The document discusses how the creator's main film product and ancillary texts like posters and a radio trailer are effectively combined and connected. Key points: 1) The main film poster uses colors that represent the film's themes and binary oppositions, while teaser posters feature close-up shots from the film to intrigue audiences. 2) Feedback found the posters' use of characters and colors effectively linked them to the film and created mystery about the storyline. 3) The radio trailer uses dialogue and sound effects from the film to provide context and build suspense, teasing audiences to watch the full film. 4) Elements like whispered words in the trailer are also present in flashback scenes in the

1. Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?
Taslima Begum

2. The use of black and
white is to represent
Madeline’s good and bad
side fighting over her
control, this is seen in the
climax of the film where
we see close up shots of
her struggle
The use of the black
background is to show
the evil Madeline was
surrounded by, her past
which is why the doll is
up against the
background and behind
her.
Our main poster uses the typical
conventional colours to create binary
oppositions within it reflecting the film.

3.  But in the end of the scene, we have a low angle shot of her smiling at the
doll which audience can interpret as the evil within her has consumed and
took control over her. Also the use of white is commonly deciphered as
purity and innocence, which is also associated with dolls.

4.  However we challenge this by using the colour red, as it’s a
conventional colour commonly used in real horror texts such as
‘Annabelle’ and ethnographic to the horror genre.
The use of red is seen in doll’s her
hair bow, the title, her shoes and the
blood on her dress. Red connotes
blood, horror and danger, which is
implicated in my film as we see
Madeline, has gone through FGM
through her non-linear flashback
scenes. This would be all better to be
understood in our film, which is why
ancillary texts are effective in getting
our target audience to watch our film.

5. We had gained audience feedback on our main poster after editing it on Photoshop CS6.
After we had made these
improvements to our
poster we had conducted
another viewing where we
gained verbal feedback.
They said that the colours
flattered our theme and the
tagline was “short and
catchy” but they said to
have more lighting on the
doll’s head as it merges
against the black
background. Also add in
our age certificate (15) on
the poster and suggested to
have our release date
beneath the credits
They said that they
enjoyed how we used the
doll, how it created an
ominous effect that
surrounded our doll.
Also they liked our
slogan ‘It’s a chain
reaction’, because it was
“short and effective”
also very mysterious.
Our peers critiqued our
poster and asked to
include a website for our
film amongst the credits,
make our title’s font
bigger, and add in the
production logo and a
release date.
Draft poster

6.  For my poster, among it I have
created teaser posters with shots
from our film. The link between
my posters and my film is
through the use of characters
and colours. Our main poster is
of a doll hanging from the
Surgeons hand against a black
background. The doll used in
the centre long shot in the
middle is featured in our film
several times, showing that she is
one of the main attractions in
our film and key in our film.

7.  For my teaser posters it includes and Madeline being tied down to a table in a close
up shot of from a high angle to show her vulnerability and an extreme close up shot
of the tools which is seen in our film. However because we can’t explain this further,
it creates an (Barthes) enigma code in what role she plays in the film; creating unease
in our audiences if she is evil by all the conventional horror colours around her. This
is the by the back backgrounds which represents the bad side of Madeline slowly
consuming her. This links in with our main products as these are shots create an
enigma within my audience, which intrigue them further into watching my film.

8.  For our teaser poster we had used Instagram to see what could be improved
and what they liked better in our draft teaser poster. We had received
qualitative data, which proved to be good as we gained a deeper insight of
what our audience’s preferred.

9.  For my poster, which was an extreme close up shot of the medical equipment that also
features in my main product. I had found that the audience thought that the credits at
the bottom ruined the picture as a whole and said it wasn’t needed which is why I
removed it for my final teaser poster. This was effective they said that the poster was
very intriguing as the weapons sparked an interest as it gave them an “insight” of the
storyline making them wanting to watch the main product.

10. Final teaser picture (two)

11.  For my radio trailer, similarities can be found within our short horror film for
example the dialogue and sound effects. This is because our radio trailer
features dialogues from our film, for example when the social worker says to
the parents “She’s been through a lot.” This gives our target audience
background information about Madeline and uses the Enigma code because
the Social worker doesn’t explicitly say she has been through FGM, making
audience curious in what happened to Madeline.

12.  Moreover in our radio trailer we had used sound effects such as
panting, periods of silence and screams in an attempt to build the
climax; effectively drawing in viewers to watch what the film to see
what happened and if/how it will be resolved. Although during
production we had changed ideas in order for our film to stay under a
minute, removing part where the social worker speaks.

13.  Furthermore in my radio we have whispers of words such as “sin”,
“purity”, and “innocence”. This is because the surgeon in our film
has the idea that if Madeline goes through with this procedure she
will be cleansed and pure.

14.  This dialogue is also in my film when Madeline experiences her flashbacks of her
procedure through the use of low angles shots to show her pain from the trauma.
 The whispers haunt Madeline and this links in with our genre being psychological as
Madeline hears this in her head; as she slowly succumbs to this mantra and tries to
enforce it on Samantha later on in the film. Therefore this shows how my ancillary
products are interlinked with my film as it not only had connection to it but it teases
my audience into wanting to watch the film.