H O W E F F E C T I V E I S T H E C O M B I N AT I O N

OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT WITH

ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Q U E S T I O N T WO - H A N N A H W I C K S
 GENERIC LINKS
• When researching the indie genre of music I came across many genre conventions that fell across a wide range of
music videos in the indie genre. It was clear that the performance element was incredibly important when
establishing links between the genre of music and the music video. It is common of indie artists to incorporate a
performance element as one of the main features in a music video unlike other genres like pop artists, in the indie
genre their videos often are clean cut of all the glamour and focus on the performance of the track, rather than
the production. I choose to include shots of the music artist I chose in my music video as this is a clear indication
of the genre, the shots remain simple and effectively allow the music to be the sole focus as the shots feature a
dark background with just the artist in view. This minimalistic approach is clear genre convention of indie music
and is an effective way to establish to the audience the genre of music.
• The relationship between lyrics and visuals, Andrew Goodwin, is effectively shown in my music video through the
lyrics of ‘I wanna go where the party goes’ and the casting of our young actors,. When you first think of a party ,
immediately an image of youth and fun is featured, therefore I have cast teens, 17 years old specifically as this is
usually the age of which people attend house parties.
• However, one convention I have not conformed to is the length of the track, because I personally found it was too
long for my edit I ended up cutting it down by around 30 seconds and using an editing audio tool called
‘expediential fade’ to allow the song to have a soft fade out. Because I had done this I was not able to promote the
song in its entirety, however I do not feel this has effected the overall quality of my video due to the fact that I able
to focus on the upmost tense part of the song, here I was able to create the most dramatic effect and really create
a relationship between the beat of the song and visuals.
VISUAL LINKS
• I have consistently used the same font across all of my print productions, I choose a bold font named
‘Bebas Neue’ from www.dafont.com. This font creates a strong and bold brand identity for my artist
through the use of a font, the wideness of the letters grabs the audiences attention and does so in a
stylistic way.
• Another convention of the indie genre is using dark color symbolism in their productions, this is
something I have employed across all my texts, both print and music video. It is most common for indie
songs to have a sad tone and story, therefore to be in line with Goodwin’s theory of the relationship
between lyrics and visuals, the dark colors worn by the artist or actors represents this saddened tone or
story of the song. This consistency across my produced texts created the right constructed image for the
indie singer/songwriter that I have chosen to use.
• Across all of my texts I have employed the use of newspapers throughout, it is more present in my print
productions than my music video. In my print productions I have consistently used a newspaper as the
background behind my own photographs of my artists and as a cover over his eyes. This relates to my
earlier point about dark color symbolism used in my music video. The newspaper is an old fashioned print
with black and white text, this is a generic link that I have deliberately and consistently across all of my
productions.
 Obviously shouting with one

THEMATIC LINKS
another and now in a volatile
dynamic with their past
relationship hanging over
them

• The dominant theme that occurs throughout my print production and my music video, is
the breakdown of human communication, this is present through how my characters
interact with each other in various scenes. At first they are seen to be happy and
laughing, however it is clear this is a flashback through the lighting of this shot and the
juxtaposition of what is later to be portrayed as the present, they are shot to be The coldness of the blue
communicating well like any couple would. Then a contrast is illustrated to the audience
sky is connotative of
through the shots of them arguing immensely in the climatic scene, shown below. This
almost oxymoron like relationship breakdown is shown effectively through the way their their present feelings
communications have changed, through the shots of them arguing and shouting at each towards each other and
other it is clear they are no longer and in love and seemingly appear to dislike each other, juxtaposes how they
this goes in hand with the theme of heartbreak that I have presented solely in my music once felt loving emotions
video. for one another.
Their body language is rigid and
stiffly formed which conveys my
theme of breakdown of
Notice here the sepia like tones that communications as they struggle
are a direct opposite of the to effectively communicate their
screenshot above, this shows how feelings to one another without
happy the relationship was. The
orange and pink lighting tones a heated argument subsequently
connote that happiness effectively. becoming the product of this.
THEMATIC LINKS
• In my print productions, my ancillary texts, I have
deliberately chosen to illustrate the same theme, this is
done by the newspaper background and which also
covers his eyes. A newspaper is a printed way of
communicating worldwide news to the public and is
widely available in most countries, therefore is a mass
communicator, this is why I have chosen to have it
covering my artists eyes and mouth as these are the
sense we most widely communicate with. The
newspaper covering his mouth and eyes is employing my
theme of broken communications through covering what
peoples use to communicate with, this could also be a
message about the hypodermic needle theory; we
believe whatever the media tells us. However it is
showing how communicating can be difficult with one
another by laying across him.
 REPRESENTATION
• Within my productions I have created the image of Finn being a a heartbroken and lost artists who is struggling to
make his way through life without his other half, in doing this he puts all him time and energy into his music as this is
his pathway into understanding his feelings. I have done this through the editing of music video, for example I have
heavily featured hots of Finn playing the drums with what is an angry demise. Here you can see his heated facial
expression and his tense body language, it is through this that my representation of a scorned and tortured artist is
lost without his love.
• Across my print productions I have created the same representation, I have effectively obscured his face by placing a
photograph of an old fashioned newspaper over his face and eyes thus creating the illusion of a barrier between him
and the audience. This also entwines with my theme of breakdown of communication because of the created barrier
it is highlighted how Finn is finding it difficult to communicate with the world.
• In my music video I have conformed and represented the classic stereotype of teenagers feeling lost and uninvolved
with the world, I have shown this through the actions of my protagonist; Catlin. She is shown to struggle to get out
of bed, and is left being troubled with the memories of her former relationship and once happy self. This saddened
behavior is also reflected through my print productions through the monotone color palette, it is obvious that these
colors are a metaphor my characters and artists feelings at such time. This representation is something that will not
be unknown to my targeted audience, such a representation will have been experienced by most people at one point
in their lives and typically within their teenage years. Therefore I feel confident in saying that my created
representation will be relatable to my audience.
It is at this point Here you can see
that the audience his angry facial
here the climatic expression which is
drums, this point also reflected
in the track is through the lighting
where we also see which is tone of
my lead and also dark navy blue. The
the protagonist act dark color connotes
in a fit of anger, how he is feeling; he
this correlates is feeling tormented
directly with Finn through his
heavily beating the heartbreak. How
drums, I features the background is
this in between left empty also
her fit of anger. represents his
This makes the bleakness
link of this
representation
even stronger.
REPRESENTATION
• However, this being said I will have to take into consideration Stuart Hall’s theory on decoding and
encoding productions. I as the producer of my productions have created a specific encode of my product, I
am unable to see it any other way, However, it is plausible that my audience will decode such
representations in a completely different way which is entirely dependent on their background and own
personal life experiences. Therefore, although I have strived to create set representation for my audience,
it is quite possible that people will interpret my texts in a different way than I had planned. The intended
polysemy of my products could lead to a portion of my audience rejecting one representation and
decoding or deciding on their own, thus although I set out to create my own text representations, the
audience may have a varied response to my productions.
CONCLUSION
• In my own opinion I think I have created strong links across all of my productions, I think I have done this
most strongly through the created representations by including a set of similar color palettes and themes
throughout all of my texts. However, if I was to do this again I think overall I would be able to make
stronger and more obvious links by learning from my mistakes. For example, I perhaps would feature my
artist Finn in it more as I chose to have him on the front of all my print productions, I think close up shots
of him would be more effective and I would have liked to have him act as the lead male in my music video.
This would have made his representation of being a heartbroken artist stronger and possibly raised the
level of standard across my texts.