How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary tasks?

For my A level portfolio I was briefed to create both a music video and accompanying digipak, consisting of a CD and magazine advert, for an unsigned band. I chose a band that I know and have seen around Norwich named ‘Kapok’. They produce a mix of alternative rock and grunge rock. I produced a 4 pain booklet to accompany an alternative CD case and CD print as well as the magazine advert and music video for their album and single both named ‘Ignorance is Choice’.

Throughout the productions I think the main overall theme would be that of claustrophobia and being stuck within somewhere. This is shown in the music video through the mise en scene mainly the location. The location we used for the main part of the shoot was my attic. Being quite a small space with low lighting the mise en scene creates a claustrophobic atmosphere which the protagonist in the video reflects by being stuck in a world of her own not being able to get out. This claustrophobic theme carries through to the digipak in which my main artwork for the booklet consist of photography using old cassette tapes. The use of a red type filter and close up shots with no real background or backdrop to the art makes the photos themselves feel claustrophobic along with the sci-fi type fonts that produce connotations of future closed in lifestyles.

The most obvious effective combination of the digipak and magazine is the artwork that is evident within both the booklet of the CD and the magazine itself. Both use the same photograph as a main and icon image that the audience would easily recognise. It’s an image of a cassette tape that is unwound and the unwound tape snakes into a zig zag formation. Within the booklet this zig zag is used to list the song names and within the magazine is flipped vertically so the tape winds down rather than along. Both are very striking images that the audience would easily recognise.

Another feature that occurs throughout both the main and ancillary tasks is the use of simplicity. Most evident within the magazine that is as minimal as possible but still projecting is use and point. Also the CD has not got too much ‘going on’ and is simple in it’s design and aesthetic quality. The music video itself is simple due to us not using any over the top effects or elaborate editing techniques. As well as us not creating a too confusing narrative or narrative structure. This simplicity isn’t over simple that the audience will be bored or uninterested but used to have the most amount of affect on the audience with no other distractions from the main point of both the main task and ancillary tasks.

This shows the strong continuity that is evident throughout all three works and that creates a self image for the band that will be recognisable to all there fans much like ‘Radiohead’s’ use of the mixture computer and social images and muse’s iconic symbol.