Evaluation Question 2

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

The Distributor has a very important job in the role of getting a particular movie to its specified target audience and gaining it popularity to ensure its success. They will use such tools as advertisements on television and cinema, public billboards and posters, and online through its own promotional website or through advertisements on other websites.
It is also the Distributors job to come up with a detailed analysis of the target audience which will include the distributor researching the target audience's age, gender, use of internet and social networking sites, media consumption and overall lifestyles. This will then give distributors a better idea of what they need to do in order to reach their target audiences during the process of advertising and promoting the film. Audience profiling must also be carried out for the same reason by the distributor, and this adds to the information collected about the target audience.
It has to be kept in mind that audience's tastes can change dramatically, and sometimes audiences can get bored of the same genres being released too many times over the year or the same storylines being processed over and over again in different sub-genres and genres. Sometimes audiences crave change and this has to be remembered when producing a film which must be successful in order to earn the money to survive in the film industry.

The Distributor also has the job of generating favourable publicity for its movies in order to increase their movies' popularity and ensure its success, and they do so by getting the movies on the front of magazines and creating television and internet advertisements at peak times of use so more audiences can see it. They will do this by buying advertising time on such media, in good knowledge that the advert they are going to show is appropriate and doing its job in terms of conventions and making the film appealable.
My media group took on the role of the distributor for are film and had to think in the similar mind-frame we took into account all of these points when advertising and promoting our movie 'Surprise', especially in regards to our individually processed ancillary tasks.
The film's advertising poster had rules in terms of conventions which I had to try and follow in order for it to be successful. Any poster that advertises a film contains a list of conventional standards one must follow when creating the same. The poster must

• Contain the title of the movie itself.
• Be bold and stand out in terms of displaying horror conventions.
• Propose something different for the viewers from other movies released at this time.
• Contain images from the movie or related to the movie to give viewers a 'sneak peak' at the proposed storyline or to back up titles/tag lines.
• Have a tag-line which relates to the movie in a way which will entice audiences to view the film.
• Credits to the people who have helped make the movie and whatever role they fulfilled.
• A clue as to which genre the movie is e.g. lighting, images, shot preference etc.
• A date or a clue as to when the movie is being released

This is one of many examples of a conventional horror poster.I have included this on my blog as I used an array of examples such as this one to base my very own advertising poster on.

Comparing my poster to the professionally-produced one above, there are many similarities in the conventional horror themes and the layout.
My poster included much from the list stated above. I have contained;

• The release timing; 'released 15th may' is situated at the bottom of the page which is a device used to keep the audience reminded of the film and wanting to know more about it.
• Credits to everyone involved in the production contained within the billing block.
• The main title of the film bold and visually accessible on the poster, (there is nothing in its way so it draws attention and it stands out against the background.)
• A tag-line relating to the movie's title and story line.
• A manipulated image of a prop hinting at some part of the storyline,
• Clues such as the blacked out edges around my poster suggests that it’s a horror poster as it connotes a creepy environment.

The magazine cover was also deeply influenced by previous magazine cover specials dedicated to horror movies. I knew that from previous viewing experience with magazines, conventionally I had to;

• Use bold colourings and lettering to catch the reader’s attention.
• An image which would be easily recognisable from the movie and one which would fit the genre of the proposed magazine I was using to promote my movie.
• The actor's name to produce hype and excitement in regards to the movie - some may recognise them if the actors are famous, or others may assume they are very talented new actors which is why they are so heavily focused on.
• A colour theme appropriate and recognisable to the magazine used.

This was one of many magazine covers I used as a guideline of what to include and I found that this particular example contained how I wanted the layout. Also, "total film” has a more highbrow reputation than other film magazines. Total film also currently features a full cast and crew credit list for each reviewed film. I believe that containing 'Surprise' in this magazine would also show the movie in its most positive light, as the market at the moment is showing a decline for the over-used 'pop-horror' themes and sub-genres used in the storylines, and if our film is being openly promoted by a more "high brow" magazine it will instantly make viewers aware that it is perhaps offering a different type of movie.

Looking at both the professional version of Total film magazine and my individually produced one it is very easy to see where I was heavily influenced. Once again I contained as much as possible from the list above, which included;

• Bold, red colouring and dark, blood-red shading in the background in order to show the genre and the theme of that particular issue of the magazine.
• An image from the film itself which is easily recognisable and shows the horror genre.
• Text at the side of the main article of the magazine which contains information on all of the other horror-movie related articles and features within the 'horror special' article showing that this particular issue is rich in contextual information about horror movies, which in turn will make many more attracted to reading the copy.
• The text including the main actors name creating hype and excitement about the actor used in the main image and the movie itself.
• Getting a particular movie to the front of any film magazine is a good example of successful publicity, and those who notice this will instantly think the movie is set to be a hit.

Also, using this as the front cover and having most of the attention focused on ‘Surprise’ suggests that the movie is going to be a big hit and a popular choice for movie fans, thus creating more hype and publicity for the film.

All three of my products, (the teaser trailer, the poster and the magazine cover), contain reoccurring characters, themes and images which I believe help the film become identifiable and easily recognisable as an up-and-coming movie. This creates a strong foundational ground for promotion and marketing and works as an effective combination of products that work to advertise the film at a successful standard. As a group and as an individual I have tried to make the trailer and the poster promoting ‘Surprise’ work coherently together to create a unified advertising message for our film, which I fulfilled by using as many conventions as I possibly could in regards to colour and shot angles. Also I tried to do so horror-conventionally with the inter titles and screen credits to make the actors and producers/directors seem more popular to create hype. I felt that this made my advertising message easily readable and identifiable within all target audiences and easily recognisable to others whom perhaps do not fall into the target market category, for example those who are not fans of horror and who do not enjoy watching horror genres would still be able to spread the word through recognition of the advertisements around the media and recommendation of what they have seen and heard to people they may think would enjoy it. This then creates a cycle of advertising; people see the advertisements, people pass the advertising on through word of mouth, the people in question then go to view the film and the reviews are once again passed on through word of mouth, creating even more viewers and in turn earning the movie more money. Given that the movie is successful the reviews are hopefully positive, which will again be picked up by the media and used as another subconscious tool of advertisement. With all this in mind, the initial advertisement had to be successful and follow successful horror conventions, and I believe using these themes and conventions at a professional level would ensure its success.