Evaluation Question One : How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product and Ancillary Task?

Within the distribution of all films, marketing is the element of which either can lead to great success or a total wipe out, no matter how great an actual film is without successful marketing the audience are not drawn in to see the film and therefore resulting in a low turnout however good marketing can contribute greatly to the success of a film.  Although film is a form of art, at the heart it is also a driven by profit, and therefore without the necessary marketing the film will not make the necessary profit, which is the reason why through my research I discovered that there are so many different forms of marketing, from the teaser to the main poster, billboards to reviews. However although the products do synergise together through a form of continuity, they must also be taken at the face of it as separate elements, each of which plays a different but crucial part in the overall marketing.

 
In terms of our ancillary task we firstly had to create a main poster for our short film. From the poster the audience are able to gain an initial idea about the film and it turn it also makes them intrigues as to the plot, narrative and theme of the film. Therefore essentially the aim of a film poster is to create interest and consequently revenue for the film that it is marketing.
My research into the conventions of film posters, demonstrated that the main visual image captures the audiences eyes, draws them into the poster and in turn creates the initial thought process behind the film. This I especially found to be the case with the poster for 'Hard Candy' whereby the image of the girl standing in the open dark metal animal trap is striking against the off white background. Through the use of costume the bright poster red hooded jacket and tights naturally captures the audiences eye and draws them into the film. When analysing this poster for myself I found that the fact it was simple and thought provoking, alongside the lack of information that it gave away made it intriguing and in turn made you want to see the film in order to answer the unanswered questions posed, such as in terms of the female although she is stood in the trap, the trap itself is open so is she in control or is she a victim?
 

As my film which I have created  is a silent film the visual imagery is a key component and therefore fundamentally for my film poster the main visual image was of great importance, I wanted to create a visual continuity between my film poser and film by using the simple sole image of a pair of shoes and label. The choice to go against the convention of the main image being of the main actor or actress I feel portrays my film in a less conventional way, and demonstrated the hidden meanings behind my piece. This is similar to the poster for 'Vertigo' where the image is just of a black sellout and not the actual characters, leaving as an audience member you in the dark and wanting to watch the film to find out more. By also using the shoes I feel I also demonstrate the continuity between my poster and the meaning behind the imagery within my film. We are all guilty of falling victim to superficially judging characters by the physical objects they own and wear and in turn not taking the time to step back and walk in the shoes of another's life, in order to gain a true perspective of out own life, we live our life for the future tense but take for granted the present tense of today. The label itself is contrasting to the shoes and gives the audience an insight into the original state of the character "the thing she most liked about the city - apart from all the obvious attractions, the theatre, the galleries - was that so few people asked you personal questions". Unlike my image which I decided thought the research feed back from my potential audience should be for the film poster original rather than a print screen, the quote itself is drawn directly from the film and displays how I have tried to have a connection between my ancillary products and the main film. This link of which allowes the audience to recognise that all three pieces are connected.


I developed originally two potential titles for my film, one being 'labels' the other being 'Moments'. I purposefully chose not to develop a title before I created my piece. As the title gives a name to the product, I wanted to wait until I was finally happy with the ambiance of my piece before deciding on a title. I chose the title 'Moments' as not only did it add continuity between my title (therefore all three pieces) and the signs used within my film "capture every moment enjoy every second", but also we all fall victim of letter those precious moments slip us by, and therefore I felt that when incorporated on my poster this would create the intital thought provoking response that I wanted from the audience. I felt that it was important to convey to the audience the meaning behind the title which I tried to do through the positioning and format of the title. I chose to position the title on the poster at the bottom of the page, as its the last place that the audience's eyes go and therefore means they go away thinking about the title. This concept I took from the analysis of the poster 'The Dark Knight' whereby whether it is their teaser or main poster that title is always positioned at the bottom of the page which leaves it as a lasting though in the audience's mind. By also displaying it as 'M.O.M.E.N.T.S', I felt I reflected not only that we should take the time for each moment in life, but also that as a mass population we do not take the time to step back from our own lives and walk in the shoes of someone else.


I chose to create continuity between all three pieces though the colour scheme; however the link is especially present through the combination of my film and poster. I chose purposefully to use the same soft dark grey tone for both my film and poster title, I wanted the colour to stand out again the light backdrop in order to attract the audiences eye but felt that black would not be in keeping with the ambiance that is created through the music of my film which is soft and subtle. I also chose to use the natural white of the snow as a connection between all three pieces, drawing on the fact that snow is a presence throughout my entire film, and therefore also a presence in the image for my review, when creating the original image for my film poster I thought that it was important that I used the white snow as a backdrop to the shoes.

I feel that my film review when combined with the main product is as effective as the poster at creating interest and revenue for the film, as it portrays a realistic evaluation of the piece. My main aim for my ancillary pieces was to create something that was identifiable to the real thing, and therefore I spent a lot of time researching into the conventions behind the product and in terms of the review this led me onto spending a lot of time analysing the variety of layouts to a film review from the 'Total Film' to 'Closer' to the 'Radio Times'. In the end I chose to develop a piece inspired by 'Total Film', I chose this magazine as it is a specific film magazine, and as a silent short film, my film is more appealing to a smaller cliche audience and therefore I felt that a review of my piece was more likely to be within a specialist film magazine than a general magazine such as 'closer' which tends to focus on the main stream feature length western films. I decided to create a double page spread in order to demonstrate that layout of the magazine however decided to only incorporate the actual review on a single side of A4 as I felt that as an audience member I am more likely to read a single page than a longer length piece as it is less overwhelming and if the review is too long the reader is likely to "switch off" towards the end.

One of the main conventions that I discovered from my research was the use of print screen taken directly from the films for the main images within a review, this in turn allowed me to incorporate an element directly from my film into my review (the print screen I took was at 3:07 minutes which I chose as I felt it demonstrated a strong aspect of cinematography, as well as the connection between the snow however I drew away from just using a simple image and incorporated a print screen of my two characters but by having their backs to the audience still creates a sense of intrigue). However my only downfall was because I was very interested in creating a review which could be incorporated into a real life magazine, so therefore I drew on a lot of the conventions of the magazine such as the colour scheme of black and red, this did distribute the continuity of all three pieces. However by using the print screen and ensuring that all three pieces incorporated my production company 'Seaside Productions' I was able to ensure that there was still a connection for the audience between the three pieces.

Overall I feel that both my poster and review work effectively when combined with my film by giving an intriguing insight into the thought processing behind the plot, this is done by leading the audience to ask lots of questions which in turn will drive them to watch the film in order to answer their own thoughts and ideas which they have drawn about the overall ambiance of the film.

SUMMARY OF COMBINATION OF MAIN AND ANCILLARY

Here is a short video of me summing up the points I have put forward within my written response :

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