How effective is the combination of your main

and ancillary texts?

I have produced three media products for the Artist, Isaiah Dreads, including a music video for the song 'Hype In The Booth', as well as a complete digipak for their first album and finally a magazine poster promoting the album, using music magazine 'iD'.

Throughout the development of these three products I have maintained synergy, as I believe this is the key in our target audiences relation between the products and their association with the artist. Through market research I discovered that synergy was a crucial element to any professional marketing campaign and so resultantly I took into consideration the aesthetics of each product and ensured they were interlinked and helped to develop each product as a unit and individually also.

Synergy between the main ancillary texts was produced through aligning all products with the London Grime genre, as well as maintaining originality and individual through creativity. Overall the relationship between the main and ancillary texts was essential in creating realistic and professional looking media products.

Synergy and London Grime Music

How are all the products connected?The primary way in which all three products are linked is through the close ups of Male protagonist Patson Travers, I thought using these close ups of the artist consistently was a fundamental way of creating synergy between the products because the artist strongly fits the London Grime genre and these images embed a connection to this. Due to the fact the artist is unsigned, this synergy allows the audience to visually connect and develop a relationship with the artist. The key aspect of the artist close up shots comes from the main text, being the music video, which for almost the whole video shows the artist rapping the song 'Hype In The Booth' which is one of the main songs on the album, 'Lights Turn Green' which is furthermore promoted by the magazine poster.

The digipak cover photo was taken in a tunnelled bridge, which can be seen vaguely in the background of the music video. The simplistic backdrop prevents distraction from the male protagonist, Patson Travers, who features on all three media products.

The still image on the front of the digipak was taken post music video shooting. Seeing as our music video was filmed prior, as well as the magazine shoot being shot prior - allowed me to take the key elements and focuses of our video and magazine shoot and apply them to the digipak design, creating synergy between the products.

A screenshot from the official ‘Hype In The Booth’ Music Video

The digipak is mostly made up of artist images, however the CD disk within the digipak is taken from the magazine cover. The magazine cover displays an extreme low angle shot looking up at the male protagonist and the skyline is in vision. The background displays urban London which is a major element of the London grime genre. In addition to this, the reflected side shots of the tunnel itself presents a contrasting industrialised London, holding a juxtaposition of the natural landscape used on the CD. Whilst the industrialised images capture the genre's reputation the naturalistic pictures present the heart and freedom of the freestyle rap itself.

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When reflecting on how I could improve the synergy of the products. I would argue that although the disk has strong connotations with the genre, perhaps it has lesser synergy with the other media products as it is noticeably less urbanised.

Although the digipak photo shoot was taken post magazine and video shoot, the disk holds a lesser relation with the other images. The lighter colour of the CD does not reflect the darker and faded images of the magazine/music video. Despite synergy being strong between our products I might base the CD image around our music video shoot location, to make connection with the song 'Hype In The Booth'.

By using the location of the music video shoot as a magazine cover location also, in my opinion creates an ideal synergy between the two media products. Artist I took inspiration from was J Cole from his album Forest Hill Drive. This displays an example from a signed and established artist which enables us to take the growth of an artist and hope it is mirrored in the career of our artist 'Isaiah Dreads'.

On J. Cole's 31st birthday, January 28, 2016, he released his first live album, Forest Hills Drive: Live.

The first noticeable observation from our media products is the synergy in the media fonts used. There is synergy in both the font styles and the font colours. This works as both contrast with the darker coloured backgrounds and therefore stand out and catch audience attention. The title on the front is the same colour as the title of songs on the digipak's back too. Adding to the synergy and is also in the same colour as fonts on the magazine cover.

*Digipak back image*

I took influence from the artist Stormzy who was voted Grime act of the year for both 2014 and 2015 proving his pedigree in the industry. He used the same background colours as well as fonts for his album WickedSkengman4 in 2015 which proved very successful.

Yungen used the same colours for his album Project Black and Red, whilst he used the same colours when promoting his hit single 'Ain't On Nuttin'' - this enables the audience to draw a connection between the artist and his albums, as well as his hit songs.

