This document evaluates the effectiveness of combining the main products and ancillary texts. It finds that:
1) The trailer and poster combination was most important, as they had to appear from the same company. Both focused on hoodies and darkness with blood featured.
2) The trailer, poster, and front cover all followed a consistent black, white, and red color palette and house style.
3) While improvements could be made, the issues did not negatively impact the overall combination, which was found to be generally effective.
5. Trailer + Poster Combination
This was possibly the most important combination of products that was required, as both products had
to be similar in some sort of way, as they had to appear to be from the same company.
Both products have a extensive focus on both hoodies and darkness, seeing as the title itself was
hoodies. Also as a slightly smaller feature is the blood which appears on the main text of the poster as
well as on one of the actresses in the trailer. These features of the trailer were the main focus of the
poster, which featured the dark background with an even darker hoody shown holding the baseball
bat. Unfortunately the bat seen in the poster is not the same one in the trailer, due to unforeseen
problems during the production of the trailer, partly because the filming took place in Edinburgh
whilst the poster was completed in college.
The Blood on the poster was an overlay of the text which worked in contrast to the background as its
brightness would draw the viewers attention to it, similar to the final title screen in the poster, it is a
bright white text that stands out against the pitch black background. The only thing that appears in the
poster that doesn’t in the trailer is the credit block which is imperative to making the poster, this also
stands out against the background as it is a very light grey.
Each item in both the trailer and the poster follows a house style, mainly consisting of black, white and
red. This colour palette also moves over to the front cover. This works effectively to create a good
combination of both house styles, props and stylistic features that go towards an effective combination
6. T + P Possible Improvements
The first improvement that could have been made to follow a complete house style, is to change the
font of the main text in the poster, the ‘Impact’ font had to be used instead of the ‘28 Days Later’ font
(Downloaded)due to sizing issues which meant that to get each word to be at full resolution and to
legible from a distance, the ’28 Days Later’ font was not up to standard and could not be seen properly
so the ‘Impact’ font was used, and to some eyes, may have been an improvement. However, the text in
the intertitles of the trailer is fairly similar to the text in the poster, so this may make the house style
slightly more consistent.
As mentioned in the previous slide, the baseball bat in the poster and the baseball bat in the trailer are
different, and may have caused a lack of continuity depending on how noticeable it is.
7. Trailer + Front Cover Combination
This was possibly the least effective combination, not that it doesn’t
work well together, but the magazine itself is based on the full film, not
just the trailer, so it was difficult to create any links between that and
the trailer.
The house style is once again in place, the black white and red, and the
font of the front cover uses ‘Impact’ again so this shows continuity.
The main focus of both the trailer and the front cover is the antagonists
themselves, even though it just shows one in the front cover, his lack of
identity shows he is one of many. Then the focus on the darkness is
somewhat more apparent in the front cover, as the editing of the photo
puts a lot of emphasis on the hoody’s demeanor, making him look
menacing and evil.
8. T + FC Possible Improvements
The Front cover took a lot of time to get a ’formula’
that worked, so in the end the final product may have
been further from what I had originally intended, the
only possible improvement I could have made was to
hurry up the creation process of the front cover, so I
would have a better idea of how well it worked with
the trailer in combination.
9. Poster + Front Cover Combination
This combination of ancillary products was not entirely needed to be similar, as they will have both
been from different companies, but during research, it was apparent that some magazines did special
editions that were focused on a single film, sometimes following the movie’s design, so I decided to do
this whilst making the front cover as individualistic as possible.
Both the poster and the front cover have the same colour scheme and the same fonts (apart from the
credit block in poster, which similar to the trailer, the front cover did not require one). They both use
the ‘Impact’ font and utilize the black, white and red colour scheme. The text on both also contain the
same overlay, the red, blood-like brush, which draws the viewers attention towards the masthead and
Main sell line (Front Cover) and the Main text (Poster).
The image on the front cover looks like it is a continuation of the image on the poster, the only
difference being that the image on the front cover is entirely black and white. Both are close up images
and show two different features of the film, the front cover show the antagonist, to show that his
identity is hidden and the poster shows the ‘trademark’ weapon of choice, a baseball bat being held by
the antagonist.
10. Full Combination
Overall, the combination of each product works well together as each one links in one way or another.
Obviously, the main product is the focus of the entire project, but the addition of the poster or
magazine cover, seems to be vital to the production process, and this means that it is important that
these ancillary products compliment the trailer.
The poster and the trailer have the largest combination, mostly because, like real films, they may not
get the media coverage from the magazines, so the trailer may be heavily reliant on the poster itself,
but the combination of the stylistic features of the trailer and the poster combined (Darkness, violence
and blood, etc.) leaves a good combination. However the lack of the ’28 Days Later’/’Impact’ font in
the respective products means that there is a lack of continuity. This problem was very difficult to
come up with a solution due to the size and resolution difference in the fonts, meaning that each one
had to be different.
The front cover then in turn compliments the trailer and poster combination as it shows the reader
that the film is worth the watch seeing as it has been covered in a magazine. The front cover also
continues the design style of the poster, keeping the colour scheme and the font, which further
reinforces the house style aspect.
Finally the combination of the main product and the ancillary products is very effective, it could have
had some improvements made to it, that were unachievable due to editing issues. Nonetheless, these
issues did not surmount to a negative effect and did not give a noticeable difference to the products.