The combination of the film trailer, poster, and magazine front cover are effective at promoting the film and maintaining consistency across media. The trailer, poster, and magazine all feature the film's logo, the main character Carl King wearing a crown and holding a gun, and a black and white color scheme. This consistency helps to create a cohesive marketing campaign and brand. While the poster is quite dark and does not clearly establish the crime genre, the key elements that appear in all three media products effectively link them together and promote the film.

1. How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary
texts?
Jordan Griffin

2. Trailer Link, Poster and Magazine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfX0JwOUUrA

3. Introduction
• For A2 Media Studies, the main task for our coursework is to make a
film trailer and to complete ancillary tasks, including making a film
poster and magazine front cover - in relation to the film.
• Our chosen genre is crime, so during our research and planning
process, we ensured we knew the codes and conventions of crime
inside out, as well as a unique selling point, and implemented them in
the three different media products.
• We all did this to maintain existing audiences of the crime genre, as
well as attract new ones and to keep people interested and
engaged in the film. This increases the effectiveness of the three
media products as a whole and will show the effectiveness of the
combination of the different products, and we hoped to ensure the
same level of consistency throughout all media texts.

4. Poster
• Having researched and annotated real life film posters, the purpose
of a film poster became more and more apparent to the rest of the
group. The purpose is to advertise the film through the title, images,
design and colour scheme, and the tagline. These elements have to
make the poster commercial, attractive, and they must have a
massive link to the film itself.
• The next slide features my analysis of the film poster created as part
of the main task.

5. ‘When Kings Fall’ Film Poster
The tagline has to have a link to the narrative of
the film. In this case, it does. The “good things”
reflects Carl King’s (the protagonist) before he
turned to a life of crime. The “end” is symbolic as it
suggests his life is over in that respect. The
audience will feel more inclined to want to watch
the film as it keeps the audience guessing.
Reviews on the poster is an
effective convention to
include as it gives the
audience the impression
that the film is worth
viewing as the ‘experts’
rate it so highly.
The names at the top are used to
attract the audience to the film.
People usually look to see who is in
the film and could ultimately be a
deciding factor. Two of these
names are also featured in the
trailer.
‘Rapture Film Productions shows the
audience what film company are behind
the production of the film. This can attract
audiences as well as maintain existing
audience.
The official logo for the film is
consistent with the other two
media products. It remains
consistent and exists as a
marketing tool and brand,
allowing people to distinguish the
products through the logo.
The credits at the bottom is
a common convention
used to let the audience
know exactly who is part of
the film, although it should
be white as people may
struggle to read it.
The website allows people who want more information to log on
and see exclusive content
The use of the gun is an
effective prop to use as it
allows audience to become
acquainted with the genre.
It’s the only thing that
distinguishes the genre in this
poster.
If the actor’s eyes were at eye level, he
would make eye contact with the
audience, meaning they audience could
build a relationship with the character.
Though having his eyes away from focus
makes him distant and out of the public
eye, how most criminals would like to be.
Fans of the director’s previous work may
want to see this film because of their
success with their last film.
The black background is
ineffective. It offers nothing to
the film and doesn’t suggest
the location or setting of the
film.
The colour black connotes
mystery and power, themes
that are included in the film.
Though it is not very visible, the
crown is symbolic as it links with
‘Kings’ in the title. A king of crime? A
king of a country? It entices the
audience. They will have questions
as to why he is wearing a crown.

6. Poster
• Although the poster is quite simplistic, it follows a lot of conventions
for film posters; it entices the audience to want to watch the film as
shown in our audience feedback evaluations and there’s a reason
for that, it has links and correlations to the trailer, the main image is
enlarged and the focus and attention is directed to the character,
there is synergy related with the main logo and the crown on the
protagonist’s head, and also the use of the gun.
• One criticism I have of the poster is that it’s too dark and the genre
may be hard to distinguish because of that, it comes across quite
gothic and maybe an element of horror. If the background had a
setting that was vital to narrative in the plot, where we could be able
to tell what location the film is set in then I would say it is a very
effective film poster.

