Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product

and ancillary texts?By Bethany Harvey

Relationship between tasksAs you have probably seen already, my magazine, trailer and poster all have factors in common so that they all have a relationship so that the film is recognisable from each advertising technique. For a company to be successful in selling a product they need to make sure there is a strong connection between the advertisements and the audience. This is so the product is able to sell and to help this, it is a good idea to have a relationship between the advertisements. Therefore, I have similar factors within my magazine, poster and my trailer so that they all relate to each other, which can help the audience recognise the film from each advertisement.

3 Tasks

How do they support the genre?Each task I have done, all support the genre of my film. I know this because of the factors I have used within my poster, magazine and my film trailer. The factors I have used that support my horror genre are;

- House style- Fonts- Images- Layouts- Horror conventions/Identities

Using all of the above, it has helped me make my tasks more supporting to the horror genre. Also, it has helped build a strong relationship between my ancillary and main products.

House StyleEach task I have done, all support the genre of my film and have a strong relationship. I know this because of the house style I have used across all of them of red, black and white which can all symbolise something from my film. For example, black symbolises darkness and my trailer happens in the nighttime, which is also why I have a black background on both my poster and my magazine. White can symbolise emptiness and coldness and in my trailer it is about a ghost/demon who are known to be cold as well as empty, which is also why I have included white in my poster and magazine, as well as having the colour white to break up the black and the red. And lastly, I have chosen red because it's bold, its stands out to the audience and it can symbolise blood and danger. Therefore, using these colours has helped.

House Style I used

Font stylesFor the font of my poster, I chose to use the font style Cooper Std in black and size 150. I chose this font because it was bold enough to fit my images within the text. In Photoshop, I produced the title of my film on there by using this bold font and by editing each image so it fits in the letter. I wanted this effect because it saved a lot of space on my poster as I didn't want it to be too packed, but I still wanted it to be informative. Therefore, using this font allowed me to save room because I was able to fit each image in each letter, which meant that my poster was still informative because of the images I used. However, if it wasn't for this font it wouldn't have worked, because after trying several other fonts I realised that the majority of them wouldn't be able to fit the image in. Also, going off my drafts this was the closest to the font on my drafts.

Because I liked this so much and I wanted there to be a direct link between my magazine and poster, I decided to use this title on the cover of my magazine also. This helped build a relationship between my magazine and poster and also looked effective on my magazine. Another font I used on my magazine is called Chiller and I used this font because it looks as though blood is dripping from it and it supported the genre of my film.

To link both my poster and my magazine to my film, I used different elements out of each. I used the font from my magazine title and side text so that you can relate them. Also, for my magazine front cover I took a photo of one of my scenes from my trailer, which was in the library and green screened my paranormal figures eye, so that it was directly behind the book. I needed a new picture because I wanted the pupil to be red, so that it looked more horrifying. From the trailer, I produced my poster with all of the cast that star in my film teaser trailer and this was so they could relate to each other.

Therefore, my poster and magazine have the same font but my magazine and film have the same font. So even though they don't all relate through font styles, there are other aspects that link them all together, for example even though I haven't used the same font throughout all of them I have used the same house style colours.

Font Styles I used

ImagesI have used many images within my tasks and main product, and this was so the audience knew who would be in the film and also what else is included to give them clues, e.g. The mask.

Using images can help an audience relate the tasks to each other. For example, I have used the casts images for my poster and my magazine so that these two products relate to each other and I have also used an image from my trailer so that they can relate. Using the same or similar images from each task can help the audience relate and also build a relationship between all advertisements.

I used individual images of my cast in the film title on my poster and magazine because it helped give the audience an idea to what may happen in the film as well as symbolsising the title. For example, having an image of a clock within the title symbolises the name of the film 'Tick Tock'.

I use the image from the trailer for my magazine because I thought it was more effective and also helped relate them to each other. I needed to take a new image instead of a screen shot, because I wanted to edit my demons eye to make it red. This was so it could help towards the genre of the film.

Images I used

Magazine

Magazine and Poster

LayoutFor all of my tasks, I haven't used a similar layout in any of them. This was because I wanted each one to be different so that the consumer don't get bored of seeing the advertisements. For example, for the horror film Scream they use the same image, font, colours and layout for all of their adverts and I find this to plain and boring. Therefore, I wanted each of my tasks and my main product to have a relationship so that there all recognisable to each other but I didn't want to have the same layout because I wanted variety between them. This is why I used the same title font image for my magazine and poster, so that they relate to each other without being in the same formatted layout.

My trailer's layout starts from the beginning to end. What I mean by this is that, my trailer starts off with the students happy and planning their night, but then gradually during the trailer you see that the night time comes (which is why I used the sunset scene) and then things start to go from good to bad to worse. However, I do have one of the students frantically running down the hall at the beginning of the trailer, but I used this so that the audience are encouraged to watch the whole trailer, just to see if you see the scene again to see what she was running away from, and is she ok? I also decided to put this scene first so that if the title and the soundtrack at the beginning wasn't enough to show the audience the genre, then this would be.

Horror Conventions/IdentitiesBecause of their being so many different identities/conventions relating to the horror genre, I had many to choose from.

However, because of the location of my filming I needed something that was simple and easy to do with the software and IT equipment I had. Therefore, the horror identity I started with was a murderer within the school, however I couldn't find a 'creepy man' to do this. After watching many film trailers and analysing each one, I found my favourite 'Paranormal Activity' and decided from then that my horror identity will be a demon.

However, with the software I have it wasn't possible to do some of the stunts I had planned for my trailer, e.g. Handprints magically appearing on the wall out of blood. I couldn't produce this scene because I couldn't do it without someone doing the handprints themselves. Also, I wanted just an eye to appear behind the books but this wasn't possible either with the software I had.

Therefore, I come up with an idea to have a demon/ghost where some scenes happen on there own with no assistance, e.g. Piano playing and then others with the ghost such as the mask in the mirror.

With having this, I didn't want to give to much away in my poster and magazine to what the film is about, so I didn't use the image of the figure, I just used his eye and the mask. This would be so that my audience wouldn't have a full understanding of my film from the poster or magazine, so they would have to watch the trailer to find out. This relationship uses the poster and magazine negatives, to encourage the audience to watch the trailer.