audience to recognise him (even with the cardboard box over his head), and also feel like they know him and his dress sense, adding a more personal touch between the relationship of Lewis and his fans.

I think this is a very important relationship between an artist and fans so on reflection feel like this was a good decision. You can see the necklace from the screen shot to the left of the music video, and the screen shot of the digipack cover to the right.

Another theme that all three products shared was including Lewis in the visuals. In the music video Lewis featured in the performance section where he is shown singing and playing the guitar. In the photos used in both the digipack cover and magazine advert, as well as the digipack back cover, Lewis is also featured. I think that including Lewis in both the music video and the print productions is a very important aspect, especially for an unsigned artist. This will enable the audience to start to recognise him and increase his public awareness. Having him feature in his own music video will also help create a star persona and perhaps attract more female members of the audience if they find him attractive.

The song lyrics in our music video consist of a theme of love. This theme is further reinforced by the narrative section whereby a young couple are in love and are shown kissing and doing coupley things in the park. This theme is shared and also expanded in the print products I created. For example the photo shows Lewis’s heart bleeding. This could represent that his heart is broken, again going back to the theme of love. I think this theme shared between all three products would allow the associate each product with each other and perhaps if they liked the music video they may wish to by the CD, which would be a very positive outcome.

In my music magazine advert and digiapack front cover I used the same font. I decided to do this so that if the audience had seen the magazine advert then they see the CD in a shop they may associate the two together and hence decide to purchase the CD. I Think the font I chose is interesting and visually appealing so by using it in both products may appeal to the audience and ultimately may influence them into buying the CD. I also used the same colour in the name of the artist in both ancillary texts. The choice of colour could also be linked back to music video as red connotes romance and love, both key themes in the narrative and lyrics of the music video. The examples of this can be seen below. The image to the right is of the text from the digipack front cover, and the image to the right is of the text from the magazine advert.