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 or animated or a combination of both. Then after completing the film we were to create a poster and a film magazine review page featuring the film.

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 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 only with the help from the tag-line “not everything is what it seems…” adding a sinister edge to the angelic looking image.Simple and realistic theme of 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 precious as the theme’s of the two films are very similar.

HOW MY POSTER FOLLOWS THE FORMS OF THE DRAMA GENRE – COMPARISON OF A SUCCESSFUL DRAMA FILM POSTER AND MINE

I decided to replicate the use of accreditation in my own

poster. Also the idea of a one character focus as I thought it

really did if done well conveyed the base idea and emotions of the advertised film. I then also decided to

include the idea that the title of film was to stand out from

the rest of the poster as it was the only text in yellow however I didn’t follow it

through as I thought that the release that was also an

important component of a film poster as it informs

passers by of the release date of the film.

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. The font also had a certain eye catching edge to it. Another reason why I chose this font is because it didn’t draw attention away from the main title which is the most important component of a film poster.

Steel Tongs: was a formatted billing font. It was simple to use once understanding the coding. It also stands out but not enough to black 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 nut 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 trials did take place however it was eventually achieved to a standard that was good enough to present. To keep with simplicity I opted to used the basic but effective colour scheme of black and blue. Blue usually triggers the brain to experience emotions 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 Century Gothic Bold a Sans Serif typeface. I chose to use the type face as Sans Serif type fonts are used within magazines and articles.

For the articles main body, the typeface was different from the rest as I wanted it to stand out but in a way that was subtle way 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

Dark black clothing portrays darkness and evil within an individual, so this choice for Mr Wicks would hopefully convey him to the readers as a dangerous and dodgy character. Also the body language of the character causes him to seems threatening and controlling specifically towards Lucy.

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.

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 instead focuses on the male character. This then could suggest to readers and viewers that both characters carry 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 on the poster seemed sad.

PROMOTION THROUGH THE INTERNET

For my poster, 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 professional. 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 DID MY POSTER AND FILM REVIEW CONTRIBUTE TO MY FILM

Posters are used by production companies as a marketing strategy to advertise their films to the masses. It does so by using imagery to summarise 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.

CONCLUSION

To conclude I think that both my ancillary task work well together as they complete each other. A 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 complete. 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.