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

How effective is the combination of your main product and

ancillary texts?

Jordan Griffin

Trailer Link, Poster and Magazinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfX0JwOUUrA

Introduction

• For A2 Media Studies, the main task for our coursework is to make a film trailer and to complete ancillary tasks, including making a film poster and magazine front cover - in relation to the film.

• Our chosen genre is crime, so during our research and planning process, we ensured we knew the codes and conventions of crime inside out, as well as a unique selling point, and implemented them in the three different media products.

• We all did this to maintain existing audiences of the crime genre, as well as attract new ones and to keep people interested and engaged in the film. This increases the effectiveness of the three media products as a whole and will show the effectiveness of the combination of the different products, and we hoped to ensure the same level of consistency throughout all media texts.

Poster• Having researched and annotated real life film posters, the

purpose of a film poster became more and more apparent to the rest of the group. The purpose is to advertise the film through the title, images, design and colour scheme, and the tagline. These elements have to make the poster commercial, attractive, and they must have a massive link to the film itself.

• The next slide features my analysis of the film poster created as part of the main task.

‘When Kings Fall’ Film Poster

The tagline has to have a link to the narrative of the film. In this case, it does. The “good things” reflects Carl King’s (the protagonist) before he turned to a life of crime. The “end” is symbolic as it suggests his life is over in that respect. The audience will feel more inclined to want to watch the film as it keeps the audience guessing.

Reviews on the poster is an effective convention to include as it gives the audience the impression that the film is worth viewing as the ‘experts’ rate it so highly.

The names at the top are used to attract the audience to the film. People usually look to see who is in the film and could ultimately be a deciding factor. Two of these names are also featured in the trailer.

‘Rapture Film Productions shows the audience what film company are behind the production of the film. This can attract audiences as well as maintain existing audience.

The official logo for the film is consistent with the other two media products. It remains consistent and exists as a marketing tool and brand, allowing people to distinguish the products through the logo.

The credits at the bottom is a common convention used to let the audience know exactly who is part of the film, although it should be white as people may struggle to read it.

The website allows people who want more information to log on and see exclusive content

The use of the gun is an effective prop to use as it allows audience to become acquainted with the genre. It’s the only thing that distinguishes the genre in this poster.

If the actor’s eyes were at eye level, he would make eye contact with the audience, meaning they audience could build a relationship with the character. Though having his eyes away from focus makes him distant and out of the public eye, how most criminals would like to be.

Fans of the director’s previous work may want to see this film because of their success with their last film.

The black background is ineffective. It offers nothing to the film and doesn’t suggest the location or setting of the film.

The colour black connotes mystery and power, themes that are included in the film.

Though it is not very visible, the crown is symbolic as it links with ‘Kings’ in the title. A king of crime? A king of a country? It entices the audience. They will have questions as to why he is wearing a crown.

Poster

• Although the poster is quite simplistic, it follows a lot of conventions for film posters; it entices the audience to want to watch the film as shown in our audience feedback evaluations and there’s a reason for that, it has links and correlations to the trailer, the main image is enlarged and the focus and attention is directed to the character, there is synergy related with the main logo and the crown on the protagonist’s head, and also the use of the gun.

• One criticism I have of the poster is that it’s too dark and the genre may be hard to distinguish because of that, it comes across quite gothic and maybe an element of horror. If the background had a setting that was vital to narrative in the plot, where we could be able to tell what location the film is set in then I would say it is a very effective film poster.

Magazine Front Cover

• After analysing front covers of film magazines, as a group we all knew exactly what should be included in magazines; this would include a unique selling point, so the audience can make links between the cover, the poster and the trailer.

• Group member analysed the Total Film and the Empire magazine front covers (below)

‘When Kings Fall’ Film Magazine Front Cover

The masthead for the magazine always stays the same. It tells people the name of the magazine and must be bold and eye-catching, which is why its bright read and big and goes across the top of the magazine.

This works as an incentive for the audience, giving them a reason why they should purchase the magazine. Good use of persuasive technique.

Issue date and price. Another convention

Website for audience, offering more content daily as opposed to a weekly magazine.

Other content is aligned on both sides of the page, taking up space but giving the audience more than one reason to buy the magazine. It tells them what is featured inside. White on a black background helps it to stand out.

