Evaluation Question Two: How effective is the combination of your mainproduct and ancillary text?

Music exists in many forms and has become not only the essence of auditory curiousity but something that has manipulated and influenced people in a visual sense. These musical traits when combined drives stereotypes to exist, indiffernent to society and its ways. Music affects what people like and how they look and act. Stereotypes are inescapable but neccessary for people if they choose to use them as a learning experience about the world around them. Tessa Perkins stereotypes theorist (1979) quoted one of her five identified assumptions that not all stereotypes are negative. I do not feel that the stereotype that I have conveyed to my audience of the Indie stereotype as a negative one. By creating a video with the theme of identity and suffering I feel I have succesffuly shown the stertype for indie consumers and it will relate to existing products and artists such as Lana Del Rey and Daughter - Youth.

I enjoyed working with a chosen soundtrack which I had created my own cover of, as it fitted more into my selected genre and benefited the artist and cohesion more. This gave me a chance to explore my media texts and create something unique to my genre.

In addition, I have created a digipak and a magazine to support the release of the music video. I attempted to create an effective and professional cohesive style across all of the products, such as using the same shared features, including font, colour scheme, cinematography and theme

Mise-en-scene
I have tried to create cohesion via mise-en-scene across all of my products for them to be effective. For example, I have carried the use of props over, such as the smashed mirror that takes place in my music video is also included in the digipak, by having the two CD covers as two shattered mirror effects. This also adds to the theme of identity, as mirrors are a classic symbol for identity, thus this carries on cohesion further.

(insert image of shattered poster)

In addition the main image I used for the promotion poster is also the image I have used for the digipak album cover. This links the two products together and provides continuity. Furthermore, the image that I manipulated in Photoshop to create the shattered effect, which resembles the shattering of the mirrors also. In addition, the use of cinematography effectively combines the products, as the images I have captured on the ancillary texts are all close ups, this reflects the many close up shots I have used throughout my music video. Moreover the appearance of my artist is cohesive as she is wearing the same hairstyle and no makeup across all three products. This gave the artist a distinct and consistent look, for audiences to consume.

Font and colour scheme
For the whole of my products I have used only one font which is 'basic courier' from dafont.com. This is to create the simple design and layout for my products and add to the cohesive style. In addition have kept the whole of the text black, as this adds to the colour scheme of black and white, which is also the theme throughout the music video.

I made the decision to add the colour red to my font and colour scheme of my promotional advert as not only does this create the poster to appear more eye-catching. In addition, the logo for Sony which is the music label for my artist is red, which features on the product, therefore by adding red to the design it creates more cohesion with the colour.

Genre
I decided to make my artist and music products fit into the genre of 'Indie' as this is the same as the original artist's Coldplay, who also fit into this genre. However, also following Coldplay, I made the decision for my artist to be signed to a major record label, as I am portraying her as an already well established artist who has a global fanbase, and after investigating into the advantages and disadvantages of each record label, I made the decision to sign my artist to Sony. Thus I feel all three of my products have conventions and appear to have conventions you would expect from the Indie genre in both independant and major labels. These include: the use of editing in post production, which are done to a major label standard, yet create a unique style which is expected of the indie genre.

The combination of my main product, ancillary text digipak and promotional poster in the reality could lead to cross form synergy or cross media convergence, This means different types of media coming together to create related merchandise for example.  My products have a running house style of black and white in all three products therefore you can tell as music package that they all fit together and come from the same album "Fix You". This house style then becomes a recognisable product and fans and audiophiles see them as a collectable of their favourite artists. I feel that all three of my products would work on the Indie market and also possibly the alternative market as they are sophisticated but still show the youth that I am portraying in the music video to represent my target audience; the texts would sell well in my opinion due to it having a very different approach on the genre.

Audience
I wanted to create a music video that would be suitable for any audience members to watch and relate, however due to the products that I created the main target audience would be the younger generation, around the ages of 16-28 years old. This is because my artist fits into that age category, thus the audience would find her and the products more relatable. In addition, I researched into what the Indie genre age group is, and the majority of people in that genre were around that age group. I think that my media texts have a strong ideology due to the content, appeal of consumers and the group source of the stereotype; Indie individuals.

 My target audience are in social group E so I would price my Digipak at £11.99 which is an affordable price for teens aged 16-28. I as a teen in this age category and demographic wouldn't probably buy an album for more than this price unless it was a special occasion or I got paid from a part time job because a lot of people in this category are students. Students have little money to live on after paying fees therefore I feel this price would be appropriate enough for this selected demographic. I would advertise my video and soundtrack on iTunes for £2.99 again an affordable price for the single choice on what they would like to view.

