Q2. How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Film producers often create ancillary products in order to support and promote their main product and attract a wider audience. I have created both a radio trailer and a movie poster to support my film ‘LIVE EVIL’. This is because both products carry a different style of media language; the poster communicates meaning to the audience visually while the radio trailer produces meaning using words and audio. However these differences help them support each other as well as the product by giving them each a unique way to represent the product and engage the audience, for example the tagline ‘keep your enemies away but your friends even further’, is present on both ancillary products, but the effect it’s direct appeal has on the audience differs. In the poster the tagline is placed at the top where it acts as a title to the overall visual image on the poster. Its position causes the audience to try and draw a link between the meaning of the tagline and the imagery on the poster since it reveals something about the narrative. On the other hand in the trailer the tagline is heard rather than seen, this has a bigger impact on the audience because the serious tone of voice used and the emphasis placed on the word ’friends’ makes the tagline seem like an advice that should be taken seriously, which directly links with the main cause of disequilibrium in the film.

An additional way in which both ancillary products help to support the narrative of my film is through the way they both demonstrate the importance that the DVD has to the film’s storyline as well as emphasis the darkness within it. In the poster the DVD can be clearly seen on the top left corner, this product introduces the DVD to the audience and allows them to see that a suspicious person is holding it. The trailer expands on this by revealing that this suspicious person might be the sender of this DVD “There was a knock on the doors........nothing but a DVD was found”. Both of the difference ways the DVD is referred to allow the audience to conclude that this suspicious person has some kind of connection with the DVD and this DVD will be the starting point of the unfortunate events within the film, since they both present the DVD at the beginning/top.

Within my film poster red and black are the predominate colours used. I chose these colours because the meaning they both connote are directly linked to my film’s storyline and genre. Red stands for danger and hate which is why I made the hand behind Rebecca’s back this colours, in order to represent the motive behind the murder in the film, which in this case is felt by the owner of this hand. Red blood is also used on top of two mysterious figures placed on both sides of Rebecca to symbolise the danger they offer to the main character in the film. Likewise black is used because it represents death and evil which is why I placed it in the background where the images of the  cemetery are found, this is to symbolise that death will take place within that location.

One of the most important figures in my poster is the image of Rebecca watching the film on her laptop. However since the laptop is the same colour as her clothing, it remains camouflaged which prevents the audience from knowing what she is staring at. This causes an enigma since the audience are left wondering what her gaze is focused onto and why does it cause her to wear such a shocked expression. This is further supported by the screen placed in the centre of the poster where the main antagonist and location are shown and acts as a projection of what is present in the screen of Rebecca’s laptop. This highlights the importance the footage present on the screens has to the overall storyline as well as the location.

However rather than making the Rebecca the main focal image of my poster I decided to give the spotlight to her silhouette instead which is where the previous image is placed. In the poster the silhouette of her walking figure represents Rebecca walking towards her death which will take place in the location shown on the screen placed behind it. But the main purpose of this image is that it looks like a doorway into the screen where something, the red hand, is coming from in order to drag Rebecca into the fictional world on the screen. These images help to reveal an important aspect of my film’s narrative, which is the idea of not being disconnected from the events on the screen. This allows the audience to have a feel of what the film will be about and helps to engage the audience because it explores the experience of watching films in a darker way and successfully enhances the films message..  

The sound effects used in the film trailer also helps to support the film because they all suggest that the film’s genre is horror. Furthermore some sound effects and sounds in the trailer can also be heard in my film such as the ‘breathofdeath’ sound effect that comes after the scream in the trailer and the background music heard in the beginning of the trailer, this helps to create a link between them and allowing the audience to become familiar with these sounds when they finally watch the movie.

In conclusion I believe that the ancillary products I created together with my partner are consistent with my Live Evil movie because they all share similar characteristics and meaning that allow them to support each other and engage the audience by offering them a different experience of the film. The trailer provides the most room for interpretation since no images have been given, it is only based on what the character associates with the sounds, one is visual but static which gives the audience room to imagine and interpret and another that is also visual but dynamic giving the audience everything they expected and more.