How effective is the combination of your main product and the

ancillary texts?Emma Irwin

What were we trying to achieve in our main product?

We knew that when creating our film, its main aim would be to provide the audience with pleasure, and for it to entertain them. This supports the theory of Uses and Gratifications which suggests why audiences watch films and what they take away from them. Some examples of what they may wish to take away from a film include, role models i.e. celebrities, socialisation i.e. going to the cinema with your friends, education i.e. documentaries and entertainment which is what the aim of our product is. However, as the genre of our film is horror, we also wanted to scare/frighten the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. We were able to do this with the use of music, as it was used to build the tension and create jump scares. Also, the editing and shots were an important factor when contributing to scaring the audience. We used close ups to show the character’s emotions and fast paced editing to increase tension, as well as slower editing to build the tension and keep them on edge. Even though that our film was created to entertain as well as frighten, we wanted to promote some serious issues, as we included drug and child abuse. Because of the mature age rating we gave our product (15) and the issues included, hopefully it created an empathetic effect on the audience and made them think about our film more.

How did our main aim reflect our advertising products?

We wanted our film poster and radio trailer to represent that our film was of the horror genre. Our aim was to represent through these mediums the themes included in our product such as suspense and horror. There is a plot twist in our film, which is the protagonist realising that she is actually the ghost; we did not want to give away the plot twist in our film, but we wanted to suggest that it was about ghosts and/or intruders in the protagonist’s house. I think through both of our advertising products, we told our audience everything that we wanted to, and gave them some information about the story line without giving too many details away.

Our Film PosterWe created a film poster for our product using Adobe Photoshop. We did one as a group, and I also did an individual poster as I wanted to practice my skills and experiment with the approach that I would give to the task.

Our group film poster represents the genre of our film perfectly with the use of the basic horror conventions such as blood. The font used, represents that it will be creepy and also suggests that it is a horror film. The lighting is dark to suggest the dark nature of the film, and the tree image for the background foreshadows that the protagonist will be hanged, without giving away too many details. The use of the effects on the characters at the bottom such as the transparency, makes them appear like they are ghosts, suggesting to the audience that it will be a ghost film. Agnes is the most transparent, which also foreshadows that she is really a ghost. This is hinting clues to the audience, without revealing too much of the plot. Finally, the age certificate for our film shows that it is for a matured audience which a lot of modern horror films are i.e. The Conjuring, so this may help them identify the contents of the film as they will be able to link it to other popular horror film i.e. violence, horror and drug abuse.

My Individual Film PosterLike I have previously mentioned, I wanted to create my own film poster to practice and develop my Photoshop skills as well as have my own approach to the film poster, and what it would represent.

My film poster does not represent the genre of our film as well as our group poster does, but it looks like it could be either a thriller or horror. The text used is red, which has bad connotations associated with it such as death, which is why I used that colour. Also, the font is similar to the one used on our group poster which represents that Agnes never had chance to fully grow up, which is a theme used throughout our film, and it looks creepy. Our film is similar to The Woman in Black, which uses creepy-looking writing to create a scarier atmosphere. The image of the feet dangling represent that there will be a hanging in our film and this furthermore represents the genre. To add to this, the use of the image in the background of a woodland, suggests the hanging further as it looks like the character is being hung from a tree. The lighting is dark as it’s what is usually associated with horror films and suggests that it will be scary and grim.

The Impact of Film PostersBefore designing a film poster, I did some research into film posters for horror films as I wanted to see how they pulled their audience in and how the story line and genre was represented. Films that are similar to ours include, The Woman in Black and The Others, so we researched into their film posters to see what we could include. We knew that we would have to create a poster that would give away certain information about our film from just a glance if say for instance it was pinned up on a bulletin board and they were unable to look at it for a long period of time.

The Others: I noticed in this poster the lighting is dark which represents that it will be a horror and will include jump scares. The lamp represents that it will be set in a house, which also suggests it will be about ghosts as ghost films are usually set in houses. The character’s face looks scared which contributes to the overall atmosphere, and the text’s font makes it look creepy and sinister. This poster represents to the audience that it will be a horror film and will involve a lot of tension.

