Robert Henderson

QUESTION 2- HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF

YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND

ANCILLARY TEXTS? 

The main video production I made with my production team this year was an action teaser trailer. Alongside this I also created a magazine front cover and a theatrical poster to promote this film. Because of this, I intended to maintain a similar style in between these different media products to make sure that they’re recognisable if you’ve seen one of the other products before. Media companies who wish to successfully promote their film tried to make all products surrounding it recognisable and attachable to the main media product to make them more inclined to buy it. Techniques and things I considered while making all three of these media texts include: trying to keep a consistent style; have it so all products suggest the action genre; the mise-en-scene are similar and have it so each one promotes each other.

INTRODUCTION

One o f the ways I ensured that these media products in combinat ion was successfu l was through mainta in ing a s imi lar s ty le f rom one to the other. I based the house sty le for both o f my anc i l la ry tasks on the genera l co lour grad ing seen in the teaser t ra i ler. The teaser t ra i ler i s qu i te dark w i th lo ts o f cont rasts , w i th co lours such as greys and b lues featured. I t r ied to mainta in th is dark house sty le in the mov ie poster by hav ing the background as smoke, which can a lso been seen in the final t i t le card of the teaser t ra i ler , as th is background has a lso got smoke. However , I d id not inc lude a s imi lar look ing type o f font w i th in the poster when compared to the main product ion wh ich was a mistake f rom my part , so i f I was to improve upon th is poster , I would change the font so i t ’ s more in s ty le w i th th is End Process logo. However , we d id inc lude a bo ld font wi th in our v ideo, which is in the ‘coming soon’ t i t le card, wh ich somewhat just ifies th i s font , but I be l ieve that the font in the poster i s u l t imate ly not s imi lar enough wh ich means that I was not too effect ive on mainta in ing a cons is tent s ty le in the poster, but I d id capture the essence o f the s ty le wi th the co lour scheme and background.For the magazine f ront cover , I d id dev iate more f rom the sty le o f the fi lm, as magazines are independent o f the fi lm, so they are instead t ry ing to promote the magazine, ra ther than the fi lm. Because o f th is , I d id inc lude a bo ld red to make i t s tand out more, but I be l ieve that even w i th th is bo ld cho ice , the essence o f the co lour scheme of the teaser t ra i ler i s s t i l l captured in the bass co lours , wh ich is navy b lue, b lack and whi te . Th is shade o f b lue is seen on th ings such as the car w i th in our fi lm, and the b lack and whi te reflect the harsh contrast o f co lour ing and low-key l ight ing we dec ided to use in our media product ion. There cou ld have been a bet ter shade o f red wh ich would o f su i ted the sty le o f the v ideo better , but I be l ieve that a more bo ld co lour worked more effect ive ly. Add i t iona l ly , the red is a lso seen w i th in the fi lm poster , so these two are l inked too. I a lso captured the or ig ina l font used in the v ideo too wi th in the magazine cover, as they’ re both more Ser i f s ty le fonts . Because of these reasons, I be l ieve that my magazine cover t ies in wel l w i th the other two media texts , but a couple tweaks cou ld have been made to the co lour ing to real ly confirm the l ink between them a l l .

