2. What were you trying to achieve in your main product?
Was this also reflected in the two advertising products?
In our film “The Call” we were trying to achieve
a sense of the unknown for the viewer. Once we
had thought of the idea for the film we knew it
had to make the reader ask questions such as
“Why is this happening to these certain
people?” etc. We had to ensure that all of the
questions we thought the viewer would have
were not answered, we just gave the viewer the
basics (character answers the call, ends up being
abducted) the viewer doesn’t know if the
character is killed etc, this all links in with the
thriller genre because the viewers is left
wondering what, where and why as it is part of
the enjoyment they will get out of the thriller
genre.
3. This is our film poster, I feel that this is definitely reflective of
the message we are trying to give off with our film, it is very
basic and fills the viewers head with questions, they would
see this poster and think “Why is the phone box so
important?” this is also helped by the fact that it is the only
thing on the poster with a vibrant colour on it, so it is always
the first thing the viewer sees.
Also to link with the film there is a slogan in small print which
links back to the film. In the film when the main character
answers the phone the voice on the other end says “it’s not
what you see that kills you, it’s what you miss” the slogan is
extremely easy to miss. The slogan reads “When fate calls
don’t answer”. We did this so people who read it would have
more of an advantage in terms of knowledge of the storyline
than the people who hadn’t read it. However even when the
viewer has read it still places questions in their head which
again adds to the sense of mystery.
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJXcU0EO2hg&fe
ature=player_embedded
(Link to the radio trailer)
I also feel that the radio trailer for our film does
the film justice too as it still maintains the
feeling of unknown that we wanted to circulate
this film. The only audio in the trailer from film
is the “It’s not what you see that kills you, it’s
what you miss” voice sound and the song from
the end credits. Due to this the listener will be
asking themselves the same questions as from
the poster things such as “What will kill the
character?” “What am I missing?”. Making the
viewer/listening ask questions to themselves is
a very good marketing strategy as some people
would feel they had to go and see the film to
answer the questions.
The slogan for the film is also said in the radio
trailer, this was done because unlike in the
poster we couldn’t hide the slogan. But the
slogan still makes questions the listener will
want answering.
5. How effective do you think the two ancillary texts are at
selling your production?
I think that both of ancillary texts sell our product very
well as they don’t give away any main points of the
story line which would answer some of the viewers
questions, if we did this it would take away from the
feeling of mystery we wanted our advertising to give.
Thriller as a genre is about letting the viewer know as
little as possible so they wont just know every single
aspect of the storyline, but tell them just enough so
they have a foundation to form an opinion about the
storyline, and I feel both our film and ancillary texts
fulfil this criteria very well.
7. Film poster comparison
I decided to compare our poster to the “One Missed Call” poster. As you can see on the previous slide the
layout of both posters is extremely similar. Both posters have one main image which poses a question to the
viewer “What is so important about that image?” if the posters were very busy and full of things related to the
film it would take away from the mysterious nature of these types of thriller films.
They both have a slogan on them which adds more questions to the list of unanswered questions the viewer
already has. On the poster for “One Missed Call” the slogan reads “What will it sound like when you die?” and
on our film poster the slogan is “When fate calls don’t answer”. Both of these slogans are very similar in terms
of message as they don’t give away any aspect of story, it just lets the viewer know it is something to do with
phones and sound. This again, adds to the feeling of mystery.
We followed the standard codes and conventions for thriller film posters and we feel ours turned out to a
standard that equals the professional standards. The only things our poster really differs from the comparison
poster in terms of layout is that we incorporated our logo into the actual scene of the poster so it doesn’t just
stick out and ruin the emersion we intended to give with our poster.
8. Radio Trailer comparison
I used “The Nines” radio trailer from this site - http://www.eccsvox.com/commercials.php
Link to our trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJXcU0EO2hg&feature=player_embedded
Both radio trailers use the films slogan for an effective purpose, “The Nines” trailer says “The nines, you never
know when your number’s up” and our trailer says “When fate calls, don’t answer” both of these fill the
listeners head with questions, which is what a radio trailer aims to do as it will make people want to go and
watch the film.
Our trailer, like every other typical trailer has the standard “epic voice” in it. The use of a strong male voice in
marketing trailers are very common as they give a sense of seriousness to the listener, which could make some
people feel like they have to go and see it if the commentator is so serious about it.
Both trailers give minimal info about the film, just some lines of dialogue that will make the listener wonder
why they are so important and thus go and view the film.
Overall I feel that our radio trailer is very close to a professional standard as it fits the criteria of a professional
trailer, it gives the listener questions, but no answer, which results in sales for the film.
