LOUISE FISHER 6081

How effective is the combination of your main

product and ancillary texts?

First thoughts

Firstly, my group decided to plan and base our main product and ancillary texts upon the song ‘Boyfriend’ which was an indie pop track. We wanted to make sure that all three products were linked together through different elements such as the use of colour, font styles, framing of shots, marketing information, Location and mise-en-scene, editing, mood and persona of cast.

Use of colour

In our three media products, the music video, the website and the digipak, there is a noticeable motif of warm tones colours which has appeared throughout all three products. Whilst planning ideas for our music video we wanted to reinforce our genre of indie through the use of colour such as adding a colour wash effect called 'teal and orange' over the top of our videos on Final Cut Pro; this helps to create that retro, vintage effect. The colour wash is used by many different artists in their music videos because it is an easy way of changing the tone and mood of the video therefore making it easier for people to associate the indie genre with a warm vintage wash.

During post-production, our group found it fairly easy to connect all three products together through the warm colours because all we had to do was tweak the colours ever so slightly on the software we had available such as Photoshop for the digipak, Final cut pro for the music video and Wix’s online effects for designing the website.

Font

The fonts used in both the digipak and website are very similar, the font for ‘The Dansettes’ title is almost like their own logo because it appears on both products. The feeling we gained from the music video was that the style was quirky, fun and young; from this reaction we thought about choosing a font that would appeal to both a female and male teenage audience.

The titles are not identical because the website had an specific option list of fonts and this was the closest font which related to our digipak.We chose this font because we thought the curls and sleekness of the font would appeal to our target audience of teenagers as well as appealing to both genders. We also thought the font was easy to remember which would be helpful in identifying the band in a cd/record shop or through advertising.

Marketing Information

The front page of our website included several links and widgets to some of our social networking sites, for example, Twitter.This immediately makes our website look more professional and reliable which is important for the audience as well as establishing the band – in this case our band is small and independent so by using social networking sites it helps to advertise and sell the band to indie lovers and fans.

Our digipak also included necessary marketing information such as the ‘Rough Trade’ logo which can be found on our website and also put in the description bar on our music video. The website of our band is also included on all products which means are fans have easy access to all products.

Casting

In our products we wanted the cast to be relatable to our target audience . In our music video we see the main girl ‘Zoe’ stuck in the typical situations of a teenage girls who longs for the boy she likes to like her back. She is portrayed as a very realistic character.

We created a ‘Bio’ on our website to emphasize that the people in the band are individuals and have their own interests which could shared with their fans and audiences. The bio presents the band as being relatable to their fans just like the music video and digipak and also their costume choice from popular high street brands makes ‘Drake and Zoe’ more realistic.

Framing and shots

For all three products we shot close up and intimate photographs of both the young teenagers in a place that they would normally hang around, in this case it is a park. This differs from mainstream celebrities who would normally get their photographs taken in expensive studios which would not be accessible for their fans, however this is shot in a natural environment for a teenager.

Our main product was the music video and ‘Zoe’ was the main focus of the music video with the other band member ‘Drake’ in several shots however on the digipak and website we have included several photographs of both of them to show equality.