Question 2: How Effective is the Combination of Your Main and Ancillary Texts Revised and Restructured

The target demographic for Ruth Bewsey is mainly female orientated, with teenage girls of a similar age to the artist looking up to and aspiring to her. Because of this the aim has always been to give the artist a positive representation and make sure she is a good role model for aspiring young girls. This is a breath of fresh air from the many deprecating, ‘sexy’ manufactured girl bands out there that girls are looking to for inspiration and getting the wrong impressions. With my music video and ancillary texts I want to show these girls that in order to be a strong self-empowered and ‘sexy’ woman you don’t need to be scantily clad with little left to the imagination.

Because my target audience is principally female it is important that my video and ancillary texts have a femininity about them so as to appeal to this audience. In order to do this I focussed on using summery, pretty dresses in the music video that made the actress look delicate and elegant, they also complimented her figure without showing a lot of skin. The dress seen in the performance element of the video is the same dress that is used in all the photography for the outside panels of the digipak, this creates a visual link and increases continuity between the two texts. This is further backed up by the fact that the photographs were taken in the same studio with the same soft lighting and the inclusion of props found in the music video, this begins to set up a ‘brand’ image as the same visual style is found throughout the different media products. The use of soft lighting in both the video and the photography for the outside panels also reinforces the idea of femininity as it gives a delicate ambience and reflects the softness of her voice and her as a personality. Also on the digipak I have used art in the form of hand drawn flowers as a symbol for femininity as flowers are beautiful and delicate and often relate to women in society for instance they are often bought as a gift for women but not so much for men. As well as a flower being feminine it also is a natural plant that grows from the earth therefore it is also a symbol for naturalism which leads me on to my next point.

As I stated earlier I wanted to create a positive representation of the artist and make her a positive role model for her aspiring target audience. Media is very influential on young girls today and it is renowned for being extremely voyeuristic and constantly producing unhealthy ideas of the ‘perfect’ woman being size zero with fake body enhancements and painted faces. This has made a lot of girls (that fall into my target demographic) insecure and constantly strive to become something that doesn’t exist. It is because of this that I want to keep the representation of my artist very down to earth and natural. I have achieved this within my music video through her actions, the character is seen dancing, singing into a hairbrush, putting on her make up, having fun and packing for a new beginning, these are all fun activities that young girls can relate to, but these are also all natural and healthy activities, and they show the audience that letting go, having fun and most importantly being yourself makes you feel good as opposed to trying to change yourself and trying to grow up too fast just to feel independent. This ‘natural’ and ‘relaxed’ representation is carried through into my ancillary texts by the use of photography and colour scheme. The photography on the inside panels of the digipak and on the magazine advert are close ups focussing on the artists face, she is wearing little make up and the photographs have not been edited beyond recognition to ‘beautify’ her, she is kept natural and ‘real’. The colour scheme also reinforces this, with the soft sandy warm tones it backs up the relaxed feel created in the video and adds to the purity of the expression seen on her face.

The natural and relaxed representation is not only something that I wanted for my artist as a good role model for her audience, but it is also a convention of the folk genre. My artist is pop/folk, by having her cross between the two genres she is more accessible to a broad audience, having the pop element keeps her mainstream but the folk element keeps that soft feminine natural feel. In my video I used ‘fun’ pop elements such as the shot of the colourful balls, by having a performance narrative alongside a story narrative also follows conventions of the pop video and it keeps the audience engaged as they want to find out what happens in the story. But with the performance element in order to keep to the natural folk feel we set up the studio to be as basic as possible with just a microphone, a guitar and an amp, and there was just the singer and the guitarist, we had the guitarist sitting on a stool to add to the ‘relaxed’ atmosphere and had shots of them talking and laughing together showing their close friendly relationship which I think is important in creating that down to earth simplicity that the folk genre represents. To bring the folk feel through into the digipak and magazine advert is clearly had to be presented much more visually rather than through relationships. So to do this I used a sandy texture which makes the texts more tactile adding to the ‘natural’ earthy feel of the folk genre, I also chose to use artwork that was hand drawn which once again keeps things natural and personal, the colour tones were also soft browns blues and yellows which once again keeps the natural folk feel.

Finally the other theme I wanted to make sure I carried through in my media texts was the idea of summer as the song is clearly a summer song and the artist is someone I imagine being a successful summery, festival type artist. This was easily done in my digipak and magazine advert through the sandy texture and natural warm yellow, blue, brown colour scheme. Also on the inside of the digipak the artwork revolved around the theme of the beach which an audience would immediately relate to summer. In the video we gave off a summery feel through mainly the outfits the actress was wearing which were mainly summer dresses, I think also the relaxed feel created throughout the video gives off a summer vibe as summer is the most relaxing time of the year.