Evaluation Question 2 - A2 Media Studies

1. How successful is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?

2. When creating the digipack to accompany our music
video I had to ensure that all links between products
and genre were consistent. I conducted research to
recognise common conventions of the genre which I
could include throughout all of my products, this has
been logged in previous blog posts.
The artist of which I am promoting fits the genre of
‘indie pop’, subsequently I researched other existing
indie pop artists and their existing products.

3. I found a series of reoccurring qualities and symbols which I would
have to include in my porducts, these included:
• Not including the artist face as the most important feature – when
researching behind this I found that the indie pop genre puts more
focus on to the promotion of the artists music as that is what they
value most important rather than self-brand.
For example, The Killers album cover:
• Neutral analogous colours – this contrasts to pop artists who
commonly use bright, primary colours.
Similar to the 1975 album:
• A significant font that creates a logo
Like Ed Sheeran:

4. To create my digipack I first had to pick the images to use. I
conducted the photoshoot for the digipak on the same day as filming.
I chose do this as it would ensure that continuity between the artists’
appearance and the landscape of the shoot in terms of lighting and
weather would be of maximum quality. Subsequently, the imagery
used throughout all products is of a similar style. As my artist is new
and upcoming I felt like this was important to create a sustainable
brand image. As a result, the costume of the artist being a white t-
shirt, black jeans and carrying and acoustic guitar becomes a feature
throughout all products to clearly represent the artist and continuity.

5. We had to conduct a second run of filming due to needing
more footage. In order to maximize continuity levels
throughout both the main product and ancillary tasks,
before filming we checked the weather which was forecast
to be dry and bright which were both suitable conditions
for filming and similar to the weather on the day of first
filming and the ancillary product photoshoot.

6. We also conducted a pilot filming session on a day with
similar weather conditions to ensure the best potential
footage. Similarly, we watched existing footage and mate
notes of props and poignant features of the clips, we then
contacted our actors and transferred the list to them to
ensure that they appeared to be exactly the same in the
second lot of filming. We took the same approach to filming
as we did the first time as we thought that this was
successful, beforehand we made a list of shots that we had
to include to eliminate the possibility of a third shoot.
Overall, I think that the continuity between imagery
throughout the products is consistent.

7. In terms of editing, post-production software was used in both
ancillary tasks and the main task. Editing the images for the
digipack and was quite vast therefore I had to ensure that I made
note of the process I took so that I could apply this to all images
used in the task. I used filters that gave the images a warming
tone which links to similar products in the genre. Regarding
colours, I chose to use more muted, natural colour tones including
green, brown, black, white and blue. In contrast, had I used bright,
vivid colours such as pink and yellow this wouldn’t have fit the
‘indie-pop’ genre style. I used similar editing techniques for both
the main product and ancillary texts to ensure that they linked.
Instead, I decided to enhance the natural colours that were
captured in the shot to make the key features such as the grass
and the guitar more enhanced.

8. Similarly, the shoot for the digipack imagery was
captured on the same day as the filming, I made this
decision to ensure that continuity of imagery was at its
highest level. This also ensured that the image of the
artist was consistent, I think this is important in
creating a recognizable brand image for the audience.

9. In terms of fonts, I decided to create my own font to use
throughout the main product and ancillary texts. This font
isn’t default to Photoshop, this meant it would create a
unique logo for our artist title. To do this, I used a font
generator online that allowed you to choose different styles
and combine these together to create a unique font. I chose
a slightly rustic, hand writing style font as this links to
features of the indie pop genre. This then transfers to be the
main font of the digipack. The font to display the artists
name ‘Will Fraser’ then creates a recognizable logo. In terms
of audience, they will then be able to recognize this as the
distinct font of the artist. This title was used on both the
digipack and album poster to promote Will Fraser’s identity.

10. Throughout the digipack and the music video, the guitar becomes a
recognizable symbol for the artist. Linking to the genre, the artists own
image and face isn’t always heavily focused on. Therefore the guitar
becomes one of the strongest links to be recognized by the audience. The
audience is able to recognize the guitar as an icon on both the album
poster, CD cover and the music video that links to the artist due to its.
However, I decided to use an image of the artist displaying their face on
the inside of the digipack as I think that it is important to allow the
audience to be exposed to the artist. As the indie pop genre is most
typically new, emerging artists they need to display their face onto
products to ensure that the audience can recognize them, therefore
enhance audience response, hype and response. I also used the same
colour theme throughout all products which relates them all as one brand.

11. Overall, I think that our products all have
sustainable links between them that relate to
our genre and representation which have been
demonstrated in this evaluation.