A) WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE IN YOUR MAIN PRODUCTION? WAS THIS

ALSO REFLECTED IN THE TWO ADVERTISING PRODUCTS?

B) HOW EFFECTIVE DO YOU THINK THE TWO ANCILLARY TEXTS ARE IN SELLING

YOUR PRODUCTION?C) MAKE COMPARISONS WITH REAL

ADVERTISING PRODUCTS.

Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main

product and the ancillary texts?

Our Film as a Whole

Our film is a crime thriller, and therefore, has certain elements within it that makes it part of this genre. This includes dark/criminal tones, achieved through lighting and props, and a certain level of suspense and action. The main thing we were trying to achieve overall was an exciting plot, that wasn’t too overly complicated or hard-to-follow, that interested the audience, and had the appropriate props and setting to make it believable. There are a few ways in which we did this:

The two main settings where the residence of the main character, and the gambling den. To highlight the difference in tone, the house scenes are well-lit and has warm colours throughout. The gambling den is less welcoming in appearance, and uses cold colours and dimly lit area’s to suggest it is the scene of something unfavourable.

(cont.)

The use of the mask props is a renown element used in those films with a slightly darker genre, whether it be a horror film or a thriller. It heightens the tension and allows the audience to realise the fact something is not right or normal within the scene.

Tension is often found in thrillers, and we used a variety of shots, including the extreme close-up, to create this tension. It helps show the expression in the characters eyes and focuses in on the emotions of that particular character, meaning it is effective.

As stated in Evaluation Question 1, we used inspiration from the film ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ in which the three main characters have a gun stand-off. The use of extreme close up shots can highlight the tension and was an important element for us to include .

Our Film Poster + Connection

(cont.)

Because our film has these dark and mature themes, I worked hard to replicate and expand on that with the design of our film poster. When designing the poster in Abobe Photoshop, it was a big necessity for the main colour scheme to feature black, grey and white tones. This monotone style hints at a more mature film with a darker genre than something more light-hearted, such as romance or comedy. When the colour scheme was established, including the text and background, the natural neutrality of the photos we added of the character’s kept the same tone throughout. If there was a juxtaposition of bright colourful images and a monotone colour scheme for the rest of the poster, it would not work as well.

Although I could have added images of Connor and Mary with their mask off, and featured images of them in their normal state, it was decided that we would take pictures of the four characters with their gambling scene attire on, because it looked more mysterious and added more to the style and genre of the film. The use of imagery and colour represents our chosen plot and genre and fits in well as an ancillary text alongside our short film.

Our Radio Trailer + Connection

(cont.)

When producing our radio trailer, there were certain things we made certain where included. This includes the choice of music, and what we wanted it to sound like in conjunction with the voice-over and sound effects. The music we used becomes increasingly dramatic and helps aid the impression that our film is a thriller with dark and danger-filled undertones. The voice-over is done by myself and is meant to give vague plot details away, suggesting that the film has a plot twist and a theme of mystery surrounding it. The style of the music and the music tracks involved, also used within the film, helps give the ancillary text continuity with the final film and keeps the familiarity between these two different products. These two music tracks, ‘Meat Grinder’ and ‘Rattlesnake Moan’ are the essence of the trailer and the sound effect of the shuffling cards helps indicate what the plot of the film involves. The radio trailer as an ancillary text works well alongside the final film as it has the continuity of the voice-overs, a mixture of myself talking about the film and actual voices from the film’s dialogue, and uses music that reflects our genre – indicating it is tense and serious in tone.

Comparison + Conclusion

This is the poster which we took our main inspiration from, as can be seen with the similar structure of images. Although this poster features more violent and action-filled images, ours features more silent and dark images, which indicates the film does not belong to the action genre but instead belongs to the thriller genre, with a sense of mystery surrounding it.

Similar to the Doctor Who radio trailer, we too have used dramatic music and sound effects pulled from our original film. It adds a level of continuity and links to the original product, and ensures the audience know our product and are compelled to watch it or are interested enough to find out what the film is about, past the vague and mysterious voice-over offered to reflect the plot of the film.