For A level media

1. Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
Georgina Allen

2. Ancillary Texts & Main Product
In order to create a successful advertising and promotion campaign for my film, it was extremely important
that we kept continuity throughout and were consistent when making the products. They all had to be of high
quality and all include the same stylistic choices. This was so that the audience could see what products were
linked to the film. All of the products had to convey the thriller genre and the theme of the film. This was
predominantly done through colour, text and tone choices.
Final FilmRadio Trailer

3. What was our production trying to achieve?
With our production the most important aim was to create a genuine thriller in which the audience would feel
heightened levels of expectancy, anxiety and tension. I believe that we achieved these emotions as we chose a
restricted narrative to keep information from the audience, the audience learn about the murder at the very
start of the film and are kept in suspense throughout the film to find out as to who the murderer is. Except, it is
never truly revealed who is found guilty. Leading on to the next aim that we attempted to achieve. We wanted
the audience to have to think about and analyse our film, by posing both main characters as the suspected
murderer, it should hopefully spark a conversation between the audience where they come up with opinions
and fan theories of who the actual murderer was.
Entertainment is an aim of almost every film made, we added dramatic dialogue, a varied amount of locations
and a tense storyline to hopefully keep the audience enthralled throughout. My reasons here directly link to
the uses and gratifications theory (socialisation and entertainment concept), where the audience is drawn
towards films as a way of escapism.
Another intention was to make the film as thrilling as possible (because it's in the thriller genre) and we decided
to bring elements into the film to make it seem real. To do this we incorporated radio broadcasts to make it
seem like it was a real world issue.

4. How does our poster reflect our intentions
for the film?
This is an example of our film poster, a piece of synergy used to promote the film. In this
poster, I feel that we captured the essence of the film extremely well. The colours used are
synonymous with crime thrillers, we intentionally gave the main image a greyscale colour as a
tribute to the original crime thrillers (which were shot in black and white) and mostly because
the grey colours have connotations of being dark, depressing and serious while also having
an air of authority about them. I think that this links into our crime thriller genre. The dark red
connotes danger, this is what we wanted the audience to perceive. The overall look should
convey suspense and tension. This was our intention for the film and I do believe that we
captured this in the poster.
We used a close up of our character Hayden that doesn’t even show his full head purposefully
as this doesn’t show the 'big picture', essentially always concealing and hiding something,
linking to our restricted narrative which never reveals the full truth to the audience.
Our slogan: "Who's Beyond Your Conscience?' Is a question. This reflects our intentions of
creating a discussion among the audience. It also brings the audience into the film as it's
directing the question to them. This also brings a sense of reality into the film. Just like where
the film Phonebooth (Dir. Joel Shumacher, 2003) has multiple taglines incorporating the
audience such as 'Your life is on the line' and Hang up and you die.'

5. How effective is the poster in selling the
film?
A poster is one of the most essential pieces of advertising that can be
used to promote a film, they can be released worldwide on buses,
billboards, online adverts and social media. Posters should be
memorable and persuade the audience to see the film. It is normally
the first point of advertising released to create hype for the film.
We included many parts in the poster to aid in the selling of the film.
I am confident that the aesthetics of this poster relate to the crime
thriller genre. This to me is the factor that would appeal to our target
demographic. By advertising the genre, this will be directed to fans of
the thriller genre and hopefully persuade them to view the film.
Everything such as the title, tag line, image and actors from this poster are used
in the film. The poster is directly linked to the film.

6. How effective is the poster in selling the film?
The individual components:
We included the statement 'From the Directors of
Retention'. This ensures the audience that these
directors have already worked on a film and are
therefore reliable. There could also be fans of the
last film that would be interested in this film
because of the association.
The bold title and tagline are an effective way of selling the
film as these are the only pieces of writing on a poster that
give a hint towards the storyline. This name, however, is
quite ambiguous and hopefully the audience would want to
find out more. I believe that this name is eye-catching is
presented in an noticeable way as it's the biggest piece of
writing on the whole poster.
The names down the side of the poster are the cast
of the film. By placing these in a light grey colour
on an empty part of the poster it ensures that they
can be seen easily. These names could generate
star power. Attracting an audience from the
popularity of a star.
The star ratings on the poster would definitely draw
an audience . The good reviews would ensure that
it’s a good film to watch.
The date in which the film is released is on Friday
the 13th. A day which is meant to be full of bad
luck. This creates an air of mystery and has the
subliminal message that something will go wrong
in the film.

