How effective is the combination of your main

product and ancillary texts?

Ernest Staszak

At the stage of construction of both of the ancillary task products, I had to make sure that the codes and conventions are followed on the digipak and the advert. Based on the existing examples I have found out that there are some features which make the digipak and the advert link together in order to form a whole. Due to the fact that the advert is meant to promote the music album (digipak) some of the elements need to be kept in a house style (kept consistent) in order to make the product easier to recognise by the audience.

I have used the image of the location in order to experiment with it and link it well with the portrait image of the artist on the front of the digipak. After spending some time on experimenting with the images, I have came up with a good design idea and used clipping mask in order to use the location image to fill in the portrait contour. This has enabled me to create a good surreal effect.

As you can see, the same image overlay was used on the advert well in order to keep the house style of the digipak and the poster which will enable the audience to recognise the music album after they see the advert on the street. In comparison to the digipak, the advert contains more useful information for the target audience. The digipak and advert fulfil each other well. The advert informs the audience about the release of the new album and that is clearly visible by the big text in the middles of the poster (Out Now). There is also more information such as website address so the audience can check out the website for more useful information in terms of the new album or other essential news regarding the artist or his music. The advert also promotes the album by listing two main songs which are included on the album so it might encourage people to buy the album. It will also make it easier for the people to remember the album and artist name as the possibility of theses songs played in the radio is high. As you could noticed, there are strong links between the digipak and the advert, apart from the fact that the same main image was used. The other features which link both of the ancillary tasks is the fact that the same fonts were used including the type and the same colour which was black.

Link between the Ancillary task products (Digipak and Advert)

Both of the ancillary tasks including the digipak and the advert link to the main task which was the music video to the song “Beautiful Now” by Zedd. First of all the main feature which allowed me to have a strong bond between the digipak, advert and the music video was the use of editing and design. As you can see on the digipak and advert, there was a clipping mask used in order to fit the location shot (image captured during the filming) inside of the portrait image contour of the artist. As you can notice the location image is a wide shot which can emphasize the loneliness as we look back at the music video, we have portrayed the sense of loneliness and confusion by starting the video on the open field space.

Furthermore, the wide shot of the location presents a path surrounded by trees. Due to the fact that a path is included on the image it can have the connotations and symbolism of the “progression” and journey. This image can be strongly related to the storyline of our music video. Throughout the video, there is a journey of a teenager (young adult) presented as she goes through hard times, being lonely and confused. She doesn’t know where she is going. Despite the tears, she manages to smile in the later part of the video. Therefore, the road can represent her journey because despite the road (path on the image included on the digipak and advert) being covered by the trees and leafs, it has its end which might lead to a certain place which could be a success. In the music video, the girl realises where she wants to go and decides to progress with here journey through the path which would might be covered by the shadow of the tress, however sooner rather or later, she will come out of the shadow and reach her final destination. The music video has open ending just like the path image which was used on the digipak and advert and therefore there would be a variety of interpretations from the audience because no one actually knows what can be found at the end of the path. All of that can be supported by the “carpe diem” phrase which means seize the day and links with the codes and conventions of progressive house/dance music and the sense of freedom and harmony.

Due to the dynamic nature of the progressive house music and its connotations of club, raves and parties, I have decided to make the location image filling in the portrait of the artist vibrant and colourful making the artist stand out on the front of the digipak and advert. In my opinion the editing method which involved the use of hue and increased saturation have also helped me to improve the surreal elements of the digipak and advert which link to the “dream” idea in the video. Furthermore, you can see that only the artist image is fill of colour and the rest of the front cover of the digipak and advert is de-saturated (black and white), which highlights the artist’s head. Therefore, the vivid colours inside the artist’s head refer to the emotions and the sense of confusion, isolation and loneliness portrayed in the video.

The majority of the music video included the dream as the narrative which was edited by making the colour dull and grey in order to emphasize the emotions which I have mentioned before, such as loneliness and confusion. Therefore, as you can see on the digipak and the advert the majority of the space includes grey/dull colours as well creating a good link between the video and ancillary task.

Furthermore, as we look at the interior of my digipak, you can see that I have developed the dream and surreal idea by having three identical pictures with one in the middles and one on each side. The pictures on the sides had their opacity decreased in order to make them appear softer. As you look at the images, you can also see more layers in different colours coming out of the artist portrait. This effect can be closely compared to the double exposure used towards the end of the music video where there were few shots overplayed backwards.

Link between the Music Video and Ancillary products

The album name and all of the other songs listed as the content of the CD at the reverse side of the digipak link strongly to the music video. As you can notice, the album name was chosen to be “Destination”. It strongly links with the front cover of the digipak and the advert where the wide shot presenting a path (road) was used and manipulated. The image and the album name develop the idea of progression and the journey of the actress through her confusion and loneliness.

Furthermore, the choice of the songs for the music album also reflected the progressive/dance music genre and also referred to the surreal design elements included on the digipak and advert. The song titles which I have included at the reverse side of the digipak were: “Beautiful Now” (the song used for our music video), “A Town Called Paradise”, “Footprints”, “Illusion”, “Sweet Escape”, “On My Way”, “Colours”, “Freefall”, “The only way is up” and “Catch Tomorrow”. All of these titles link to the style of progressive house/dance music as all of the ideas were taken from existing products of famous artists. For example song such as “Footprints” emphasizes the sense of constant movement of the actress who was presented travelling through out the music video. This included her running across the field after she enters the dream, running confused in the maze or spinning around. In addition, this can be expanded through the songs called “On my way” and “Sweet Escape”, which also have the “movement” theme and support the name of my album which is “Destination”. The song title: “illusion” also reinforces the idea of the dream used in the music video and also the abstract elements on the digipak and advert.

In conclusion, I think that the link between the ancillary products: digipak and advert is strong. There was a good link created by the use of different elements on both products including the main image design which featured surreal aspects such as the double exposure of the location image being placed inside of the contour of artist’s portrait. This has allowed me to create a strong bond between the ancillary tasks and the narrative of the music video, which featured the actress in the dream. All of the editing and manipulation processes helped me to obtain expected abstract feeling through the tasks. The suitable solutions were influenced by the audience feedback who provided me with appropriate recommendations of how to meet the requirements of following the codes and conventions from the existing products. According to the audience response, I have noticed that they can easily identify the link between the ancillary tasks what is the evidence of a successful solution. Moreover, all of the construction process helped me to use and develop my skills in using different programs to produce good quality products which follow the codes and conventions of progressive house music.

Conclusion