The student was required to create a documentary along with ancillary texts, including a radio trailer and magazine spread, to demonstrate a marketing campaign. The documentary, titled "Off the Record", features an interview with a grime artist. The 30-second radio trailer promotes the documentary in an urban style. The magazine spread includes information about the documentary such as photos, description and screening details. The student linked the products together through their shared grime theme and by featuring the artist in all materials. They effectively promoted the documentary through different media channels and genres while maintaining consistency in branding. The ancillary texts worked together with the documentary to enhance its marketing and raise awareness among the target audience.

1. How effective is the combination
of your main product and your
ancillary texts?
By Haley Ho

2. The Tasks
My A2 media studies
coursework required me
and my partner to construct
a documentary, along with
it, a radio trailer, and a
double page spread from a
magazine. When combined
with the finished video
these two products would
demonstrate a marketing
campaign for our
documentary, complete
with branding and house
style.

3. Main Product
For my main product I created an extract from an original
documentary TV programme. Our documentary ‘Off the Record’
features an interview with Grime star ‘Richie Banks’.
My extract is approximately 5 minutes long , and addresses important
questions to do with the topic.

4. Radio Trailer
Our radio trailer is approximately 30 seconds long and is inspired by
Charlie Sloth. Our radio presenter is Jamie Redpath and I feel like we
made the right decision by using him because he sounds the part and
made the radio advert turn out better than we could have predicted.

5. Listings Magazine
We wanted our listings magazine to look professional so after
analysing a few other listing magazines we got the gist of what the
double page spread should look like. (Pastel background, bold block
coloured banner, etc.)
Our double page spread includes
the essentials such as what our
documentary is about, when and
where you can watch it, along
with some photos from the
documentary.
We also included a cheesy title
with alliteration.

6. Comparison
Ours Professional

7. Effectiveness
Looking at my 3 products,
I think that the
combination of my
products are very effective
as they all link in one way
or another. I feel like I
had an advantage as I
enjoy photography and
video editing in my own
time as well as being a
media studies student. I
was already familiar with
how the editing software
(Sony Vegas Pro 13.0)
worked, and how to find
the best angles.

8. Effectiveness Cont.
To make my product effective, I wanted to link all 3 products with
each other. This was a challenge as the radio trailer only included
sound, and the listings magazine was made up of solely words and
picture. To link the radio trailer
to the documentary we decided
to opt for someone with an urban
yet energetic voice to go well with
our grime theme.
We then got someone who
dressed the part to play the up
and coming grime artist, and
featured him in the documentary
and on the listings magazine.

9. Functions
The main task, the extract from a documentary shows the journey of
Richie Banks, within this there are micro and macro elements that
convey certain perspectives. The main function of the documentary is
to make sure it is viewed by my target audience and has been made
enjoyable for them.
The radio trailers main function is to draw attention from other
medias (radio) we figured that our target audience would usually listen
to grime radio stations.
Just like my radio trailer, our listings magazine double page spread
aims to attract audience and provide more information about the
upcoming documentary. At the end of the double page spread we have
included a rating and this allows the audience to make assumptions of
the documentary before they have seen it.

10. Overview
Looking at my documentary, radio trailer, and listings magazine
double page spread. I feel like they all compliment each other well. All
three tasks convey the same themes throughout and also fit into the
same genre so they reflect each other.
The two ancillary tasks enhance the overall effectiveness of the
documentary as they add impact and both work to promote the
documentary through alternative means.