Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Note To Moderator

Dear Moderator,
Welcome to my blog. I hope you like reading this as much as I did working on it. All of my work is clearly labelled on the right. I hope you appreciate my coursework and the journey which develops along my blog.
Thank you, Morgan.

Thursday, 26 February 2015

Evaluation Question 2

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Both my main product and ancillary texts conform to the ‘indie’ genre. I made all the texts fit to this genre purposely. I have took inspiration from many other indie texts so my product fits the genre as well as possible. On my ancillary texts I have used the same colour scheme and font – which could be associated with that of the indie genre – I will elaborate on this later. My music video differs from both the poster and digipak as it is in quite a dim setting without the vibrant colours; it still suits the indie genre though.

The approach I have adopted for my ancillary texts has been minimalistic. They both easily standout due to the vibrant yellow colour and the font also stands out as it is in a relatively big size and bold. The video is minimalistic, but not in the same way. My video is set in a venue with no one around and just the band playing their instruments/singing. I feel that this is minimalistic; it is very similar to some of Jaws videos – notably Think Too Much, Feel Too Little. It is not complicated with any cuts to outside of the venue as it is just the band playing their song. The cuts may be seen as not minimalistic as there are plenty of them however I did this as I felt it would draw the viewer in. The lighting in my video is also fairly dim and not vibrant, like the yellow on the ancillary texts; but I feel that my band make up for this in the video. The lead singer is enthusiastic and moving around the stage and this. I feel that the combination of both my main product and the texts is very effective. I have also not put any effects on the video therefore this makes it simplistic as well, I was going to perhaps but the Bad TV and Aged Film effects on but decided not to for this reason.

The aim of all 3 of my products was the fit this ‘indie’ genre which I have talked about. My main text does this is many ways. Firstly, the clothes that the band members are wearing fits the genre, they are wearing baggy t-shirts, my bassist is wearing a Lyle and Scott t-shirt for example. This is what ‘indie’ people may see as fashionable and choose to wear, therefore hopefully it would be effective as it would draw in my target audience. A second way my main text has fit the ‘indie’ genre is through the instruments being used. There is one drummer, 1 bassist and 1 guitarist. This is usually what an indie band consists of, sometimes the lead singer has a guitar as well. In my draft I had given the lead singer a guitar but I didn’t feel it worked well as it limited his ability to move around the stage and his enthusiasm didn’t come through as well I had hoped. Finally the scene where my video is filmed ‘The Cookie Jar’ in Leicester city centre is an indie venue, this goes to show how I have tried my hardest for my main text to fit the genre.

My ancillary texts are similar to each other and the main product in the way that the certain styles that I have attempted to emulate are consistent and repeated to ensure the combination is effective. This can be shown through how my digipak and poster are similar; they both use the same colour scheme (yellow and black) and use the same font (Bebas Neue). I chose these colour schemes as I thought they were pretty different from the mainstream style of posters and I used the font as I had previously used it on my AS coursework and really liked it then, I feel that it stand outs, looks quirky and looks professional at the same time. They are also both symmetrical, as the writing is always in the middle of the background, this is so that it will stand out and attract the attention of readers. I feel that my digipak and advert is what ‘indie’ people will be looking for as it stands out and looks quirky. I haven’t used pictures on either of these in order to simply just draw the audience in with writing. I feel that my posters replicate that of the Hard-Fi – Stars Of CCTV album cover. I feel this looks straight to the point and is clean and professional.


Some people could say that the combination between my main product and ancillary texts in ineffective. This is because my band doesn’t exactly look smart, like the posters do. They are in baggy t-shirts and jeans as opposed to smarter clothes – I do feel that they look indie though and as the venue is professional and simplistic it makes up for it. The clothing is very similar to that of bands like Jaws and Palma Violets, so I would say that it is indie and the combination is in fact effective.