1. A2 EVALUATION QUESTION 2- HOW EFFECTIVE IS
THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND
THE ANCILLARY TEXTS?
2. SYNOPSIS
• Our film is an Action Thriller rated a 12. It includes some themes of violence that are justified by the context of
the situation. Our film was inspired by ‘Casino Royale’ (Dir. Martin Campbell, 2006). Similarly, the protagonist
(James Bond) is captured and tortured by the antagonist (Le Chiffre) for information.
3. OUR PROJECT AIMS
• Richard Dyer’s theory of Entertainment and Utopia can be applied to demonstrate our project aims. The short
Action Thriller film we created was intended to give energy to the audience, which is an aspect of the theory. In
order to give energy to our audience we included fast pace elements to our film to energise the viewer (due to
the adrenaline and sensation they would get from fast pace action). In addition, we created a poster and radio
trailer to advertise and promote our film.
4. POSTER SYNERGY
• Our film had the title ‘Plan B’ at the middle of the page, with the same font used for both the poster and the title
sequence of the film, to create synergy across our media products. A main black background was also shown
in the poster and title sequence, to further demonstrate synergy which connected our advertisement of the film
poster to the title sequence of our film.
6. HOW DOES THE POSTER REFLECT THE
INTENTIONS OF OUR FILM?
• The poster shown in the last slide, embodies the sinister and mystery themes predominant throughout our film.
This is shown through the desaturated colours and style of font. The two elements combine to illustrate that
the plot will revolve around Matt, indicating he is in obvious danger but there is a degree of mystery as to the
identity of Matt and his intentions. We used anchorage in the tag line and title to demonstrate the major
themes of Plan B, (such as death, deception and mystery). These aspects both equally contributed to the
success of the poster due to the themes of the film, reflected in the poster.
7. POSTER INSPIRATION
• Film posters are a highly effective method of advertising films, as they include lots of information regarding the
film (the plot, the personality of the characters) and the poster can be shared easily online, due to cross media
convergence and technological convergence, allowing you to view the poster on multiple different
technologies. In order for a film poster to be successful, it must appeal to the target demographic and catch
their attention, as well as demonstrating multiple aspects of the film. In order to perfect our film we researched
into a film with a similar genre. ‘Shutter Island’ (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 2010) include similar elements to our
poster, which is demonstrated in the next slide, with analysis of both posters.
9. RADIO TRAILERS
• When researching into radio trailers we discovered 5 key aspects to ensure the success of a radio trailer which
is:
• Quotes from the critics
• Quotes from the film
• Music from the film
• Sound effects from the film
• A voiceover to provide additional information e.g. release date of the film
Below is an example of our radio trailer (Double click to start video):
10. HOW DOES OUR RADIO TRAILER REFLECT OUR
INTENTIONS FOR THE FILM?
• Similarly to the poster, our radio trailer must include synergy to demonstrate the themes of the film, as
well as to successfully endorse our film. Our radio trailer opens with music and sound effects from our
film to cause moral panic, as the radio trailer makes the audience aware and vigilant of the danger of
kidnapping in society. This allows the radio trailer to catch the audience’s attention as it may be relatable
in some way to the audience. The dialogue from the film is briefly mentioned to not give away too much
information regarding the film, “Where the money!?” This will make the audience want to know more
about our film, further increasing the hype of our film due to the excitement of the audience not being
able to anticipate or know what is going to happen in our film. The music and sound effects from ‘Plan B’
are used to connect the ancillary texts. The voiceover (recorded on a ‘H1 Zoom Recorder’) denotes that the
radio trailer is advertising the film; states important information about the genre and release date of our
film. The information regarding that in the trailer is “Plan B” stated in a rather sinister tone and the
release information “Coming to June 2018”.
11. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK FROM THE PRE-
PRODUCTION QUESTIONNAIRE
• The audience feedback from the pre-production questionnaire helped us demonstrate that the audience knew
what we tried to achieve in our main production, as well as showing that our production was easily preferred
by our audience, which made it easier to sell our production to a wide demographic. The evidence from the
pre-production questionnaire “What genre of film do you like best?”, with Thriller and Action being the most
voted with 7 and 5 respectively. This showed that our audience was familiar with the genre of our production,
which made it easier for the audience to know what we were trying to achieve in our main production. In
addition, the question “What are your thoughts on the chosen film genre?”, 67% of the audience thought it was
positive, whilst 33% thought it was negative. This reinforced that our demographic prefers this film, make it
easier to endorse and sell our production a wide demographic.
12. HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR
FINAL PRODUCT AND THE ANCILLARY TEXTS
OVERALL?
• In order to create successful ancillary texts like our poster and radio trailer, we had to conduct research and
find comparisons to real media texts to ensure their success. We created refined searches throughout our
research, by adding certain websites that we found useful, so we could find how to advertise our film
successfully through our research. We connected our products successfully through synergy, creating a wider
advertising platform compatible both visually and on audio. Both Ancillary texts embody an Action/Thriller
styled poster and radio trailer, a second example of the texts being useful.
