How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The pictures below are my finalised album pictures (digipack)
and magazine cover, for our album 'Dirty Little Secrets' by the
'Reminiscene'. The name of the album and the artist also fits with our
music video. We came up with the name 'Dirty Little Secrets' because we
though it represented the artist well and reviles to the audience that
they are brave enough to sing about real feeling. This is what we want
our audience to understand that all of these songs will be based on real
life and raw emotion. The name 'Reminiscene' came again form the music
video, showing that they aren't afraid to revisit the past and look back
on there life and sing about it.
Inside Cover Left
The
inside cover left is a picture of the band lying on the road and the
colour blue. We decided to choose this picture because it show that the
band don't take life to seriously and the colour blue to show that life
isn't perfect, everyone has there ups and downs and life isn't so blue.
This cover also has a special thanks to show the bands appreciation to
the people who have helped them along the way. We also put a quote on
the top of the picture 'Moving on is simple, its what you leave behind
that makes it so difficult', we put a quote on there to also help it be
more relatable to people dealing with break ups.
Inside Cover Right CD
The
inside cover right CD in this picture we decided that we would used the
hands of one of the band members in the shape of a love heart, to fit
with our genre and have the lead singer sitting in the leaves and have
her face between the love heart. We have distorted this image though,
the face is slightly blurry and the love heart is clear, we did this
because we want to show that the symbol of love is powerful and greater
than a persons image, what a lot of forget in reality. The colours are
normal in this picture apart from the hands they are white to symbolise
innocence. We have also got another quote 'Nothing hurts more than
realising he meant everything to you, but you meant nothing to him', we
chose this because we also think this fits really well with our genre
and our general album theme of love. This quote is also in a purple
colour because we want to keep with similar colours throughout.
Front Cover
The Front cover, we decide to split four images to show different sides
to the band, one is of the lead singer and guitarist in sepia, with her
foot against a plain white wall and looking to the floor, showing shes
not too sure where he life is going and also shows that her music is
real. The next one is of the whole band sitting on the floor in the
leaves with the lead singer slightly in font of the other members of the
band, this is to show that the lyrics is an important part to this
bands perspective. This picture is in black and white just to mix up the
colour of the front cover, we thought it would be more effective and
eye catching. The next picture is a single picture of the singer in the
leaves, the colour of this picture is normal but we have made it
slightly brighter because this picture is slightly more
flirtatious
than the others. You can tell this by the facially reaction and the way
she is sat. This is why we chose to have a four way slip to show
different emotions. The last picture is another shot of the bad together
this time the lead singer is in a tree, one other member is leaning on
the tree and the other is crouching on the floor in front of the tree.
We decided to so this to show different leaves and showing that we are
all different people, also we are all looking a different way. This
could be interpreted that we maybe don't share a strong bond together
but we become closer though our music. This picture is in a pale purple
colour to fit in with the colour of our text. The text on the front
cover is also in a pale purple and a pale grey colour, also the text is
quite curly and appears that the band has doodled there thoughts for the
title, this has a huge contrast to the band name and the album title
its self.
The
back cover this show an image of the lead singer in a red dress leaning
on a white wall with her guitar next to her, also her hair slightly
flowing in the wind and the fact that she is wearing converse shoes to
take the indie side and the read dress to take the more formal side. We
also have a swirly design in the top right hand corner to give it that
special edge. We then have our eight songs that we have made up
according to the genre, we though that they fit well with the love/break
up theme to our album.Also keeping with the colour scheme, we have
stuck to purples, whites and blues, that we think fits with the indie
genre. The font is also a curly but we have a different font on the
'Dirty Little Secrets' on the back to the front just to give it a
different feel. This is properly our most iconic cover because it shows
you two sides to the singer, the girly side and the more indie/relaxed side as you can see from our Mise-en-scene.
We also made the colours quite dark but also bright giving it a twilight effect, a bit apprehensive
and on edge. We have again stuck to the same colour text, purples,
whites and blues, but we have three different texts the band name is
different, the album name is different and the website and the comment
are all different just to try and mix it up a bit a draw people in.
