How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

1. Evaluation Question Two
How effective is the combination
of your main product and ancillary
texts?

2. I believe that the combination of my ancillary tasks and my short film were very
effective. This is down to relevant research into existing film posters and reviews,
but also careful planning during the creation of the ancillary tasks.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the combination of my short film and
ancillary tasks they will need to be compared to each other to pinpoint their
similarities and differences.

3. The Film Poster Research
To begin with, we decided that our film poster
would be landscape rather than portrait because
this is the format that British film posters have.
We then researched into some film posters of
the coming-of-age genre in order to get a feel of
the existing products out there, what they are
like and what makes the effective. Doing this was
useful as it allowed us to see what we should
include in our own film poster to ensure that the
end result looks like a real film poster.
Some of the posters that we looked at were
from the films Juno and The Perks of Being a
Wallflower. What is similar about these two
posters is that they both use a simple font,
making the title stand out against the
background. They also have all of the main
characters on the poster, which made the
decision for what was going to be on our own
film poster a lot easier.

4. I noticed that the Perks of Being a Wallflower film poster
has a solid bright colour in the background and then uses
a simple font for the text in a complimentary colour. This
works really well as the audience is drawn directly to the
title of the film and also to the characters who have not
been edited. This is something that we decided to look at
further because we felt it was extremely effective.
Whilst researching this we found another film poster which
used the same coloured background and unedited
characters but in a slightly different way. The film poster
Alabama Moon does not use a solid coloured background
but rather just edits the background colour to a yellow. We
particularly liked this because you could still get a feel of
where the film is going to be set, giving the audience a tiny
bit more information about what the film is about – which
is what I personally feel a film poster should do.
What is also great about this film poster is that the genre of
the film is also coming-of-age which meant that if we
decided to use a similar theme in our own poster it would
conform to those pre-existing film posters that are known
to be effective as they were used to advertise real films.

5. The film poster we created and the short film itself has some significant similarities. The
most noticeable thing is the image on the poster. When creating the poster we decided to
use the most iconic part of our film, which is when the two characters are sitting on the
bench together.
Iconic Images

6. The image of the two girls sitting on the bench is repeated frequently throughout Thank You.
However what makes it slightly different In the poster and the film is that the two characters
are sitting almost back to back in the poster where as in the film this was not the case. We
decided to do this because it is a way of showing the audience even before they begin to
watch the film that there is conflict between the two characters – this kind of acts as a way of
the audience wanting to watch the film in order to see why the two girls don’t appear to get
along very well.

7. In our review we chose to use the most iconic moments from our film too. This includes the
moment where the characters first sit down together and when they hold hands at the end of the
film. We decided on these images because they both sum up the film nicely. We especially liked
the still we used for the larger poster because of the colours that are within it. We felt that they
complement each other well and give a warm feeling that the film as a whole attempts to portray.
We then decided on the still where the characters sit together for the first time because again it
was a key moment within the film.

8. When writing the review itself care was taken into how it
should read. We did this by reading through several other
Empire double spread film reviews to get a feel of the type of
thing that we should be including in our own review. The
general tone we got from these reviews was that they have a
quite informal, chatty tone but are still very informative and
give an honest opinion of the film featured. The reviews also
do not give away any spoilers for the film. So I ensured when
writing our review I did not give away great details about the
plot but whilst doing so also ensuring that I am writing in the
informative style that Empire also writes in.
Also care was taken into the overall layout of the review and
how it compares to that of an Empire review. Our aim was to
create a double page spread which looks like it appears in an
Empire magazine. Careful scaling and selection on smaller
aspects like font and colours all added up to make our own
poster as close to an actual Empire review as it could be.
The review

9. The fact that the idents appear across the film poster and the film itself also helps to create the
element of our film being recognisable to an audience. At the bottom on the film poster the logo
for the film companies that Bryony and I created can clearly be seen, and the same logos appear
at the beginning of our short film in the form of an ident. This is something that films commonly
do in order for the audience to establish that a film is created by one particular company. Knowing
who the company is may also have an impact on whether or not an audience goes to see the film
– this is why we felt that including the idents on the film poster as well as within the film was
essential.
Logos and Idents

10. Something which is also noticeable throughout all three of the tasks is the credits. The credits at
the bottom of the film poster shows the names of the cast and crew. When adding in the credits
at the end of our film we ensured that all the names that were on the poster were also included in
the credits. We did this so the combination of the film poster and the film itself looked realistic
and like an existing film. Along with this, we also ensured that when writing the review the roles of
the crew that we had written in it also matched up to the credits on the film poster. By doing this
it completed the combination of all three tasks, making them look and feel more real.
Credits

11. Another things that make the combination of all three tasks particularly effective is the fact
the films certificate is features in both the film poster and in the review. In the poster it can be
found at the bottom near the film company logos – which is where it would typically appear on
a film poster. The certificate can then be found again on the film review on the right hand side
which replicates the Empire magazine reviews.
Certificate

12. All in all, I do feel that the combination of the
products were very effective. This is because
when creating all three of them I made sure I was
paying attention to the smaller details. Making
sure that the names of the crew were all correct
and that things like idents and logos all matched
up would allow an audience to watch a
recognisable film. Also doing relevant research
into film posters, reviews and short films
themselves allowed me to understand exactly
what I would need to include in the three of them
to make my coursework effective.
Conclusion