Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts? (Rough)

In order to maintain a running theme of design and visuals, once the music video had been completed I had to take in to account how to best create the digipak and magazine advert in order to complement the overall package and provide successful promotion for the band. It seemed wise to experiment with some of the technical and conceptual aspects of our music video when forming the print productions, and so I had a look at how other artists within the trip-hop genre combined their texts in order to create running theme or recurring motifs. For example, DJ Shadow's "Midnight in a Perfect World" and album "Entroducing" use the running visual theme of vinyl records and their importance in Shadow's creation of music via sampling. Moreover, indicating that in order to create a coherent package it is conventional to use a running theme that ties both together.

Still from "Midnight in a Perfect World"

"Entroducing" Album cover

As our music video primarily focuses on social inequality, highlighting the particular divide between the extremely wealthy and working/middle class, I decided it would be best to run with a strictly political theme highlighting the opposition between these two parties, thus also allowing me to reference the music video. Therefore, I used stills that were representations of either the 99% or 1% and placed them on appropriate panels so that they would oppose each other; this was to create a similar effect as the split-screen technique within our music video and so in this sense the combination of my music video and digipak is effective due to the recurring motif of split-screen effect.

Panel 1

The representation of the young man in the music video (who is a metaphor for the 99%) is sympathetically presented in our  music video.  For example, he picks up the litter and gives money to the homeless man whilst his alter ego kicks the litter away and ignores the man begging to survive.  In order to link the print productions to the ideology of the music video which focuses on the growing gap between rich and poor, the image on Panel 1 is a metaphor for those at the bottom of the pile, conveyed by a working class man walking his dog as well as a closed down shop to represent failing economy. This creates a thematic link with the music video's representation of an unequal Britain, in a sense, conveying the same visual idea as the climactic points we've put in our video to indicate the declining state of this nation. However, I chose not to use the protestor character in creating my front cover as I was determined to portray real life links between the effects of recession, the track and the band by means of photojournalism.

Additionally, when producing the front cover I brought down the vibrance and saturation in Photoshop as a way of muting the colours and creating a more dull atmosphere; this is a technique we also used in the music video in order to connote the idea of complete despair. Moreover, the subtly grey overtone is a recurring motif I decided to maintain across my print production as it acts as a visual metaphor for the unchanging nature of Britain, change is the notion that would essentially bring about a more vibrant nation but due to it's absence, the grey, restricted colours are all that it can be represented for within the mise-en-scene and stills photography. Therefore, an effective colour scheme is demonstrated across the entirety of the promotional package. The album title is "We Must Speak", this was chosen as it conveys the importance of the voice of the people, an encouragement perhaps that we should make ourselves heard. This links in well with the ideologies of the music video, in particularly connoting the actions of the protestor character and also the imagery of the education strike we have used.

Panel's 2 and 3 directly reference the music video using close-up's of the actor's alter-egos. These panels both work together to create one image of the actor by using a split-screen of both characters. Therefore, this recurring motif is executed again in order to maintain a constant opposition between the 99% and 1%; the creation of strong visual conflict between characters and the groups they represent could be seen as a brand style that our target audience could identify with, as I've mentioned in previous blog posts our demographic are likely to be politically active in the fight against social inequality. So by conveying this powerfully we are likely to be satisfying our audience as well as maintaing a coherent theme throughout the package.

Panels 2 and 3

Furthermore, the photographs themselves visually link with the music video as they are the stills of the sequence where both characters stand outside the American Embassy, giving an effective reference to scenes in the music video (similar to DJ Shadow's reference of scenes in his "Entroducing" album). Using imagery of performers is a generic convention in the creation of CD packages. For example, a still of Christopher Walken is used on Fatboy Slim's " The Greatest Hits - Why Try Harder" referencing his performance in the "Weapon Of Choice" music video. This link is used to associate the fact that "Weapon Of Choice" was a popular song and so as Walken is connected with this via the music video he has been used as a front man on the album to associate the package with Fatboy Slim's hit songs. Moreover, as this theme seems to be effective of a coherent package I have used a similar design in order to highlight the link between performer and occupy movement in the music video with imagery in the digipak.



Panel 4 is meant to be a metaphorical representation of the 1%, of whom, control the majority of the worlds wealth. For example, in a recent report Oxfam have revealed that Britain's five richest families are worth more than the poorest 20%. This panel both thematically and visually links to our music video, in the sense that we have used imagery of the American eagle in the main production and the thematic link is that this can be connected to that power and stature of our businessman character. Additionally, the recurring motif of split-screen is again referenced as this panel opposes the front cover when folded out and so the conflict between the 99% and 1% is again exploited to maintain the theme of constant opposition. Moreover, effectively linking main product and ancillary texts.

Panel 4

For the magazine advert, I have used both of the characters alter-egos portrayed in our music video, this links it to the main production and also panels 2 and 3 of the digipak. Therefore, the audience can associate these characters as symbols of the overall package and so a running theme is enforced throughout my productions. The thematic idea of the 99% and 1% has been visually represented through the use of buttons, text and a varying colour scheme, this drills in the idea about the different social groups, labelling them to make the message from the music video and print production more clear so the consumer can better understand the ideologies we're exploring. Again, the split-screen effect has been used as a recurring motif to visually connect all of the productions. However, the colours slightly contradict the overall package scheme as the stills are black and white with only the tie being vibrant red; in contrast, the music video and digipak have an overall rather muted colour tone.

Magazine advert