Overall our ancillary products were successful in showing the audience what we have on offer, showing them that this band is a band that has many ideas and also makes sure that it fits with what their target audience wants and fits into their genre. I think we did well on capturing the beauty of the band 'Reminiscence' and showing that the album 'Dirty Little Secrets' would fit into the market quite nicely.
Our New Idea's For Our Ancillary Products
After looking over our work and analysing it all, we decided that these pictures did not imitate the artist to the full extent, so with our audience feedback we thought it would be a good idea to change all of our ancillary products, so it fit better with our genre.
The Front Cover
The front
cover of our digipack depicts a meaning of a journey, conveying to
the audience that the artist is about to travel down a road of an
adventure, picking though the hard times in her life and coming out
on top. Also the name our album 'The Odyssey' fits with our meaning
and thought, as this simply means the journey. As does the name of
the band 'Reminiscence', as we have taken that from the word
reminisce which means, indulge in a moment and recall your past. To
reflect and look back on what you have done in your life, we felt
this fit perfectly with the message we wanted to put across and make
this band really relateable and real to the audience, giving them
hope as they sing about events in their lives that the audience may
have felt themselves. We emphasis this by showing our artist on the
floor, this is portrayed as the start of her journey and gradually
getting up and turning away, she is moving into a bright point in her
life, and not looking back on her past. We decided to use a road to
show that life can be a difficult passage, but life always has a
silver lining and you cant give up on your dreams and ambitions as
there is always light at the end of the road, we wanted our audience
to see that our artist will eventually get there, also giving our
audience hope for their own life's, it makes it more relateable and
real. We used natural colours to display an image of innocence, hope
and love, as this is what we wanted our artist to represent. Someone
who the audience can relate to, if going though a bad time, or bad
relationship, they can turn to music for the answer, we wanted to be
their answer. By using trees with an autumn feel, shown by the
yellow/orange colour, we show that our genre is country, and that
nature plays a big part of this genre, as we have looked into others
in this genre, with Taylor Swift being our biggest influence and most
of her video present some form of nature, to again show innocence.
This also shows that the music will be calming and mellow. Another
indicator of this is the use of the guitar, this is a big part of the
artists life and also shows our genre again to be county. We can see
just how much her guitar means to her as she has continually got it
with her in all four shots of her on the road. This means she will
not get rid of her guitar and she maybe moving on in her life but her
guitar will be staying with her on her 'Odyssey'. The colours and
lighting are a key part to show the audience exactly what genre is,
also the artist is the main selling point as we wanted it to be all
about her, and her struggling life, and how she deals with it though
music, and show the audience that life is hard and it can knock you
down, but with a little bit of help and inspiration you can get back
up again. There is also a meaning to the way we have lined our
pictures, as we see her sat on the floor in the first one with very
casual/typical clothes for a country genre with light colours and
converses, and also a headband. We then see her kneeling in
darker/smarter clothes showing she is raising in her life and things
are on the move, also the guitar is held in the exact same way to
show she is still unsure and worried about the road and journey
ahead. The next image is the artist in a little black dress with a
cute white bow, showing her femininity coming into her life and she
is changing. The guitar has now moved and is standing next to her
with her holding it and almost looks as if it is holding her in
place. This is the key image for the beginning of her change. The
last image is of her turned away in a beautiful red dress, showing
her glamorous side, and still her guitar by her side, giving her a
sense of belong and showing her that if she moves on in her life she
wont really lose anything. This links with our genre also being
slightly pop, as the glamorous side comes out it will be a
country/pop genre. As this is the front cover this must be the one
image that stands out, as this is what the audience will see first
and will judge instantly. So we had to make sure we used bright and
bold colours . We decided to use black for our titles as it contrast
with the other natural colours. We decided that our font would be
have to be bold and stand out, and we wanted to keep the femininity
so we went for a curly font. We found out that this was the best way
to get to our target audience as our research told us this is what
they want to see.
