2. Promotion
It is often that the promotion of the film is what makes or breaks
it’s success, not the content of the film itself.
An example of this is the 2008 British Drama, Slumdog
Millionaire, seen now as a great success. However, when first
released it did not get promoted much largely due to Warner
Independent pictures being shut down in May of that year. Due
to this the film was not seen by many people straight away- it is
only when it began winning awards later in the year that people
began noticing it at it went on to make $337.9 million at the US
box office.
This is why companies spend millions on promoting films using
ancillary products such as posters and magazine articles- which
I chose to create as my ancillary products.
4. Ancillary 1: Poster
My ancillary poster, I felt, was successful; it is clear from the
poster what genre our film is and it connotes what audience
fears we are exploiting (isolation, the dark and otherness).
Most of the iconography to promote the film is on my poster.
For example, the award logo, director and actor’s names,
‘coming this Halloween’, the tag line and the title.
The title I think is the most important thing to promote as this
is how people remember the film and go to see it. This is why
I made the title stand out with the contrasting colour of red
against black which also conventionally connotes danger.
5. Ancillary 1: Poster
A poster is used as a visual tool to promote films, this is why
the images are so important; they are what draw the
audience in. I carefully chose the images to give the text
receiver an idea of what fears are in the film. However, using
these dark images on a poster makes it stand out less.
With my target audience of teens and young adults in mind, I
decided on using these dark mysterious images as instead of
putting them off, they would be intrigued and want to find out
more.
The colours and images I have used are the same in all of
my media texts, thus creating synergy across my products.
7. Ancillary 2: Magazine article
My magazine article was mostly effective as the colours and
images help create synergy across my products therefore
creating a recognizable image for the film which helps the
promotion of my film.
Again, most promotional conventions are on the page just as
they are on the poster.
I chose to put the claw marks on the second page to add an
extra horror aspect to the page, I think it is effective however
does not suit the supernatural sub-genre so I think the image
should have been different.
8. Ancillary 2: Magazine article
I chose to put a similar layout to my poster as the main image
on the first page. I had seen this done with other films and
liked the idea as it again creates a brand image for the film.
However I think if I were to do this again I would change this
as it does not give any new information from the poster and
also does not make the article stand out to someone flicking
through a magazine.
Although changing the images may have been a good idea,
keeping the title, tag line and colours the same brings the
products together and makes them recognizable as one
product.
9. How effective are they together?
As a pair, my ancillary products mostly work well together to
promote the film; the colours and images create synergy and
both connote the same audience fears which are shown in
the narrative of the film.
However, the two products are very similar which means only
one set of iconographies are being promoted to my audience;
if I put different images on one ancillary then it may attract
different people.