CONSISTENT STYLE

As I c reated an act ion teaser t ra i le r fo r my v ideo product ion th i s year , I t r ied to embel l i sh the look o f an act ion fi lm w i th in a l l o f my products . I dec ided th is was necessary in success fu l ly p romot ing a fi lm as i t meant the aud ience would know what exact ly the genre o f the fi lm i s w i thout hav ing any prev ious knowledge o f i t . I n the poster , I made the convent ions o f the act ion genre qu i te apparent to make i t more convent iona l and so they can l inked together eas ier. Fi r s t ly the use o f red in my co lour scheme sugges ts mys tery and v io lence, wh ich are common e lements o f the act ion genre . The use o f my font too i s qu i te a bo ld in your face font , wh ich i s seen in o ther act ion movie t ra i le r pos ters to make the poster s tand out more . The use o f hav ing on ly an image o f the main character and an overa l l min imal des ign t ies in we l l w i th suggest ing the act ion genre , as th i s i s very common w i th in o ther more pro fess iona l pos ters such as the James Bond ones . Fina l l y , I a l so inc lude a gun, wh ich i s common prop w i th in the act ion genre . Overa l l I be l ieve that my pos ter t ies in very wel l w i th my teaser t ra i le r as they’ re bo th c lear ly apar t o f the act ion genre . For the magaz ine cover , I d idn ’ t have as many genre l inks to the main p roduct , wh ich i s a la rge downfa l l on my par t fo r th i s p roduct . However , i t does s t i l l i nc lude a somewhat min imal des ign which works wel l in por t ray ing the act ion genre . The main anchorage i s a l so featured in the dead centre , look ing emot ion less and wear ing a su i t . These hardened at t r ibutes are common themes in main p rotagon is t in act ion fi lms , mean ing tha t these l ink . Add i t iona l ly , the red, jus t l i ke in the fi lm poster , sugges ts the act ion genre . However , not much e lse par t i cu lar ly t ies i n w i th the act ion genre as much . The thumbnai l s a t the bot tom or any other magaz ine cover features ( text and puff/pug) don’ t rea l ly sugges t the act ion genre, but i t cou ld be argued that th i s magaz ine producers don’ t have to complete ly l ink back to the genre o f the main anchorage as they’ re a l so p romot ing the o ther fi lms that are featured in the magaz ine . Overa l l , I be l ieve that I was qu i te effect ive in sugges t ing the genre in the magaz ine cover , but I m ight have been ab le to inc lude some ext ra deta i l in every aspect o f the magaz ine so everyth ing therefore t ies w i th the act i on genre .

SUGGEST GENRE

I intended to use similar mise-en-scene in all of my media texts to make sure that they’re al l recognisable as similar products from first glance. In both of the anci l lary tasks, I included the main protagonist wearing his suit, which is what he’s seen wearing throughout the teaser trai ler. Because he’s wearing the same costume in al l products, the character is instantly recognisable. I bel ieve that using the same costume in al l the products worked very well in making them al l work together effectively.Another things from the mise-en-scene which I included were both in the movie poster. The smoke background, as mentioned earl ier, appears in the end process t it le card at the end of the teaser trailer, which is s imilar mise-en-scene in terms of setting. The other one included was the use of a gun as a prop. As this was also featured in the film, people wil l be able to draw a connection between the two tying the connection between the video and the poster in further. In hindsight, I could of included more mise-en-scene features in my magazine cover too, such as the gun, as this would make my use of mise-en-scene in al l three real ly strong, but I bel ieve that the use of the main anchorage costumes make them al l connect enough anyway, it just would help i f more mise-en-scene was included.

MISE-EN-SCENE

In turn with making all the products work with each other, I also tried to make them all promote the main product and create interest for it. One of the ways I did this was through the use of a mysterious and interesting main character. All of the products present our main protagonist as quite emotionless, which would create interest within the audience as they would want to know what happens in the main theatrical narrative. I therefore included him as the main anchorage in both of my ancil lary tasks and have him the focus in the teaser trailer.Unfortunately, in terms of my cross promotion featured within my three media texts, I included very l itt le except for the same name and character. I could of included things such as social media URL’s in all 3 or at least 2 of my tasks so people wil l know where to go to find information about End Process. Including a slogan would of helped create interest too but I foolishly missed both of these out. If I had to improve upon these three media texts I would make these connections stronger so the promotion for the main product is more successful.

PROMOTION/CREATING INTEREST

Overall I believe that I mostly made sure that all my tasks work together and that they’re recognisable to be in the same style and promoting the same product. However, there could have been more done to ensure this. Within my target audience research, no one brought up issue with this issue when asked about if they work with the main production as a whole, therefore concluding that there are no glaring issues with it.Upon further evaluation from myself however, there are issues that I could of noticed which could of not only made them work together, but also more conventional to their respective mediums. If I were to do this again I would make sure that the links are a lot more stronger between the three, rather than approaching it as three completely separate products. I still do believe that if was still mostly successful in my execution and that they do overall work together.

CONCLUSION