How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Evaluation Task 2

I used the mask as a common factor that appears between the three texts I have created. In the trailer, the mask appears few times, and is only used at times of tension or climax, whereas in the poster and magazine cover, I decided to use the masked character as the main focus of the text. I did this by using an image of the masked character reaching for the camera on my poster, and the character looking at our main protagonist on the magazine cover. This draws attention to the mask and creates a sense of mystery, as the audience begin to wonder who the character behind it is. 

I chose to not include the main character, Gabrielle in the film’s poster, but she does appear frequently throughout the trailer and is the main focus of the magazine cover. Gabrielle is wearing casual clothes, a striped t-shirt and jeans. We chose this as it is a very basic outfit, and therefore does not draw attention to Gabrielle. We wanted the character to seem like an average teenaged girl, not too far from the norm. This gives the effect that the killer could hunt anyone, rather than targeting their anger towards a specific type of person. I decided not to include Gabrielle on the film’s poster, as the antagonist is reaching directly for the audience, as if we are seeing through her eyes. This also gives the effect that the antagonist could target anyone.

I also decided to use the “Times Up” logo on all three of my texts, as this is a typical synergistic feature of campaigns such as this. In the trailer, the Time’s up logo appears within the last 20 seconds of the trailer, making it one of the last things that the audience see and therefore will remember it.  On my magazine cover and poster, the Time’s Up logo is towards the bottom of the image, in a colour that contrasts to everything else and therefore making it more noticeable.

In my magazine cover, I tried to give hints to the narrative, as the antagonist is looking directly at Gabrielle. This connotes that they are interested in her, and gives the effect that the antagonist will be attempting to hunt or stalk this character. This connotes a relationship between the two characters as he is solely focused on her, never anybody else. I also used this effect in my poster, as the antagonist’s hand is the main focus, reaching out to the audience. The mask of this character can be seen between two of the fingers, connoting that the character is reaching out to grab something. This uses Barthes’ theory of enigma coding to connote that the character is hunting something, and comes close to obtaining their desire.

Using synergistic features attracts an audience as it means that they will begin to recognise certain features. For example, if a person were to see the trailer for the film in the cinema, and then see the poster advertised on Facebook and then on a magazine cover, they would recognise both the mask and the logo of the film. This allows them to feel knowledgeable, as they will recognise these features.  This will also create a sense of mystery in the audience as the more they see and recognise the mask, the more they will begin to wonder who this character is and why they are hiding their face.

One feature I carried through from my trailer to my print texts is the use of low key lighting. I used this by ensuring that all of my images had a black background, and then using the burn tool and the brush tool on Photoshop to darken the images further, and add shadows. Low key lighting is a convention of the psychological thriller genre, as it adds an effect of fear and mystery to the image. An example of using low key lighting to create mystery and fear appears on the poster for Dead Silence, where the image of a doll has a black background and has been darkened to fade into the shadows.

Overall, I believe my campaign has been successful as I used a range of synergistic features throughout. This is also due to the way that I planned my texts, as I ensured that I had images and logos that I could carry throughout my trailer and print work, as well as ensuring that there was synergy between the three texts. This means that my audience will recognise these features, and will begin to wonder what the film is about, and will want to see the film to have their answers about the characters and narrative answered.  I also ensured that the genre of the film was clear within each text that I created by including conventions of the psychological thriller genre such as low key lighting, a female main character, and the colour scheme of red, white and black.