Evaluation Question 2

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

• Our main product was our teaser trailer, "Don't Look Back", which you can view here:

• Here are the 2 ancillary tasks; The Poster and Website Home page:

• Our ancillary task was to make a full promotional package, which includes a film poster and a website promoting the film, so we had to make sure that the teaser trailer, film poster and the website linked together, through the use of typography, colour, narrative and genre.

Conventions of Supernatural Genre

• The genre that we chose, was horror with the sub-genres of found footage, supernatural. So, we researched the codes and conventions of supernatural horror movies, taking inspiration from mainly "The Blair Witch Project", as we had very strong similarities to that film. 
• We deconstructed main plot lines in supernatural horrors, conventions in supernatural horrors and different camera angles used in found footage.
• By researching these conventions, we would create a better understanding to how we could combine all of our ancillary tasks together to create a well thought out promotional package which fitted the genre.

Colour

• We found that the stereotypical colour scheme that was used in the horror genre are the colours of red, black and white, and the posters seem to have a lot of shadows, silhouettes and vignettes to create suspense and to make it representational of a horror genre, because you can't see what is lurking in the dark.
• We stuck with the same colour scheme for the typography that we used for our film trailer e.g. "Don't Look Back" which was in white, so we stuck with the colour scheme of white for our typography which helped to create a link between our trailer and the ancillary tasks as it is present in both the poster and the website homepage.

• For the background of the website, we thought that it would be more effective to have a predominantly black background which fades into one of the characters faces, as we also saw that there was a convention of having a plain background with a side drop.

• One thing that stood out in our teaser trailer, poster and website, was our use of colour in our cinematography, as it subverted conventional cinematography in that we used bright, vibrant colours rather than having that dark and dull colour scheme, which is highly used in the horror genre. We chose this approach because it shows the vulnerability of the students being haunted in a place, where you wouldn't think that hauntings would happen.

Content and Layout

• We started off by researching the conventional layout and content of a supernatural horror poster, by deconstructing various posters. You can view the full article here.
• The content usually contains the main character who is surrounded with the supernatural entity or showing the main location of the film. They are usually placed within the "rule of thirds," where the subject is placed in certain points where the audiences focus is most drawn to e.g. the middle.
• Whilst shooting a photo for the poster, we went back to the location that we used for our film trailer, which was the woods, so that the main location is present and it shows continuity from the trailer. 
• It also reveals the entity behind, so that it reveals to the audience that the genre is supernatural and we purposefully had the main character pose as if she's about to look behind her which juxtaposes our title of "Don't Look Back" and we thought that this would make a powerful image.
• However, to give ourselves more choice in the editing process, we decided to try another shot, which was used in our trailer, where the supernatural entity crawls up from behind a tree, as we thought that this would immediately define our genre and our storyline.



• Like the film poster, we also deconstructed other film websites to find out the codes and conventions of promotional websites. Click Here to view deconstruction.

• Instead of going out to shoot a photo for the website, we decided to use a screenshot from the trailer itself, which also creates a strong synergy between the film trailer and the website.

Typography

• We consistently used the same typography throughout the trailer and ancillary tasks, by using the same font, which was Adobe Garamond Pro and the same colour scheme throughout for the typography, keeping it simple with a plain white on top of a black background.
• The only variation we did for the typography, was using the 'wind effect' on the title, which gives it a worn out effect. We used this title for all of the tasks, to create a synergy and continuity.
• All of the credits throughout the trailer and the taglines on the website and poster used the same typography.

Tagline

• We noticed that there is always a tagline which gives a quick insight to what the plot is about e.g. "The Apparition" the tagline is, "Once you believe, you die."

• We then came to the conclusion, that the poster needed to be able to depict the genre and plot almost immediately with the help of the title and the tagline, and those items were all placed using the "rule of thirds" which means that the most important aspects of the poster are placed in certain places, where most of the audiences attention is attracted to.
• Our tagline on the top of the poster, links in with our teaser trailer, because it uses the exact same caption : "They were warned not to enter..." and it creates a unity between the main product and the poster ancillary task, making it clear that it is part of the same promotional package.
• On our website, the tagline is present next to the title, which were both taken from the teaser trailer itself, which helps to link all the ancillary tasks together with the teaser trailer.

Evaluation

   Overall, I feel that we have definitely combined our main product and our ancillary texts in a way which makes it effective and appealing towards the audience, and the synergy between all the texts are very clear and recognisable. We also managed to follow the codes and conventions of the supernatural horror/ found footage genre that we chose through the use of colour, content, genre conventions and typography and the audience recognises this after having a focus group evaluate our product.

      However, I do feel that we could have put more elements of found footage into our poster and our website to make it very clear that another one of the sub genres is found footage, as that is only currently present in our trailer.