The document summarizes the effectiveness of ancillary materials created to accompany a short film production. Posters were made - a film magazine cover featuring manipulated cast images on an explosion background, and a single page magazine review spread. Conventions from real magazines were followed, such as using 3 main colors, common fonts, and including standard information like the film title, cast, and release details. Research ensured the posters reflected expectations of the action comedy genre and film magazine format. The materials were designed to work cohesively and promote the short film.

1. Evaluation Question 3:
How effective is the
combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?

2. Our brief for our ancillary task was to
create 2 posters, one being a film
magazine front cover and the second
being a single page spread film review
for the magazine. I believed it was
essential that the individual products
worked well together with the short film
production.

3. Ancillary Task - Poster

4. Images
The images used on the Ancillary task poster were taken
during the photo shoot with the cast. I manipulated these
images on Photoshop to fit the poster. I cropped and then
blended them into the background image so the actors
appear to be coming out of the background and changed
the image to make them look more like cartoons, I felt this
would be appropriate as action comedies tend to show
humour in their film posters.

5. Background
I decided to be very creative and make my background look
like an explosion, I did this as I felt it fits well with the genre, being
an action comedy. A typical convention of action films are that
they tend to have a lot of explosions. I also added ‘BOOM’ and
‘POW’ to connote this. There are images of grenades and
targets coming out of the explosion to suggest the genre of the
film will be action. I have also added a clock at the bottom left
hand side, this helps show the significance of time, and our short
film shows a loud ticking clock at the beginning, again to
exaggerate that there will be a race against time, which tends
to be the case in the majority of action films.
This is the image of the explosion I created, I did
this using Photoshop, and gradually added the
significant elements around it, such as the target
and grenade. The remaining parts of my
background have been left a plain white as I did
not want to over power the poster with too many
colours.

6. Fonts
I downloaded the font for my main image using a
website called ‘Dafont’. The font really appealed to
me and I felt it fits the poster very well. It seems to have
an Austin Powers look to it and fits the poster very well.
I downloaded this font using ‘Dafont’ I then edited it to make
it fit the poster. I decided to keep the font in capital letters as
it looks strong and bold as in action films.
The font used for the cast names is the same as the title although
it is not in capital letters, its similar to a fonts used on comedy
posters therefore I felt it was appropriate.

7. Colour
I’ve stuck with a colour scheme of 3
colours, black blue and grey with a
white background. As the majority of
the audience for the production are
males I decided to go with a strong
shade of blue. Magazine posters tend
to stick with 3-4 main colours so they
do not look to over powering, I have
also stuck with this.

8. Codes and Conventions
when researching film posters I realised there were many
codes and conventions to consider when creating a film
poster, I have stated the main ones below.
Tag line Main image
Cast names title
Ratings/ Film Credits
Quote
BBFC
Company
Film website
logo/name
Date/In
Facebook/Twitter cinemas
page

9. Ancillary task – Single page
spread

10. Images
Below is the main image I have used for my magazine review
page. After researching many magazine reviews I found the main
image tends to be taken from a specific moment in the film,
therefore I decided to print screen a shot from the final film
production and add it onto my review page. I feel this gives a
professional look to the review page and the picture fits well. Both
of the main characters are also present in the image. The image
had to be edited using Photoshop as the lighting was very dull, I
changed the filters to heighten the contrast and brightness which
lead to my final picture (below)

11. Fonts
The fonts I used are similar to those in magazines. I used ‘Times
New Roman’ for the main article, this is a font which is very
popular and tends to be used most. It is familiar with the
audience and very easy to read.
I decided to change My tagline is a
the font of the title typical style you
from the regular would see in a
style. They usually magazine. I tried
tend to be plain and to duplicate this to
bold, however I make my review
wanted mine to page look
match the genre of professional. It
the film, therefore I consisted in using
downloaded my 3 different fonts of
own font and different sizes.
adjusted it to fit the
production.

12. Colour
After researching Film Review pages I found
the colours tend to be very subtle, I decided
to stick with this as I wanted my final
outcome to look professional. I decided to
use Orange, Red and Grey as my main
colours, these are the main colours used in
‘Empire Magazine’ a film magazine, and I
decided to use their colour scheme as a
guideline for mine. However I altered the
tones to be slightly brighter as it looked a
little bit dull.

13. Codes and Conventions
Looking at existing posters I found there are many codes and
conventions to include on a film review poster, I have stated these
below.
Main image
border
Tag line
Release date
Plot Title
cast
Article (columns)
Running Time
Verdict
Page number
Company name
Date
Magazine name Web address