EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

We believe that all our three texts (teaser trailer, magazine front cover and poster) all compliment each other.  We think this because they all have the common factor of having a mask or sinister image which could be perturbing for the audience. In each of these advertisements we have not given too much away to the audience as we think that less is more. We have used different forms and conventions to get our audience involved and interested in our film.

• In our film poster we have used the tag line 'they say we all have voices in our heads' to engage the audience in the film and make them want to find out the story line. Also to create questioning around who the 'voices' are, whether they are good or bad, whilst still keeping the idea around our teaser a secret, that the audience will only uncover by watching our film. 

• In our magazine, below the 'Empire' logo we have written 'horror special.' This encourages people to read on about our film as it has been given the Empire front cover, and that issue of it has been dedicated to our film. Also by having our film on the front cover of Empire magazine, it gives the idea that our film has been recommended by Empire, so people will think it is worth while to see it. 

• In our teaser, we make sure the audience are fully aware of the masked murderers. We have them popping up a lot, but towards the end where the 'victim' is wearing a mask it creates confusion and questioning as to whether she really was a victim all along, or if the 'voices in her head' finally let her be who she was destined to be. Thus, encouraging audience members to go and view our film to discover the story behind it all. 

Our three texts also appeal to our target audience and compliment each other, as through the use of image and text, we have made it clear what the genre is - horror.

• In our teaser, the horror genre is made clear through the masked murders following our victims holding various holding various weapons. Their intentions are clear through the vibe given off around them, catching the attention of horror movie goers.

• Our magazine front cover highlights the horror genre by the 'top 100 must-see horror films' and the use of including other horror films that are soon to be released and the text under our film name saying 'discover the horror that awaits.'

• Our film poster shows the horror genre through the darkness surrounding it, and the blacked out eye almost making it demonic. All three of our texts make the genre of our film well known through the use of darkness and hidden identities, which reaches out to the audience we are aiming for, being horror movie goers.

All together we feel that when our main product and ancillary texts are combined, they are very effective at highlighting the genre, and suggesting what the film will be about, without giving too much away. We also feel that the way we have created them, intrigues audience members to research into the film more, in order to try to understand it, which is also helpful in creating anticipation for our film. Also through the use of us creating a teaser trailer, it will encourage people to view our trailer which would come after. This being similar to the viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight Rises where information and parts of the film were given away in sequences building suspense and excitement for the full film to be released. Through advertising our film like this, we would hope that we would be able to build a big enough audience for our film to be a box office hit. 

- Our inspiration for our trailer came from a few different films we had researched. The idea of a concealed identity was formed by watching trailers such as Friday the 13th, The Strangers, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc. All though not all of these films use masks, they use different aspects on the face to make the villain much scarier and patronising; whether that be burns, masks or disfigurements. 

- In our film poster and magazine cover, we felt that using an eye and mask was appropriate as they are disturbing and frightening images. We used the image of the mask on our magazine poster, as we wanted to ensure that audience members knew how the villains would appear, but we also used an image of an eye, as it creates wonder and questioning around it, as the person in the image is having their eye being pried open. This allows audience members to make their own judgements into what they believe is happening and could also suggest that the victim within our horror teaser trailer, may have been evil from the start due to a 'demon' inside her eye.