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

Ancillary Texts• Ancillary texts are vital when producing and distributing a film

as it would appeal to a wider audience, these texts are the reason film and TV companies are so successful in getting their film across to viewers using posters, radio trailers, movie trailers.

• Our group produced two ancillary texts that would appeal to the our target audience which was a film poster and a radio trailer. Our film was targeted for young adults so we wanted to make the poster and radio-trailer secretive so it wouldn’t give too much away and it would make the audience more eager to go see the film.

Film Poster• Posters are one of the best ways to advertise a film as can be

put around a city on buses, billboards and shops therefore it gets more attention.

• I looked at posters of similar psychological thrillers and used some ideas from different ones. We tried to use the same theme or colours, fonts and iconography. Usually on the film poster there is a slogan of some sort, these are extremely effective because it makes the audience use their imaginations what the film is about, we used the slogan “three sisters, one secret” we thought this was relevant to the film without giving all the information away.

• The film posters I was influenced by was The Conjuring and the House of Wax which in the end our final film poster resembled The Conjuring.

I analysed two separate genres of film posters, one was action and the other psychological thriller to distinguish the difference between the two. This helped me when making my individual poster to know the features of a psychological thriller film poster compared to an action one.

These are the film posters I analysed on Blogger.

Individual Film PosterFor my individual film poster, I wanted to include the people who are in the film. The title which is bold and stands out with a slogan underneath, the slogan tells a story and essentially forebodes what is happening. I included reviews to show the audience it has been rated well and is worth watching. I didn’t want to include too much and make the poster busy as I wanted the audience to keep on guessing what is happening so they’d be intrigued to go watch it in cinema etc.

Final Film PosterWe included the names of the cast so the audience know whom is in the film

We included reviews which is done on almost every film poster, this lets the audience know if the film is any good and what reviewers thought. Usually top magazines, newspaper, companies are used so we have used them too as it would attract a wider audience.

We used the slogan “three sisters, one secret” in both the film poster and the radio trailer as it is catchy so the audience will still be thinking about it. It also gives some of the story away without actually giving too much away.

We included social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, this is how the word about the film will be getting around therefore attracting a wider audience

The picture we used is also in the film as it is Katherine’s room but the audience would not know this yet but it conveys a lonely isolated girl in a room. This could give the audience the wrong impression so they would be shocked when they see the film.

Similarlities/DifferencesThey have a similar picture with facing the wall however we wanted to emphasize the shadow more to symbolise she has a dark personality.

We included reviews as this is usually a common part of a film poster but the Conjuring film poster did not. The conjuring included their previous films

they had done, this would attract the audience’s attention because if they liked the previous film, they would want to see this one.

Both of these posters have a similar title font and colour.

Radio Trailer• Radio trailers are also extremely effective when reaching out

to the audience as they can be shown anywhere and at any time. Whether a person be in the car, a bus or in a shop. Radio trailers enable the audience to listen. There is not a targeted audience when using radio trailers are any one can be listening to any radio channel. Radio trailers allow the audience to use their imagination of what the film will be about so they would like to go see it in picture.

Lost Possession Radio TrailerAt first, when researching what a radio trailer was, it was difficult to get a lot of information and when looking for examples, there were few to find at all. So we had to write about experience as well as what we had found. The radio trailer was the easiest ancillary text to make in my opinion as you had to take essential snippets out of the film and make a script.

We used a male voiceover as we thought it would be more effective as the film only includes a female cast, also a males voice can get more attention is it is more dominant.

You can listen to out radio trailer on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYDeoOVO0nk

The radio trailer includes short and snappy parts from the film and then the voiceover comes back on. In the voiceover it states the genre “thrilling master piece” conveying it is a thriller, it also states the certificate of the film “rated 15”. It gives a sense of foreboding of what is to come in the film without giving too much away.

Overall…

Overall, I think our group have achieved two ancillary texts that advertise our film, Lost Possession, well and to a wide audience. The film poster and the radio trailer are telling the audience about our film without giving too much information away. The film poster does this well as we have included a slogan that tells them about three sisters and there is one secret and the picture used includes a shadow that is meant to symbolise a darker person inside of her as she is mentally unstable. Our radio trailer includes some important clips from our film which could encourage the audience to watch the film and maybe recommend it to their friends as they would want to show them it.