7. Magazine Front Cover
• After analysing front covers of film magazines, as a group we all knew
exactly what should be included in magazines; this would include a
unique selling point, so the audience can make links between the
cover, the poster and the trailer.
• Group member analysed the Total Film and the Empire magazine
front covers (below)

8. ‘When Kings Fall’ Film Magazine
Front Cover
The masthead for the magazine
always stays the same. It tells people
the name of the magazine and
must be bold and eye-catching,
which is why its bright read and big
and goes across the top of the
magazine.
This works as an incentive
for the audience, giving
them a reason why they
should purchase the
magazine. Good use of
persuasive technique.
Issue date and price. Another
convention
Website for audience,
offering more content daily
as opposed to a weekly
magazine.
Other content is aligned on both
sides of the page, taking up
space but giving the audience
more than one reason to buy the
magazine. It tells them what is
featured inside. White on a black
background helps it to stand out.
Barcode, another
convention
Protagonist holding the same
gun, used as a USP for the film,
used to differentiate the genre.
Good use of synergy also.
Famous monuments in London shown at
the bottom, potentially revealing the
location of the film.
Actor who plays protagonist. Main article in
magazine potentially related to an interview
about the film. Promotional reasons.
Different tagline related to the plot of the film.
Related to Kings again, unique selling point.
Another use of synergy.
Crown on protagonist’s head again. USP, good
use of synergy also. The crown clearly has
significant meaning, King being a person who
holds a supreme position or rank, in terms of crime
potentially? Audience will ask questions again.
Film logo. Featured in both the
film poster and main trailer also.
Marketing tool used as a
trademark brand.

9. Magazine
• The magazine is effective as it combines other elements in the other
media products, showing a good use of synergy as a means for a
marketing campaign. The poses of protagonist are intriguing to the
audience and it potentially entices the audience to want to watch
the rest of the film due to the link with the crown and the title
suggesting he is a king of some sort.
• I would change the photo of the London monuments at the bottom
as I think it doesn’t serve a purpose and revealing the location would
have been much more effective if it was included in the film poster
as a backdrop.
• I would also change the contents on the right hand side, I would
keep the text white and have it on the black background as
opposed to having it black on a white background, I think that
background on the right hand side takes up a lot of space and it
overlaps onto the main image which in my opinion is not a good
thing to do.

10. Link between Poster, Magazine and
Trailer
• I think the film poster, magazine cover and trailer are all linked to
each other. The use of the props with regards to the gun and the
crown have a massive link as the gun is related to the crime genre
and the crown is related to the symbolism in the title.
• Bar the magazine the colour scheme stays consistent featuring a
white and black which very simplistic, but it has a professional look
and very sharp look.
• Also the logo for the film is effective and it’s the exact same on every
media product, which allows the production company to hold onto
a marketing tool and create a brand by creating a name for
themselves. Whenever people see that logo they will know it is linked
to the same place.

11. Link between Trailer and Ancillary Tasks
• When we made the trailer, poster and magazine cover we would try
to make the three texts link together as much as possible through the
use of different elements.
• These elements included font styles, colour schemes, costume and
props.
‘When Kings Fall’ logo which is featured
on all three media texts
Crown pictured on
Carl King’s head in
film poster and
magazine front
cover
Gun that Carl King is
seen with in all three
ancillary tasks.

12. Props
• With the props, it was important we featured the main prop, the gun,
in all three ancillary tasks. This is because the gun was the easiest way
we could portray our chosen genre. If we didn’t include the gun in
just one ancillary task, the audience could have been misled as the
film poster can come across a little bit like it belongs to horror, a gun
is the universal symbol of the crime genre, which is why it was so
important we included it in every media text.

13. Costume
• The protagonist turned anti-hero wears the same long black jacket in
all three media texts. The colour black is significantly important to the
characterisation of the protagonist because black usually connotes
power, death, evil, mystery and he unknown. These are themes that
we explore in the trailer, as power, death and mystery are usually
associated with the crime genre. Black also has negative
connotations (black market, blackmail etc)

14. Colour
• I touched upon colour when I spoke about costume, although in the
film poster and film magazine front cover, colour obviously has to be
used. Black was of course used again to keep the link to the trailer
and because of its connotations.
• The poster has a black and white colour scheme, simplistic yet very
effective, and the magazine front cover has a lot of red involved, red
is implemented because of its associations with danger and power,
themes we wanted to focus on in the trailer, as well as red being the
colour of blood, which has links to violence, another theme related
to crime.

15. Fonts
• Fonts were a big part of the trailer as it helped us keep continuity of
the poster, as we used a similar style of font in each of the three
ancillary tasks, this was to ensure a link between the three media
texts.
• This is effective because it the audience would be able to associate
a particular font with out film and to see it in three different media
texts would leave the memory of our product engrained in their
memory.
• The font style is extremely important because a particular style can
help identify genre so we wanted to get the right style hoping the
audience were not misled into thinking our trailer is a different genre.

16. Characters
• Finally, the main character himself was a massive element we
included in all three media texts. Having the protagonist as the main
focus in the trailer and the ancillary tasks, it means there is 100% on
him when people view our product, and they know he is of
importance to ‘When Kings Fall’
• However, we wanted to portray the actor rather than the character
in the magazine front cover- to add to the realistic effect the
magazine has, but it still links with the trailer and the poster because it
the same person being show. This provides our three products with a
visual link, who is wearing similar costume and similar body language.