Evaluation Question 2 : How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary

Texts?

For an artist to be recognisable in the pop industry it is vital that there is a strong link between the
music video and ancillary products. I desire to create a strong bond between the two so that there
is a sense of branding and a distinct style can be achieved. It’s vital that there is an overall image
on the basis that the pop genre focus on image and portrayal. The main image highlighted on my
album cover and magazine advertisement is an image shot on the same day as the filming on my
music video. This enables a direct link between the main product and ancillary texts. The seductive
pose used in this image not only conforms to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze, on the basis that i style
and composed the images so that they appealed to both males and females through body
language (in a seductive manner), image and eye contact. This snapshot also mediates the power
of emotion as well as portraying the antagonist in a powerful/superior way, enabling this to be
further portrayed and continued through to the ancillary texts. The styling of my artist is the same
on my digipak, magazine advert and throughout the video, mediating a strong bond between all
three. The four on clothing and use of minimal makeup provides a direct contrast, enabling a sense
of verisimilitude, allowing a realistic look to be produced. This is vital in the pop industry as styling
and image is focused on, on the basis that it is a competitive genre and therefore styling is needed
in order for the artists to stand out within this genre and be successful.

The overall styling of my ancillary texts are very quirky appearing unconventional similar to the
clothing and styling used within my music video. Whilst the locations are fairly simplistic and clean
focusing on a mainly monochrome colour palette with cool tones of green or pastel colours, as
highlighted through the plain white bed sheets, all white kitchen units and white bath, its clear that
my artists styling is a direct contrast to this on the basis that she wears fairly quirky clothing with a
focus on pop colours like pink or orange making her the main focus. Similarly, the images used on
my digipak and magazine advert are shown in black and white with a simplistic monochrome
backdrop with the important text and images highlighted with a pop colour of orange. Whilst my
images on these ancillary products are portrayed in a fairly disjunctive way in the sense that some
of the images went centrally placed and tend to have a lot of white space, thee images have still
been thoughtfully placed. This is similar in my music video, as whist all of the shots in my music
video appear to be carefully framed, I decided to use handheld camera shots to add verisimilitude
to the shots which links the products together as they’re not perfect in framing but appear so. We
carefully considered the framing of our shots so that our final video had a professionally
looking finish and conveyed generic conventions shown in an actual music video. This is similarly
portrayed throughout my music video through the use of eye contact scenes used, on the basis
that I focused on close-up/ mid-shots so that the eye contact had a direct impact on the audience.
The aspects where Milli-Coco makes eye contact with the camera are very engaging, mediating a
sense of emotion and inclusion with the audience. This is further portrayed in the ancillary products
where Milli-Coco further engages with the audience through the eye contact used in the
photography used on the digipak and magazine advert. This conveys a feeling of verisimilitude as
the audience will feel engaged with the artist. In addition to the use of eye contact, my artist also
uses expressions to show the progression of realisation of emotions, linking the words of the song
with the video and photography, at the beginning of the video the use of vacant expressions
convey sadness ad a visual representation of my artists emotions whereas it’s apparent that
towards the end m artist is left smiling acting almost as a contrast within the individual shots. This
is similar portrayed in the ancillary products as there are a variety of expressions shown throughout
(some vacant, some posing etc).

Despite other people featuring on the album, is clear that Milli-Coco is the main artist. As a result of
this the record label (TDP) would demand to have one lead that would create a sense of branding
which means that, hence why Milli-Coco is the only person on all ancillary texts (digipak, music
video and magazine advert) meaning that she will not only attract the publics eye ion terms of
marketing her product with her image but Milli-Coco would also be a part of the production side. I
decided upon doing this as I was inspired by Dyer’s theory of having a ‘star image’ whom is shown
in my video and ancillary products. My artist was constructed into a star image who would be
related to the audience, due o the emotion shown throughout. This star persona has been shown
during our music video and on my digipak and magazine advert, generating a strong link between
all three products. This is vital as in order to be successful in the competitive pop genre the artist
needs to be a selling point (wether that be through image or marketing). My record label logo
features on my ancillary products as this is a generic convention of digipaks and magazine adverts.
Despite the logo not featuring in the video, the video ad a whole represents the label due to Milli-
Coco featuring in it. The use of the record label’s logo on my ancillary text would bring the products
together ad a brand which the target audience could relate to.