By Fabiha Ferdous

How effective is the combination of your

product and ancillary texts?

The main purpose of any advert and digipak is to promote and advertise the artist and the album. The theme of the digipak and advert usually come from ideas in the music video and the genre of the music.

They also come from the star construction of the singer. This is to help identify the artist from others who choose to do the same. One typical example is Micheal Jackson and his studded glove.

Digipak

Magazine Advert

One way we created synergy is through the mis en scene of costume. We wanted there to be an iconic piece of clothing that the audience would be able to identify with. We choose the outfit from Abney Park, mainly the checkered shirt. We thought this is trendy and when researching Indie pop album covers we discovered that fashion was extremly important. Therefore, we used the images from Abney Park for the ancillary tasks.

The combination of the music video and the digipak/magazine advert are very effective as the colours flow throughout the music video and digipak. For example, Anisha was wearing the same outfit (checkered shirt and black maxi skirt) when we were filming in Abney Park. On that day we took our images for the digipak.

We thought we needed continuity throughout the whole thing, as this would appeal to the audience more. We used mid shot for the album cover.

The music video had a variety of close ups and mid shot of Anisha singing therefore, we thought that it would be vital to have a mid shot for our front album cover.

The long shots we used were mainly to show the scenery shots. We realized when researching indie pop music videos, most of them had a lot of scenery shots and the long shots used in those music videos was so the audience look at the picturesque scene rather than focus on the artist. Therefore, we thought the long shot for the back of the album cover and the magazine advert should not only focus on the artist but the main focus should be on the location.

OVERVIEW OF THE WHY WE CHOSE THOSE SPECIFIC IMAGES

At the front of the album cover we have Anisha positioned slightly to the left as apposed to the middle. We had a low angle mid shot so the audience can see her nice and clearly as well as see the location. The reason why we took this image in a mid shot angle was so the audience can identify her outfit, which allows the audience to identify what the latest trends are. Lana Del Rey’s album cover ‘Born to Die’ inspired us to take a picture like this

However, we reinforced this as we got her to stand a little to the left so the focus isn’t only on Anisha but the location . The low angle makes Anisha look dominant and fierce. We wanted to portray her like this because we wanted to show that she is putting up a front. We thought this would appeal to our target audience as they may feel inspired by this fierceness.

The reason why we wanted this shot to be outside was because we thought that this would link well with our songs and the lyrics such as ‘We still have places to explore’. We wanted to conform to Andrew Goodwins Theory by linking the visuals to the lyrics. The reason why we added a purple filter was because purple symbolizes royalty and it creates a fairytale like mood. We thought this is something key in an indie pop music video.

Cheryl Cole- The Flood“But you can’t hold on to water”

Our own music video“we still have places to explore”

We wanted to add a hint of purple, when it came to using just one shade of purple; we realized that just using one shade does not work. We used a variety of purple shades to blend out the imperfections. For example, when we used only one shade we realized it looks a little odd it order to defuse it we had to use a diffuse tool and add more different shades to make it look more flawless. We also made Anisha’s face brighter by using a brightening tool. Once we added the purple we realized that the original shade of the trees no longer work well with the image. We had to use a darker shade of green to make the purple correlate nicely with the nature. Once doing this we realized that this works well with our genre, as dark colours are what you would see in a typical indie pop song.

The back of the cover was specifically used so because we wanted to make it look as if our female character is lonely. The reason why we didn’t want to use her face we didn’t want our audience to identify her facial expressions. In this image it sends the message that she is almost lost without her lover that’s why she is walking alone.

When taking this picture we wanted Anisha to be positioned on the right side of the picture so we can have enough space to write the different tracks that are in that album.

We again, also, wanted the audience focus on the beautiful location rather than Anisha. In Lana Del Reys’s albums there is normally not any picture, just a plain background with the names of the different songs written in bold making it clear

However, I reinforced this and wanted to make it my own by not conforming to what Lana did. Therefore, I thought that we should have a long shot of the female actress and there should be a scenery shot. This would mean that there is continuity. In terms of font we thought that we needed it to stand out by making it white. Orignially we wanted to do balck as we thought that would make it bold. However, when we tried this on Photoshop we realized that we could barely see the font. Therefore, thought that the colour white would be best. We wanted to use basic colours the filters we have used are extremely colourful and if we use more colour it will just clash.

Moreover, in terms of font we thought that we must have clear writing at the back (for the list of the songs in the album). This is so the focus is not on the list of songs but rather on the background shot.

• When we were researching Lana Del Rey’s front album cover we realized that the font of her name was always big and bold. She had her name right at the top of the image or right at the bottom. In all those front album covers her name was always the first thing that stood out. However, we reinforced this as we thought that we did not want to do exactly the same.

• When it came to making the font I thought that we should use an italic font/calligraphy style writing for the artists name ‘Madelyniris’. This is to make it look more feminine and it just worked better with the fairytale like mood that was being given in the images. We made sure that our artists name was the biggest writing as Lana Del Rey has it this way. The name of the song was written much smaller and wasn’t in bold because we wanted the main focus to be on the artists name.

In the internal panels we were intrigued to use abstract shots because if we used another shot of the artists face then there would be too much of Anisha. The reason why we had a heart shaped image was because we wanted the audience to immediately recognize that this song is about love.

Furthermore, we wanted to conform to Maslows Theory of psychological needs which is love and intimacy. We thought that this image was abstract and the reflection of the sun makes the whole image just look more picturesque. We thought that we had to add a purple filter for continuity.

For the CD image we wanted it to be more eerie as well as go with the other three images. The clouds, buildings and the twig give a gothic vibe to it therefore making it spookier. We used the image of the sea to relate the lyrics with visuals ‘Take me to the sea’. The purple filter is used for continuity. This image also reinforces the idea that this song is of a slow pace.

The digipack gives us more opportunity to portray her image using multiple images whereas the magazine has one image, which represents all her characteristics. Overall, one thing we wanted to convey is that our actress is lonely, independent and socially awkward but she is cool in her own way. I believe we have portrayed that successfully through her body language and facial expressions.

In the magazine advert we decided that this image would be the best to use and edit. This is because this long shot shows that she is in her own little world but looks stressed and worried at the same time. The reason why we liked this picture so much was because we positioned her in the middle showing that she is the center of attention.

In the digipaks we wanted the main focus to be the scenery shots. However, in this image the main focus was the artist. This picture was taken in Abney Park again and we used the same filter for this as we did in the digipak so that there is continuity throughout the whole thing.

The main difference between this image and the digipak is the title of the artist’s name. We used the exact same font however, instead of having it white we thought that it should be a dark purple. This is because the white font did not show up well due to the natural lighting captured in this image. Therefore, we thought that if we use a dark colour it should only be a dark purple so that the image so that there is continuity and nothing in the image is too odd. We realized that the audience will focus on the title due to its size but the main focus would be on Anisha. Overall, the magazine advert was harder to make as we wanted the main focus to be on Anisha and we had to do this through one picture only.