Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks

I realised through my research of the music video and album from the same artist is connected in many ways. This is important because the target audience need to be attracted to both the video and the album. The most important features that need to be taken into consideration, when making the two so they are connected, are the colour schemes, the font of the writing and mise-en-scene. The outcome of these features will create the tone of the products. For example, if you use dark colours with thick writing and dark objects, this will create a gloomy mood, like our video. However, if you use bright colours with fun font and bright objects, this will create a happy, exciting tone.

Mise-en-scene:

We thought very carefully into the mise-en-scene as this is what creates the correct mood. We decided to use a wine bottle in the picture on our CD cover due to the fact the video is about alcoholism. This, therefore, then links our video to our album. We also use alcohol bottles throughout the video so it is clear to the audience that Connor is a victim of alcohol abuse. We also used a candle on out pamphlet and the back of our CD which relates to Connors burning of the pictures and the smoke we use on our CD and the CD holder. On the front of our CD cover we decided to cut Lily’s head out of the picture because this then adds mystery to the picture. This links with our video due to the fact that there is a whole mystery of who Lily is, what happened to her, what was their relationship and more.

Font:

We decided to use the same font throughout our products. We used Birch STD as we felt this was the most appropriate font for our products. This is because this font is very thick and sharp which we felt would set the correct mood. For example, if we used a font like Aristocrat SF, this would give off a more relaxed feeling which is not what we wanted.

Colour Scheme:

The main colours we use are gold, black, white and reds.

We use gold in some parts of our video, including Connor’s gold watch and the writing at the beginning of the video. We mainly use gold on our ancillary task for the writing. The reason for why we have chosen gold as one of our main colours is because in our research, we noticed that the artists of our genre (R&B) uses a lot of gold to show off their wealth. No matter if they have depression or a drinking problem, they always have money.

We use white in our video mainly on lily to show her innocence and purity as that is what white represents. On our pamphlet, we use white candles to represent Connor, when he was once pure, Lily and hope. On our poster we chose to have some of the writing white to make it stand out on the poster, yet still keeping within our chosen colours.

We use a black and white picture on the front of our CD case and on our poster as that creates the mood we want to set. This is the same for our video as we ask Connor to put on a black shirt in some parts to show when he is at his worse. Black is the colour used to represent depression and a dark feeling, which is the mood we want for our video and, therefore, our ancillary task as they connect.

Lastly, we mainly use the colour red to represent danger. At the back of our CD case we have a red rose. This can mean two things to the audience. Some of the audience will think that the red rose is connected to the relationship between Connor and Lily, romance. However, others may connect it with the colour and realise the danger behind it. We also have Lily wearing red nail varnish throughout the video and the audience is able to see this when the camera zooms to her hand in the bath scenes.

Emotional Content:

Emotional content is another way of how our products are unified. To create the correct tone for the products we had to create an emotion for the audience to follow. Again, by doing this involved the colour scheme and mise-en-scene. However, emotional contents also involve the way the actor acts in the video and the way he is presented on the album and poster. In the video we make sure that our model isn’t smiling once, he is constantly looking sad and depressed which created a gloomy emotion. The only time we have one of our models smiling is when we have the close-up shot of lily which seems to create a creepy effect, or that Connor may be remembering that time from previous experiences or maybe she could be happy wherever she is. Also when Connor is burning the pictures he’s burning pictures of them smiling which created a sad emotion. On the ancillary task, where we used dark colours, this created a deep dark emotion to the audience. The use of the bottle does this also sue to the fact that that is the only colour in the picture, showing that that is what his life is about now and not Lily, because her head is removed. The overall emotional content is the same throughout all the products, creating a sad, gloomy emotion.

The R&B Look:

Overall we wanted to create an R&B look due to our song being from an R&B genre. We did this trying to use the same colour schemes as they did, using to gold to show their wealth and the fact that R&B song involve gangs which have a lot to do with alcohol and partying. However, in some ways this does not completely unify our products due to the fact that, even though the emotion is the same throughout, our ancillary task seems to link to a more emotional album rather than a fun R&B album. Even though this is the emotion throughout the song, through the song we added a beat and some scenes to make it more R&B.