Ancillary Analysis

Digipaks are overlooked sometimes as they are only cases for the content that you really care about... The disc. However they actually need to be eye-catching and constructive enough to gain attention from bystanders and make people think about what it is that they are looking at. In this post I am going to analyse other students' dipaks (ancillary tasks). I was handed a bunch of links that lead to existing pieces of ancillary tasks.

Fahmina Ali

The first student is http://fahminaali.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/F%20I%20N%20A%20L - She was first on the list so I decided to start there. To my suprise I instantly admired the work. I feel that there's a lot of ideas and planning behind something so simple such as a digipak.

The first thing that gets my attention is the use of red which consequently reminds me of me and my team's work. The girl on the actual CD is holding a glass with a red liquid substance in it. I'm not too sure what this piece of work is about but I took a quick look at the final music video and it appears that the digipak has actual references from the video. For example on the front cover, that shot is also seen in their video. The characters are in a cemetry and regarding the album title I think the red liquid substance in the glass on the CD signifies blood.

Another important thing is that the art is dark which emits a spooky and lonely feeling. The pictures are black and white but only red things that stand out. It seems they are thinking along the same line of making red stand out amongst other colours.

It reminds me of the red filter in our music video and when I decided to do a test on selective colouring to make sure that red was the only colour that would show up.

Overall I think this ancillary product is well produced and works well with their actual media product. She has included details like 'All Rights Reserved' statements and the barcode making her work look more believable and professional. I rate Fahmina's team's piece of work with an outstanding 9.5/10. The reason a perfect score isn't given is because I feel that even more details could be included, for example a DVD or CD logo to signify if the disc is a CD or DVD and also numbering on the back cover so that the track is easily identified.

Alexander Whitcombe

The second ancillary task I am analysing belongs to http://musicvideoalexanderwhitcombe.blogspot.co.uk/ - The digipak is much different to Fahmina's. I also like this digipak.

To be honest the inside covers look unprofessional, I would not expect to open a digipak on the market and see random, unedited photos. The photos do not show who's who or have a direct relevance to the music video. I have watched their final music video and I don't see any reference whatsoever for these photos to be included. However I am very interested in the front and back cover. They look very bright, radiant and artistic. I like how the characters (possibly 'Betty') has been drawn by hand.

This ancillary task gets a 4/10. It lacks details such as 'All Rights Reserved' statements and CD indentations. The inside pages have photos that would not make sense to a potential customer and seems like a lazy, rushed attempt to produce a digipak. I don't think there has been much planning involved. However the front and back cover makes up for it giving the overall package a 4/10.