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

1. How effective is the combination
of your main product and the
ancillary texts?
Emma Irwin

2. What were we trying to achieve in our main
product?
We knew that when creating our film, its main aim would be to provide the audience with pleasure, and for it
to entertain them. This supports the theory of Uses and Gratifications which suggests why audiences watch
films and what they take away from them. Some examples of what they may wish to take away from a film
include, role models i.e. celebrities, socialisation i.e. going to the cinema with your friends, education i.e.
documentaries and entertainment which is what the aim of our product is. However, as the genre of our film
is horror, we also wanted to scare/frighten the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. We were able
to do this with the use of music, as it was used to build the tension and create jump scares. Also, the editing
and shots were an important factor when contributing to scaring the audience. We used close ups to show
the character’s emotions and fast paced editing to increase tension, as well as slower editing to build the
tension and keep them on edge. Even though that our film was created to entertain as well as frighten, we
wanted to promote some serious issues, as we included drug and child abuse. Because of the mature age
rating we gave our product (15) and the issues included, hopefully it created an empathetic effect on the
audience and made them think about our film more.

3. How did our main aim reflect our
advertising products?
We wanted our film poster and radio trailer
to represent that our film was of the horror
genre. Our aim was to represent through
these mediums the themes included in our
product such as suspense and horror.
There is a plot twist in our film, which is the
protagonist realising that she is actually
the ghost; we did not want to give away the
plot twist in our film, but we wanted to
suggest that it was about ghosts and/or
intruders in the protagonist’s house. I think
through both of our advertising products,
we told our audience everything that we
wanted to, and gave them some
information about the story line without
giving too many details away.

4. Our Film Poster
We created a film poster for our product using Adobe Photoshop. We did one as a group,
and I also did an individual poster as I wanted to practice my skills and experiment with the
approach that I would give to the task.
Our group film poster represents the genre of our film
perfectly with the use of the basic horror conventions such as
blood. The font used, represents that it will be creepy and
also suggests that it is a horror film. The lighting is dark to
suggest the dark nature of the film, and the tree image for the
background foreshadows that the protagonist will be hanged,
without giving away too many details. The use of the effects
on the characters at the bottom such as the transparency,
makes them appear like they are ghosts, suggesting to the
audience that it will be a ghost film. Agnes is the most
transparent, which also foreshadows that she is really a
ghost. This is hinting clues to the audience, without revealing
too much of the plot. Finally, the age certificate for our film
shows that it is for a matured audience which a lot of modern
horror films are i.e. The Conjuring, so this may help them
identify the contents of the film as they will be able to link it to
other popular horror film i.e. violence, horror and drug abuse.

5. My Individual Film Poster
Like I have previously mentioned, I wanted to create my own film poster to practice and
develop my Photoshop skills as well as have my own approach to the film poster, and what it
would represent.
My film poster does not represent the genre of our film as well as our
group poster does, but it looks like it could be either a thriller or
horror. The text used is red, which has bad connotations associated
with it such as death, which is why I used that colour. Also, the font is
similar to the one used on our group poster which represents that
Agnes never had chance to fully grow up, which is a theme used
throughout our film, and it looks creepy. Our film is similar to The
Woman in Black, which uses creepy-looking writing to create a
scarier atmosphere. The image of the feet dangling represent that
there will be a hanging in our film and this furthermore represents the
genre. To add to this, the use of the image in the background of a
woodland, suggests the hanging further as it looks like the character
is being hung from a tree. The lighting is dark as it’s what is usually
associated with horror films and suggests that it will be scary and
grim.

