Evaluation Question 2: How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Task?By Margaret Ansu

Assignment Brief

• For Unit G324 we had to create a 5 minute short film which may be live action, animated or a combination of both. After completing the film for our ancillary task we were assigned to create a film poster of our film and a film review of our magazine.

How my poster follows the forms of the drama genre

The poster uses a single image of “Lucy” the main female character. The close up of her face allows those who view the poster to examine the emotions is expressing. Her facial expressions conveys the emotion of neutral sadness, by this I mean it’s clear she is not happy but her sadness seems to be of long term suggesting she’s enduring some form of long term hardship. This follows the conventions of a drama film as it doesn’t convey happiness and humour but an emotion that is of a serious nature. Also with the close up image being the only image used for the poster, there’s nothing to take the focus away from the character’s face, leaving most of the films back story to the imagination of the individual with a small clue in the form of the tag-line, “not everything is what it seems…”, adding a sinister edge to the angelic looking image.

The simple and realistic theme of my poster upholds the seriousness and realism that’s expected of a drama film. The colour scheme only consist of white and yellow; white to portray innocence and yellow to convey preciousness as innocence is precious. The poster was inspired by the poster of the film “Precious” as the theme of the two films are very similar.

How My Poster Follows the Forms of Drama Film Poster: Comparison between a successful film’s poster and my film poster

This is the film poster of the film “Precious” an independent film that blew up and came to the big screen in 2009. The film it’s self had a lot of influence as to how we carried out our film so I then decided to use it’s poster as inspiration for my own poster. I also decided to use this poster as a template, as the film was a very successful drama film and the poster then must have played some part in promoting the film so well.

How My Poster Follows the Forms of Drama Film Poster: Analysis of Precious Film Poster

I liked how the poster had used quotes from reviews and acclaimed individuals of the film world, so it help convince people that the film was worth watching. I decided to use this approach for my own film poster.

The title “Precious”, was made to stand out in a unique way . The typeface was simplistic and linear unlike those used within many film posters. However, unlike the rest of the font on the poster the colour of the title was orange. The use of orange alone made the title stand out. Again I took this aspect aboard and tried to apply it to my own work.

Lastly, I liked how the main focus of the poster was the face of a girl, as it suggested that the girl was a major character or component of the film. It also gave an idea as to what the title “Precious” stood for suggesting the two were linked and it was probably her name. Moreover, with sole focus of the poster being on the girl, the seriousness and feel of the film’s genre was presented to the audience. Also it portrays the seriousness of the film via her facial expression.

How My Poster Follows the Forms of Drama Film Poster: How I used the highlighted areas in my own film poster

I decided to replicate the use of accreditation in my own poster. I however did not use quotes but instead awards that the film had won, which were not spread across the poster as the accreditations for precious was positioned on the poster. I instead placed the accreditations in a orderly fashion.

As you can see I did use the idea of a single person focus. Reason being I thought it really did (when done properly), convey the basis and ideologies of a a drama film. The single person image I believe also helped reinforce the emotional basis of our film

I then also decided to include the idea that the title of the film was to stand out from the rest of the poster by making the title yellow. I did not however, follow this aspect through, as I thought that the release that was also an important component of a film poster as it informs passers-by of when the film is accessible to view. Also the typeface I used for the title was not linear.

Text Used in Poster

Nyala Regular Bold: was used for the release date, tag line and film website. The font wasn’t of a usual choice for a drama film poster however it was unique and I wanted to put my own spin on a typical drama film poster. The font also had a certain eye catching edge to it but not enough to draw attention away from the main title which is the most important component of a film poster.

Steel Tongs: was a formatted billing font, meaning that it was pre-coded to allow me to enter certain pre-set words and phrases such as “Directed by” in the style that would usually be used on an actual film poster’s billing. It was simple to use once I understood the coding. It also stands out but not enough to take attention away from the title.

KG Tangled Up In You: a bold font that looked rough. I thought it’ll be great for this poster as it wasn’t too bold and blocked for a drama film poster but it was just enough to stand out more than everything else when paired with the colour choice of yellowish orange. The texture of the font also reinforced the nature of the film’s title of being shady.

