The document discusses research done for various media texts promoting the film "Offline". It summarizes how the film poster for "Candyman" inspired elements of the "Offline" poster such as placing the main character's eye in the center. Feedback from test audiences is also discussed, noting they wanted more prominent actor names and distribution logos added to the poster. Research on magazines and trailers informed the designs for promotional magazine covers and trailer for "Offline", adopting techniques like close-up character images and sudden loud music to build tension. Color schemes, character placements and mystery elements were chosen to effectively represent the thriller genre across all media texts.

1. How effective is the
combination of your
main product and
ancillary text?
By Fatima Abdi Mohamed, Salma El-Sayed and
Elay Rahmany.

2. What media text did you look at to research your ancillary text?
(poster)
We was influenced by the thriller movie candyman 1992. Its simplicity was
beyond mesmerizing along with is iconic man (candyman) inside the eye.
Which shows the element of mystery In thriller as well as danger.
It inspired us to make an eye as the Centre focus point on the poster.
The colour used for the copy of the posters black throughout since black not
only is the boldest colour but it represents the evasiveness of the thriller
genre which correlates to what the character Marcus is all about.
Moreover, the white background gives an element of simplicity which enables
the audience to see the the title and slogan clearly. Also, simplicity connotes
sophistication which is what we aimed for in our Offline poster.
We admire the way this poster conveys the genre of thriller through the use
of the colour red filtered in the eye connoting danger as well as the villain
(candyman) ambiguity.
The candyman poster had inspired us to place Tyler’s eye in the middle in
order for the character Tyler to remain mysterious. This is because the
audience does not get to see Tyler’s full facial features in the trailer.
Instead of placing the villain inside of the eye, we thought about placing the
main character Abigail, whereby her would be transparent inside of Tyler’s
pupil. Abigail’s facial expression would be scared as she is being watched by
mysterious man. Hence why it would be better to place Tyler’s eye as he is
stalking Abigail which expresses the convention of stalking in the thriller
genre.
Candy Man

3. Whilst researching drama films, we came
across Requiem for a dream -2000. This
has successfully represented its drama
conventions with the use of the diluted eye
indicating that the person is on drugs,
which inspired us to place pictures of drugs
on Offline as drugs was given to Abigail by
Amanda in order for her to calm down (as
shown in the trailer board).
By the layout of the images, it seems as if
the audience is seeing his point of view,
watching the lady from behind. This
captures the convention of stalking, despite
the fact that this is not what this film is
about, either way we intend to express
‘stalking’ on my Offline poster.
The merging colour with his blue and eyes
and the sea completes the poster. Although
we’d like the idea of having blue as a
background, it would take the focus away
of Abigail inside the eye. Also, the colour
blue does not connote the genre’s drama
or thriller. Therefore, we stuck to a white
Requiem For a dreamRequiem For a dream

4. What media text did you look at
to research your ancillary text?
(Magazine)
We were influenced by many media text (magazines) during our ancillary task. The
magazine that stood up for out for us was the Empire magazine. The magazine was
diverse and was presented really colourful which was exciting. The professionally of
the magazine is seen through the finish products, thus informing us of the standard of
the magazine.
The close up of the Joker’s face and body from ‘Suicide Squad’ in the magazine was
concept that we had adapted in our own magazine. This is due to the portrayal the
audience would get because only characters with key role are inserted on front pages
of magazines. We enlarged Salma’s picture so that the audience can read her body
language and her facial expression which emits fear.
Another reason we like the Empire magazine is the fact that they challenge the
conventions of a typical magazine where the character featured is a male. This is
seen in the ‘X Men: Apocalypse’ edition where Jean Grey is featured on the
magazines front cover. We had also adapted this concept as it was unique selling
point. Furthermore, we also challenged the codes and conventions of a typical
magazine by inserting the antagonist in the magazine and covering his identity, this
will keep the audience questioning his identity and make him mysterious.
In both the magazines that we had chosen, they relate to the characters and that’s
why we chose a black background because the colour black is considered a mystery

