Final Versions of Ancillary Texts

Drafts of Ancillary Texts

Images Taken for Ancillary Texts

Analysis of Magazine Advertisement for Digipak

This is an example of a magazine advertisement that promotes the artist and their CD. The advertisement has made use of the conventions of what a poster promoting a CD uses. For instance, there is a large image of the artist, allowing the audience to identify who the artist is. Although, he is not using direct mode of address, therefore the viewer cannot fully see what he looks like and his presence in the poster doesn't really attract the audience towards it. However, we can see that the poster has been edited using photoshop, where they have made use of several different brushes somewhat setting a scene. For example, there is a silhouette of blocks of flats; the other brushes (rough, edgy, graffiti) also influence the urban genre the artist belongs to. In addition, they have also made use of a star like brush suggesting the artist's stardom. The artist's name which is also in a graffiti like font indicates that he belongs to the scene that has been set. The title of the cd along with the featured artists is right in the middle of the poster and is very bold and eye catching and stands out the most. Finally, there are other features which are essential in a promotional advertisements that were used. This includes the release date, where is it available to purchase (e.g. HMV and itunes),artist's website,record label and an image of what the front cover of the cd looks like.

Analysis of Digipack

From looking at the images of the artist, we can see that she is represented in a sexual way, due to the fact that she is wearing revealing clothes that expose a lot of flesh. On the other hand, the dress she is wearing on the front cover is white and the connotations that reflect this colour is innocence and purity.

The colours that are present throughout the digipak is black, beige and white. I think these colours have been chosen, as they reflect the artist's music and style. For example, she is known for her varied range of music from ballads to R'N'B; the colours complement her range of music styles, as each colour creates different elements. Black creates a sense of darkness, white connotes innocence and purity; beige is in between the two contrasting colours.
In addition, the design and layout also reflects the style of the artist, as the artist's hair and clothing is somewhat the same as the colours used on the digipak. The fonts used also reflect the artist's style, for instance the 'Mariah Carey' is in big bold letters, whereas the title of the album is more subtle a flowy. There is also a butterfly at the end of the title; the butterfly is known as the artist's logo, which reflects her personality and music.

When looking at the digipak, you wouldn't be able to tell what genre of music the artist does. Although, it does lead you on to believe that her music could be any genre, due to the contrasting colours. The packaging is set up with the artist's name, the title and three diffrent images of the artist on the front cover; another image of the artist and the titles of the song on the right on the back; inside there are several photos of the artist on the left and then there are two cds, one in the middle and the other on the right and they each have the artists name, the title and the titles of the songs on the cd.
The title of the album is 'Memoirs of an imperfect angel' and it does relate to the image on the front in different ways. For example, the white dress she is wearing is somewhat angelic, hence the presence of 'angel' in the title. Also, there are three ascending images of the artist doing different things; this relates to the word 'Memoirs' meaning memories, as they can be seen as each memories being captured by the camera.

Summary of Video

Overall, our video illustrates the meaning of the song very well, in which we used both narrative and performance to captivate the meaning. The song is about the pain and heartache that a female(protagonist) goes through; this is reflected in the video through her vulnerability at the beginning and anger towards the middle. At the beginning we see a male and female as a couple walking through the park. She suddenly breaks down and cries; tries to confide in him, but he doesn't want to hear it and walks off. We then see a shot of her singing to him as he walks away. The following scene we have the boy at home trying to turn the TV on but i doesn't work until he hits it. after a while he goes off to sleep but keeps on having nightmares of his girlfriend who turns into having an obsession with him and generates an anger toward him which he see in his nightmare. Throughout the video we see cut back clips of him tossing and turning constantly in his sleep; flashbacks of the couple together are seen in this stage. Midway we see a complete different side to the artist (the girl) as she turns devilish and completely crazy to the point she follows him home and looks into his window while sleeping. Towards the end we see her crawling towards him up his bed whilst he is sleeping and then he wakes up to find she isn't there and that it was all a nightmare.

The video makes use of the forms and conventions of the rock genre effectively, for example, the artist's image is very much like the image of a rock artist- messy hair and heavy eye make-up. In addition, we have more importantly used the conventions of music videos, for instance the music establishes a general mood; drives the editing to build around that mood, in which we have done so. In particular when the tempo and beat of the song changes, there tends to be shorter shots (fast-cut montage) and the image of the artist changes dramatically. Furthermore, we have made use of close-up shots of the artist. This is common in all music videos partly because of the dsire to create a sense of intimacy for the audience; they also allow audience recognition of the artist.

Final Version of Video

I filmed several different shots, including the artist performing on stage and some shots of her performing in the park.

Rough Cut of Video

During the production of the video, I mainly filmed different shots, including the artist performing on stage and some shots of her performing in the park.

Conventions of the Genre

The genre we have used is a cross between urban soul and rock. The artist Nneka is known as an R&B/soul/hip hop singer; in which the lyrics to the song is very deep and soulful. However, the song inflicts aspects of rock, as the version we used was remixed by Chase & Status.

Conventions of urban soul include: catchy rhythms, stressed by hand claps and extemporaneous body moves. Call and response between soloist and the chorus, and an especially tense vocal sound. The genre also used improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds.

Conventions of the rock genre: The sound revolves around the guitar back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums and keyboard instruments such as organ/piano. Rock music is usually formed by a rock band, for example, Nickelback or Evanescence. They consist of the lead singer, electric guitarist, bass guitarist and a drummer, forming a quartet. In addition, the videos for the genre are usually performance based.