When I carried out my audience feedback survey, I asked the question 'Do you think my video reflects the song'? This was to see if a sense of cohesion was created amongst the product; and the feedback I received from audience members was wholly positive stating yes.

 

Theory

In order for the combination of my main product and ancillary texts to be effective, I inevitably adhered to certain media theory. This means my products links to aspects of narrative, representation, audience and genre theory.

 

Narrative Theory

 

Sven Carlsson (1999) stated that music videos fall into two rough categories: Performance clip and Conceptul clip. My main product features both performance and concept, with conventions from both. For example my video includes lip synching and my artist playing the piano; which Carlson highlights that performance based song include filmed song and instrumental performance. Conceptual clips can either be narrative or abstract based, and my video is an abstract style based on a very loose narrative of a girl suffering with herself. This matches carlsons theory, as my video has a 'visual story that's easy to follow'. 

 

Furthermore, Michael Shore (1984) believes music videos are recycled styles and 'surface without substance'. I feel that to a certain extent my product does relate to this, via mise-en-scene. Such as the use of props and locations used are very sterptypical for Indie music videos eg. mirrors are used in Daughter - Youth and forests are used for Snow Patrol - chasing cars. I also created the appearance and style of my artist to appear like other models in existing music videos, which includes to appear very natural with minimal makeup. This allows audiences to relate and identify with my product because they are an active audience and will recognise aspects of other media forms within my product and will appeal to my target audience. However my products aslo flout Shore's theory that 'music videos are decadent and adolescent male fantasies'. This is because I have conformed to the indie genre with no self-indulgence in my music video. This includes a simplistic style. In addition it flouts the 'male gaze theory' as I disagree with the idea that media texts should be created with the intention to appeal to men.

 

Andrew Goodwin (1992) states that in music videos 'narrative relations are highly complex' and as audiences, we respond to the same media texts in different ways depending on our own understanding of culture. This relates to my product in that it is set around a loose narrative/concept: a girl sturggling with her inner turmoil of emotions. In addition, my music video does not conform to the conventional linear narrative structure which is suggested in Todorov's equilibrium model, in which the narrative contains a beginning, a disruption, then a resolution.

 

Audience Theory

 

Bulmer and Katz's 'Uses and Gratifications' theory state products need to fulfil the audience's needs, including 'personal identity' which I have portrayed in my product. I have established this through the age of my artist, gender and her individual style. The character she portrays can either be relatable or someone audience's can sympathise with, reflected through my very loose narrative. 

 

The 'Reception Theory' by Stuart Hall argues that difference audiences decode texts in different ways: through  the dominant/preferred reading, the negotiated reading and the oppostiional reading. The dominant/preferred reading of my products would be for audiences to watch it, make their own interpretations, then relate to it and find all of my products appealing, which can lead them to buy the album. The negotiated reading could mean certain audiences only like certain aspects of my products, compared to the oppositional view which would mean the audience members do not find my products appealing and they would not purchase the album, perhaps because it is not targeted for them or they do not like the genre.

Representation Theory

My products actually flout  Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory. I purposely avoided objectifying and sexualising women, due to disagreeing with the objectification of women in the media as it is unnecessary and belittling, and it would not have matched the indie genre of my products. In addition, as the only actor in the video and on the promotional packages is my only female artist, this creates a dominant image and that she does not need to rely on men. However, I have also conformed to this theory via cinematography. For example, I have used camera shots that feature the artist's naked body including her bare back and soldiers. In addition the artist appears bare on my some images of my digipak and on my advert. This can be seen appealing to men as women display themselves in provocative manners. However, I have not included any shots that display the artists breasts, bum etc thus I have only conformed to the theory to a certain extent.

 

I flouted Richard Dyer's 'Star theory' as I did not create my artist for financial gain. Lucy is in the music business purely to get the meanings of her songs out there and for creativity purposes. For example the use of lip synching is used in my video to focus on the lyrics and the meanings behind the words.The general sales of her products would not be the main issue if I was to publish the promotional package, my main aim was to create an original artist that specific audiences can consume and identify with, with a mutual passion for music, and I believe my products are effective in this way.

 

Genre Theory

Jason Mittell(2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well. In short, industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audience knowledge of society, other texts. Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure. Through the link in genre between my ancillary texts an audience will be able to look at my ancillary texts and decide or not weather they are going to like my album or my music video or vise versa due to past interactions with that genre. Because the theory also states that Generic Characteristics across all texts share similar elements of the below depending on the medium for example typical Mise-en-scène/Visual style (iconography, props, set design, lighting, temporal and geographic location, costume, shot types, camera angles, special effects).