Synergy between the music video and the magazine poster was created through using similar shot angles which present the genre strongly. We use a number of low angle shots which present our artist as powerful and in control. These angles are often used in the genre and examples can be taken from the music of Stormzy for example. Synergy is also created through the artist wearing the same attire in both the magazine shoot and the music video. It is also worth noting the fact that both the magazine shoot and music video was shot during the night in London, creating a distinct recognisable synergy between the media products.

A way in which we could have furthered the symmetry between would have been by including the precise point of the magazine shoot in the photo somehow. I may have been able to do this by using the balcony in the short opening narrative which sees the artist travel through urban south London. However when filming the video I did not pre-meditate the magazine cover and I feel the imagery would have been forced.

To create further synergy within my digipak I decided to reflect the same image if the tunnel on the inner covers of the digipak, which makes the urbanised London imagery even more so recognisable. The tunnel imagery can also be seen in the background of the close up shots of our artist. The front shot and back shot (both close ups) draws very similar elements to the album 'Nothing Was The Same', by Drake. Drake is probably the most famous rapper of today and is constantly successful when dropping new singles and albums, which he has been credited for with numerous prestigious awards. The skyline used as a backdrop is used on our CD itself and in combination create a very similar effect to Drake's own album, as it catches elements of Drake's album whilst capturing the London Grime's own scenic picture.

A screenshot from the official ‘Hype In The Booth’ Music Video

Another major influence for the synergy of my products was the Drake album, The Cure, which uses synergy in colour between the front cover, back cover and CD. The main feature of the front cover is the artists' presence with a pretty insignificant background, not to draw attention away from artist himself and his importance. Where the digipak creates synergy is through the obvious and simple colours used not to take away from the artists' talent, portrayed through his music; which is mirrored in our digipak.

Another example of synergy through colour and shot type, being Bugzy Malone's album 'Best Of Bugzy Malone The Mix', which uses simple texts which is featured on both the front and back of the album, mirroring each other and creating synergy between the sides. Also the colours mirror the effect of the photo of the artist, using a black and white theme, simplistic once again.

Through seeing synergy within professional work I felt it necessary to produce a relationship between my products to such a standard. Similarly to Drake and Bugzy Malone examples given my magazine poster and digipak followed a distinct pattern. Firstly the colour scheme of white simple fonts featured in both products, for the name of the album as well as the song list. Furthermore, the same type of images, all featuring close ups of our artist were seen across all products in particular with similar imagery used throughout the digipak.

Another key aspect which created synergy between the main and ancillary texts is the clothes worn by the artist, on the days of filming the artist scenes for the music video we were able to shoot stills in-between scenes and during breaks to capture images for our magazine and digipak while we assessed the footage we had for the music video. The background and location is easily recognisable from scenes of the 'Hype In The Booth' video. Furthermore the digipak front cover was shot in the same location however in a tunnel allowing focus on our male protagonist, ideal for the shape of a digipak front cover. The Adidas tracksuit worn by the artist throughout helped create synergy as the style of the artist is replicated throughout the media products and therefore establishes an artist image.

The task in hand was to produce a promotional package for the album and so there was extreme importance placed upon creating a synergetic link between the music video and an ancillary text. The idea of synergy within the marketing and promotion campaign of the band is key to a successful reception of the bands music which is the main focus of the promotional package. A good example of this is the fact that if an audience member is visually stimulated by the magazine advert then they are more likely to view the music video and then to proceed and but the album/digipak because all three products feature synergistic elements which created the initial interest. Overall the use of synergy between the products and there interrelationship will enable the successful marketing and in turn sales of the album which is the main idea of a promotional package.

In hindsight I must say I am extremely pleased with the products we as a group have produced, I think in the short time frame we had we done performed well in the promotional package. My favourite product is our music video, as we were able to assess our footage and over a long period of time create a transition from raw footage to our edited and eventually completed music video. The lengthy but worthwhile post production process was a pleasant and rewarding process presenting not only our products but our groups progress in media.

Key feedback which encouraged our media production stated; 'I am a fan of the grime genre, but since discovering Isaiah Dreads through your media package I have taken a completely new perspective on the underground sector of the industry'.