The document provides an evaluation of the effectiveness of combining a film poster and magazine double-page spread as promotional products. Key points: - The poster and magazine spread use similar color schemes and imagery to create synergy between the products and more effectively promote the film. - Both products incorporate conventions of their genres, like the poster including film credits and the spread using features like pull quotes. - While the products could have been more creatively different, their coordinated design helps tie them together as promoting the same film.

1. How effective
is the
combination of
your main
production and
ancillary
products?
Evaluation Question 2

2. Both
main
images
have
quite
low
satura-
tion to
connote
the sad
atmos-
phere in
the film.
I have included a film award in
the poster and the double-page
spread as seeing that a film has
been successful/critically
acclaimed may make someone
more likely to want to watch it
I included a star
rating as this could
also attract people’s
attention to the article
and lead to them
watching them film.
The article was too long so
I had to write ‘continues
page 17’ however if this
was the end of the article I
would’ve written where
the film can be watched.
I made the heading two different
colours so that ‘different’ and
‘dementia’ stood out on the page
to draw the readers attention to
what the film is about before
they read the article.
I created a house style for both products by using
black, white and grey as the main colours of both texts.
This creates synergy between the products and would
lead to more effective promotion of my film because
the poster is recognisable to be a scene from the film
and so is the main image of the double-page spread.
I used the names of
the actors as this is
a convention of
film posters so
people know who is
in the film.
I used behind the
scenes photos and
stills from the film
as secondary images
to make the article
feel more exclusive.
Drop-caps,
standfirsts, captions
on images and pull-
quotes are
convention of
magazine articles
Produc-
tion
comp-
any logo
adds
brand
identity
to the
film.
Social media links so
people know where to
watch the film. Hashtag to
encourage a conversation
online about the film and
dementia.
Tagline
gives a hint
at what the
film is
about.
Colour
fades on
the film
title to
connote
Henry’s
memory
getting
worse.

3. In the scene it is visible that Emily is on
her phone, so I chose to have her phone
on the table in the image. This
conforms to the stereotype of teenagers
being addicted to technology.
For my poster I decided to use a still from the conservatory scene because it is the flashback where Henry’s dementia is most
obvious and Gen and Emily finally have to stop being in denial. It is a point of high drama and I feel like the conservatory is quite
a unique filming location and memorable for the audience so when they see the film they will be waiting to see what happens in
this scene.
This is the only scene where all three
characters are present and therefore I
wanted to use this scene on my poster
to show them as a family. The image
for my poster is taken at a slightly
higher angle than this two shot of
Henry and Gen, so it gives a clearer
view of the table. It also shows the
audience who is going to be in the film.
Also mise-en-scene in the image
reflects what is in the actual scene
(same costumes, props, etc)
My Poster – The Main Image
I chose an image where Gen and Emily are looking
at each other as opposed to looking at Henry
because at the end of the scene Emily says ‘I told
you there was something wrong’ and Gen looks at
Emily worriedly. Therefore by using this image the
poster reflects what happens in the scene and also
implies how the film is about the effects of dementia
on the family as well as the patient.

4. I used a still from the bathroom scene for a secondary image because it gives the audience an exclusive look at the film before actually watching
it. I also really like this over-the-shoulder shot and as Henry looks to be in distress this may make the reader want to watch the film to see what
happens in this scene.
My Double-Page Spread – Image Choice
I used more than one image in my double-page spread because it is conventional for magazine spreads to have one primary image
as well as other smaller secondary images. Here I used one main image and too secondary images.
I included a photo of the cast and crew together after filming to show again
give the reader a behind the scenes look at the film which is one of the
purposes of film review magazines. I have presented my article in the form
of an interview with the director (me) and in the interview the director talks
about the filmmaking process so having a photo of the crew compliments
this.
Like my poster, I decided to use a still from the conservatory
scene for the main image of my double-page spread because it is
a point of high drama and I feel like the conservatory and
when Henry’s dementia is most obvious to Emily and Gen.
The main image is very similar to that of my poster because I
took the photos while they ran then scene, however this is from
a different angle. I chose this one as Gen is closer to the foreground and therefore the fact she is
holding her dad’s hand is more obvious for the audience to see, and it shows that she loves and
cares about her Dad. However if I had had more time I would’ve re-taken photos for my main
image so that it isn’t so similar to the poster, because although it doesn’t help to create a house-
style/synergy between the products I could’ve been a lot more creative with the photo I used.