6. The Impact of Film Posters
Before designing a film poster, I did some research into film
posters for horror films as I wanted to see how they pulled their
audience in and how the story line and genre was represented.
Films that are similar to ours include, The Woman in Black and
The Others, so we researched into their film posters to see what
we could include. We knew that we would have to create a poster
that would give away certain information about our film from just a
glance if say for instance it was pinned up on a bulletin board and
they were unable to look at it for a long period of time.
The Others: I noticed in this poster the lighting is dark which represents that it will be a
horror and will include jump scares. The lamp represents that it will be set in a house,
which also suggests it will be about ghosts as ghost films are usually set in houses. The
character’s face looks scared which contributes to the overall atmosphere, and the text’s
font makes it look creepy and sinister. This poster represents to the audience that it will be
a horror film and will involve a lot of tension.
The Woman in Black: The lighting used on this poster is different to the other as there
is a blue filter. This is used to represent that it will be about ghosts as it looks quite
foggy and sinister. However, the light filter used could imply to the audience that it’s not
as scary as it is, so it’s a greater shock when they watch it. The images in the back
ground such as the tree and figure represent its genre and create a scary atmosphere.
The character looks creepy and the clothes that they are dressed in represents the time
era. Also, one side of their face is bright and the other side in shadow which
foreshadows that something bad will happen to them without giving too much away.
The font is creepy signalling to the genre and the brightness suggests it will feature
ghosts.

7. How effective was our film poster?
We wanted to get some audience feedback to see if our film poster that we had
created gave across the right messages. We asked someone who we believed
to be our target audience some questions, and these are their responses.
1. What genre do you think our film is?
“Horror/thriller”
2. What feelings do you think that the audience
would experience when watching this film?
“Scared and shocked, but intrigued”
3. Would this poster encourage you to watch
this film and why?
“I would go to the cinema to watch it with my
friends, but I think I’d be too scared to go by
myself.”

8. Our Radio Trailer
We created a radio trailer on Final Cut Express, using music and dialogue from our
film as well as sound effects and voice over. We didn’t want to give too much of the
story line away but represent its genre.
We opened our radio trailer with Agnes breathing
heavily to capture the audience’s attention and
scare them a little bit. The use of Agnes narrating
the trailer gives a little bit of information about the
plot, without giving away any spoilers. We used
music to build the tension and also so that the
audience would be able to identify the genre. By
using sound effects such as a hanging rope and a
tree snapping it is suggesting the hanging without
giving away too many major spoilers. We used the
sound effects to intrigue the audience but to keep
them guessing and wanting more. I think our radio
trailer represents it is a horror and scares the
audience slightly without giving away too much of
the plot to ruin the audience’s experience. I believe
that our radio trailer is effective as it draws the
audience in and scares them, which creates a tone
similar to what our film is.
This is our radio trailer,
click to listen:

9. Example of a Radio Trailer
Before making our radio trailer, we did some research into an example that is similar to
our film. We chose The Woman in Black as it is a lot more recent compared to the other
films that are similar to our product.
The music used in this trailer is tense and is used to build the
suspension. We understood that music is an important factor of a
radio trailer, especially when it comes to horror trailers as their aim is
to scare the audience. The narration is scary and the audience are
able to pinpoint its genre in the first second or so. Dialogue is used
from the film which we also used to give a bit of detail into the story
line. From this trailer, the audience know the type of horror it will be
from the line, “You don’t believe in ghosts do you?” which lets the
audience know it will be a ghost story. There are sound effects
included to build the tension and atmosphere which is where we got
our ideas from. Finally, there are reviews and comments from
audience members who went to see the film giving feedback about
how scary and good the film is. This makes it appeal to the audience
and creates a creepy atmosphere. We were unable to use this in our
film as no one had seen our film yet, so we chose to include dialogue
from our product as well as sound effects, music and a voice over to
give away some details about the plot. I believe that because of this
research we were able to make a radio trailer that set up the correct
expectations for our film.
This is the radio
trailer for The
Woman in
Black:

10. How effective was our radio
trailer?
We also received some audience feedback for our radio trailer to see what
our target audience thought of our radio trailer and to see if we set up the
correct expectations for our film.
1. From this radio trailer, what genre do
you think our film will be?
“Horror”
2. What feelings did you experience when
listening to this trailer?
“I was a little scared and got goose bumps at
the end”
3. Would this trailer encourage you to
watch this film?
“Yes, but it sounds really scary”

11. Conclusion
Overall, I believe that our group’s radio trailer and poster
represent our film well. Both ancillary task’s aim was to
advertise our film and attract our target audience. The
film poster had to draw in our audience visually, whereas
our radio trailer enticed them aurally. Still, we were able
to experiment and understand how to attract our
audience, as the feedback we received showed that we
had gained the interest of our target audience.