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

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

2. The Task
 My task was to create a promotions package for my film consisting of a trailer and
ancillary texts which was a magazine cover and a film poster. The combination of
the trailer and ancillary texts are designed to promote my film. I deconstructed
and carried out research into many magazine covers and film posters in order to
produce my ancillary texts.

3. The Title
 I made sure that the title of my film in my magazine cover and my film poster was the
same font which is Charlemagne Std. I also warped the text in both to make it more
eye-catching. It needed to be eye-catching to attract people to the poster and to the
magazine, this is a vital method of enticing people into the watch the film. If the title
was not memorable or did not stand out, then audience would not know the name of
the film so the audience turnout is likely to be significantly lower. This is why we chose
‘Seized’, a one word title which is punchy and striking. In my poster, I also decided for
the ‘e’ to be red whilst the red of the colour is white, this gives the effect that the ‘e’ is
handwritten and creates an eerie effect. I decided it to be red as it connotes the theme
of danger which is a main motif in thriller genres. This also really stood out upon a
black background. I did the opposite for the magazine cover with the font being red
and the ‘e’ being white so they link yet there is still some variation. This idea was
influenced from the ‘Taken 3’ poster where the letter ‘e’ was replaced with the number
‘3’ also in a different colour, I wanted to replicate this idea as it was eye- catching and
appealing to the audiences.

5. Production Company
 When deconstructing posters and magazine covers, I decided to used big budget
films as that is what out film would be like. We decided for our film to be
produced by Universal as this is renown production company which has produced
countless successful and profitable films. We also wanted it to be in cooperation
with Heyday Company and our own fictitious production company: RAT
Productions. To improve this, I would have made the logo more eye- catching as it
was iconic and successful.

6. The process of my Film Poster
 For my poster, I deconstructed ‘Taken 3’, ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘The Gift’ and ‘Maze Runner’.
‘The Gift’ especially inspired me to have a main central photographic image that stands
out upon a black ground in order to make it appealing and eye- catching. I also really
liked the font in ‘Taken 3’ poster as it was extremely bright. From deconstructing these
posters, I copied the structure from a combination them, for example, I used the idea
of the title from ‘Taken 3’, I used a similar central photographic image as well as the
positioning of the title from ‘The Gift’ and the I put the star’s names in bold at the top
of the poster like ‘Iron Man 3’ which is a unique selling point. However, looking back I
would have improved the poster by using a man with older looking hands as they are
very clean and young looking, this does not fit with the predicted age of the
antagonist. Also, as the main image is an extreme close up of the protagonist as she
has been kidnapped, I would have asked the actor to have more fear expressed on her
face.

8.  When producing my poster, I experimented with the Photoshop software which
was new to me. The creative decisions I made were to warp the text of the title to
make it more original, I had to experiment with the horizontal and vertical
distortion and had to put it in the right place otherwise I made the title look too
unusual. I also decided to put the picture of the mill at the bottom of the right
hand side of the page and changed the colour to greyscale, this then links to my
magazine cover and my trailer. I tried it in different colours using the colour
gradient but I found that having a brighter colour drew the audiences’ attention
away from the main photographic image.

9. The process of my Magazine Cover
 Likewise, when making my magazine cover I deconstructed ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘The Maze
Runner’ and ‘Harry Potter’. I decided to deconstruct ‘Iron Man’ as well as the poster
and the trailer as it was also part of a promotions package like what I am producing
and I chose ‘Harry Potter’ as that is also produced by Heyday Productions. I was able to
use similar features, such as superimposing the main image over the title to show the
magazine is successful and easily recognisable, this is shown in the ‘Maze Runner’
magazine cover. I also wanted to have the date and price in small letter in the middle
of the ‘m’ of Empire, like the ‘Iron Man 3’ magazine. I also copied the idea of having
other stories promoted within the magazine yet the main focus is on the film I am
producing; this is why ‘Seized’ is in a large font to stand out. I also wanted to make a
shadow of the protagonist to make it more frightening to reinforce the genre.

11. Focus Groups
 However, I decided to show my focus group 4 images (2 variations of my film
poster and 2 variations of my magazine.) They had the same main photographic
images but swapped between the poster and the magazine cover.

12. Focus Groups
 Here is some of the feedback I got from my focus groups:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IchFW8IQEQo
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw3e244hTGc

13. Focus Groups
 Therefore, going my the opinions of my focus group, I decided to go against my original idea
and swap the images over as they thought it would be the most effective and appealing for
audiences.
 Please click the link to see all of the ancillary text feedback:
https://annadiamonda2.wordpress.com/ancillary-text-feedback/

14. Prezzi
Here is the link to The Development of my Film Poster Prezzi
Here is the Prezzi for The Development of my Magazine Cover

15. In Conclusion
 Altogether, the ancillary texts and the trailer as a whole all link together as they
have similar aspects to them such as the font and images which are similar. In
retrospect, I would have advertised a social media link, such as a website or a
Twitter and Facebook face as this would have increased its accessibly and would
appeal to the age of the target audience. This could have increased the popularity
of the film as it would be well known so the audience would be bigger leading to
a bigger profit.