5. What media texts did you look at to
research for you trailer?
In order to expand our understanding and knowledge towards the thriller/drama
genre, we researched many various thriller and drama trailers so that it could use
when creating our own. The trailers we have researched include ‘Psycho’, ‘The
Ghost Writer’ and ‘The Silence Of The Lamps’
- From the trailer ‘Psycho’ we were inspired by the storyline and the
idea of being watched by a stalker, that’s why we chose to include this
feature in our trailer so that it adds up with the thriller genre. We
thought this would be a perfect idea as having a stalker or being ‘cat-
fished’ is a regular issue that our target audiences could go through.
- From the trailer ‘The Silence Of The Lamps’ it came across as
very jumpy due to the sudden music that was played throughout
the trailer. This builds up tension for the audience as they are un
aware of what is going to happen next. In order to achieve a
similar affect we also included sudden load music in parts of our
trailer this is effective as it would attract the audience to the story,
and they would want to know what will happen next.
From the trailer ‘The Ghost Writer’ we liked the idea that the there was a
mystery person behind all the drama that is happening throughout the
trailer, and that the source of communication was through social media.
This has then inspired us to have a mystery man that’s creating all the
dram in the trailer, we also have our mystery man communicating though
social media with our main character/victim Abigail. This keeps the
audience wondering who this mystery man is and why he is causing this

6. How did the magazine appeal
to the target audience?
Empire is a well known film
review magazine and that
only promotes successful
films, so our target audience
would feel comfort that our
film is being representing and
being feature in the biggest
film magazine.
The main character in the
film is Abigail and she is
featured on the front page
of the magazine.
Furthermore the
antagonist is also featured
in the magazine and he is
situated behind Abigail,
this gives the audience an
idea of their relationship.
This gives our target
audience the chance to
win a poster of the film
‘Offline’ and the aim of
this is to increase the
sales price due to the
free film poster. This
encourages the
audience to buy the
This informs the audience
on the films that would be
coming out at the same
time as ‘Offline This helps
generate more readers as
its not just focused on one
film. However, the main
focus is still going to be on
the film’ Offline’ as it’s the
film that is being featured in
the magazine.

7. How did the film poster appeal
to the target audience?
‘One of the spectacular thrillers of the year’ sounds
genuinely convincing. The audience would want to
see Offline as they are assured they wouldn't waste
their money watching this specular movie. Especially
with the fact that it is from empire which is trusted by
thousands of of people. Thus, it would encourage the
audience to watch it.
Abigail's face in the eye would attract Thriller fans
as there has been many iconic thriller movies with
a subject reflecting on the eye.
The White back ground is very simple. Not chaotic
for the audience to be stressed out about. Thus, it
is easy on the eyes of the audience, allowing them
to focus on the vital parts.
The date is easy to remember (two
digits being the same.) This enables
the audience to subconsciously think
about Offline’s release which is crucial.

8. Sundance logo, in it saying Winner
2016. This will attract all the film
lovers as they will be eager to
watch a movie that has been
awarded by Sundance.
The main image would entice the audience
as they can engage with the eye looking
directly at them.
The title ‘Offline’ would appeal to our target
audience as teens and young adults are
familiar with the internet being offline and
online in social media. Therefore, Offline
would be inviting towards the audience.
In addition to the title, its graffiti like font
would intrigue the target audience as it is
bold and eye catching, and contains a
danger element to it, which represents the
convention of thriller.
Furthermore, graffiti's are stereotypically
associated with our target audience.

9. The slogan holds a deeper
meaning to it, which implies
to the vulnerability of
people using the internet. It
also signifies Abigail's
dilemma in the film. Our
target audience recognizes
the dark side with in using
social media. Hence, it
would appeal to the
audience.
The stars names placed at
the top of the poster can
be seen clearly by the
audience within a distance.
It is in black to add to the
colour scheme of black,
white and gold.
The stars name would
appeal to the fans in the
audience as they would
want to support the
actress's by watching the
movie (celebrity
endorsement.)
The production and
distribution logo of
IFC films and
Innovation studios
tells the audience
about the good
quality of this
independent Offline
film.
The website is
provided for the
audience to get
more insight of
the film as well
as build up a
fan base.

10. How did the trailer appeal to the
audience ?
The characters that are in the film are similar in age as our target audience,
therefore they will be able to relate to the actors in the film as they share similar
interests and go through similar situations. This is essential as they can form a
personal relationship with them, which would allow them to enjoy the film.
Our trailer would appeal to our target audience as it builds up tension and
suspense for the audience and leaves them wondering of what this ‘mystery’ is
going to do to ‘Abigail’ the fact that he has a hidden identity would also interest
the audience as they would want to watch the film to see whether the identity
will be revealed.

