Question 2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

By Amani Choudhury

Meeting our briefWhat we as a group aimed to do was to portray the message of how important mental illness is in the youth. This was because we felt that in

the media it was over-looked and when discussed in real media texts, they did not apply to all types of people (our factor was age).

We achieved this by having a teenage protagonist who faced this problem in both her home and school life. This would allow our audience to identify

with the character as they would too be of this age category.

Theme of ‘emotions’ The trailer and film poster illustrate the emotions of the protagonist as it is a central theme in the

film.

The combination of different emotions in each image indicates the progression the main character will face in the film due to her mental illness. The colourful gradient effect for the poster background gives insight to the progression of the character's emotional state as colours are used as a connotations of what type of mood a person is feeling. I felt that with the poster our character’s personality is portrayed very well because even by the poster being on its own (not in conjunction with the promotional package) displays successfully what the film is about.

This is an example of stop motion used in our trailer to portray the protagonist’s mixed emotions that she encounters. This is used to portray her mental illness as she is not aware of her symptoms. By looking at herself in a mirror and having these varieties of emotions the audience are aware that there is something wrong.

I thought that the combination of these two products representing the theme of emotions worked very well together as they illustrate the diverse range of emotions the protagonist feels and the plot.

Independent institutionWe chose to make all three products independent because of our visual style, originality and

plot. We made the institution clear in all three by the presentation.

On the film poster we showed direct links to our independent institution. This was to tie the associations made in our trailer of a independent production company and distribution. The logos that our group member made featured at the beginning of the trailer and the bottom of the poster.

Independent awards were also used. We chose ‘Sundance’ and had our actress’s credit named ‘Sundance Award Winner’ and also placed a award logo on the top of the poster alongside a director’s awards.

We also had a review from our independent magazine that we made at the top of our poster which helped linking our whole promotional package together.

I thought the portrayal of being an independent institution was done successfully as we made associations to all three products and its independent nature. The niche aspect of our film will also attract a specific type of audience .

Film Poster Trailer

We chose to add a website at the end of our trailer as being a independent film, we will have to approach our fans using the internet unlike mainstream films who have access to other facilities.

TypographyWe chose to use the same font for our title in all three products.

By using the same font it will allow a visual remembrance for our audience about the film and its name. We established this by all three products in our promotional package and to be successfully noticed by our audience.

I thought the idea of using the same font was at first limiting but then realised the strengths of using the same font as it allowed a link between all three products which effectively shows that this is a promotional package.

Our protagonistThe representation of our protagonist in all three products is evident as she is the USP.

We made our main character the USP in all three products. This was because the plot is centred around her and how she deals with the subject of mental illness. In specific, mise en scene was important in the portrayal of our character and her remembrance to the audience. We chose to use both the green jacket and hoodie in the poster and magazine. This was to make links to the character and her attire in the film. The colour green also helped us when creating the colour scheme for the film poster and magazine. Another distinctive feature about our character is her hair which we decided to keep out for most parts in the trailer, poster and magazine for the reminder of her character.

I think that by the use of mise en scene, our character has been used effectively in combination of all three products as the audience are aware that the film is revolved around her.

Overall assumptionI think that by the main product and the ancillary texts we have achieved in

establishing the message we aimed to portray. We wanted an emotional reaction from our audience on the topic of mental illness so that its

awareness grows. The links to all the products shows the engagement between them all and illustrates that this is a promotional package which

was our Advanced Portfolio brief.