How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts.

Question Two

The Ancillary Texts

Whilst creating my advanced portfolio I produced a short film. After creating my short film I also created two ancillary texts to accompany this film. I created a Film poster and a film review. When making my film poster I looked at other film posters and some film posters specific to my genre of social realism and compared them, I also identified the key conventions. This enabled me to create a successful film poster that would be accepted in industry.

When creating my film review I researched the Little White Lies publication and attempted to emulate their style. I read many of their reviews from many different issues allowing me to gain an understanding of their typical conventions in both aspects- Design and writing style.

The Poster…….

How is it linked to the film ?I used various elements from the film in my poster, I did this to make sure that they both linked directly. I think it is important for the poster to correspond with the film so that when people see the poster they know what to expect from the film. in my short film Jennifer gets pregnant, I reflect this in my film poster by having a picture of me with a pregnant stomach. In the picture on the poster I also wear the same costume this also links directly with the film. I think it is important to have the protagonist as the primary focus on a poster as when people see the poster and then watch the film they will be able to identify the character as they are already familiar with the character. In my poster research the main character Looking for Eric is on every film poster that had been created for the film (Below) this helped me to identify the two main characters and you can also identify the character types by their facial expression. For example in my poster the two pictures of me are looking at each other, one pregnant, and the other one not. This links back with my film as Jenifer is a teenage girl who doesn’t want to be pregnant, I think elements of this plot strand are evident in the poster.

The Poster…….

How does it use the codes and conventions of the film in its design?

How does it convey genre?

My short film was created as a social realism film I attempted to communicate the genre of my film in the film poster by using typical conventions. A typical convention that I used in my poster was a brick wall background, this communicates the gritty nature of the genre and is also iconic and people that enjoy social realism films will identify with this element in my poster and they will know that it is a social realism film.

In my film we I used low key lighting I attempted to dim the brightness in my poster to follow this convention, this didn’t really work well and it is hard to see this. I also used an element of the narrative to inspire my title text. In the film Jennifer is bullied via text message therefore the text font for the film title is in the style of font similar to a text message.

The Poster…….

What audience does it target?

The intended audience for my short film is 16-25 year olds, I think this is appropriate as issues such as bullying and teenage pregnancy are dealt with throughout the film and these are issues that people of that age group are more familiar with. I think my poster attracts my target audience as there is a young teenage girl on the poster which will attract other young people. I also think this poste r will attract more females compared to males as there is a pregnant girl on the front and this is more likely to appeal to a female audience causing the audience demographic to have a female skew.

The Film Review

I think Little White lies was an appropriate publication to use as this magazine writes about every type of film no matter how small, which is unlike other film magazines such as Empire. I think Little White lies was appropriate for my short film as it is a small, low-budget independent film and these are the types of films that are written about in the publication amongst other genre of films.

Was the magazine appropriate for the film?

The Film Review…..

How does it promote the film?I think my review gives a very balanced judgement on my film highlighting the negatives as well as the positives. I think this critic tone is strength in my review as this reads well and comes across very honest. This is also a convention I have simulated after reading some reviews from Little White Lies.

The Film Review…..

What aspects of your film does it focus on ?

The review focuses on the theme and narration in the film and explains that although the film is low-budget the message it portrays is an important one. In the review I even suggest that this film should be shown in schools to highlight the devastation of bullying and how this can change someone’s life.

The Film Review…..

How far does your review reflect the real strengths and weaknesses of your film?

I think my review does reflect on the actual strengths and weaknesses in the short film and I feel although I do mention the negative aspects I often conclude the point positively. If I could improve on this I would attempt to write more analytical and when being negative I would try to stick with this to avoid the contradicting myself.

To conclude ….

Overall I think the three products work well together as they all effectively support each other communicating the narrative and genre of the film. I think they all look like the share the same concept as they all feature similar or the same elements such as the brick wall or a picture of Jennifer this links them all together and ties all three up in the same media package.