Evaluation question 2

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

The ancillary tasks and main product both adhere to Pink Floyd’s genre and style. Pink Floyd intended for the song ‘Great Gig in the Sky’ to be a statement toward death and the emotions surrounding this, with the vocalist’s ‘wailing’ voice fitting as a statement of pain and distress. The song was called ‘The Mortality Sequence’ in production, which we discovered in our research, again reinforcing the idea of which themes they intended to include. The song fits into the psychedelic genre at times, as does the entire ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album, with fluctuation between intensity and mellow styles happening often. The psychedelic genre was dominating the music scene at the time of its production in 1973.

            We felt that we should extend the creative voice of Pink Floyd with our music video and use their themes, which they brought in through the music; this would strengthen the visual elements. We also utilized a similar technique with our ancillary tasks, stylizing them on Pink Floyd’s already established and recognizable appearance. We did this through using the iconic image of Storm Thorgerson’s Prism from the Dark Side of the Moon album cover and working it into our original image. We also reinforced the psychedelic genre within the ancillary tasks through altering the colour of the sky in some images to adhere to the forms and conventions which the genre entail, those being of illusions and visual effects mimicking the effects of narcotics.

The main product itself worked in unison with the ancillary tasks in this sense, as it uses altered visuals in an attempt to mimic the conventions of the psychedelic genre, using kaleidoscopic effects and green screen altered visuals. The audience reception of Pink Floyd is already extremely well established, with massive global success with their music even to this day. Having used some of their recognizable styles and effects, the audience would be able to make visual links between the main product and Pink Floyd’s feature length video ‘The Wall’ through the violent sequence and composition of the set; having a man sitting in a chair in the centre of a room filled with rubbish, similar to Bob Geldof’s character in ‘The Wall’. Through making these links the audience should potentially be able to relate to the piece, similarly to the ancillary tasks, with the use of the Prism and the front cover of the album art, where the appearance of it suggests isolation, one of the primary themes of ‘The Wall’.

 

            The institution behind Pink Floyd is EMI. The company is globally significant and therefore will want to ensure that their productions adhere to their target audiences effectively. The video utilizes the themes of Pink Floyd, therefore creating a link between the product and Pink Floyd’s audience. Their audience are so huge, with Dark Side of the Moon being one of the best selling albums of all time, this would ensure that the video will sell, pleasing EMI.