How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

It is important for products within the media industry to link to create an effective package. Creating a strong link between an ancillary text and a main product makes it easier for an audience to identify the two together, as a package. This is often done by using similar styles of fonts or flourishes within different products.

The main link between the main product, my music video and the ancillary texts, my CD cover is the title creation. The music video starts with newspaper cuttings of the letters of the band flying into shot using stop motion. My CD front cover uses a font called ‘Earwig Factory’ which is a similar style and creates different sizes and shapes like the newspaper cuttings. This essentially creates a ‘house style’ for the band and can give the band their own image. Having the same font or title style is one of the most important parts of the package as it is one of the first things an audience notices about ancillary texts. This method is used quite often amongst bands within the music industry and is effective because audience recognise a band immediately from a certain style. For example, Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood

Shots used from the music video are within the singles artwork. The characters used in the bands music videos also features are the cover artwork.

Throughout my music video are skateboarding clips. These clips were used as a representation of the band and I have continued to feature skateboarding within my ancillary texts. Skateboarding features right through my CD artwork. The images I have taken feature mostly a skater holding his board around a school at night. This emphasises that bad look on skaters and the skater in the photos. The shots give a young mostly male audience inspiration to aspire to be like the skateboarders in the production.

I decided to use a character used in my music video, Ryan, who played bass guitar in the live performance shots used in the video. This again creates a strong link between the product and text and the image of Ryan is enough for the audience to relate him to the band. Using him in the CD cover creates him as the ‘face’ of Blighters and his image makes the audience link this to Blighters. This is used often within the music industry as it is a simple but effective method. The clothing is similar to the skater in the music video, to match the stereotype which again links the video to the text.

For the artwork I didn’t use the exact location used in the music video, of the skate park but I decided to use a stereotypical skater’s location. Although a skate park is a typical spot for skateboarders my choice of a school gives my CD artwork a rebelling feel. This is created by the black and white effect on the images and the high angled lighting. In my music video lighting was a key effect we experimented with. I filmed the video as the sun was going down. This meant I could add my own lighting and therefore have more control over it. I included many shots using low angle lighting to produce a great effect. The two therefore

Overall there is a strong link between my Music video and my text, this link makes it easier to recognise the two as a package and therefore gives the band their own image and style. This makes the combination of the two more effective as they interlink and cross-reference constantly. The links I have created are important links that are immediately recognisable between the two products. Having a familiar face, of Ryan is another feature, in which audiences would recognise him as a band member. When displayed as a package of both music video and CD cover the effective combination is greater because it creates an image for the band which is recognisable for audiences.