How effective is the combination of your main

product ancillary texts?

Section A

When looking at my poster, we can see that there are a few key

aspects that are noticeable. The main idea I was aiming for was to

have a suspenseful villain that isn’t shown through the trailer. This

way, people who are truly interested in my trailer will do more

research and get hints into who the person on the poster might be. I

used very little text and blood effects to not give out too many

spoilers because I wanted my audience to predict what this film may

have in store, giving starting discussion as to what my trailer is like.

I liked the idea of the darkened room as it gave it a more

suspenseful idea and a darker lighting is more stereotypical to the

horror genre. When designing my poster, I used a lot of the same

ideas as the Smiley (2013) poster. This is because it set in a dark

atmosphere with little information into what the narrative is about. I

included most of these because they all give different effects and

outlooks to my target audience. The use of a variety in the main

villain can attract people from the well-known film Friday the 13th

because of the main villain wearing a hockey mask and holing a

machete.

An image of the Smiley Poster (2013).

After reviewing my magazine cover, there are a few key aspects

that I included into this. This can be seen through the use of

fonts mainly. I used very specific fonts to give it a more

professional look. This way, it appeals to the more mainstream

readers of film review magazines. The use of the “smug

director” appears as if he is very pleased about his product and

is ensured that it will do well in the final release. I have focused

my magazine around the main film being Butchered as it makes

it the centre of attention, I’ve also added in many sub-

categories such as “Best films of 2013” because it gives it a

more realistic element to it.

I took the ideas for my magazine cover from Film magazines

cover for Inception. It had the main focus point being the

character, looking overpowered and pleased and then had all of

the basic information about the main film, along with side

stories to make it interesting for others.

I chose a specific angle to have my actor in. having him facing

to the right. This is because in many film posters, the hero is on

the left and many people stereotype media corporations as evil

for giving off a single viewpoint. There is also low key lighting to

indicate that this man is a serious businessman but also

keeping the horror element. The use of the suit gives him power

and respect and is quite iconic to compare it to a butchery.

You can see how this relates to my magazine,

with the common characteristics between the two.

Section B

After looking through my trailer and magazine cover, they both have elements in them that

symbolise the horror genre. It can be seen much better in my poster, with many different

examples to go through. One of the main ones being the hockey mask, and how it is iconic

to films such as Friday the 13th which set the horror genre. The knife in my poster could be

seen as a phallic weapon, giving him power and dominance in my trailer. The use of blood

splats gives it a horror outlook and the red connotes danger and death which are the key

points to a horror film. When choosing my font, I wanted something that looked worn down

with a scary aspect. For this I have used a broken font and added a drop shadow to it, giving

it an element of low key lighting.

For my magazine cover, I wanted to aim that more at the higher class mainstream magazine

instead of genre based. Doing this would attract a higher target audience and look more

professional. For this, the actor is facing right meaning he is looking into the heroes spot on

posters, giving him the sense that he’s a villain. The entire cover is more of a low key

magazine, with a mixture of fancy and broken fonts. Having this means that it has the horror

element, but is keeping a professional standard to it.

My target audience is 16-25 year old middle class males who enjoy a horror film. They will

be drawn into the poster because of all the comparisons to real films. I am aiming my poster

towards the higher class and middle class with the use of a professional magazine that

appeals to more people. I would like this to be 16-30+ who are interested in horror films. I

would want the certificate to be 18+.