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

The question for my evaluation was how effective is the combination of the trailer and print products, as part of my media coursework I had constructed a theatrical trailer, a DVD cover, billboard and magazine front cover. All these products use the same house style using a burgundy red and black. The reason I have used these colours throughout my print products is to ensure that my target audience will always recognise my film by the colours, the burgundy stands out on the black well, the use of black creates a dramatic feel, it gives a sense of death and mystery. The Burgundy is used to represent the colour of blood, its used in a way to suggest there will be violence and blood meaning there will be murder.

The combination of my trailer, my billboard, my magazine cover and DVD cover sells and advertises the film to its full potential as they all work alongside each other. The products are all linked by characters, with Masked Nathan featured on the magazine cover and the main characters in the poster, as well as the characters all featured in the trailer. Promotional material is often done like this as the characters are the main focus of the brand and audience members can relate to certain characters.

The background of my front cover is at the school which the film is set in; I have used this as my target audience are mainly people who attend school/uni. At the beginning of my trailer, you see the setting of the school and in the corridor of Nathan being beaten up against the lockers, this is where this picture is taken, I have done this as it's a point in Nathans life where he realised that things needed to change. This makes the film more relatable to the target audience as they are able to relate back to when they were back at school and possible when they were bullied and took action against it. The main character of the film is the masked character, Nathan. I have used him on the front cover of my magazine so people know what and who he is. Using the Masked Nathan gives the film a sense of mystery allowing people to try and work out who he is before they see the trailer to finally find out who he is. This would give people an insider of what the film is going to be like, it will tell them that a masked character is going to be in it. This is also a good combination as it will tell people that there is going to be a masked figure in the film but not why he is wearing the mask, in which you will then find out in the trailer who and why he has a mask on. Sticking to the house style is important yet also very effective, having Masked Nathan wear a black hoodie once again creates a dramatic feel which is also giving a sense of mystery and death which I stated earlier, this brings a clear link to all of my products as I have tried to make everything as dark as possible suggesting the mystery of the film.

Something else that gives a clear link between my print products and my trailer are the locations and uses of all the images. Most of the images used in my print products are seen within the trailer itself, especially the backgrounds. On the DVD Cover, I have Nathan with a weapon which he uses in the film, an axe. This gives the film a sense of action, that there's going to be fighting. during the film, we also see someone getting a knife out of a draw. We then see on the back of the DVD Cover, a knife in the Burgundy colour, Having this colour tells us that the knife is going to be used to kill one of the victims the masked character giving the film a sense of gore. This will be very effective throughout all of my print products allowing the audience to understand what may happen before they watch the trailer or film.

Another combination of all the products I used is the type of shots in my ancillary text and my trailer this because in the ancillary text in most of the products such as the billboard, DVD cover and magazine front, I used a mid-shot for masked Nathan. This is because I want the audience to become as familiar as possible with this character as he is the main and most important character in the film. This is effective combination as that it allows the audience to understand what type of characters that he could be before even watching the trailer or the film.

On the front cover of the DVD Cover, I have ‘Bullies Get Bullied’ on it, this has a good link to my trailer, this is the slogan of the film. During the beginning of the trailer, I have a voice over of Nathan speaking in which he says the slogan, this tells us how Nathan has been affected by the bullying which can then be linked back to the rest of my ancillary texts. I want people to remember the slogan,