Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think that my trailer and poster work together quite well. I wanted to make sure that I had a link between the two, seeing as they are meant to work together as a pair. For both my poster and magazine cover I needed a title, for my magazine I decided to call it 'Empire'. For my poster I decided to call it 'Inevitable' because this was the title of our trailer, I wanted to make my poster title link in with my trailer title, to show the link between them both. For my magazine I called it 'Empire' this was because I wanted a different name from my poster and trailer for my magazine as I thought if I called it Inevitable it may be too much. I decided that because I didn't feature the name on the poster, I would include a print screen of the poster on my magazine to show the link between them. I decided to add a picture of the poster on a cork board as this makes it look professional and smart. On both my magazine and poster I have a picture of something that links in with our trailer, as I believe that this is what helps the audience relate to it. For my poster in the background I included a picture of the Ouija board seeing as this is what our trailer revolved around. For my magazine I had a picture of Sam holding the Ouija board seeing as she was the main girl in our trailer and also the Ouija board was our main prop. Something we also had to consider when making our magazines and posters was the marketing industry and the distributors. These are two of the main aspects you have to consider if you want your products to be successful, one of the down sides to this is that they are very expensive. Marketing can be classed as very competitive, with millions of different producers trying to get the best promotion for their product. This is one of the reasons why you have to make sure your product is different, even if this is a risk. For our trailer I had to make sure that my poster and magazine linked in with it, so the audience knew that they were all linked. For my poster I had to make sure that it would appeal to my target audience of teenagers to young adults. I made sure in order for my ancillary texts to appeal to my target audience my poster and magazine was eye catching and had contrasting colors for it to stand out. I believe that my poster could be featured in cinemas; I think this would benefit it, as when people come out of the cinema they look at posters featuring, to see if the movie appeals to them. This would give my trailer recognition and also be a good target place for my audience, seeing as a lot of young teenage couples go to the cinema; they will be able to see it. I would also make sure that my poster was featured in magazines such as 'smash hits', 'Kerrang' and 'sugar' where teenagers will see them, seeing as these are the most popular magazines amongst teenagers. I would also look into including my trailer in suitable DVD's of the same age rating (18) to ensure that teenagers/young adults would see them. Another example of advertising is by 'word of mouth'. If your friends or relatives have seen a film, they normally discuss with people they know, how it went and if they liked it. If you know someone that is going to watch a film you have previously watched you may tell them if it is worth seeing. Because of the development of global media, most teenagers put on Facebook, what they are doing. For example somebody could write a status (text informing your friends list of what you are doing at that moment in time) saying 'Inevitable was good' or 'Inevitable' was rubbish, either way all of your friends are able to see this information and it may persuade people to go or put people off seeing the movie, depending on what was said. This is why it is important that your film is a success. Film advertisements can be seen in numerous places, for example social networking sites. This is one of the biggest places to advertise you product if your target audience is teenagers. Facebook and twitter are very popular amongst teenagers, so this would be a perfect place for target 'inevitable' I decided that I would put who was featuring in my trailer at the top because the majority of the time, if the audience know who is featuring in the film, and they like the actors it makes them more inclined to watch it. This is also a good advertising point; because if a film has a lot of famous actors in, it means that it is of high budget which results in it being a good film.
On my magazine and poster I have a tag line. On my magazine my tag line is 'everything happens for a reason' and on my poster my tag line is 'nothing can save you' I like both of these because it leads the audience to make their own assumptions about what that indicates. It leaves them to think 'what does that mean' and it raises all curiosity, which leads them to want to watch the film. On my magazine I have a picture of my main protagonist; she is featuring on the front cover, look at the camera. By Sam giving the audience eye contact I thought this gave it a more scary feeling to it. It also shows that she is connecting with the audience. I didn't want Sam to feature on my poster as well as I thought this would be too much, so instead I decided to feature the Ouija board. For my magazine I decided that I was going to have the colour scheme red and black because these colours are typical colours associated with horror. For my masthead I decided that I was going to do this red and have blood splatted across it because I believed that this would make it appeal more to the horror audience. I thought that it would be a good idea to have the additional information underneath written in white because this would stand out against the black background. For my poster I decided to keep with the same colour scheme I went for on my magazine so they both linked in with each other. I decided to go for different texts and fonts on my poster to my magazine as I wanted it to look different from my magazine, but only subtly. I decided instead of having the blood splattered on the title/masthead I would have it in the background so I used the same effect I did on my magazine but just changed it slightly for my poster. I also had the ‘18’ certificate on the poster so that the audience is aware of how old you have to be to see it. I also decided to add some additional information on the bottom because this is relevant information.