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

In addition to creating a film, I had to create ancillary tasks - a poster and double page spread. In order to advertise and get the main product out there, a brand must be formed and established so that the film is recognised and there must be a sense of continuity. 

The Film and The Poster
As the poster is advertising the film there must be a connection shown between the two. As people are more likely to see the film before they see the poster it must appeal to the audience and be intriguing enough for them to want to see the film. 

My film is about four media students that go missing after venturing out into the woods to film their media project hence the film being advertised as The Media Project. As it's a found footage film, the most popular film of the genre is The Blair Witch Project so I was inspired to name my film after it. 

The Blair Witch Project used a missing poster at Sundance Film Festival by giving it out to those who attended to make them believe the film was actually real. I had the idea of turning a 'missing' poster into my actual poster because the girls have disappeared in the film and their footage has been found so people are now looking for them and advertising it through the use of the poster. After researching into existing missing posters, I found that they use the colours of red, white and black which fits in well to the horror genre as they are colours that are very common on horror film posters. A very typical feature of film posters is to include images of the protagonist and I have done this as the only four characters that are fully seen in the film are the only four characters seen on the poster so the audience can easily recognise the characters when they watch the film or when they see the poster. I lifted four images that have been previously taken as this is what is usually done of missing posters and edited them to have a black and white filter as my film contains dull, muted colours so I thought to reflect this in my poster. It is also conventional of horror film posters to include The girls are the focal point of the film so I chose to only include them on the poster with no other images. As my film is meant to be as natural and realistic as possible, I think the poster works well alongside it as it says 'missing' and the style of it with images and text describing the girls looks very realistic.

As my film was shot in the dark to show a connection and brand I chose to use black as my background colour. The colour black also has negative connotations such as death and danger which are both themes that are found in my film and is also a typical feature on horror film posters. On the bottom of my poster I included the text "In December 2016, four media students disappeared in the woods near Brambleside, Kettering whilst shooting their coursework. A few months later their footage was found..." This same text appears at the start of my film so it is almost a tag line and shows there is a link between the poster and film because they are both telling the same story. The poster can be seen as an introduction to the film through this as it begins to tell the story of the girls. In order to make sure I didn't lose the effect of the poster being a film poster and not a missing poster I included film poster features such as the date, studio logos and credits.

I think there is a strong connection because the poster interlinks well with the story line because the footage of the girls has been found and the poster is helping search for them. I think the poster works effectively side by side due to the fact the film explains the story behind the poster meaning that in order for the audience to gain full understanding they must watch the film which is essentially the point of the poster.

The Film and Double Page Spread

The image I used in the double page spread was taken to be the image on my poster however after experimenting with it for the poster I decided to use it instead for my double page spread. I edited it to have a black and white filter so it would fit in with the poster as well as the film as previously mentioned it has muted colours. Many images associated with horror films tend to not include brightly coloured images and as I took this in the day it only made sense to darken the image. I chose to photograph Eva as she is the 'final girl' who is left trying to solve what happened and we never find out what happens to her at the end of the film. This shows a connection between the double page spread and film as the double page spread hints at the idea that Eva's character may be slightly more important than the others. Also the location of the image is the same as where I filmed the rest of the film so there is another connection in the location of the film. Also not all of her face is shown and I found this is a typical convention in the horror film, the image shows that she is slightly hiding behind the tree suggesting she is in fear or not wanting to be seen by something/someone. This is effective with the film because she is the last girl who hasn't been hurt showing she may be hiding from the antagonist that is never revealed.

I gave the right side of the page a black background like the poster and for similar reasons to the poster as black has negative connotations in the horror genre. I used this font for the 'The Media Project' as I thought it looked like it was almost similar to the font used in 'The Blair Witch Project' and I thought it looked like the typical kind of fonts you would see in horror films. I chose to keep the rest of the font in white to not overwhelm the reader and keep the double page spread minimal like I have with the poster as the two must work well alongside each other. As half on my double page spread is an image it left me little space to write a full review however as the image is powerful and close up like a typical horror film image, I wanted it to stand out unlike other reviews which often tend to include several images of still shots. The review is a short introduction crediting the director, outlining the story and then beginning to explain how the film was shot. I also included a quotation over the image in the colour red sticking to theme as I saw in other magazines that they had done this and it made my work look more professional.

I think my double page spread film review worked well combined with my film as there is a link between the images due to the location and character making it recognisable and unifying the brand. In addition with the poster, there is a strong house style and theme maintained. There is a story linked within them all as the film tells the story behind the poster and the review tells the audience how the film was put together.