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?
BY SOHAIL H QURESHI
2. Introduction
For my A2 Media Studies coursework it required my group and I to
create a film trailer and with the film trailer we had to create two
ancillary task.The ancillary task were to make a Film Poster and a
Magazine Cover for the film.The genre my group and I have chosen is
Horror for the film trailer, and so I put together the codes and
conventions needed in a horror trailer and the ancillary tasks. Having a
unique selling point for my film into three different media products.
The reason I have done this is to make the film expand in the media
industry, attract, keep the audience engaged and interested in the
film. By doing this for my film, it will increase the effectiveness of the
whole package.This also will show what house style and colour scheme
for my products.
3. Film Posters
• Looking into Film Posters of other Horror genre films, I found out in
my research that film posters are very important when advertising
your film and how they can attract the audience to your product.
After researching and annotating real film posters, I found the
purpose of a poster and it became clear to me that the purpose of a
film poster is to advertise the film through the image portrayed, the
tagline, title, the actors’ names and the design/colours. Using these
codes and conventions to make the poster sellable, attractive and
connected with the other products.These different elements would
be shown throughout the three different ancillary products.
4. Colour – the horror genre colour scheme has been
used well in this as the colours represent the theme
of paranormal disturbance. The colours Black, Grey
and Brown connote the mystery and the fear of the
unknown from the film, which is what the theme is
in this film. also the colours also represent the little
girl in the corner as she could be the main
character in the movie as she is only one in high
key lighting in the poster. This shows the audience
that the little girl is one of the main people from
the movie as everything will be centred on her. The
colour white in the title could represent the ghost
type theme in the movie, linking to paranormal
disturbance and again, the fear of the unknown.
Typography – the use of this font allows the
writing to be more attractive to the audience and
make an impact on them. The font may be more
conventional within the horror genre as this genre
aims to make an impact on the audience by
triggering their emotion, so this font would link to
that genre and make an impact. The title has been
placed in front of the main image, as the main
image is very dull and dark keeping the title
brighter the colour of the main image, making the
title stands out more to the consumer so making it
eye-catching to the consumer. Also allows the
audience to see what the movie is called, so they
are intrigued as to what the movie will be about.
Main Image –As the costume worn by the character in
the centre looks old and worn, which tells the audience
something has happened to them and telling the
audience that this is a horror genre of movie. The child
on the right in the main image shows the audience the
costume worn by the child show their age, and indicates
them to be vulnerable and isolated. The camera shot
type is a mid-shot, and it is easy to see the child’s facial
expressions being used in the poster and this showing
the consumer her vulnerability and fear. At the same
time the image also allows you to see that she is holding
on to the arm of the other character, indicating what the
storyline of the movie would be, and the relationship
between the two characters.
This shot allows you see the costume of the character
and how this is linked with horror genre. As this shot
type does not show the face of the character but linking
with the theme of mystery within the horror genre, as
the audience are not aware of whom the character in the
movie is.
Layout – having the main image in the middle of
the poster indicates the importance within the
movie, and the child on the side indicates her
vulnerability, so linking to the horror genre as she
uses the rule of thirds and appearing to be afraid.
The title is in an conventional place as it is in the
centre of the page, and little bit towards bottom so
making the audience look around the poster before
looking at the title. As this is conventional as within
the horror genre because most things happen
around the character, so intending the audience to
be fearful of it.
Language – The use language on the poster is very
formal, as this will be attracting any class to watch the
film. “A Mothers Love Is Forever” indicating the love is
their even after the mother has past, bringing the horror
genre into the language being used in the poster.
Making the language very easy to read and catchy to
the audience as this means they will remember it and
makes the audience want to watch the movie.
5. My Film Poster
By using the codes and conventions when creating my Film Poster for my Main Product, I
believe that the layout of the poster is very effective because it attracts the audience and is
associated with the film trailer and magazine. I have shown this to the audience through the
image presented in my poster, possessed girl in the middle of the poster, as it stands out in
the poster as it is the central image and she is the first character or the first thing that the
audience see in my trailer forThe House Guest. I believe that the combination of my main
product and my ancillary texts being my film poster and magazine combined are quite
effective due to the fact that they create a brand identity to the overall media product that I
have created and the audience will automatically know that they are all part of one. As you
can see that the title for the film is placed next to the face of the image in the poster, this
due to taking pieces from other poster such as the Grudge, creating this poster in my own
image. I believe that the audience will be looking all over the poster before finding the name
as this will give the film a chance of being seen by more audience and watched as the
audience are interacting with the poster for many minutes.