7. I got direct inspiration from the names at the side of the
poster. I found the highlighted last names were a good idea as
this is how many stars are recognised. This is using star power
to its advantage.
The colour scheme in both posters are very much the same. This is
using a predominantly grey scale theme, highlighting the most
important features in red. The dark colours connote the mystery
and the red has connotations of danger. This colour scheme fits
extremely well with both films.
When creating my poster I used another crime film poster to ensure that I would get the stylisation of this genre correct.
I placed the face at the left side of the poster, much like Depp is
at the left side of his poster. Both looking offscreen. This leaves
the audience wondering what they are looking at.
There is only one character on the poster, this shows that they will
have the most screen time
The reviews are coloured in red, this is because good reviews
attract audiences to watch the film and therefore they should be
easily seen on a poster.
Both film posters have the credit block at the bottom of the poster. This is
essential of an official poster.

8. What should a radio trailer include?
After extensive research, I found that every radio trailer included:
1. Music form the film. Normally the film soundtrack if it has one.
2. Dialouge and speech from the film
3. Sound effects to convey the tone of the film.
4. A voice over providing information on the film.
We applied this research into our radio trailer. While also listening to examples such as 'The Great Gatsby' and
'Gravity' to learn how professional radio trailers sounded.
Here is examples of radio trailers from multiple mainstream films

9. How does the radio trailer reflect our
intentions for the film?
Our radio trailer had to use synergy to be able to advertise our film with its themes and tone. We planned out every
aspect of the radio trailer to have a serious tone and a to appeal to fans of the thriller genre.
It immediately starts with no other noise except one of the main characters – Riley – saying an important quote from
the film "And I should have stopped him". By jumping straight into this line it startles the audience and makes them
wonder what's going on. Maybe evoking a sense of intrigue from them and drawing them in to listening to the rest.
This links to our intention of creating a discussion, the audience should wonder what has been stopped. Using a cleverly
placed sound effect to mark the beginning of the trailer, the voice over starts here. By now it is extremely clear that this
is a thriller film by the quotes that we have chosen to feature and the sounds used.
The music used is the same as the ending of the film, this adds to the continuity of sources. This music reflects our
intentions of entertaining as it is quite dramatic and tense, leading to making the audience feeling the tension and
drawing them in to the film.
The voice over states all the information for the film, such as the release date, the actors and most importantly the title
and tagline. The music raises towards the end and the final line 'Who's beyond your conscience' is said. This again
reflects our intentions of creating a discussion among the audience. It also brings the audience into the film as it's
directing the question to them. My intention here is to bring the audience into the film and persuade them to go see
the film.

10. The Radio Trailer

11. The Radio Trailer
Although this script doesn’t include the quotes from
the film you can see that the narrator says all of the
things that are essential in a radio trailer.

12. Synergy in both ancillary texts
We needed to include synergy in all of the products made to show our brands continuity and to let the
viewer know that they are all focused on the same film. Here is an example of what I mean:
The Film poster The Film Title The title in the radio trailer
States the title at 0:21
All of these items use the exact same title, font and colour
scheme. Of course the radio trailer couldn’t feature this – so
we used it as the cover photo on YouTube.

13. How effective was the combination of your
final product and the ancillary texts overall?
In order to complete all of these tasks successfully we had to conduct extensive research. I did these posts
to the best of my ability and feel that they have been successful. As well as the research I also compared it
to real media texts, this was to make them seem as professional as they could be and ensure that they
would be a success.
I made many revisions of the film poster, this was to ensure that this fit the intentions of my film and would
be perceived well by the public. This was confirmed throughout the making process as we valued the
opinions of the public, all of the ancillary texts that we made were successful and found effective by the
public. These opinions made us confident to stop editing these pieces of work.
Both of these ancillary texts clearly represent the film genre of crime thriller. I also believe that the
professionalism of our products would not only appeal to our target demographic but also a wider
audience.
These items were to promote the film and I feel that they have reached this objective in a successful way.
Overall the combination of my final product and the ancillary texts were a huge success.