The document discusses how the authors linked their horror film trailer, poster, and magazine cover to effectively promote the film. They used the same central image of the mysterious little girl from the trailer on the poster to pique audience interest. For the magazine cover, they featured the vulnerable main character Elizabeth to create an emotional connection. Additionally, they used the same font and included the trailer's tagline "He's Coming" on the poster to consistently brand the film.

1. How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary
task?
By Kellly Shanahan and Laura
Mandeville

2. The key importance in our project was
producing an effective horror film trailer,
however we along with this we had to produce
an accompanying film poster and magazine
front cover. Since creating a horror film poster
and magazine front cover are just as
significant, as they are just another way of
persuading the audience into going to watch
the film.

3. As we felt the trailer was the key factor out of the three tasks, we decided
to link the poster and front cover back to this. Therefore firstly our poster
included a central image of the little girl who features in the film’s trailer.
We used an image that was extremely unfocused this meant that the little
girls face was very hard to make out, which is something that we
intentionally did as we did not what to give what the looked like away in the
poster, as we thought it added to the mystery to the film. This is an idea that
we got from analysing ’30 Days of Night’ since in their poster the audience
are unable to make out what the vampires looks like, which creates
disequilibrium as the audience will need to go to see the film in order to
find out who the antagonist is and what they look like. This feature of not
giving away what the character looked like is something that we continued
using in our trailer as we only showed the little girl for a two shots in our
film and for quick snapshots.

4. We came to the decision to use the little girl in
our poster, as we felt that she definitely
brought a creepy and disturbing feel to the
poster and would hopefully make the audience
want to go and see the film. Since people go to
watch horror films to be scared and this poster
should show them that this film is going to be
chilling and scary. The way that we positioned
the little girl on the poster means that the
audience are made to look up at her, this
immediately gives the girl authority and a
dominance over the audience as she is at a
higher angle.

5. When it came to our magazine front cover we
decided to use the young girl ‘Elizabeth’, as she
is the main character in the film and we
thought that it would be good to use her as it
would give the audience a chance to recognise
her as a significant character in the film. Also
we made sure that the image we used of the
character ‘Elizabeth’ was one that made her
look vulnerable and innocent, which should
hopefully make the audience feel a connection
with her and care for her therefore making
them want to come and see the film to see
what happens to her. In addition to this the
way that ‘Elizabeth’ stares straight at the
audience should emphasise her desperation
and again create a connection with the
audience.

6. Another way we linked our film poster and
magazine front cover was by using the same
font for the title of our film “The Message”, we
did this as we felt that it would help the
audience to recognise the film, so for example
when people see the magazine they will
straight away relate it back to the film poster
and be more inclined to read the interview,
which will help make the film more popular as
the audience will learn more about it and be
more inclined to go and see it. Also by keeping
the font the same it will help brand the film as
it will be something that people automatically
recognise, which should hopefully make the
film a success.

7. We added a filter to the film poster, which we
think gave a really great effect to it as it
completely darkened the whole image, this
therefore gives it a creepy and eerie feel to it,
which should give the audience a feel to what
is to come if they go and watch the film. Also
we used a burn tool when it came to creating
our magazine poster as we wanted to darken it
but not make it completely black and white.
The burn tool allowed us to just darken the
background, which made the image of the
main character ‘Elizabeth’ really stand out and
be the main attraction on the magazine this
should therefore grab the attention of our
potential audience and convince them to
purchase the magazine and them go to see our
film.

8. Finally another way we linked our trailer and
poster together was by have the words “He’s
Coming” on the poster, this correlated to our
trailer which has the character finds scribbles
with the words “He’s Coming”. We think that it
was a good idea to put the words “He’s Coming”
on the poster as it should help again to create a
brand for the film and a slogan of “He’s Coming”
is memorable and catchy for the audience.