7. Magazine Cover
When researching into many different horror magazine covers, I had
discovered that the cover of the magazine cover should always have a USP of
a film featuring in the magazine that certain month. Having the main
characters of the featured film in the main image as the audience can make
links between the cover, trailer and poster. When researching into magazine
covers I came across many different magazine cover which feature new
horror films, I found in the research that they all have the same type of codes
and conventions, the way they attract the audience to the product and
engaging the product with the audience when making the main image of the
front cover having direct mode of address with the audience while they are
looking at the magazine. Magazine covers have many other things such as
tagline, main image, sub-heading, masthead and sub-images on the page.
Having quite few stories on the page the main image will always relate to the
main story in the magazine.
8. The magazine’s tagline “The Mind Blowing
Issue” this is placed just above the masthead to
give the audience a small piece of information
while enticing them to read on. This is very
conventional in magazine covers as it is
important to entice the reader and making them
read through the magazine. The tagline is also
called an Anchorage text. This can be created by
placing images next to the tagline. This is used in
magazine conventional a lot has it gives the
audience different ways of getting information
about the films.
The masthead of this magazine cover is very comic
style with horror genre. As this uses animation in the
text to show the readers what films they cover in
this magazine cover. Also the masthead will be the
first thing that the audience will see on the cover as
it is the biggest text on the page. As empire takes
advantage of this to make sure that the first thing
the reader will see is the masthead. And this is done
to let the audience know exactly what magazine
they are looking at. Another conventional used in
this magazine is that the masthead is behind the
model. This done when a particularly big feature is
part of magazine, and this case it is the Inception
film main character placed in front of the masthead.
This is always at the top of the page fitting the
width. There is slightly difference in this as they did
not use bold whit font, however they have
incorporated part of the film into the masthead.
Luring the audience in to see what it is about.
Cover line – the main point of this cover line in the film
magazine is that they put the name of the film that cover
line concerns. The cover line topics change as they go
from telling about Inception to 20 mid blowing film out
this week and etc. and this is how the magazine company
get the audience to come to the magazine and be
entertain as they put what the readers want to read in a
film magazine.
Pug – A pug in a magazine cover is the main
convention that grabs readers attention when
looking at the cover. As the pug is very bright colours
in magazine covers but this magazine is breaking the
conventions as it doesn’t use bright colours for the
pug and the audience are still attracted to the pug,
grabbing the readers. The colours used in the pug are
grey, black and red – this follows the main colour
scheme of the magazine cover.
Date – the date and the price of the magazine are
presented faintly next to the masthead and only
displayed the month of the issue and simple price
tag. As this tells the readers that this magazine cover
is monthly issue and it is less busy.
Colour Scheme – the colour scheme is following the
film colour scheme as the film the is presented on the
magazine. As Inception has dark and dull colours, the
magazine cover presented the film is following the
style of the film to attract the readers to the
magazine and the film at the same time. The main
colours used are blue, red, grey, black and white.
We can see that the main feature of this film and
specifically to this issue is the film Inception and
actor Leonardo Dicaprio. We know because he is
the centre and largest image on the magazine. He
also covers the masthead slightly creating a layered
depth and showing his importance on this cover.
9. My Magazine Cover
In my magazine cover I have used all the codes and convention needed in an
magazine cover, it doesn’t matter what genre the magazine cover is, I had to use
the right codes and conventions from the media industry to get my magazine
cover to meet the conventions and be attractive to the audience when published.
In my magazine you can see the effectiveness in combining with the other
products, as the magazine cover continues with the main image of the possessed
woman in the middle of the page, linking all three of my products together to
show the audience that they are all featuring one film. It also adds emphasis to
the horror genre of the film and it gives the reader reasons to buy the magazine.
Onwards I have followed the layout of horror film magazine, making the
magazine front page not too busy so the audience will not get lost when reading
it. As the reader will be able to tell which is the main sell line in the magazine as
it has been placed in the middle/bottom of the page, it being the largest font on
the page so the audience will be attracted to the sell line first.
10. Horror Genre
In both of my trailer and my ancillary texts I have made it clear what
genre I have chosen for my film. In my research I learnt that the trailer
is the basis for which the characters, themes, colours, images and
symbols of the film.To keep all the conventions needed in my work, I
have used the characters, colours and themes in the magazine cover
and film poster.To keep the house style of the magazine cover and the
poster the same, I decided to use the same character for the main
image to keep the link between the trailer, film poster and the
magazine cover. I used many different fonts for my poster and
magazine cover as I believe this would attract the audience by having
new and different things to show to the chosen audience. As this
creates the link for the audience across the media texts.
