Q2) HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR

MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Kate Sutton

Main Product – Film Trailer Our main task of a horror film trailer has the aim of enticing a target

audience (of the ages 15+) to want to watch a film that we are advertising. As well as following and challenging the typical conventions of horror films and trailers to allow it to put them on edge as an audience and give them the emotional connection to the characters and fright of the storyline that they expect to feel and want to gain from the experience.

One of the ways that we knew what to include to achieve these goals was not only research into horror films and their trailers, but also conducting primary research of our own to people from our minimum target age of 15 to around 20 years old. We handed out questionnaires to see what they expect and want from a horror trailer experience and the sort of storylines that they would find interesting and in fact, scary. We believe that this would give us more of an insight into what our potential audience want to get from us, and us finding this out means that we can give this to them, also meaning that the effectiveness of our main product is more valid and increased.

Questionnaire:

The questions asked in this questionnaire link to a prezi that we made in the research process of our course work. It focused on asking the audience a series of questions about their likes and dislikes within horror films, their contribution to existing ideas that we already had and gave them the chance to give constructive criticism to improve our ideas. It also asked for their opinion on existing film trailers so it gives us an idea of the techniques that seem popular with our target and potential audiences, which helped to give us ideas for style models to follow.

In order to make our trailer effective, we had to follow some of the typical horror conventions so that the audience could understand the build up and progression of the trailer. This means including the dark setting for the mise-en-scene aspect, as this makes the audience focus less on the character and more on his surroundings; this means that they may be more likely to jump at the character doing something unpredictable as they haven't been following his movements in order to expect it.This makes the trailer effective as it gets the reaction from the audience that we aim for, and what we would expect from a pre-existing trailer.

Concept Areas Contributing to Overall Effectivness The concept areas of mise-en-scene, camera, editing and sound all

form together in order to create the right mode and register for the style of trailer that we were attempting to produce. This contributes to how effective the trailer is as it means that it is serving its purpose to entertain and advertise.

The mise-en-scene of the trailer has general dark lighting with an added greyscale over the top to give the effect that all happiness has been taken away which the audience will interpret by connotation and denotation that something bad is going to happen.

The camera includes extreme close up and lose up shots which are used to get in the characters way and make us feel as an audience as if we are invading their personal space. This makes it feel uncomfortable and paranoid, as well as allowing us to show the characters emotions that may perhaps not be so obvious without these uses of camera shots.

The concept area of editing enabled us to place the greyscale over all of the shots to give the impression of a dull, grainy backdrop which reflects the progressive horror element of the trailer. It also enables us to add in typical trailer conventions of the use of title pages. Even though these do not add to the horror progression or element of the trailer, they make it seem more realistic and professional as we see them in near enough every horror trailer. It makes it more effective by making it appear real and it breaks up the horror aspect and therefore gets a bigger reaction from the potential audience as it means that they do not know what to expect from the next sequence of shots.

Sound plays a really important role in the build up and overall effectiveness of horror trailers. Even silence (which we have used in our trailer) gets the audience thinking and puts them on edge as it adds an unpredictable element within the trailer so they don’t know what to expect and it is more likely to get a physical and emotional reaction from them.

Ancillary Tasks – Magazine Cover

As a part of research for making my horror issue magazine cover I looked into a number of pre existing ones and noted down the typical conventions that reoccurred and used some of these within my own work.

I also decided to go with a colour scheme of black, white and red as they are all typical colours emphasised in horror films and trailers to add to typical connotations understood by the audience. For example: love = red.

Conventions of Horror which add Effect

I used Photoshop to stain and taint the sticker at the top of the page as a method of making it look relevant to the theme of horror, as well as giving an insight into the idea of bloodshed which links to the feature film itself.

The title, also created on Photoshop, is made to look like dripping blood which is layered over the images at the bottom. It links to the sticker in the top right hand corner and also gives away the theme of the film, as well as including a memorable title and font for advertising purposes.

Eerie sounding film names are included down the side to reinforce the fact that it is a horror edition, it shows extra information that the audience may want to read. This makes the magazine appear as if there is a lot that people are getting for their money which makes it even more effect to them.

The idea that the consumer can have one of three different film posters unique to the issue number, as well as specific to the horror edition and feature film makes it have a USP in comparison to other magazines. As the target audience is interested in this genre this would give it the upper hand in comparison to others and therefore make it more effect in not only sales but for the audience themselves too.

Stating that this is an exclusive, means that it is a one time thing and will not be appearing in the magazine again. This makes people think more on impulse and wanting to know more as opposed to thinking that they can read about it later any way, making the magazine seem more important and interesting./

Advertising the reviews are inside will not only promote the film upon its release but also make the magazine have another USP as they offer something that other magazines aren’t likely to, seeing that this one is an exclusive.

Ancillary Tasks – Poster As a part of some of the

research for my film poster, (similarly to that of my magazine cover) I looked at a number of horror posters and noted down some of the typical, reoccurring conventions.

This enabled me to see what works well with advertising films specifically and they acted as a sort of style model for these conventions.

It also enabled me to see who was named or featured/mentioned to make it more realistic and convincing.

Conventions of Horror which add Effect

The CVI used has been edited in Photoshop to change the hue and saturation of the original image to make it appear more relevant to the horror genre. I used a red tone to make the sky appear eerie and overcast, yet to give hints to the audience about the content of the film.

I used the same title as shown on the magazine cover to keep them in conjunction with one another, as well as making it more memorable to a potential target audience. This makes them more likely to recognise the title and want to see the film upon release to make sense of the title.

The credit roll at the bottom of the page is a typical convention of film posters which includes any credits that need to be paid to actors, and companies involved in the making of the film.

The date at the displayed on the poster is so that any potential audience for the film will know the release date and are more likely to want to go and watch it. This also means that they know how far in advance they are made aware of the film which means that they will be more exposed to any future marketing for it and are more likely to see it more than once. The date specifically adds to the effectiveness of the poster as the month in which it is release is October – with the Halloween holiday, and the date is the 13th, linking to the whole aspect of Friday the 13th and other pre-existing dates and films of a horror content.

The film companies named in the credit roll are displayed at the bottom of the poster through their use of logo’s. as this was a typical convention that I noticed on many others I decided to include it to add to the verisimilitude of the poster. It encourages people to want to watch the film as it appears professional and realistic, serving its purpose to advertise and therefore making it effective overall.