Evaluation 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our music video genre being 'jazzy indie' has created a down to earth approach and a certain brightness to the whole project. The video being a balanced mix of performance and narrative, we wanted to attract our audience by the form of 'classyness' and 'prettiness'. The narrative following the story of a boy who reflects over a relationship that has not ended very well but has certainly taught him a lot about life and its obstacles. And so he proceeds to look up and positively. This is why we named the album 'rise above it' as we thought it related well to the theme of his song but also was broad enough to relate to his other music. It also was effective, we believe, because all members of the public can relate and understand it!
After group discussions and brainstorms, we then went off to tackle the creation of the ancillary products. Izzy proceeded with the editing, Jack the magazine advert and I the digipack.

The Music Video




The Digipack

This is our first trial at our CD Covers. The feedback was mixed because of many reasons. Firstly, The front was nice because it was simple and effective, the heart on the hands however was a bit smudged and so hard to tell what it was at first! Then, the back cover which was the favourite! It was original and stated all that had to be said and so a KEEPER! :)The inside right and left were said to look like something you'd find in a horror film because it connotes blood, and so this idea was scrapped!


This is the first back cover trial. It however received some negative feedback. This was concerning the colours of two contrasting whites (at the very top and the start of the image). The font was also said to be too small and rather hard to read. And so, this cover was scrapped but influenced and helped us create the final outcome of the back cover. (later seen in this post...)





From all of this... I then went on to create:

This is the front of the CD. We decided to go for a picture of the artist because 'sex sells'. Our audience would mainly be young teenage girls and so having his face on the cover would very much help the sales! It is also eye-catching on a shelf in a shop because the artist is new and has not been seen before! We decided to include the guitar into the frame because we wanted to make it obvious to our new audiences that it is also him who plays the music as well as him singing. This proves that he has real talent! A size 20 font in 'Pristina' was used for both the artist and album names. 'Rise Above It' was put at the top because it made sense for it to be risen!!

This cover was influenced by John Mayer's 'Heavier Things' album. We researched his cd covers as he is an artist very much like A.J. This cover is, however, rather 'in your face' and a little aggressive. We decided against this because it is a debut album and the artist is new and so we approached it more innocently.





If we then proceed into opening the CD, we come to:

Our inside left being a picture of A.J's guitar emphasises his musical abilities once again. His message and thank yous have been written into the guitar, showing a nice colour contrast between the orangy yellow of the instrument and the black bold and italic writing. The message is friendly and family orientated which portrays the artist as a 'down to earth guy'.


On the right we have:

An image which hopefully does NOT connote blood and horror but rather 'love'. This being our main theme of the entire project. The repetition of the hearts are there to appeal to our younger and mostly female audiences. It however, being a picture of a couple holding hands, suggest relationships and so both genders can relate to this. As you pick up the CD itself, the heart, being in the middle, will stay put on the paper. This was intentional to then imply that once the CD is put back in its place, it is 'complete' and the heart is restored. We used a black background to emphasises all the attention on the brightened hands and the red heart.


Turn it over and you get:

A picture that was much appreciated from our first trial. It shows the image of 5 individuals holding up a love heart poster in front of their faces.Hiding their identities was done for two reasons. Firstly, to suggest that love can happen to anyone! And secondly, that the reason they are hiding behind the heart poster is possibly because they have experienced bad memories from love and relationships. This whole image emphasises once again on our theme of 'love'.
The modern and casual costumes imply a youth to it all. This is effective as it reflects on the young age of the artist and his new arrival in the industry.
Between the people, you will find the song titles in 'Big Bear' font. This gives the imagery of graffiti on the walls behind, emphasising even more on the 'youth' of the album and artist. 
The colour of yellow here was used to help create the 'indie' mood and genre of the artist. 
The Sony Music Logo and the barcode or on the bottom side. Essential for the sales!

This image was influenced by the Wombat's newest album cover of 'This Modern Glitch'. They are a band of similar genre of music as our artist,  A.J Rafael, and so share similar aspects when it comes to covers, colours and creativity. They however, portray a certain randomness to they image (picture of sofa). Our posters reflect our theme of love and so it is more obvious.



The Magazine

This is our magazine cover. We decided to use the image from the digipack's back cover as this was the favourite of many of our peers! We have decided to alter the colours however so it is easier on the eye. Repeating the picture means it will help the public find the CD on the shelves much easier because they will be familiar with it. The cover includes two 'star reviews' from two music magazines, NME and Uncut. These are two magazines in which relate well to our genre of music and so that is why we have chosen to add them on our magazine cover. There is a small HMV logo on the bottom left. This was an aspect we found on many of the magazine covers we analysed. It is helpful to the public because it informs them as to where they can purchase the cd. The pink of the logo does not clash with any other colour as we have the pink in the hearts on the posters. 
The date of 'coming out' is at the very top, just above the artist's and album name. This is in bright orange as it connotes happiness and a 'down to earth' approach. 

Also, the size of the cover is on purpose. For a new artist who has not received much money yet for his talent, we decided to make his advert on 1/2 or a 1/3 of an A4 page. This means it costs less for the advertising, and more money can be spent on other aspects of the coming out of his debut album!

We did not want to add any more text. This is because nothing else needs to be said! The names, coming out date and a couple of reviews and voila!






THE COMBINATION OF THE DIGIPACK, THE MAGAZINE ADVERT AND THE MUSIC VIDEO:
1. The sharing theme of 'love' conveyed by the love heart posters, the love story narrative in the music video and the holding of hands on the inside left of the digipack.
2. The repetition in use of the back cover and the image used for the advert.
3. The soft and pale colours used that reflect the 'jazzy indie' genre of the song. These colours are also used in the music video, as well as black and white. Colours found on the digipack. The colour pink use in all three products to emphasise on the theme of love and relationships.
4. The hidden identity of Jack on the image of the magazine advert who is also the main male character in our music video as well as the face on the front cover of the digipack.
5. The incorporation of the guitar in both the music video and the digipack to emphasise on the musical talents of the artist.
6. The reflective facial expression of 'looking back' at a memory and the past seen throughout the music video and also on the front cover of the CD.


I feel that both our digipack and magazine advert have been successful, combining well with our music video,the theme of 'love', the pale soft colours and the use of musical instruments.