How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?

The media product, digipak and magazine advert are all different forms of media and therefore I wanted to make each one different. In my music video, I made the decision not to feature the artist because I didn't want to recreate my own version of the band and also because I wanted the storyline to have more of an impact and not be a side story to the artist. I also followed this idea into my ancillary tasks. The magazine advert is very different to the music video and to the digipak, this is because I conformed to the idea that I am not advertising the music video, I am advertising the artist and their single. Therefore, I chose images that did not relate to my music video or digipak because I was trying to promote the artist in the advert rather than a message in my music video. I did this by drawing out the band members and adding a crazy large brain to their heads using Paint in a grafitti look. I then added it to a picture of my school building on Photoshop and used different effects such as Outer Glow around the texts and sci fi fonts to create a 'alien invasion' look. I thought that by using a grafitti image of the band members would be appealing to many of the target audience as Grafitti is a very popular art form amongst teenagers. The fact that the grafitti is on a large scale would make the reader of the magazine stop and ponder whether such a large scale grafitti happened and then read on about the single release. I think that this is an effective magazine advert because it is attention grabbing because of the design concept and chosen fonts and alien looking band mates will make the audience remember the band and the single and to look out for it.

Usually the magazine advert relates to the digipak more than the music video because when the audience sees the advert they then try to remember certain images and place them onto album artwork to find the CD quicker and easier. I think if I followed this convention my combination of media product and ancillary texts would have been more effective. However, as I wanted my music video to stand out, the fact that there are images on the Digipak that can be seen and related to in the music video makes a good combination of media forms. The front of the digipak follows a trend of the Two Door Cinema Club's other album and singles as they use the similar font of thinner C's and O's on their front image as well as trying to have an image that features thed double OO in door. In my digipak I have used a pair of glasses, against the background of a shirt and shoe in a bush. This image relates to the music video where the mother throws out the husbands clothes into their front garden. So I hope that the audience remember this in the music video and therefore combine it with the image they see on the Digipak front and back images. The inlay is of 3 men in masks that are drawn to look like the band mates of Two Door Cinema Club. I think that this is effective as it is a creative way of including an image of the artist in the digipak without using a copyright image. The guitar seen in this image is also in the Disc part of the Digipak.
I think that overall the combination of my product and ancillary texts is fairly effective as the links to the images work and they are all appealing and eye catching which is what you want when trying to sell a product as you want it to stand out from the other CD's, other magazine adverts and music videos.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

These days, a lot of music videos have progressed rapidly into short films that follow a structured narrative, such as Lady Gaga's Telephone which tells a story through a linear narrative. Narrative is a key factor when considering the making of a music video as the way you narrate it is most important as that is the way to get your message across to the audience and the way that they will see it. In my media product, I decided to keep to a structured linear narrative as these are much easier for the audience to follow. I chose a linear narrative because I wanted the emotional message to be more clear and the best way to do so is to follow a traditional beginning, middle and summarising ending format. This format is also found in music videos such as Beyonce - Irreplaceable (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EwViQxSJJQ) and The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9o1FAszdk) .
However, unlike these music videos, my product does not feature the artist. I decided to challenge the original idea of the music video that is to promote the artist as well as the song. This is because, when I listen to a song, when deciding whether it is good or not depends on the lyrics and the message the lyrics send. The song Come Back Home by Two Door Cinema Club, sent a message of hope when I heard it. So, I wanted to get this message across to the audience through interpreting the lyrics into a short film. There was the option to combine the short film storyline with filming of a band or an artist which is what many music videos do, for example One Republic - All The Right Moves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrOeGCJdZe4), but I thought that it would distract the audience from understanding the video and feeling full empathy.
A lot of music videos have one main character, and the storyline will focus around that person. In my music video, the protagonist is a young girl. Usually it would be a young adult as seen in most music videos, however, I wanted the audience to sympathise with the child and I think using a young child as the lead character and centre of narrative makes the audience more inclined to watch and empathise with what she is going through and could inspire emotions that they have felt in similar situations. I think that my media product has developed ideas from other music videos as it has progressed from being a story to follow the lyrics of a song to coallide with the artist, to becoming a short film that has more of a lasting impact.
I tried to include as many different angles and frames in the video to be similar to a short film that gives a sense of being with the young girl, especially when the camera gets very close and almost as if it's from her point of view, this relates back to the narrative i've used and the fact that it is more like a short film rather than a conventional music video.

Audience Feedback

Freyas Audience Feedback from freya riseborough on Vimeo.

Ancillary Task 1: Digipak

As a simple connotation for the audience to explore was this image on the tshirt. It resembles the album by Two Door Cinema Club- Tourist History, the album where Come Back Home comes from.

Ancillary Task 2: Magazine Advert

Come Back Home - Two Door Cinema Club (Freya Riseborough)

Come Back Home Complete! from freya riseborough on Vimeo.