Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2

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

 Creating the brand ‘League of Gentlemen’ was not easy as my genre was rap. I had to portray a different side to the genre. As appose to creating a typical rap image, I chose to construct an image based on class and wealth as well as adding in some of the conventional elements. When we chose our song ‘My Life Be Like’ we knew that we did not have to obey the standards of conventional hip hop as the issues discussed in the song are about life and choices that could affect anyone. I chose to name my album Sky High as I thought that the song and the group name all have a sense of wealth and all connote that nothing is impossible e.g. league of gentlemen (it is possible to rap and still be classy) and also the song name ‘My Life Be Like’ shows elements of emotions and feelings directed to both prayer and god (Sky High matches this effect well). As you see in the video I have used various lighting techniques to convey emotion (as well as directing my actor to portray these emotions), when the mood is set to be happy and represent new beginnings I have used a light/dark sunset lighting effects to show the dawn of a new day, this is conveyed in the album name sky high as this to represents regeneration and a possible link to even and the afterlife.

My first draft of my advert and digipak including references to alcohol and the celebrity exclusive lifestyle, this did represent my unconventional image for my rapper, and however it did it too well. The image was almost tainted by the bosting of wealth and superiority over others, this then made me think about what I could construct that would be both original )in some aspect) and have elements of simplicity to make the digipak and advert both seem more classy. . My digipak and poster were purposely linked together with the same picture that I took because I thought that it would identify our brand a little more. There is no picture of the artist on my digipak and advert as I think this keeps in tone with today’s simplistic designs (apple adverts, simple music videos etc.)

Music Video

My music video was has a complex narrative, when asking people after what they thought it was the answers we got were mixed but mostly referenced a new start or new beginnings. We tried to link both of our ancillary texts in our music video, in our own ways. As we both featured in our video we thought it would be clever to reference them then. As you can from the screen shot I am pointing to the sky to reference my album name ‘Sky High’ I think this is effective as it combines my products together and also effectively shows the artist emotions being put into place with an on-going them of aiming to be ‘Sky High’.

Throughout the song you see the journey that the artist goes through from realisation of his life and how he has his money but no meaning to his life spiritually. You see the measures he takers to find himself (drinking, driving for long distances, performing on rooftops and alley ways) you also the story unravel as you see him at the end realise what he has to do, this is not shown in the video to allow viewers to come up with own interpretation, the possibilities are endless. However one thing that is clear is that his ambitious behaviour towards the end agreeing to come back to the ‘studio’ and leaving the alcohol behind in the sunset suggests his problems have floated away into the sky and that his potential whether it be carer wise or individually as a person is sky high.