The three media pieces for the film - the poster, magazine cover, and trailer - are linked through visual and thematic elements. They feature the same main actress portraying dual roles from different time periods, with the poster focusing on her distressed character and the magazine cover showing both roles. Font, color schemes, and imagery are generally consistent between the pieces to create synergy, though the magazine has a more independent stylistic approach. While the links help brand the film, the common horror genre elements may lessen their distinctiveness. Stronger use of shared visuals could improve cohesion across the ancillary texts.

1. How Does Your Main Product and Your Ancillary Texts Link Together?

2. Magazine Cover.
Our 3 texts link together in a combination
of visual synergy. Both our Poster and our
Magazine are raising the brand awareness
of our film. Our Magazine uses the main
image of our Movie Star, however with
the Magazine we have added a more
professional photo shoot feel by taking
additional photographs. Both the poster
and the magazine cover tell different parts We used a sepia tone
of the story whilst remaining in synergy. throughout our three products
The poster shows predominantly the to represent the period aspect
horror aspect of the movie, whilst the of our story. With the magazine
magazine is focusing more on the period in particular we used a sepia
side and the idea of the 2 stories that run tone in the background and on
throughout our trailer. We wanted both the image of our main actor at
the past and the present to feature on the the front. However we used a
cover as this is a big part of our Hybrid colour image of our main actor
genre of “Found-Footage Period Horror”. again in the second image of her
As we used the same actor to play both on the cover to represent the
the main female protagonist of the past time difference between the
and the present in our trailer I thought it two characters played by the
would be a unique idea to have them both same actor. The styling of the
feature on the magazine cover, although it two looks also represent the
is essentially the same person, we used difference. Rather than use a
alternative styling and effects to show the screen shot from the trailer for
differences between them. the Magazine cover we decided
to take a separate photo shoot
for the magazine cover to create
a more professional feel.

3. Movie Poster.
Our poster continues the synergy and is in
theme with our horror genre. The main
image is different to what we have used
on the magazine but it is a still straight out The colours in the poster are in
of the trailer, it is a memorable moment in synergy with the colours on the
the trailer and is one of the last things you magazine cover and the trailer, we
see in the trailer. Having this as the poster have used very subdued tones.
ties in well as it means the last thing they Typical of a horror movie we have
remember from the trailer is the first thing used black and red, along with a
they see on the poster and this will sepia tone to represent the period
resonate with the audience as it will be a feature of our film. The lighting on
recognizable image stamped into their the face of the main image is
mind. The main text for the name of the effective I feel as it casts shadows in
film is in the same font as the trailer her eyes and mouth and so her facial
however we have changed it from the features aren’t instantly
blood red that it is in the trailer to a more recognizable. The lighting we used
subdued tone of red, we wanted to was just xenon headlights of my car
achieve a mud red to mix in the themes of as we filmed at night, however we
the lane and the blood shed. The poster is feel this has created the perfect
compiling of 3 images which is in synergy desired effect on the image. The
with the magazine which comprises of 2 strap line at the top of the poster
images on the cover, and unusual “what they saw will cost them their
convention for a magazine. The poster has lives” comes straight out of the
the mian statement image which draws trailer and so this again shows
the audience in however it then has 2 instant synergy between these two
smaller images at the bottom which aren’t products. We have used the same
noticeable unless looked at closely. 1 is of colour for this strap line as in the
the lane and the other is the flash image trailer and this all adds to the
of the killer which appears in the trailer. audiences recognition of the poster
being linked to the trailer.

4. Synergistic Features – Trailer and Poster
The synergy between the fonts used in both the trailer and in
the poster are the same with slight colour difference; the font
in the poster is more of a burnt red whilst the colour of the
trailer text is blood red. This slight difference I feel is
important asI think that as much as we want synergy we also
want there to be a difference between each of the products
we have created. The magazine is the most different in style,
that is because it would not have been created by the films
producers and so therefore it would have its own unique
style, in keeping with the synergy but stylistically different.
However the synergy between the poster and the trailer is
very high and the two products do become one big package.

5. Synergistic Features – Magazine and Trailer
The main synergistic features between our trailer and
our magazine cover is the feature of the female
protagonist. We used one actress to portray both past
and present female roles and so this is a unique
feature that we carried across to the cover of our
magazine. We also continued the theme of using a
sepia tone for the past character however the present
day character is seen in saturated colour. We used the
the same colour scheme in all 3 of our products
however we chose to use a different font on the cover
of the magazine as I felt it would have been produced
by the magazine and not the film production company
and so stylistically it would be different as the
magazine would be targeting its own reader.

6. How Does Your Main Product and Your Ancillary Texts Link Together?
Overall the strong links between our three media pieces are
the font- this has created an identity for our film and is an
easy an effective way of linking them all together. The
reoccurrence of the main female protagonist- when an
audience sees the actress they will instantly know what film
she is because of the focus on her throughout. Our female
character is perceived in the poster as you would expect from
a horror film, she is shown as helpless and in pain. Whereas
in the magazine cover we see the story behind the film
portrayed in a more artistic way. We could have shown
various different characters throughout our cover and poster,
such as the killer or the male protagonist but this wouldn’t
have been as effective in making a brand. The colour scheme
through our trailer and poster is predominately black and
red, following in the typical horror genre. The colours can
then link the pieces together, however because the colour
combination is so popular within horror films the relation
may not be that strong. The colour scheme doesn’t appear so
predominantly in the magazine front cover and I think to
make the correlation stronger we could have used more of
the same font and colours within the cover. To make our
whole brand stronger I think we could have used a stronger
colour scheme and more effectively.