11. synergy
Synergy is the main element that causes our products to be
successful. With this font title, we we used in the poster,
magazine front cover and our trailer. This enables for the
audience to be familiar with the different promotional
packaging's of offline that is being presented to them. In that
way, offline would be endorsed into their mind in which they
are subconsciously.

12. Synergy
The colour scheme we used was white and black. For the magazine and the
trailer we used the colour white because it stood out from the black
background. However with the Film poster we used the colour white so that it
stood out against the white background. The colours black and white balance
each other out and gives the work a good finish. The audience will notice the
synergy and recognise our media product easily.

13. Synergy
Our main actor Abigail is also the synergy in the Film poster, Magazine and
Trailer. The reason she is the synergy is that fact that she is featured in all of
the promotional package that we had created and people will relate our film
to her.

14. Where will the text
appear?
Our ancillary text will be displayed in
visible places that people are likely too
look, the aim of this to catch peoples
ayes and attract their attention easily.
Our media text
package includes:
• Billboards
• Bus stops
• Train stations
• News paper
adverts
• Big red buses
• TV adverts
• YouTube adverts
• Game adverts
• Shop windows
• Mobile-van
Billboards
• Airports

17. 1 0 . 1 0 . 1 6
One of the spectacular thrillers of the year
-Empire

18. Why are these formats
appropriate?
These formats are appropriate because they are easily seen
and accessibly by our target audience. They will connect the
synergy of the Film poster, Trailer and Magazine together and
this will create a wider target audience. Furthermore, the fact
that our media text will appear in places like the sides of
busses and billboards will advertising out thriller/drama film will
help build us a large number of viewers. The film will attract
people who enjoy thriller/drama genre films because it follows
the codes and conventions of a thriller/drama film. When
people see the film poster they will be attracted because we
had used bright colours to attract people and the edited image
of an eye with a girl in the pupil, this will intrigue lots of people
and that’s why theses formats are appropriate media texts. –
Fatima Mohamed
These formats are appropriate as we know for sure that our
target audience would definitely come across at least on of
these forms as they would be places in locations that would
grab their attention. We have found out during our research
that our target audience watch a lot of YouTube videos this
means that if we advertise our trailer using YouTube there is a
very high chance that our target audience would watch and
enjoy our trailer. Another reason why our format is appropriate
is because we chose locations that we knew our target
audience would go to such as bus stops and train stations, this
is effective as a large number of viewers would be aware of
our production. Transport is commonly used by our target
audience so they would definitely come across and recognise
our production. – Salma El-sayed

19. What did you learn from
the audience feed back?
After taking in to consideration our audience
feedback we found out that overall, they
liked our final production. However we did
receive some criticism on our magazine and
the colour of the text. The main criticism was
about the layout of the magazine and how
certain features should stand out more than
others. Our viewers said that they would like
it if we moved the layout around and they
also wanted ‘Empire’ to be brighter so that it
stands out to the audience. Apart from that
our audience was impressed with the
colours that we chose to include and they
stated that the features where relevant to
the film so it fitted it perfectly. We took their
criticism well and changed the layout of the
magazine by moving the features around

20. We asked a focus group of 10 people for their opinions on the final
Offline poster draft.
With the whole focus group saying yes to
watch the film indicates that our poster has
reached the target of convincing people to
watch the film.
30% is still a large number, this suggested
that we were missing some of the key
conventions of a film poster.

21. We wanted to find out
what was missing in
order to improve the
poster. Two people in
the focus group said
that the film poster
should have a website.
Therefore we placed a
website at the bottom of
the poster.
Also, one person in the
focus group as well as
my teacher, gave a
feedback that is
significant to the
conventions of a trailer,
that is the actors
names. Thus, we had
added the name of the
protagonist (Salma) and
the antagonist (Amelia)
as they are the main
characters of the film.
In addition to the changes, we have added
the distribution logo (IFC) and our
production logo (Innovation studios.)

22. For question 4, we
were glad that the
majority thought the
correct target
audience of our
poster.
For question 5, we
were also pleased with
the fact that thriller and
drama was chosen.
This meant that we
were successful at
establishing our genre
by following the
conventions of it.