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

The relationship between my project and ancillary tasks is key to their successes. It is important to note that the ancillary tasks should combine with music video in such a way as to enhance its success, and that of the entire project, and such the links between them should be strong and exist in a way that draws an audience into the franchise in general, and not focus their attention on a single element.

I chose to use a simple, brown paper style theme for both ancillary tasks. In a way, the magazine advert section was directly linked to the album by the shared theme, and would act as more effective advertising as a result of recognition. A person may walk into a record shop, for example, and immediately pick out the album on the shelves due to recognising the cover image from the advert they had seen in their favourite music magazine. In turn, this would generate more interest in the music video through increased popularity of the album. I feel that this method of visually tying the two ideas together is a successful form of advertising, and increases the success of my work as a combination. This idea was confirmed somewhat by a short discussion raised using the social network 'Facebook'. The audience members who replied to my post commented on how they would automatically associate the two pieces, and that the album would be far more likely to register in their minds if presented to them in a music shop.

In terms of visuals, the links between the ancillaries and the main task are not immediately clear. The theme of my ancillary does not make a visual link with the mise-en-scene of  my music video, and an observer may have to more actively decode the significance of the brown paper idea. In my view, I chose to use the brown paper not because of a obvious link to my video in how it looks, but more so in how it makes you feel. The qualities people associate with brown paper packages usually feature nostalgia, optimism and excitement. These are traits that I attempted to portray in my music video. The optimistic, excited start to a new day. The feeling of nostalgia that goes with the jazz-influenced hip-hop sound, harking back to the days of Marvin Gaye. The symbolic connotations of brown paper is that of a gift. It represents a gift in much the same way that the efforts of the Plasticine men represents a gift. As such, the combination of my portfolio is more than visual, it is emotional. Tying into what a person feels rather than sees which is, in my opinion, far more powerful and makes for a more successful combination. By looking at the responses to the question I posted on my facebook page, it is fair to say that other people's interpretation of the look of my ancillary tasks somewhat match my own, reinforcing the idea that people will associate the two sections of my portfolio.

I tried to keep an ongoing trend of simplicity through my work. This is shown in the homogeneity of my ancillary task, and the modesty of my music video. The use of a straightforward, yet effective design for my ancillary creates a great deal of symbolism and a lasting impression from a basic idea. This is also true of my production work. It held a philosophy of simplicity, based on an idea containing little dis-equilibrium or raw emotion, but merely suggested ideas and feelings to the audience. By utilising this idea of a single set of ideals running through my entire portfolio, it gives an impression of identity, promoting a single idea more effectively than three projects with little linking them together.