The Film Review

For my film review I wanted to achieve a simple and clean look that kind of followed the same simplicity that was achieved in the film poster. It wasn’t easy and many drafts were made but I was able in the end to create a poster that was good enough to present.

To keep with simplicity I opted to used the basic but effective colour scheme of black and blue. Lighter blues usually triggers the brain to experience feelings of relaxation hence why it’s used in so many social networking sites. Therefore I took that idea on board along with black as the colour black is standard simple and easy to read.

I included a summary box within film reviews to give the reader a quick summary of the film’s plot. The box is used within many film review articles.

Another thing I adhered to was the use of a star rating system to state how good the film was.

Footer containing page number, magazine issue, magazine name and website follows the conventions of a magazine.

Fonts Used for Review

The text I used in the film review may have been a different type face from the one I used in the poster but it still follows the simplistic theme that I tried to achieve in the poster. Like the poster the title of the film was the largest text used in the review .

The font I used for the title article was Century Gothic Bold, a Sans Serif typeface. I chose this typeface as Sans Serif fonts are used within magazines and articles.

For the article's main body, the typeface was different from the rest as I wanted it to stand out but in a way that was subtle so I used a different font instead of making it bold. Unlike the stand out quotes, which I’d decided to make bold and blue in the steps of following the conventions of film articles. Another reason why I chose the font is because it was easy to read which is an important factor for text within article.

Images Used within Review

Lucy’s costume choice contradicts the costume choice for the poster as in the poster she’s in a white shirt to portray innocence. However in the film review she is in a black top to suggest that somewhere within the film her innocence is taken. Within representation black clothing is universally used to portray the darkness and evilness within an individual. Therefore I used a photo that would hopefully convey Mr Wicks to the readers as a dangerous and dodgy character which is then reinforced by the body language of the character as he seems threatening and controlling specifically towards Lucy.

Images Used within Review

In relation to the poster, the image used within the review portrays the film in a darker light and instead of focusing on the female character, it instead focuses on the male character. This then could suggest to readers and viewers that both characters are of high importance within the narrative of the film.

Images Used within Review

The image in the film review portrays the dynamics between the two characters; how Mr Wicks is shown in a darker light literally as the image had been edited around Mr Wicks to heighten shadows. Where in contrast Lucy’s seen in a lighter view. The image is great in promoting the film and unlike the poster it shows two characters but it gives an insight as to why Lucy is pictured in a “sad” emotional state on the poster.

Using the Internet to Promote

Even though when looking at actual examples it was common to see the use of a Twitter or Facebook page for the film also being promoted, I did not want to add it to my poster as I thought it took away from it’s simplicity. Therefore I only added a website address.

For the film review I did not deem it to be appropriate to use social networking promotions within the review as it would’ve come across as unconventional and unprofessional. I therefore stuck to what I had seen in examples of real highly regarded film magazines such as “EMPIRE” and just used yet another simple web address in the footer.

How the Poster and Film Review Contribute to My FilmPosters are used by production companies as a marketing strategy to advertise their films to the masses. It does so by using imagery to summaries the plot of the film. By doing this when people see the poster and it is appealing they’re most likely to spread the news of the film being released by word of mouth. Therefore when creating my poster I kept this concept in mind and tried to use the best picture that depicted all of what the movie was in one image.

On the other hand, film reviews are meant to give those who my be interested in seeing the a film an analytical perspective of the film as it gives them more of an insight to how well the film was executed. A review is also used to help people decide whether the film is something they’d enjoy watching it or not.

However both film reviews and posters are great marketing strategies, as they both raise awareness of a film. By using both methods, you’re more likely to reach a wider population hence your target audience. I therefore believe, that these two products played a major role in promoting the film by giving those who are interested a greater idea of what the film is about, feeding their curiosity and leading them to the film so that their curiosity may cease.

Conclusion

To conclude I think that both my ancillary task work well together as they complete each other. For one portrays the film in one way but the other presents the film in a another light that finishes what the other was trying to sell. Both follow the theme of simplicity, I do however believe that I could’ve done better to link the two products together but I am pleased with the final outcomes and think it’s great that they’re rather different but similar at the same time.