1. EVALUATION 2
How effective is the combination of
your ancillary production tasks with
the main production?

2. How do the ancillary tasks connect to
the short film?
• We decided to take photos for the double-page spread/poster tasks that we were
asked to do. We chose to take new photos, rather than using a still from the film
because we wanted professional looking forms of advertisement.
• In the photos, we decided to focus on the main male character, (Ryan), as the film
is focused on him, and then have the two other female characters either standing
behind him or standing diagonally behind him. This shows the battle between the
good and evil characters and connects to the film in this way, particularly because
the storyline, in relation to Propp, has a villain (Megan), the ‘evil’ character, and a
heroine, (Beth), the ‘good’ character. Ryan could be described as being the ‘damsel
in distress’, untraditionally, however he is the character in need of help, or saving.
• We took several photos including the director with the female actors for those of
us that decided to do a double-page spread as part of the ancillary tasks. We
thought that by having different options of photos, it would give a variety of
stories/articles for us to choose from, so each one would be different. This is useful
because we could focus on the characters, or the actors in real-life, and this would
give our target audience more background information on each of the characters,
as a large number of audiences go and see a particular film because of the actor
that is in it, and the article would talk about the film and cause many more people
to the cinema to see it, or to buy/rent it on DVD.

3. Examples of Ancillary Tasks

4. ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES
When advertising and promoting our short
film there were a number of approaches
we could take in order to attract the best
audience:
POSTER
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
RADIO TRAILER

5. FILM POSTERS
These are a crucial part of advertising a new and upcoming film
and are found in a variety of sources. For example in magazines,
on the sides of buses and billboards around communities. They
are especially important because the platforms that they are
advertised on are what the public generally tend to see in their
everyday lives without necessarily meaning to . It attracts
attention unknowingly.

6. FILM POSTERS
Film posters are useful because they contain a lot of information
that gives the audience a brief insight to what is to come from
the film. It includes factors such as; photo’s for main images and
sub images, slogan, bold title, actors and actresses names,
director name and film production company as well as a quote
from recognised sources. These are all relevant when promoting
a poster as it these that first grabs the audiences attention.
E.G. Clear bold title in a colour that
stands out from the background
colour
Main image
central of the
page. Clear
illustration of
the
characters
involved
Recognised publicist with a good report.
Catchysloganwithasubtlehint
Actors names stand out
Clear mention of
director Certificate ratingFilm production company

7. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
Double page spreads are useful because it gives the audience an insight to the film
and those who were involved in the making of it. It creates an opportunity to get a feel
of what the actors were thinking and feeling throughout the shooting process and
what it was like during the time they spent on creating the film. As well as giving us
background on the film it also gives readers some background on them: what inspired
them, do they plan on being in future films etc. They tend to use images of the actors
or perhaps even the director and possibly put in stills from the film to give a sneak
peak preview. Double page spreads can often be seen as special and often have an
exclusive report in one magazine before they branch out into further interviews.
Double page spreads can also help determine which target audience is best suited for
the film and we feel we took all of these factors into consideration in order to produce
a double page spread of a professional quality and realness.

8. OUR DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD’S

9. How does a radio trailer advertise our
short film?
- The radio trailer usually includes action from the film and Is part of the film
- It has to be effective because you cannot see the acting you can only hear lines
from the film, it only appeals to one sense therefore you have to think carefully
about which parts of the film to include, usually orientated around action
scenes
- Radio trailers are often short which makes them memorable
- Radios have a wide audience, varying from young to old, this means it will hit a
lot of target groups
- Radio trailers are often found on the radio, online, social networking and its
often the action/dialogue included in a video trailer

10. Which of the medias used for your
ancillary tasks was the most effective?
It was difficult for us to simply choose one of the media platforms which we
used to create our ancillary tasks. Therefore we decided that all 3 of these
medias worked successfully together. Big film companies often use a poster,
double page spread and radio trailer to advertise their film to all people of all
age ranges. As a group we decided to also create a mixture for our ancillary
tasks as this would help to promote our film successfully. However, when
looking at our ancillary tasks a poster is the most common and often is the
most popular advertising technique which is used. We used Photoshop to
make our posters eye catching and appealing to our target audience. Posters
may be the most popular media because they are easily accessible. Unlike
radio trailers or double page spreads, they are easy to look at and simply tell
what the background of the film is. Posters are also found in a number of
places for example: billboards, magazines and bus stops. This means people
often see them and read them without noticing. The aim of posters are to
draw the audience in and we hope that each of our posters does this.

