The document discusses an evaluation of a film called "Hate Mail" and its accompanying promotional materials, including a poster and radio trailer. It describes how the poster and radio trailer effectively communicate that the film is an action thriller genre through visual cues like characters holding a gun and bullets, and audio cues in the radio trailer like gunshots and car sounds. Feedback from test audiences confirmed that the poster and radio trailer clearly portrayed the film as an action genre and hinted at elements of violence and gun fights, making the promotional materials a success at representing the film's key characteristics.

1. A2 Media
evaluation Q2
How effective is the is the
combination of your product
and the ancillary texts?

2. Our Film
Our film ‘Hate Mail’ is an action thriller film based around a man called Quincey Kent who is set on
getting revenge on the Hitman who was hired to kill his friend and business partner.
It is fairly obvious that as a action thriller film that suspense, violence and frantic chases are key
characteristics of the genre that we are going to have to capture to meet the conventions of the genre.
We tried hard to put this across to the audience that our film was an action film with the likes of the
James Bond franchise. This led to us writing a chase scene into the storyline, writing fight scenes and
deaths of two characters into the storyline in order for our film to be obviously an action thriller film on
the eyes of an audience member.

3. Our Poster
This is the poster that we created. While creating it we had to firstly consider and then incorporate
the conventions of a film poster, which would be things such as:
1. film title
2. audience reviews
3. actors names
4. production blurb
5. tagline
After these were added, we decided to place the three main characters in the centre of the poster
with key items surrounding them. The characters are in poses that are typical of the character they
play in the film.
The general idea of adding the important objects and putting the characters in poses was to firstly
make the poster look interesting and worth a look at. However this also helps the audience to make
inferences that can hint towards a possible event in the storyline. For example the gun and bullets
would hint towards the possibility of a gunfight, then the blood would lead the audience to believe
that someone possibly dies within the film. The character holding the gun would then be expected to
be the one who in involved in a gunfight and possibly kill someone.
In the poster we were trying to get across what type of film our film actually is. Our film is a typical
action thriller that involves suspense, chases, gun fights violence etc. We feel that the poster was
effective as when we showed it to some members of public we received some positive feedback.
Many said that it looked good and ‘very professional and like a real film poster’. This was pleasing as
this was the one of the things we were trying to achieve. When we asked them to tell us what the
expected from the film and what genre they thought the film was based on the poster, almost
everyone said that ‘action’ was the genre being portrayed and that some sort of gun fight/violence
was expected.’ Some of the people said that the phone was confusing and that it was out of place
within the genre however once the film is watched it is obvious why the phone is placed there
because the hitman character takes the job by phone which leads to his death.

4. Similar Posters
We feel that our film poster holds some
similarities to the film poster to from
‘Trance’. Our general design with the three
central pictures and names underneath was
inspired by this poster. The message that
the ‘Trance’ poster portrays is fairly
discrete and the poster is fairly empty. This
how ever draws attention to the character
wearing a suit holding a shotgun, which for
us is typical of the action genre and
obviously hints at the use of guns within the
film.

5. Our Radio Trailer
Radio Trailers use a combination of voice overs and sound effects to stress the nature of
the film. As our film is an action thriller we felt that it would be quite easy to portray this
in the radio trailer. We felt that the action genre was identified by things such as car
chases, gun fights, fight scenes, building suspense etc. All of these things were obviously
incorporated into our final film as we wanted our film to be a homage to action films. The
things that we identified as icons of the action genre were quite reliant on sound to make
them effective.
So in our radio trailer we added a variety of sounds such as car engines, gun shots, fast
paced music and voice overs to explain our film. The main objective of the radio trailer
was to advertise the film. We felt the best way to do this was to describe the film so that
the audience can get a good idea of what to expect in our film and also to emphasize that
it is a action film, as we realise that action films are quite popular and many people enjoy
action films and only go to watch films of this genre at a cinema.
Our Radio trailer uses something that we also used in our final film. When the Hitman
enters the car he puts the radio on to our made up radio station ‘Maxx Fm’. Our radio
trailer also takes place on this radio trailer.
We gave a few members of public the chance to listen to the radio trailer. After listening
to it we asked them what they thought about it. The vast majority said it sounded very
good. When asked what genre they thought the film it was advertising it, all of them said
action. The public said that that sounds of cars played made them think of car chases and
the gunshots made them think of gunfights all typical of the action genre. They all also
said that the voice overs were good in describing the film.
You can find our radio trailer on
this web page:
http://bca2media2015group11.blo
gspot.co.uk/search/label/max%20
barker

6. Similar Radio Trailers
http://blackholereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-scariest-film-
imaginable-radio-ads.html
On this link there is a radio trailer for the film, North Sea Hijack.
Both trailers carry some similarities, one of these being that they
are both advertising action films. The North Sea HIjack trailer is
fairly plain, it features only a voiceover/dialogue from the film to
describe the nature of the film and what action to expect. Our
radio trailer also does this however if the dialogue isn't listened to
properly it may not portray the film properly allowing some
misconceptions to be made about the film North Sea Hijack.
The sound effects that we added to our radio trailer make it
obvious what our film is trying to get across and the nature of it. I
feel it also makes it better to listen to which may be a more
effective way to advertise and create sales.
You can find our radio trailer on this web page:
http://bca2media2015group11.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/max%20barker