The Woman in Black: The lighting used on this poster is different to the other as there is a blue filter. This is used to represent that it will be about ghosts as it looks quite foggy and sinister. However, the light filter used could imply to the audience that it’s not as scary as it is, so it’s a greater shock when they watch it. The images in the back ground such as the tree and figure represent its genre and create a scary atmosphere. The character looks creepy and the clothes that they are dressed in represents the time era. Also, one side of their face is bright and the other side in shadow which foreshadows that something bad will happen to them without giving too much away. The font is creepy signalling to the genre and the brightness suggests it will feature ghosts.

How effective was our film poster?We wanted to get some audience feedback to see if our film poster that we had created gave across the right messages. We asked someone who we believed to be our target audience some questions, and these are their responses.

1. What genre do you think our film is?

“Horror/thriller”

2. What feelings do you think that the audience would experience when watching this film?

“Scared and shocked, but intrigued”

3. Would this poster encourage you to watch this film and why?

“I would go to the cinema to watch it with my friends, but I think I’d be too scared to go by myself.”

Our Radio TrailerWe created a radio trailer on Final Cut Express, using music and dialogue from our film as well as sound effects and voice over. We didn’t want to give too much of the story line away but represent its genre.

We opened our radio trailer with Agnes breathing heavily to capture the audience’s attention and scare them a little bit. The use of Agnes narrating the trailer gives a little bit of information about the plot, without giving away any spoilers. We used music to build the tension and also so that the audience would be able to identify the genre. By using sound effects such as a hanging rope and a tree snapping it is suggesting the hanging without giving away too many major spoilers. We used the sound effects to intrigue the audience but to keep them guessing and wanting more. I think our radio trailer represents it is a horror and scares the audience slightly without giving away too much of the plot to ruin the audience’s experience. I believe that our radio trailer is effective as it draws the audience in and scares them, which creates a tone similar to what our film is.

This is our radio trailer, click to listen:

Example of a Radio TrailerBefore making our radio trailer, we did some research into an example that is similar to our film. We chose The Woman in Black as it is a lot more recent compared to the other films that are similar to our product.

The music used in this trailer is tense and is used to build the suspension. We understood that music is an important factor of a radio trailer, especially when it comes to horror trailers as their aim is to scare the audience. The narration is scary and the audience are able to pinpoint its genre in the first second or so. Dialogue is used from the film which we also used to give a bit of detail into the story line. From this trailer, the audience know the type of horror it will be from the line, “You don’t believe in ghosts do you?” which lets the audience know it will be a ghost story. There are sound effects included to build the tension and atmosphere which is where we got our ideas from. Finally, there are reviews and comments from audience members who went to see the film giving feedback about how scary and good the film is. This makes it appeal to the audience and creates a creepy atmosphere. We were unable to use this in our film as no one had seen our film yet, so we chose to include dialogue from our product as well as sound effects, music and a voice over to give away some details about the plot. I believe that because of this research we were able to make a radio trailer that set up the correct expectations for our film.

This is the radio trailer for The Woman in Black:

How effective was our radio trailer?

We also received some audience feedback for our radio trailer to see what our target audience thought of our radio trailer and to see if we set up the correct expectations for our film.

1. From this radio trailer, what genre do you think our film will be?

“Horror”

2. What feelings did you experience when listening to this trailer?

“I was a little scared and got goose bumps at the end”

3. Would this trailer encourage you to watch this film?

“Yes, but it sounds really scary”

ConclusionOverall, I believe that our group’s radio trailer and poster represent our film well. Both ancillary task’s aim was to advertise our film and attract our target audience. The film poster had to draw in our audience visually, whereas our radio trailer enticed them aurally. Still, we were able to experiment and understand how to attract our audience, as the feedback we received showed that we had gained the interest of our target audience.