Evaluation Task 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?

The genre for our film is a Psychological Thriller, the genre is similar to just Thriller and Horror but instead this is more in depth and focuses more on getting into the mind of the audience rather than just shock them with jump scares. When planning our trailer we needed to consider the age rating of what the film was going to be and because our film would be a Psychological Thriller we knew that we would be including scenes of possible violence, threat, some scenes of horror and overall conventions of what make a Thriller. Things like suspense, worry and terror which meant that we wouldn't be allowed to give it a too low rating although we wanted it to appeal to a large audience. This is why we have gave it a 15 rating, it allows us to attract a wider audience so that people don't have to be at the age of 18 to view our film. These are some of the points that we are focusing on for our target audience

One of the most common elements that I used in my trailer, poster and film magazine cover was the use of dark colours. I used mainly reds, blacks and greys in my texts to ensure my audience knew that my product was a psychological thriller and that it fitted well within the genre. The use of low key lighting in my trailer also complemented this along with the inter titles which was a red font on a black background.

I decided to use Owen and Katie on my magazine cover as these were the main two characters in my film, I had Owen dressed in black clothing and to look quite menacing which connoted his darker personality while Katie to be dressed in a grey top as this looked innocent as well as her pose of looking down towards the floor to show the conflict between the two. Although on my poster I decided to use all three characters as I thought this would reveal more towards my target audience therefore enticing them to watch the film. By using all three characters across my texts it made sure that the audience weren’t confused when they saw all three star in the trailer.

Yes, in our film we have a few different relationships within the three characters. In our narrative we have Owen and Chloe who are dating then we having Katie who was in a previous relationship with Owen and finally Katie who is best friends with Chloe. I feel that these come across pretty clearly in our trailer due to the inter titles. One of the intertitles reads “A controlling boyfriend” while another reads “An interfering ex” so this makes it very clear to the audience what the relationship are going on within the characters.

The narrative that I tried to get across in my ancillary tasks was the conflict between the characters. On my film magazine front cover I used Owen and Katie to show the tension between them as I had Owen looking down at Katie but on my poster I used all three with Owen in the middle addressing the audience which was breaking the 4^th wall. By doing this it gives a clear and understanding narrative to the audience that he is the antagonist while the other female characters will most likely be victims. The mise en-scene of Owen is dressed in black who again connotes his evil side.

By using these generic conventions of thriller like the male antagonist and female victims, people who are fond of the genre will enjoy it and also because of the limited dialogue in the trailer it leaves the film to be mysterious which will entice viewers. The threatening images of Owen and innocent poses of Katie also represent the narrative as intimidating which could catch the eye of our target audience. 

The film conventions that I emphasized in my texts were mainly the thriller genre as my film is a Psychological Thriller, on my magazine I decided that I would advertise this genre more than any other. To do this I used dark low key colours mostly on my poster and then reds on my magazine plus fonts such as Orator Std for the main title on my print texts and this font for my main title in the actual trailer which connoted this even further.

One main synergistic feature of my texts is the similar fonts. I used the same font above my masthead on my magazine front cover and the same intertitle in the trailer that displayed the film name, this can be effective as people will remember the name and font and associate it with our film. The use of the same images throughout my texts also let the audience know that they are all linked plus the red colours throughout all my texts.

We changed our production company logo when creating our film to fit the genre we were filming, before we changed it we used the Mise-en-Power logo from last year which I created for my teen angst. After adding this to our trailer we decided to change it and now we have a new logo created to fit the Thriller genre which links more our film. Our new logo is called Cold Vault Studios and features black and blue colours on it to suggest it is more linked to our genre than the old one.

Overall I think that the effectiveness of my products worked well together and ultimately linked which was one of the major factors when producing these texts. The use of conventions such as similar style fonts, same uses of colours plus synergistic images worked well and overall I believe that these would entice my target audience to becoming consumers.