question 2

1. How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary
tasks?
The combination of our main product and ancillary tasks are very similar
and linking these together have made these media products effective. I
believe they are very effective due to how much continuity there is as all
three media products are interlinked. For example both magazine and
poster have a similar main image. Both are still images of the main
character with make-up on to add effect. The images fill the whole page as
we went for the traditional poster and magazine design where on other
poster and magazines the still image tends to fill the whole page. As you
have seen on my other blog posts the image fills roughly 2/3rds of a page
with text included.
The poster, magazine and trailer all use similar colours as we decided we
wanted continuity. We decided to use for fairly dark colours, mostly black
as the colour black was easiest to represent the horror genre. I decided to
add the production company logo so the colours would match the text
colours which were added to the poster I created, this was done to
continuity but also to keep the work professional. Throughout the three
projects we used three other colours which happened to be red which was
used on the magazine but also on the poster and in the trailer, pale blue
which was mostly used on the poster and white throughout as it suggested
innocence however in this case we decided to juxtapose it as the main
character Joseph wasn’t innocent at all. We did decide to use a little splash
of yellow for the four star rating so it could stand out to the audience plus
it was appealing to the eye.
The colour of the text being red suggests the importance of the written text
which I believe is one of the key conventions of a horror poster/magazine.
Another thing about text and colour would be that on the magazine the
text is red as it makes it stand out whereas on the poster the main image
shows the colour red by the main character having makeup on the mouth
as well as the British Board of Film Classification rating of fifteen. This
shows the similarities between the three media products. The colour red
reflects on gore and blood which is what we aimed for due to our trailer
being a horror.

2. Both poster and magazine has four star ratings according to their quality,
we decided to use a four star rating as there could be improvements. By
the film having a rating this allows the audience to know what others think
about our trailer according to how many stars out of five there are. When
creating the poster and magazine we had to bear in mind what our rating
was going to be so I decided to research into ratings. I found out that a four
star rating for a hotel would be ‘Properties which achieve a deluxe guest
experience. A wide range of facilities and superior design qualities are
typically complemented by service standards that reflect the varied and
discerning needs of the guest.’ I decided to go for a four star rating as our
trailer gives the deluxe experience with a wide range of shots and scenes
to lure the audience. We included sound effects and makeup to entice the
viewers and when we were preparing for question three with the focus
group the audience asked to watch it for a second time which left me
thrilled as they enjoyed it and particularly enjoyed the jump scare at the
end.
I also included the cast to all three media products so the audience knew
who was involved, in the trailer the cast were added into the credits at the
end whereas on the magazine and poster they were towards the bottom of
the page. The cast is important as it’s alluring for the audience as the
audience always checks a trailer to see what it’s about but also who’s
involved. Also casting at the end of a trailer or at the bottom of a poster or
included in a magazine gives the cast credit for their work.
Another main element that we used in all three tasks were font, I chose a
unique but specific font I wanted for the text. I chose to use Trajan Pro as it
looked creepy but yet professional. I also chose this font as the text meant
that the letters were all individual, not connected. This font was used
throughout for continuity but also consistency, I believe this font was
chosen well as it looked professional and the viewers complimented how
they noticed the consistency throughout the trailer and ancillary tasks. I do
believe we could have used other fonts which we did on the magazine but I
preferred consistency within the trailer and magazine, however the font
was also included within the magazine for the film masthead and tagline.
Furthermore about the tagline, we used the same tagline throughout, we
decided to go for ‘The secret is out” as it fitted with the purpose of the
trailer. The tagline was made clear on all three tasks, the tagline however
was blue on the poster as the posters theme was mostly blue and black
whereas on the magazine the tagline was in red so it could stand out from
the rest of the text.

3. We decided to add the release dates for both trailer and magazine even
though they were different months for example on the magazine it says
“Dec’ 15” and on the poster it says November 2015. The magazine month
was more of a release date for the magazine rather than when the trailer
was released. We decided to choose “November 2015” as the trailer was
still in progression however it makes the trailer more interesting as it’s
still a mystery when it was going to be released.