Inside Left
For the inside we decided that we would try and portray the artist for who she really is and what she really cares about. This is an important image to show that she has many different moods, views, and feelings but it is all linked with one thing, her guitar and it shows that no matter what she is feeling that her music is the most important thing in her life. So we decided to collage lots of different pictures together to make one, to show to the audience she is one in herself even if she goes many different routes she knows truly who she is and her heart will stay in the right place. The importance of a collage shows scattered memories but all link together. We also put in nature backgrounds again to link with our county genre, all of roads, but these pictures are less bright, they don't hold as much hope as our front cover, as they are darker and slightly more gloomier. We made the pictures look like Polaroid pictures, by the uses of the white frames around the pictures, we did this to make them look like a memory, part of a scrapbook almost. To give feel that she is looking back through her life and her success and saying to the audience, its alright to let go and move on, but the memory will always be there. The fact that our road shots are now quite dull, obtuse and lacklustre, shows that not all of our songs will be happy, a fair few of them will have a great deep meaning showing heartache, pain and pure misery. An example would be the song we decided to base our music video on 'Just A Taste' this song shows true heartache as the artist falls in love and it is impossible to fall back out, and we portray just how hard she finds it, trying to move on and get over him but she just cant. This is our contrasting picture showing life is full of memories and we cant hold on to all of them forever, but its what you do with you life in the present day that makes you who you are and develops you as a person.
Inside Right 'Behind The Cd'
Behind the CD, we decided that we would stick again with our nature genre, as we have done throughout our
ancillary products, it just keeps the audience in the know of our genre and showing them we are not changing it thought our album. We went for the brown/yellow leaves this time to link with our front cover, the brown conveys the darker/dull side to her life, her past and that it holds a lot of pain and heartache and a lot of weakness, the yellow shows the brighter side to her life and her future ahead on her 'Odyssey', showing hope for her future and her aspiration in her life, and her energetic passion for change in her life, she no longer wants to look back and feel pain in love or in her once failed aspiration. She now has hope brought in with her shear devotion and dedication to her music and the views she wants to get across to her audience, saying everything will be okay, and never give up. Most of our music is about love so we though that this would be an appropriate image for our CD as the hands make a love heart, showing the lighter side to our album, and not all love stories have to be about pain, some can be about passion, fantasy and complete love, about cherishing someone who you care about and would do anything for. By using natural colours again we bounce of the idea of innocence and honesty. This is very similar to our original idea but in this image we have decided to take the artist our, so you can focus more on the hidden meaning of our album, and create a more simplistic idea. We wanted to challenge the audience and really make them think that even though most of our songs are bleak, there the odd few that shine though with a glimmer of hope and sense of true love and making the connection that true love can be a long a tiring journey, but it is worth it in the end.
The Back
For the back cover we decided to keep
our original picture with the artist against a plain white wall, the
shot in black and white and her red dress as the stand out colour. We
wanted to give a feeling of emptiness, but show there is a glimmer of
hope and colour in her life, this is why we chose red, as it is a
very in your face colour and contrast well. Again the guitar is in
show but this time it is next to her, in this shot it is not the most
dominant as she is now standing on her own and it is only next to
her, implying its her helping hand. The artist is wearing white
converse shoes, which fits with the typical outfit for country but
they challenge the red dress, showing the audience that the country
girl inside of her is still there but she is changing for the best
and moving on with her life. This makes it more relatable for our
audience, as they may be trying to shake something of their
shoulders, she is trying to move on in her life and forget the pain
she has felt throughout her life. The ways she is stood in this shot
is very important as she is leaning on the wall and her legs crossed
giving the feeling that she is now totally relaxed and happy where
she has ended up, as this is the back cover we wanted the audience to
see she has completed the most difficult part of her journey, from
now on she makes her own decision and she has chosen her own path. We
have made changes to the rest of the back, the design in the corner
is different, we have added more to it, giving it a bigger impact,
showing our creative side, we have added flowers to it to fit with
our genre once more and hit the innocent side again. It is also very
curly and flowy to show femininity and no regret, also shows risk and
if your willing to take it to get where you need to be. We have also
added leaves as bullet points instead of numbers, we felt that the
numbers didn't do it justice and we needed to continue our nature
feel and our genre, also its different and gives it a unique point.
