Tuesday 4 January 2011

Question 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For my film to be successful overall the ancillary text also had to be well created. This includes my poster and my review page. They all work together to sell, promote and advertise my film. To get information to my target audience it will need to follow a certain pattern which is an order to make the film aware to the audience all the way to showing the film. First is the poster. Posters are used to advertise a film, attract the target audience and persuade and inform them to watch it. The posters that I made were of a comedy for my film and featured things like pictures, colour and text. The fact that my film was a family comedy I needed to know what pictures, colours and types of text would best suit my film. I researched other film posters to know what they do to appeal to their target audience and found out that many family comedy films use on average more than three colours and the picture on the poster is usually the protagonist, while texts vary according to type of comedy.
I put pictures of the main character Harry on each poster so that my target audience will know what type of character he is and features the antagonist Jack on two of them. On the posters I don’t show his face in detail because I want my audience to go and watch the film and also because in the opening sequence we don’t show his face so I wanted it to follow on. My reason for including Harry on each poster was because he is the main character and the audience need to see something about him. It is also follows the codes and convention of many family comedy films meaning I wanted my film to fit in. The two posters were Jack was featured I decided to put him in to have different types of posters and also because I wanted my audience to know what was to be the theme and what will be in the film which are the pranks. I feel my audience will appeal to those two posters as pranks are funny and from my feedback I received from people as well as research I did on other films that feature some pranks like ‘Baby’s Day Out’ they normally do well.


The texts were of comic or comedy which was the only type of texts I could use that will suit my film and the colours used were colourful but a bit different on each poster. I done this because it had to look like a comedy film otherwise my target audience will miss out and it may look like a different genre and attract a completely different audience. When creating the posters I knew I had to research other posters to see if what I was putting in followed the codes and conventions or went against it. From the posters I wanted people to say they really looked like comedy posters and not just ordinary posters as the comedy genre is very competitive meaning I need to make sure my poster stands out as a comedy film. Feedback helped me to achieve this as people got their opinions across and told me how to improve it.
On my final poster the picture I showed was Jack pouring water from a bottle all over Harry taken from my film. The reason I included it on the poster is not only because it followed the codes and conventions but it gives my target audience an insight of the film which will excite them. It tells my audience the genre of my film and how the characters will be like and what to expect from them. I feel this will attract them to watch the film because they will like to see something funny and entertaining as it is advertising a comedy film in the first place. The text was a comic text and was chosen as it suited the poster layout.
Overall I feel that the posters I made were suitable for marketing and will appeal to my audience based on the picture used and text. I feel the effect of the combination of posters I made was very positive as it made me see what I didn’t do well in the first one and so do better in on the next one. It also helped me with my creativity skills and understanding what to include in a comedy poster. I was also able to choose the best one which helped me a lot as the one I wanted wasn’t favoured by feedback I got from my target audience as well as other people. I think it will go well with my film because it gives enough information to persuade my target audience to watch it and most important reveals the genre.
Review was used to promote our film. Reviews appear in magazines especially film magazines and give brief information to the audience and they are also given a verdict and a rating which can either be a benefit or problem for the film. For example ‘Fred: The Movie’ received a bad review in Total Film Magazine. My reviews were featured in Empire Magazine and given 4 stars and good verdict. To not be bias I asked my friends how many stars they will give it and they said 4 stars which was why I gave it that. As my film is a comedy/family it will appeal to people who are up for a laugh and perhaps that will be a lot as comedy and family genre are the most popular film genres out. The writing and reporting style in my review page is pretty simple and doesn’t include any posh or complicated words. This is for my audience to understand as well as the audience of Empire magazine as that is how they approach their audience because it is mostly people from socio economic C1 and below. Empire magazine is mainly read by teenagers and adults and cost £3.99 could mean that young children will not know about it but with its good reputation and parents passing viral marketing to them.
My review page gave enough information to my audience and will appeal to them due to the style of writing as it was written through Empire Magazine format that are best with comedy films. My review, poster and the film combined really well mainly because each one was done in high quality and they all used and challenged the codes and conventions of a family comedy film. I believe this all made it effective because it made everything look realistic. Also we had almost no budget and no help so the combination of my main product and ancillary text was successful especially because it was my first time making a 5 minute film.
Using posters and reviews will help market the success of the film as they both inform the public that a new film is about to come out. The combination of my film and the two will make my film seem even more interesting to my audience as it is seen on posters everywhere like on buses, walls and billboards and spoke about on magazines, internet and newspapers. These will encourage people to watch the film as the film is represented in a positive way.

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