EVALUATION QUESTION 2

Evaluation question 2

How effective is the combination of your

main product and ancillary texts?

There are very certain, subtle themes that I used through both the

ancillary products and the music video. My entire project is

centered around the theme of winter, and therefore it is very easy

to pick out aspects from both that would make any listener know

that they are from the same line of products. The only thing I think

I could have been more specific on was the season, the music

video was (and had to be) filmed in the autumn, I think if I had

waited until it was really cold and we could get some real

iconography of winter into the music video the themes would have

been way more obvious.

I couldn’t decide whether to use a drawn or photographed

digipak so I decided to create rough plans of both and use

feedback to decide what would be best. Overall, it was

decided that the photographed digipak and poster was

best for the task at hand. This is because of my audience

feedback, although my drawn package shows more skill

and portrays innocence, the photographed package was

more popular with my demographic.

“I like you” is the first song on “the winter EP”, and I did

this deliberately because of is mention of autumn and the

way the lyrics describe the coming of winter. The music

video reflects this through shots of the autumn leaves and

other foliage. I think had I included a slight narrative this

would have been much more obvious to the viewers and

therefore had a better impact; I think it would have been a

nice idea to include other people in the video!

There are some similarities and differences between my

marketing campaign and a professional one. Laura marling

released her single “Cross your fingers” in June 2008 and

used social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter

in order to market the release. I also used this tactic -

social networking is  the main way of marketing low-budget

products (it costs nothing to start up a band page!). 

The video, single cover and magazine poster all had an artsy

theme to them. The video was mainly performance based, but

the extra skill where the shots were stop motioned gave stead

to a subtle narrative (and made parts of the video look drawn,

keeping with the theme). In hindsight I really would have

liked to create a small narrative in my own narrative using

similar methods. (The video link is under this PowerPoint).

Marling drew attention to the release of her debut album by offering it

to her target audience in a "song box" format. This is a relatively new

marketing tool and she was one of the first to use it, therefore creating

even more interested for herself and the new album. An example is this

article by The NME that explains the process. I didn't use this method

to market my own products, however it's certainly something to think

about for the future. In order to raise awareness for my own product, I

decided to use methods more conventional to theatrical trailers - I

created a teaser music video about 2 weeks before my video was

released in order to create awareness and interest.