The title of the album 'The Odyssey' is the same font as on the font
cover but in this shot we have flipped it on its side to go along
side her, conveying her 'journey' is always one step by her, no
matter what life throws at her. It is in a larger font to the song
names, they are not as curly and not as bold. This is because all of
the songs are about her life, it is a very personal album, that she
wanted to share, the songs all like to the sense of pain, heartache,
life changes and pure hope. That's why we used such names as' Sinner'
or 'Moments' to show the audience that this artist is completely
honest with herself and everyone who listens to her music, she did it
to help others though their 'Odyssey'. We have also put our record
label on the back 'Big Machine Records', to show it is real and
authenticity. We chose 'Big Machine Records' as our record label
because this is the label that signed Taylor Swift, who was our
biggest inspiration, and our biggest role model, so we went with hers
to fit our genre. We have also added a bar code again to show it is a
real CD and you can buy this in shops.
The Magazine Advert
The magazine advert, we felt that this
was a very important image to get right, as this is the first image
and insight to our album and what our artist is really about. We
tried to get a little bit of everything in the magazine advert
without crowding it to much. As our album is about a journey we went
for the open road shot, to show that life can be an open journey,
what makes it is the decision you make and how you act on them. We
decided to place the artist slightly of center as we wanted the name
of the album 'The Odyssey' to go along side her and go along the road
to convey the journey. We have the artist sat on an amp in her red
dress, her guitar but this shot is different as we have her in heals
to make her more appealing to the audience and to show the glamour
side to her is coming out and she is comfortable to move on, but not
completely as we still have the guitar. Her guitar goes everywhere
with her and shows that the country element is still there no matter
if she is changing within herself. The text font is still the same
for 'Reminiscence' and the 'The Odyssey', we have the band name
bigger as we are trying to promote them. Without telling the audience
the meaning behind the band in the magazine advert, 'Reminiscence'
comes from the word reminisce, and everyone knows this means
reflection. So it shows the band will be honest and song about really
meaning. Considering the album is quite depressing as she sing mainly
about pain, this shot shows hope, with the blue sky showing light at
the end of the road and the road being the thinking stage as this
road becomes easier with time and the artists 'Odyssey' will
gradually get better and to show her development in life. As the text
is the same in this shot as in the album this is to give the artist
more of a sense of brand identity. As our first magazine advert we
had the artist facing away from the camera hiding away from life, we
felt we need a new angle so we decided to show her face, and convey
that she is going to face this 'Odyssey' head on, to show to our
target audience, which is mainly teenage girls, that you cant hid
from your life, you have to be brave and face the road ahead. We also
have a comment from the award winning music magazine, NME, giving us
a five star ratting and saying ' There is a beauty here that depicts
how unique the band is', this fits with our unique feel that we have
to offer and shows that we are really and meaningful. We have also
added the release date for the album so people who buy the magazine
will see when we go on sale and also added our website, so if they
wanted to know more then they could log on and find out more about,
our life's and background, history and all of our general band ideas
and everything you need to know about us.
Overall, i believe the creating new ancillary products has been more
beneficial, as we have been able to pull apart the true and hidden
mean behind the band, the artist herself and the album. To show the
meaning of our brand identity and how important music really is to
this band. The artist sings about life and how she has had to deal
with it leading a helping hand to the audience and saying, she is
there for you, she has felt your pain but moved on with her 'Odyssey'
she is finally letting go of her past and moving on. In comparison to
our original digipack we have used a lot more digital technology, to
create a better feel for our album, using more advanced software such
as Photoshop, the green screen, and our own person persistence as all
of the pictures we took ourselves, we had to wait for the weather to
be correct and to the right mood for our shot, it took time but it
was worth the wait and the shear determination. As this is very
audience based we had a peer assessment to our new ancillary
products to see if we had improved and they all agreed that this is
more relevant to out target market, an did the band justice. We
edited a lot of our colours to make them brighter and full of life as
we felt the original ones were to dull and didn't really get the
message across that we wanted. We wanted our album to be full of
emotion and passion for life, we did this by showing how pain can
destroy you but you can always come out on top if you believe and are
strong enough, as we link this to our final music video 'Just A
Taste' showing true love can almost break you, and forgetting is one
of the hardest things in the world, you can never really forget but
you can move on, and in time the pain fades and is replaced with
other emotions. I think we have now done our country genre proud and
justice, showing it has a lot more meaning than people really think,
they need to look deep within to find the hidden meaning, the is
depicted in our album 'The Odyssey' and the true meaning of 'The
Reminiscence', and the deep meaning within themselves.
