Monday 14 December 2009

LH -Evaluation of Music Video

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

We have tried to construct a brand image for the artist as the lyrics specifically say that ' I am a Nerd, and I'm 17,' that can be identified throughout the ancillary texts. We thought that this was a good starting point as the narrative that we thought we could create would be sell able, unique, creative and introduce a lovable character. Within the ancillary texts we have tried to use a lot of visual motifs that would portray the artist as a stereotypical geek which the audience can easily identify and recognise that he is quite a nerdy character. By geeky we mean that in our audience research we discovered that a stereotypical view of a geek would have glasses, a shirt, tie and long un-styled hair. Continuing from this we discovered that the audience thought that a geek would probably be intellectual, a book worm and not very good with social interaction.

Through the creation of the Digi-pak we tried to reinforce the geeky image as he has a few drawings of what he wants to achieve in life which may suggest he is not as geeky as his exterior image suggests. However saying this, Example as an artist is not visually geeky in appearance but during our research stage we discovered that in 1992 he won the young poet of the year award which could suggest that he is slightly 'geeky.' To further this we decided that it would be appropriate if we created the digi-pak in a note book style to try and portray the continued intellectual persona, as we thought that it would be typical of a geeky person to be doodling and scribbling within a school note/exercise book.










Within the video we have tried to use a few visual motifs that suggest that he is a geek rather than the obvious exterior image of a geek. A few examples of this are the books that he has been reading are called "Coping with Girls and Coping with Love" this books combined suggest that he is a geek as he is not only reading but he is reading about social interaction so you would presume that he can't interact with girls very well. Another example is when he waves at the camera in a geeky way as it is the Star Trek wave, this could also be considered as an intertextual reference as Star Trek is often considered as a geeky programme.













This geek brand image is also represented in our print advert as we decided that it would be good to use an image that could easily be associated with from the video. This lead us onto deciding that we would use the image where he is in his 'nerdy' costume and is in front of the colourful background as it is easily identifiable.















When creating our ancillary texts we used Dyer's framework to try and create the star persona that would help us to sell the artist to a large and loyal audience. To do this there were quite a few things that we had to do to try and create this star image some of these things included the actual representation of the artist, a unique selling point, and creativity.

According to Dyer "A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films and music)" Therefore we have tried to construct the brand/star image using Dyer's principles throughout the advert and digi-pak.


We tried to follow this principle by making our artist as unique and creative as possible. We felt that through our video, digi-pak and print advert we have achieved this as our video is very post-modern as the character is similar to some American Teen comedy characters such as McLovin in Super Bad.



Specifically within the advert we have tried to construct the star as humorous as he is in the costume of the geek but is doing quite a 'jock' pose as he is tensing his muscles which we thought would suggest that he wants to transform to a 'cool' kid which is exactly what happens within the video. Within the Digi-pak we tried to portray the star as a lovable geek as he wants the finer things in life such as a nice car and a "i want a girl like Angelina Jolie".

Dyer talks about two paradoxes, they are : Paradox 1 the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. Paradox 2 is the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.


Paradox 1-We felt that by creating an image that was humorous this would create appeal as most people would find this funny as it is a 'stereotypical' geek so this would allow us to create a star image that would be unique, creative and have a unique selling point as it is like no other music video. This is because within the video the two characters are binary oppositions as one is quite geeky and the other (who is addressing the audience as 1st person - rapper) are opposites as he is quite stereotypical of a normal person. This is emphasised within the cross cuts within the video as it reinforces the star image as the 1st person mode creates as para-social connection. As people would be able to relate with both characters.From using a stereotypical geek image we also thought that this would leave consumers intrigued as to how his life and music career would continue as during the song he changes to a 'normal' person so this creates some sort of suspense as his is a lovable hero meaning that people want him to do well and 'get the girl.'





Paradox 2- the music video constructs persona which is simultaneously present and absent, the audience strive to make sense of or complete the 'image' and what eventually happens to the geek character. The branding satisfies the audiences questions by presenting the artist in the digi-pak and again the print advert.


Overall we felt that our combination of ancillary texts proved to be very effective especially as we were trying to create a brand image for the artist. Our use of visual motifs within the digi-pak, advert and video were particularly effective as a few of these were specifically mentioned in our final feedback, quite a few people specifically mentioned the Star Trek style wave and the wave when the character runs down the stairs. A few quotes from the final feedback in response to the question what was your favourite shot? And did this portray the character as a geek? were 'character waving and rushing down the stairs,'and ' portrays in a very geeky way as this was similar to star trek episodes.'

1 comment: