Question 2: How Effective is the Combination of your Main Products and Ancillary Texts?

I believe that my video production and ancillary texts work well together to create a house brand for Blighters, using the same techniques on all my ancillary texts and implementing a style throughout my productions, relying on the use of skateboarding and the ‘freedom’ of the target audience. This helps to identify the band in the genre and helps to remind the audience about the band for future references.

After finishing the video production, I decided on my house brand for the ancillary texts. This included the black and white images of skateboarding, the location of the music video shoot and the freedom of the band. These images, which I used as my CD Digipack design, all related the music video and helped to link it together. The front cover of the CD Digipack (which is also used for the advert) is taken at the skate park which I used for the music video production. The image shows the box which the band played on for the live performance shots of the video and is recognisable on the front cover to link the two pieces. This is one of the ways in which I have linked the band through my productions.

Another way that linked my music production and ancillary texts together was by using Jake Mardell for the CD/advert. Jake is part of my group for the music production and was the drummer in that. He is pictured in three of the four CD panes (Front, Inside right, Back). This was ideal for me as we are good friends and both spend a lot of time skateboarding together. This also helped when it came round to shooting the skating shots, as we both were involved in filming/performing the tricks and could bounce ideas off each other for this part of the music production.

I have used many editing techniques during the production of my ancillary texts. I wanted to keep the same basic design throughout to give the pieces a flow. I did this by using three main features of Adobe Photoshop. Firstly, I removed the colour (before and after) from the photos, as they were all taken in colour, to connote a moody setting and feeling to the pieces. I chose to do this as it also links well with the music video, as this was filmed in the fading light of day.

Secondly, I used the lightening effect (before and after) on all the panes to create the ‘halo’ style effect. I used this most on the front cover, covering all four corners and edges. This effect was also used on the three other panes to a lesser extend, covering opposite corners. I used this feature to as I felt the pieces lacked a visual punch when the effect was not used (see lightening effect before and after), which is vital when trying to sell copies of the album in shops. Lastly, I changed the saturation and brightness of each pieces to bring out the images more vividly when printed out.

One of the most obvious ways in which I linked the music video and ancillary texts together was through the use of the Blighters logo, which is used in all three production pieces. The logo, which was created using newspaper cuttings and altered in Adobe Photoshop, is a main feature of all three production pieces. In the music video, it is the first shot of the video as the letters individual enter the shot using stop motion. I think it is one of the most memorable parts to the video and because of this, I decided to use this for my ancillary texts. When using the logo for the CD Digipack and advert, I had to change the colours and saturations to make sure they were not ‘lost’ in the background. I think that this part of my coursework has worked really well as the logo stands out and show the laid back approach of the band.

Overall, I believe that all my production work links together well, using a variety of techniques to make sure the brand of the Blighters is recognisable and catches the eye of the target audience through the music video, CD Digipack and Advert.