11. How did you know what the typical
conventions were for your ancillary tasks?
All 3 our our ancillary tasks include very different typical conventions. For our
double page spread we looked into magazines like Empire. This helped us to spot
typical conventions for the double page spreads which we wanted to create. We
soon realised that the typical conventions were an article on the film, a photo of
the actors and actress’ involved and also a pull quote. By using these features we
hoped to attract our target audience. When looking into conventions of a poster
we went online to check out recent film posters. By doing this we noticed a house
style was necessary for our posters. It also came apparent that a the poster must
contain a photo which gives some background, as well as a bold title and slogan. It
was important that each of our posters included all of these features as if not it
would not appear as a typical film poster. When looking into the typical
conventions for a radio trailer these were less easy to find. However by listening
to current radio trailers we began to realise that to create a successful radio trailer
we would need to include conventions like a rating, the title and background of
the film. We tried to use typical conventions in all of our ancillary task to make
them as successful as possible.

12. Amy’s House Style
It was very important for me to have a house style for both my poster and
double page spread. I tried to make the house style the same for both of my
ancillary tasks. I used primary colours like red, black and white to make the
poster look simple and let the picture of the characters stand out. I edited the
photo to make them appear brighter and allow the title “Note to Self” to
stand out. Using a slogan in both ancillary tasks was also an important feature
as it gave an insight into my film to the audience. I tried to make my house
style match to the audience we had aimed our film at which was 15-24. On
my double page spread I put twitter opinion into a small post it note. I did this
as I believed it would appeal to my target audience as these are the people
which express their opinions over twitter. On my poster I used a rating from
the Independent as well as a professional looking 15 rating. This not only gave
a rating of my film and showed the age range it appealed to but it also gave
my poster a professional feel which was necessary. House style was very
important as I wanted both my double page spread and poster to link to each
other.

13. Sophie’s House Style
•The house style for my ‘Note to self’ film poster has specifically got a simple, yet
effective theme, the main feature being a photograph of the three main characters of
the short, edited so that Matthew (Ryan the main character is the only clear feature in
the photograph, and either side of him Rachel (Megan) and Chloe (Beth) are distorted,
to represent the unclear nature of Ryan’s amnesia.
•For the main title on the poster, I have used a post it note, this being a significant
object in the film, we used the post it notes to show a build up of time as the passing
of time was also a point we had to include in our short film.
•The font I have used on my film poster is called ‘chalkduster’ and reflects
handwriting, which links in with the events in the film.
•The slogan I have included on my poster reads ‘have you forgotten something’ and
was firstly a possible name for the short film, however as we chose to name it ‘note to
self’ I have included this slogan because I think it is a good reflection on the storyline
of the film as well as being a rhetorical question to the audience, which creates
interest in the film.

14. Chloe’s House Style
I thought it was important to get the house style right for my film poster as I believe this is the
strongest form of advertisement for short films. I stuck to basic colours in order to maintain a
mysterious vibe and enigma which the narrative upholds throughout the actual film; this way I feel it
also looks tidy and professional. I think the contemporary style of the poster is most appropriate in
terms of the target audience we are aiming for (aged 15-24). The storyline includes the loss of memory
of the main male character Ryan who is central to my main image. I wanted the other two characters in
the background to be in black and white because I felt this illustrated his loss of memory. Furthermore,
the red text in uppercase font makes it stand out above the rest of the text and as there is a deep red
on the male characters clothing I felt this linked together nicely. And the ombre effect of the
background signifies the light and shade of his memory, how in time his thoughts progress and he
regains what actually happened. In addition to this I placed my main image within a Polaroid, simply to
link in with the post it note effect that is consistent throughout the film. I made sure I included all the
main features of a film poster such as catchy slogans film release date. As well as this I included a film
production company and certificate rating logo and quote from a well established newspaper as these
tend to be found on all professional poster productions.
When it came to producing my double page spread I also wanted to maintain a neutral colour scheme
so used a pale blue and grey. I used some of the photos we captured during the shoot for our film
poster as well as a still from the film. I gave an insight to the actors thoughts and feelings of the film
and used anchor text of a quote from the interview.

15. Rachel’s House Style
• The ancillary tasks and the short film we produced all work together as a
consistently used the primary colour yellow in both my ancillary tasks
(poster/double-page spread) for the writing and for the post-it note which
is featured on my poster. Which is a bright colour which is easily seen,
especially against the darker colours of the photographs which I edited on
the poster to contrasts with the writing, and makes a specific focus on the
tagline ‘Have you forgotten something?’. This links with the title of the
short film which is called ‘Note to Self’ and the post-it notes are
specifically used to remember things in our film. I have also used this
tagline on both the poster and the double-page spread.
• I used a five-star rating from The Independent which made my poster look
more professional because a lot of successful films are rated by that
newspaper. I also used a professional film classification logo to show the
audience what age rating my film was (15), as our target audience was
from the 15-24 market, with the use of young actors. I also used a
professional production logo (Columbia Pictures) which is a subsidiary of
the media conglomerate, Sony.