Evaluation: Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

During the planning of our music video production, as a performance piece, the star (Adam) was used as the main attraction of our product, starring in the music video as well as promoting the album artwork with the branding of his image on the digipak as well as the magazine advert. This relates to Goodwin’s Star theory in which he states that the star will be the focal point of the media product presented. Like the music video, the ancillary texts created conform to the genre of grime in which dark, dull colours are used as well the inclusion of urban elements such as brick walls covered with graffiti. This can be seen in our magazine advert as well as the digipak.

The genre of grime is depicted throughout the media texts created. In the music video the locations used summarize the urban features of the lower class life style. This is shown by the use of back alleys as well as the use of council flats in the background of various scenes. In preparation for shooting our music video we travelled around multiple council estates in order to find the location which most typically suited the characteristics of our genre.

Costume also promotes this feature as the main star is seen wearing a variety of hooded clothes and track suits which are commonly associated with urban youth culture. The use of violence throughout the piece relates to the lyrics of the song in which violent nature is demonstrated - ‘Bloods pouring I got stains off the knife'.

Violence is highly depicted in the music video by the use of props. For example throughout the music video the star carries a baseball bat. This was used in order to show how lower class youth assert their dominance in order to achieve credibility throughout the lower class society they live in. This anti-social behaviour is carried out in order to highlight the grime genre in which our chosen song comes from. Violence is also shown by the way in which the star character breaks into a house and then carjacks a vehicle.

The theme of lower class urban culture and the corresponding violence is pursued in the artwork of the magazine advert as it highly demonstrates an uncaring and lower class area. This is shown by the litter on the ground surrounding the bins within the image. The irony of the litter surrounding the bins shows how little the lower class are devoted to decent living standards or care for the place and environment they live in.

The editing of this magazine advert has been used to create a dirty and unsettling effect on the location demonstrated by the shadowy effects across the wall which creates an evil and disturbing atmosphere. Anti-social behaviour is followed through into the magazine advert and album artwork. For example the star of the music video is edited onto the magazine advert to create the effect that he is part of the graffiti on the wall. This represents how he is judged as a person by the area in which he lives. The main star lives in a neglected place, therefore, he himself is neglected from society and acts out in a violent manor. The red eyes represent the violent and evil nature of the main star.

The album artwork continues to follow the same attributes of the main product. Grime is associated within the digipak by the use of dark and dull colours that represent the basic and unappealing lower class life style. The backwards lettering on the front cover is used as a metaphor to express the backward state of the lower class living standards and social life. The digipak is made up of single close ups of the main star. This is done to exaggerate the anti-social behaviour of the main character which relate to the violent lyrics of Tempa T. The album name ‘The Decline’ was derived from the idea of a lower class society as the word decline represents the grime genre of the album perfectly since it annotates that the lower class people are declining lower in society, resorting to violence and law breaking and refusal to follow the basic rules of society, which is demonstrated throughout our music video.

I feel the main product and ancillary texts were combined effectively to produce a specific brand and ideas that relate well to the genre of grime and the specific background details it originates from.

http://www.wix.com/asaproduction1/aromalo