Evaluation Question 2

Transcript: 
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

When acknowledging the roles and purposes of my music video, I decided that I wanted my video to tell a story, and for the combination of the lyrics and visual aspects to make this a success. I wanted my audience to feel as though they were watching a story unfold while listening to the music, and to make their own interpretations about what this story means. With the cohesion of the song lyrics and visual elements, I believe that it will be easier for the audience to gain something from this video, and explore the narrative in their own way. Another purpose of the music video is to provide a sense of escapism for the audience, and with the combination of these elements, I believe the audience can fully immerse themselves in this narrative and furthermore be entertained by it. There is also an apparent theme of innocence and positivity, which is portrayed mainly by the main actress, and I wanted this to be clear to the audience. To achieve this, I included several close-ups and extreme close-ups of the actress smiling, looking at the sky, fiddling with balloon string and wearing converse, which highlight her innocence, positivity and optimism. However later in the video I wanted her innocence and positive attitude to be taken away as a representation of a ‘harsh reality’. I did this by providing a long shot of a ‘thug’ in a hooded jumper running up to her and popping her last balloon. In turn, as her yellow balloons symbolized hope and happiness; this prop enhanced the theme of innocence to the audience. I chose the colour yellow for the balloons as the colour has well-known connotations of comfort and happiness.

In addition, I also wanted nature to be a key feature in the music video, as I felt it would highlight the ‘free’ and ‘open’ characteristics of the main character in the narrative. In order to illustrate this to the audience, I used several establishing shots of the trees, greenery and pond. Furthermore, I wanted to begin the music video with shots of the park before the main characters’ balloons would brighten it up. This decision also allowed the audience to further develop a sense of escapism, as they are being presented with a whole new location where they will follow a character on a journey. I wanted the audience to be entertained and intrigued by the location as well as the narrative, which I hope I have achieved through the use of panning and establishing shots of the park.

I knew that I needed a unifying theme for both my main product and ancillary tasks to fit with, and I think this would be the yellow balloons, which symbolize hope and happiness. The yellow balloons are present throughout all my products, with every image in the digipak and magazine advert incorporating a yellow balloon in some way. In most images including in my print work the balloon actually covers the model’s face, highlighting how she is a further representation of hope and positivity. This key prop therefore emphasizes the theme of innocence (as balloons are frequently given to children), as well as positivity due to the colour of yellow, representing hope and optimism. I believe that this consistent use of the balloon will make it easy for the audience to identify the key theme of the music video, as well as make it easier for them to recognize the band’s unique style.

The house style of my products also further reinforces the theme of innocence and positivity, as I chose to use specific colours and fonts that would achieve this. The colour scheme included the colour of yellow, which is clearly relevant to the video and its theme, and I also included the colour red, as the writing on the balloons was this colour. I chose fairly basic fonts as I wanted to focus to be on the colours and images, but I also used the font Bradeley ITC for the song title, as it gave it a slightly handwritten appearance, and I felt this enhanced the theme of innocence and childlikeness.

Overall, I feel that my main product and ancillary tasks work greatly together to fulfill their roles and purposes while highlighting my chosen themes to audiences.