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

The brief was to create two print texts, this being an advertisement and a digipak for a chosen band. We have set out to create a cohesive band image to promote the album through using images which we believe show the band in a particular positive light and also ones which would appeal to a target audience.

• The advertisement was designed to run as a full page advert within the magazine NME. This is as we believed the band we are developing these texts for fit in with the genre of other bands which appear in this magazine.

Here are two images from the magazine we wish to appear in, this shows the lo-fi gritty look of the magazine:













• Our advertisement consisted of a collage of ripped out random images of music magazines, polaroids of each of the band members and also pieces of scrap paper with the information we wished to give on the advertisement such as band name and release date for the album. The advertisement conveys many different meanings:
• The advert is unique and original but at the same time conforming to the conventions of the indie music genre. This is as the conventions of the indie music genre is being random and this is what this advertisement is. This idea of being random is to be different and very unique from anything else. For example in the Arctic Monkeys music video it shows people dressed up as clowns fighting gangsters. As shown in the image below:









• A convention of the genre is to be rebellious and this is symbolised through our advertisement. This is as the images used on the advert are all ripped out with rough edges with not much care, this can connote rebellion as it could show kids ripping up books at school, and there is no sense of order and conformity to it.
• This advertisement fits in with the teen culture which is popular in modern society. This is the culture which has developed from films such as:
•American Pie
•SuperBad
•Role Models
These all include kids in America going to high school and being slightly rebellious and foccused on partying. Our advertisement fits in with this as it consists of a cork board with lots of random images on there from popular magazines such as gaming pictures and girls. This can connote a teenagers bedroom as it looks as if it is something which could appear in a teenagers bedroom.

Here is our print advertisement to appear in NME, I have pointed out all of the parts of the advertisement I have commented on (click on image to make larger):
















• The digipak conveys very similar meanings to that of the advertisement as the same image is used. By doing this people can make a clear link between the two and notice it is the same band. The front cover has more of a sense of order to it, this is so if someone glances at the album cover they can instantly recognise what the band look like, the name of the band and the name of the album. But at the same time it also fits in with the rest of the texts as it has the cork board background and a border consisting of random ripped out images. This is also the same as the back cover as we wanted the names of the tracks to be easily visable and stand out so if someone knew of a certain track they could instantly recognise it.

Here is the digipak with each bit I have talked about pointed out (click on image to make larger):













• The advertisement and the digipak link in with one another to help construct a band image. Both of the texts are very original and lo-fi. This also fits in with the music video for one of the tracks as this is also very unique and lo-fi. The music video also fits in with the idea of high school teenagers as almost the whole video is recorded in a school gym. Both print texts are postmodern as there is clear intertextual references to popular media such as the films which were mentioned earlier and a mix of boundaries between film, music and advertisement. They are postmodern as they are stylish, stylistic and playful.

• Both print texts link to the music video as they are all postmodern and all comform to the conventions of the indie music genre. The conventions of the indie genre being:
• Rebellion
• British
• Unique
• Lo-fi
• Gritty
• Iconography such as smoking, instruments shown and casual dressing.
Here is some images showing the iconography of the indie genre from the band Arctic Monkeys as we believe they are very similar to the band we are representing:















Also the faces of all the band members are clearly shown in all texts. We have done this through meat shots are used in the music video and then polaroids of the faces of all band members are used in both the digipak and advertisement.

• Richard Dyer’s critical framework on the construct of the star image is relevant to all three texts we have created. This is as he explained how ‘star’ images appeal to people and there is two paradox’s and these are being shown as extraordinary and ordinary at the same time. This is relevant to our pieces as the band ‘Give Get Given’ are shown as being both ordinary yet extraordinary. They appear as ordinary as within the music video there is small numbers of them, shown as having a laugh and recording a performance in a small garage but we as viewers believe we should in some way idolise this band and they are shown as being extraordinary. This is through the use of a number of techniques such as low camera angles looking up at the band and they are shown as being very creative and original which gives the band credibility.