Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?

Throughout my productions, there are various elements in which link all pieces of work together, from the music video, to the digipak and my magazine advert, you can see promotion of the artist is key across all productions.

When beginning to research and plan into my products, I wanted to create a pieces of work that developed the genre. It is important to create coherent productions in order to keep the audience's attention, whilst promoting the band or artist according to the genre. Like in James Blake's first debut album, we can see the album artwork reflecting the genre, of alternative synth-pop, heavily focusing around different samples. This targets his fan base and his audience can relate to that of his individual style.

I wanted to create a simplistic design, focusing solely around the lead singer, and exploring his reflective character, which links heavily to our music video, which meant that the audience could relate to the themes and visual style running throughout their works. For example, I created a consistency between  my music video and digipak by using stills from the music video in 3 panels of my digipak. 

The front cover of my digipak is a still from the music video, and then I heightened the exposure and added a warm filter to it, making it have a vintage feel. The use of having two images of our performer on the front cover really promotes the band and its relaxed acoustic genre, from the warm tones. It shows the protagonist's fragmented mind and they in which he is reflecting on the past. Throughout my music video the reoccurring motif of 'reflection' is connected to constantly changing images of his memories of the girl and they way in which it is infecting his mind. The use of a strong closeup of the artist as well as profile of the artist, strengthens the relationship between artist and potential fan base. The audience are likely to have seen the music video, so on seeing the album artwork, they can build a relationship between genre and artist. Goodwin's theory can be applied here, through the use of closeups of the artist/performer (in terms of music videos). 

For my inside panels, 2 and 3, I used a panoramic screenshot from my music video, which is an image of the protagonist, achieved by repeating the frames on top of each other. I then added a warm filter, making the image look dream like.  

My final panel (track listing), was achieved by a sepia tone and warm filter added, making it look almost look 'tea-stained', this gave it a vintage-y effect. The use of handwriting the track listing and tearing around the edges, gave it simplistic yet personal touch. Like in, The Streets album, Original Pirate Material, their album track list is all hand written, giving it an easy, laid back approach, reflecting their laid back style. The image used on my 4th panel, is used also on the magazine advert, but instead of the image having a filter on top, it is just the original, and I have turned the exposure up to make it stand out. This links my digipak to my magazine advert.

In my magazine advert, I have kept it simple, and clear to see the release date for my album. I have included a review from the NME magazine, because that is the magazine/online website in which my chosen band, The Cutaway would be promoted on. NME, focus on alternative rock and indie artists, there is not one sole specific genre that they put all their core attention on. Like Bloc Party's magazine advert, it is simple, and tells your everything you need to know, with no added extras to divert your attention away from what they want you to know. 

This Kings Of Leon poster was featured in the NME magazine, this poster, like mine, is kept simple and centers solely around the release date. I made sure that I used the protagonist's profile again in my magazine advert, so that I consistently promoted the band, whilst allowing the fans to create a recognizable image.