Barcode, another convention

Protagonist holding the same gun, used as a USP for the film, used to differentiate the genre. Good use of synergy also.

Famous monuments in London shown at the bottom, potentially revealing the location of the film.

Actor who plays protagonist. Main article in magazine potentially related to an interview about the film. Promotional reasons.

Different tagline related to the plot of the film. Related to Kings again, unique selling point. Another use of synergy.

Crown on protagonist’s head again. USP, good use of synergy also. The crown clearly has significant meaning, King being a person who holds a supreme position or rank, in terms of crime potentially? Audience will ask questions again.

Film logo. Featured in both the film poster and main trailer also. Marketing tool used as a trademark brand.

Magazine

• The magazine is effective as it combines other elements in the other media products, showing a good use of synergy as a means for a marketing campaign. The poses of protagonist are intriguing to the audience and it potentially entices the audience to want to watch the rest of the film due to the link with the crown and the title suggesting he is a king of some sort.

• I would change the photo of the London monuments at the bottom as I think it doesn’t serve a purpose and revealing the location would have been much more effective if it was included in the film poster as a backdrop.

• I would also change the contents on the right hand side, I would keep the text white and have it on the black background as opposed to having it black on a white background, I think that background on the right hand side takes up a lot of space and it overlaps onto the main image which in my opinion is not a good thing to do.

Link between Poster, Magazine and Trailer

• I think the film poster, magazine cover and trailer are all linked to each other. The use of the props with regards to the gun and the crown have a massive link as the gun is related to the crime genre and the crown is related to the symbolism in the title.

• Bar the magazine the colour scheme stays consistent featuring a white and black which very simplistic, but it has a professional look and very sharp look.

• Also the logo for the film is effective and it’s the exact same on every media product, which allows the production company to hold onto a marketing tool and create a brand by creating a name for themselves. Whenever people see that logo they will know it is linked to the same place.

Link between Trailer and Ancillary Tasks

• When we made the trailer, poster and magazine cover we would try to make the three texts link together as much as possible through the use of different elements.

• These elements included font styles, colour schemes, costume and props.

‘When Kings Fall’ logo which is featured on all three media texts

Crown pictured on Carl King’s head in film poster and magazine front cover

Gun that Carl King is seen with in all three ancillary tasks.

Props

• With the props, it was important we featured the main prop, the gun, in all three ancillary tasks. This is because the gun was the easiest way we could portray our chosen genre. If we didn’t include the gun in just one ancillary task, the audience could have been misled as the film poster can come across a little bit like it belongs to horror, a gun is the universal symbol of the crime genre, which is why it was so important we included it in every media text.

Costume

• The protagonist turned anti-hero wears the same long black jacket in all three media texts. The colour black is significantly important to the characterisation of the protagonist because black usually connotes power, death, evil, mystery and he unknown. These are themes that we explore in the trailer, as power, death and mystery are usually associated with the crime genre. Black also has negative connotations (black market, blackmail etc)

Colour

• I touched upon colour when I spoke about costume, although in the film poster and film magazine front cover, colour obviously has to be used. Black was of course used again to keep the link to the trailer and because of its connotations.

• The poster has a black and white colour scheme, simplistic yet very effective, and the magazine front cover has a lot of red involved, red is implemented because of its associations with danger and power, themes we wanted to focus on in the trailer, as well as red being the colour of blood, which has links to violence, another theme related to crime.

Fonts

• Fonts were a big part of the trailer as it helped us keep continuity of the poster, as we used a similar style of font in each of the three ancillary tasks, this was to ensure a link between the three media texts.

• This is effective because it the audience would be able to associate a particular font with out film and to see it in three different media texts would leave the memory of our product engrained in their memory.

• The font style is extremely important because a particular style can help identify genre so we wanted to get the right style hoping the audience were not misled into thinking our trailer is a different genre.

Characters

• Finally, the main character himself was a massive element we included in all three media texts. Having the protagonist as the main focus in the trailer and the ancillary tasks, it means there is 100% on him when people view our product, and they know he is of importance to ‘When Kings Fall’

• However, we wanted to portray the actor rather than the character in the magazine front cover- to add to the realistic effect the magazine has, but it still links with the trailer and the poster because it the same person being show. This provides our three products with a visual link, who is wearing similar costume and similar body language.