Draft Evaluation Question Two

‘HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?’

The ancillary products are a vital part of the production and development of the main product. They help to attract particular audiences and bring awareness of the main product. The ancillary texts are a clever way to advertise to the audience alongside sell the main product. It is vital that both pieces are interesting with subtle implications of that particular horror genre, alongside only minor hints of the plot and the importance of not giving too much away.

I understood the necessity in creating a visual link between the main product and the ancillary tasks and therefor decided to make my poster have many similar aspects to that of my main product (creepy picture, unnerving sentences and dark colors.) There is an endless list of generic features that contribute well to the success of the horror poster. The style of the film title and dark colors enhance the unnerving feeling we get when looking at the frightening poster. In both my main product and my poster I used colors to connote different hidden meanings. Inside the typography was a dark matt black color that symbolized the darkness in the psychological killer and also the fait of the young teenagers. By analyzing existing horror film posters like Shutter (2009) and Hostel (2007) I gained appreciation for the fact they that did not have blood and gore however still managed to be equally as scary as the ones that did. In many cases the more psychological the poster then the more affective it was.  I only added in a mild element of body horror in my own poster because of this but mostly stuck to the psychological factor.

I personally found that the suspense built up quicker when the tag lines were really affective and therefor decided to put very unnerving concrete sentences in my trailer and my poster.

 The poster that I got lots of my inspiration from was Sinister (2012) not only did this help me with ideas for my poster but it also helped me with many aspects for my horror trailer. Below is the photo of Sinister and next to it is a screen shot of one moment in my trailer. We really loved the idea of only using gore if it was being used in a psychological way and Sinister did this perfectly. Dragging the bloody across the walls worked really well and was a part that many people liked in our horror trailer. We decided to take this idea from the Sinister poster however use it within the trailer and made sure to adapted it to be unique and different.

I decided to use a medium shot on the poster due to the fact it was a perfect alignment for adding text in around the psychological killer and having the deathly character directly in front of you was also very affective. Jordon who plays the demented girl is holding a doll that has been destroyed and ripped to pieces this is being used to symbolize the danger of the character and her lack of care and understanding for people. The doll automatically represents her dangerous side due to the fact she has a rope tied around its neck. The poster also needed to have some necessities for example our studios logo and the age rating. These two things also help to make it more realistic and give it a very professional look.

 Next I had to create my magazine cover. Although the ancillary products share similarities I also understood that different platforms offered different ways to sell a product and therefor challenged my film magazine cover and gave it a very feminine outlook. I researched into ‘Total Film’ magazines and saw that many of the magazines had a sophisticated look and weren’t always fixed upon the genre that the person on the cover participated in (e.g. not always a horror magazine even if the person on the front has starred in a horror film.) I decided to make my magazine for a female audience and edited it to be quiet girly and modern, I believe this gave my magazine a really different look however it still sets the syllabus of being a film magazine. I think that my magazine cover expresses genre of film in a very different way and it leads the readers into reading it without being too over the top, it has simple sentences that allows them to understand the context of what is inside without giving too much away. I understood that this could be somewhat of a risk due to the fact many other people were still really fixed upon everything having to be about horror, however many people really liked my idea and decided that the more modern look worked better for their magazine as well.

When choosing my image I wanted a very glamorous look, I wanted the photo to show the actor in their normal everyday life like many of the Total Film magazines do. This appeals to the audience in a very different way to the other two products due to the fact it engages the audience in as they are interested in the actors everyday life.  This technique is being used to draw the audience in as well as sell the film to a wider audience.