Evaluation 2 (Jodie Taylor)

1. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
Jodie Taylor
Evaluation question two
How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
Sub Questions covered:
a) What were you trying to achieve in your main production? Was this also reflected
in the two advertising products?
b) How effective do you think the two ancillary texts are in selling your production?
c) Make comparisons with real advertising products.
The main products effectiveness is accelerated by its ancillary texts. The two ancillary texts
produced were a poster on Adobe Photoshop and a radio trailer via Adobe Premier Pro.The texts
are created to promote, therefore must appeal to the potential audience of a 12A and exhibit the
crime thriller genre. Ancillary texts are required to effectively marketthe main product’s existence.
This is often a limitation to independent movies, as they lack marketing due to having small budgets
whichmeans that although they are effectivetexts, people just aren’t aware they exist. In our main
product and ancillary texts we were aiming to achieve a sense of foreshadowing towards the plot
twist at the conclusionof the narrative.
Themain product(ThefilmproducedonAdobePremierPro)
The main product was constructed to appeal to young adults and early teens, with a BBFC rating of
12A. The narrative had a major plot twist towards the conclusion, therefore we had to ensure that
this was not evident in any of the ancillary texts, as this would shock an audience and provide
intrigue. The plot twist is that Charlie is an assassin of who is not being stalked as she is already
hunting the man who is following her. This is not particularly evident in the poster, as although
Charlie is holding the gun, perhaps she couldbe defending herself, this doesn’t particularly
showcase her character to be an assassin. The uses and gratifications theory can be applied to our
film, as the viewers are constantly guessing the next occurrences;we aimed to achieve curiosity and
entertainment. This is achieved through cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing and sound.
Research was essential in finding what makes crime thrillers or short movies successful. The main
product was influenced directly by ‘Atomic Blonde’. This followsthe narrative of a spy in Berlin of
whois female. This influenced our protagonist to be of that gender, as this is a unique selling point.
As a group wespent a night watching‘Atomic Blonde’ before we adjusted the basic storyline. The
action scene particularly influenced us as the male and the female fight, whichis something we
aimed to incorporate to address the equality and power of women.

2. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
We aimed to make an audience unsure whether to support or dislike the main character, Charlie.
The majority will support her actions as they are aware of her past through the use of a voiceover
and greyscale displaying a flashback in time. This made our filmunique as stereotypical movies
have characters we dislike and characters welike, this may be done through granting more screen
time or attitudes whichan audience will support and sympathise (vulnerability or naivety).This
confusion leaves an audience intrigued. Towardsthe conclusionof our text, the enigmas are solved
as Charlie kills the man in blackand the confusionis no longer evident in the audience as her
actions are explained which leaves the viewers satisfied.
MainProductResearch
The main product research included everything from audience feedbackto the conventionsof the
specific genre, crime thriller. The blog has several posts addressing research, a few of these are
examples below.

3. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
Individual posters(AdobePhotoshop/PowerPoint)
Eachgroup member produced a poster displaying their own ideas. This was then collaborated in
the final idea.
I created two different posters, the first seemed amateur. My final poster idea is displayed below,
alongside the initial idea. I presented my ideas on a blog post to explain the choicesof the final one.
This was conducted partially on Adobe Photoshop and PowerPoint.PowerPointis efficientand easy
to use forthe merging of images and effects,as Photoshopseemed difficultuntil I viewed several
tutorials on YouTubeto help with the final poster.
My Final Idea
My Initial, Rough Idea

4. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
Final Poster(AdobePhotoshop)
Our final poster was influenced by ‘the GIRL with the DRAGON TATTOO’.The graphology in our
product exhibits qualities of this poster, as the title and cast members are in similar places. We have
used capitalisation to make certain words stand out, as this demonstrates. The main image is also of
the main character, a pivotto the plot. The poster displays many qualities whichrelate to the crime
thriller genre. Another influence was ‘knock knock’,the poster has a girl similar to Charlie, holding a
gun and uses the strong contrast of white and red.
Our poster is a teaser poster, which is why a tagline is not included. This allowsan audience to use
the shot provided to figure out a plot, creating a sense of intrigue whichgenerates viewers. The
poster has a star rating of four, giving a sense of authority to an audience with positivity 'athrilling
experience'. The logos displayed towards the bottom of the poster are the production logo, the
certificategranted by the BBFC and the distributor, vervepictures. Additional information is
provided at the bottom forexample ‘written by Kattre Vozunjuk’. Through researching into the
conventions of thriller posters, I found that the majority have the main character displayed on the
front. This character usually has the most screen time, which wegranted Charlie also. The use of
colour(white and red) is juxtaposed to the dark surrounding Charlie. The darkness is a circular
shape, much like the gun, or a victim facingher. The colour signifies her dangerous beauty and
feminine youth,whilst the greyscale indicates her dark side of crime. The poster has a hidden
meaning varying by perspective, without revealing the plot, teasing a potential audience.
The image is taken from the main product, a medium close up, displaying the protagonist fromthe
waist upwards. The shot abides by the crime genre, as the character is framed holding a gun. A
limitation to this image is that it tends to reveal Charlie's character as an assassin, whichis meant to
be ambiguous. The splatter signifies the blood by the assassinations. A blur effect was used on
Charlie to mask her identity slightly. The colourmotif red ‘next target’ suggests danger which
supports the genre. Overallthe poster and main product subverts the genre, having a female lead,

5. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
as the main character is usually a powerfulheroic male, howeverwe desired to express the power
of women.
Due to time constraints, I believe our poster wasn’t the best quality. An improvement would be to
spend more time familiarizing with the effectson Photoshop.By granting more time we may have
created a more professional outcome.
Our poster exhibits qualities of an independent company,as it doesn’t mention any other
mainstream movies such as ‘from the producers of…’
Being an independent company with a small budget, the poster wouldbe displayed on the internet,
perhaps on a Facebookpage and if possible some billboards near bus stops and shops. The
existence of our product is less easy to express, lacking money to grant into marketing. The dark
knight rises, of Time Warner (part of the big six, a large conglomerate) spent around 150 million
dollars on marketing alone; this included viral marketing campaigns, whichspread across the globe
to ensure the film generated revenue.
We used synergy to interlink the ancillary texts to the final product. The poster has features which
appear in the movie, forexample the shot in the poster is taken from the film itself. For an
independent film witha low budget, showcasing a short movie, I believe our poster is very effective
as an ancillary text, targeting an audience who appeal to crime, weapons, powerfulequality of
women and action.

6. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
PosterResearchandPreparation
Radio Trailer(AdobePremierPro)
The radio trailer was constructed using the softwareAdobe Premier Pro, as used for the main
product. This incorporated the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds used within the movie. The trailer
begins with the diegetic sound of a clockticking.This reflectsanticipation by incorporating the use
of time, as a flashback is evident in the movie and time is a key plot device. This is followedby the
introduction of the non-diegetic incidental music whichis used within the short movie, displaying
synergy between all of the media products produced. This music is elegant to symbolise Charlie,
through the use of a piano, whilst being mysterious. Direct quotes from Charlie’s voiceoverwere
edited with the music in order to introduce the narrative withoutrevealing too much information,

7. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
this is just a small section addressing sign posting ‘On the 24th of February 2018’. The key aspects
whichneeded tobe included in our radio trailer were:
1. The certificate(12A)
2. The title (‘the next target’)
3. Several ratings or reviews by an authoritative company (‘a thrilling experience - empire’ ‘an
award winning classic’)
These were incorporated by a male voice.A male voicewas used to juxtapose the female voiceof
Charlie being of a lowerpitch. Studies show a male voiceto be more authoritative and persuasive
towards an audience, the article from Atlantic is displayed below alongside the demographics.
This product is available to access on YouTube.If wewere a larger budget company, such as the big
six (Time Warner etc.), this would be found on radio stations such as ‘Radio One’ ‘Hallam FM’. Our
radio trailer strongly represented ideas from the example researched ‘gravity’. We used this as a
frameworkin deciding what sound should be chosen from our movie to incorporate into the radio
trailer withoutrevealing the plot twistwhich is part of our unique selling point. Our radio trailer is
an effectivetextin promoting yetbeing ambiguous.

8. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
Radio TrailerResearch
Individual DVD Cover (PowerPoint)
Eachgroup member created their own DVDcovers as an additional ancillary text. This would be the
coverif our film was to be distributed to cinemas and on DVD. My DVDcoveris below. I
incorporated the main images taken directly from the main product as synergy across the
interlinked media products. The fonts are taken from my individual poster idea. I tookone image of
my ownto be unique; this is a close up of Charlie’s eyes. I didn’t include a blurb (or running times
etc.) as this was before the final cut was uploaded to YouTubeand I was aware we were still
amending the text.

9. How effective is the combination of your main productand the ancillary texts?
DVD CoverResearch
GroupDVD cover(AdobePhotoshop/PowerPoint)
The group DVDcovercombined the final poster and aspects researched. This included a blurb
whichsummarised the plot. This is a brief description forpromotional purposes. This requires the
audience to have an understanding of the film, without revealing toomuch.
Overall westudied and researched many successful crime thrillers products. This gave us an insight
into guidelines whichwe could follow toproduce effectiveoutcomes.