James - Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your media and ancillary texts

We were tasked with creating a music video with accompanying digipak and advertisement that effectively creates band image and sells the band, but at the same time is in keeping with the correct genre. In The Scripts case, the genre is an ‘indie boy-band’.

We set out to create a cohesive, appealing band image to promote the album through creating the video and the print work. This meant that the print work and video needed to be in some ways reminiscent of one another. I chose to design an advert that would be positioned in the bottom third of the right-hand page in NME. I think that the advert would be seen more if it was on the right-hand page because as you flick through the pages of a magazine, you see the right-hand page first. I think that the advert should run in NME because it is a well-established music magazine that has a reader circulation of 56,000. This is a great way for the scripts music to get advertised to their target audience.

DIGIPAK AND ADVERT IMAGE

In my digipak and advert (see above) I used the image of an alien that we found grafittied on a wall when we were on our Brighton reccie. I then redrew the alien, changing the shape of its head and adding a necklace, tattoo and giving it shoes.

The alien acts as a visual motif because it is such a striking and visually arresting image. The alien will stay in the mind of anyone who sees the advert and then they will be able to immediately recognize the digipak if they see it in a shop. The use of this visual motif tells the viewer that ‘The Script’ is a slightly abstract band because the image is so unusual. The reason I added the necklace and tattoo to the image is because they connote faith and religion and ‘The Script’s’ album is titled ‘Science and Faith’. We chose to use the alien not only because it is visually arresting but also because it connotes science, and with the added necklace and tattoo the image as a whole connotes both science and faith.

I decided to include a review of the new single at the bottom of the advert to show the audience that the band is highly regarded by critics. I chose to use Greg James because he is a BBC Radio 1 presenter that will be well known by the target audience. This means that his opinion is respected and people are more likely to purchase a product if it has been recommended.

The adverts’ leading line is from the top line of text (THE SCRIPT) then across to the face of the alien and then back across to the second line of text (WALK AWAY). After this your eye falls down to the review and then to the bottom right corner that tells you the single is available on iTunes. I think the reason your eye is firstly drawn to the top line of text is because it is so large and stands out in the centre of the page against the dark background. It is very good that the first thing people see when they look at the advert is the name of the band because then even if they don’t carry on looking at the advert they will have still read the bands name and know what it was about.

The image is anchored to the advert by the text ‘NEW SINGLE’ because the text is very close to the elbow of the alien. This helps create the leading line because the eye goes form the top line of text across to the aliens face and then out of his elbow to this text.

I think that the image and overall design of the digipak is postmodern because neither the front or back cover have images of the band on, and the alien image its self is very thought provoking and could be interpreted in many different ways.      

By using the alien across both the digipak and the advert a visual link is created between the print works, using the same font in the same color further strengthens this link. A visual link is needed between the two ancillary texts so that if someone sees the advert and would like to buy the product, they will be able to recognize it in the shop. It is for the same reason that the digipak and video must also have a visual link. This is why I chose to include an image of the band on the inside cover of the digipak. This will help someone who has seen the video to identify the album in a shop.

I did however differentiate the visual link between the digipak and advert slightly. As the advert was just for the single ‘Walk Away’ and the digipak is for the whole album ‘Science and Faith’ I thought that it would be fitting to have the aliens in different colors. If I were to make another digipak just for the ‘Walk Away’ EP then I would use the orange and purple alien on the front cover.