How effective is the combination of our main product and
ancillary product?
Overall I believe with all three products; the music video,
the magazine advert and the digi-pak cover (cd cover) (with the magazine advert
and cd cover being the ancillary products) have combined together to create an
effective way to view our created product. We decided to have both of the
ancillary products linking with each other and then both of those linking in with
the music video. This makes it recognisable to the audience but also opens a
broader way to tell a story through images rather than by video.
Firstly the digi-pak links to the video as the characters on
the left cover and right cover are the actors which appear in the video as the
artist who wrote the song and the featured singer in the song. The idea which
is explored of a break up in the video is also seen by these two panels making
the story appear in the images of the ancillary product. There is a back inside
cover separating the pictures of the two actors, this signifies that there is a
break up and something in the way of them both with the distance of this gap
quite considerable it shows as a metaphor for the distance between them two
since they have broken up. In addition to this space both of the actors look
upset and have a slight (but noticeable) frown on the faces. This could be
where the audience could encode what they want of, they could both be sad due
to the breakup, because they are angry with one another or upset as they feel
cheated. This last idea makes the audience almost chose an actor to ‘side’ with
or sympathise with. Stuart halls theory of encoding/decoding would fit into
this as the preferred reading of the text (the lead male role is in the
wrong)is encoded using technologies and conventions of the medium, which then
the audience members will respond to the texts in different ways. The bottom
three images of the digi-pak which is the left cover, back cover and front
cover also relate to the video. There is again the actor who is in the video on
the back cover and is seen in a woodland area, this woodland area is the place
which was used for the filming of the product so some of the background of
these three images can be seen in our video. This is successful in making the
audience automatically hear the song in there head if they see this digi-pak cover
as they will recognise the location from the song. The change in colour from
black and white links in with the progression of the male characters situation
has gotten worse over time and how he has slipped away from his ex-girlfriend
and faded away, which is notable in the change from colour to black and white.
The digi-pak also successfully shows another side to the lead male character which
is not in the video. This is the innocent heartbroken side he is sat alone
looking into the distance almost longing for his lost love. This could create
different readings between the audience members as each one of them would
decode this image and then what they see on screen differently.
The magazine advert could also be related to the product a
links extremely successfully with the digi-pak. We chose to do a double page spread
advert as we separate the two characters onto separate sides to show the separation
which is seen in the video throughout. This image will evoke a similar kind of
view as the digi-pak (which would be mixed views) although some of the audience
members more than others will be inclined to use the magazine advert to decode
there reading from which would be the dominant preferred reading if the advert
was to be seen by the masses. There is a line which is closer to the male characters
face and it’s not in the centre, this line is metaphorical for the idea of
innocence of the female character as the line is closer to the male it means he
is in the wrong. But as the line is further away from the female character it
shows she has control over what she does, hence the male being in the wrong for
‘cheating’ on her and not being able to control his actions. The magazine
advert does fit in with Gotye’s own conventions as it is an unusual but
simplistic magazine advert. Although it is simple it makes the audience members
stop and think about it in detail to gather the reading they want from it
weather that be dominant, negotiated or oppositional.
The way in which all products link with one another has
turned out exactly how we wanted and become very effective in creating a
fragmented audience whose views are different from looking at each product. Not
only this but even if they didn’t have the song name on both the magazine
advert and the digi-pak they would both be easily recognisable as they all link
so strongly with each one. But together the video shows the initial break up
and what went wrong but the ancillary products show this story in frames at different
and more skewed angles to make the audience view this productive actively and active
pieces of media are what the fragmented audience of today look for.
No comments:
Post a Comment