5. Comparing My Poster To ‘The Silent Child’ (2017, dir. Chris Overton) Poster
‘FADING’ POSTER ‘THE SILENT CHILD’ POSTER

6. Comparing My Poster To ‘The Silent Child’ (2017, dir. Chris Overton) Poster
The poster for ‘The Silent Child’ has a billing block at the bottom to credit all the crew that
worked on the film which is conventional of film posters. I didn’t include one on my poster,
and instead just included the names of the actors above the title. I did this because I didn’t
want too much text on my poster as I wanted the main focus to be the image.
Both posters follow the convention of having characters from
the film on it. On ‘The Silent Child’ poster there is a silhouette
picture of the two main protagonists, Joanne and Libby, and in
my poster I all of the characters are on there. For both posters,
the main image comes from a scene within the film.
Both posters have the title of the film on them. Mine uses a serif
font as I feel like these fonts look more old-fashioned and
traditional, and the story is about Henry’s dementia and he is an
older person. However ‘The Silent Child’ uses a sans serif font
which is more modern and suites the film. My poster includes a
tagline to hint at what the film is about, however ‘The Silent
Child’ poster doesn’t.
On the poster my short film is credited
to a production company whereas The
Silent Child only names the director
outside of the billing block.
Conventional things that my poster included but ‘The
Silent Child’ poster didn’t include a film award and
social media links. I included social media links because
this is how my film is distributed, however because The
Silent Child had a big budget behind it is toured Film
Festivals and was premiered on BBC One after winning
an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

7. Overall I found it quite hard to find posters for short films, and I think this could be to do with the fact most short
films are distributed on social media and just use a still or the thumbnail of the video to promote it instead of
making a poster, or they do have a poster but promote in more unique ways. For example, the sci-fi short film
series ‘2097: We Made Ourselves Over’ was promoted through a multi-platform campaign of using social media,
journalism and publicity stunts. The film was made for Hull City of Culture and therefore they wanted to involve
the people of Hull. Therefore prior to the release of the first film they made all the telephone boxes in Hull ring and
there was clues to the narrative in the phone call. This got people from Hull talking about the film and got them
excited about watching them. Also, an app was created with exclusive content about the films.
Extract from Hull 2017 websitewemadeourselvesover.com

8. Challenging Conventions or Favouring Digitalisation?
MY SHORT FILM POSTER
Conventionally, a lot of film posters are portrait as this is the common orientation for how posters are displayed
e.g. on bus shelters, some billboards, magazine pages. However in this new social media-dominated, digital age a
lot of film posters are now made landscape as they are the dimensions which are used on social media. This is
especially relevant for independent film companies as they will not be able to afford to pay advertisers and have
their posters placed in bus shelters and magazines, so being able to share it online for free is good for them, and
this is why I made my poster landscape. This challenges the conventions of traditional film posters but is more
accessible for an online audience
‘Titanic’ (1997, dir. James Cameron)
The poster is portrait because it was
distributed in print form as it was released
before the proliferation of smartphones and
digital technology.
Director and Actress Thea Gajic
promoted her short film ‘The
Importance of Skin’ (2017) on
Instagram, as it was distributed
online on Vimeo.

9. Comparing My Double-Page Spread To A Total Film Magazine Double-Page Spread
MY DOUBLE-PAGE SPREAD TOTAL FILM DOUBLE-PAGE SPREAD
The house style of my page is grey, white and black. The house style of this page is black, yellow and red.

10. Comparing My Double-Page Spread To A Total Film Magazine Double-Page Spread
Both double page spreads have a large main
image which takes up a lot of space. The Total
Films one takes up a full half of the spread
however mine only takes up about ¼. The
images are both taken from the films to give
the reader a sense of what the film is like and
an exclusive look before they see the film. The
images include captions to give more detail in
the context of the film to the reader.
Both my magazine page and the Total Films one have star ratings of how good the
film is. These are decided by critics and show the audience at a glance whether the
film is good or not from the perspective of experts and fellow audience members.
Another convention of magazines is to use a drop cap on the first letter of the first
word of the article . I have done this however Total Films haven’t, instead they
have made the first two words of the paragraph read to make them stand out.
Total Films have a skyline with page numbers of what other
articles are featured in the magazine. This is useful because when
you have finished an article you can look to what you want to
read next. I haven’t done this however we have both included a
sub-heading about the article. Mine is the fact Fading is the short
film is the week and the subheading for Total Films is the name
of the film which the review is about.
Captioned secondary images
to support the article.

11. Comparing My Double-Page Spread To A Total Film Magazine Double-Page Spread
Both pages have a heading. For
mine I used two different
colours to make the words
‘different’ and ‘dementia’ stand
out on the page. Total Films
heading states that the next few
pages in the magazine are about
new films, including this one
Both my film review page and the
Total Films ones use pull quotes
from the article and they are placed
with the article – this is
conventional. We have both picked
a phrase from the article which will
capture the readers attention as they
scan the page and it will make them
want to read the article.
In the top left corner of my page there is another subheading that says ‘Short Film of The Week’. I included this here because
in English we read from left to right so this is the first thing readers will see when they turn the page, and knowing a film has
been picked as the best of the week infers it is good and will make the reader want to read about it. In Total Films they have
done a similar thing by putting ‘Movie of the Month’ in a red circle. The colour makes it stand out on the white page and the
positioning of it means when the reader starts reading the article they will see it straight away and know this review is going
to be quite positive and the film is good.
Something conventional that I didn’t include in
my double-page spread is an ‘In-Short’ section,
which gives the reader a brief synopsis of the film
in case they don’t want to read the whole review
to know what they film is about, and a section
crediting the Creative Team which tells the reader
who directed, wrote, produced the film etc..