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

The purpose of us creating our short film was to put the audience in a state of subjectivity. To establish itself as being an intimate psychological thriller that has an emotional and visceral response on the spectator. We did this in a way that incorporates all the typical conventions of the genre while also subverting in a fashion that takes the audience off-guard. To further reflect these messages and values, we also incorporated them in the marketing products of our film. Individually, we each constructed a poster design and viral marketing idea and as a group we recorded and edited a radio trailer.

I created a poster that featured a portrait photograph of our main protagonist on the bike that is incorporated into the film. Although my design did illustrate the films themes and ideas too, we instead chose as a group to use Kurt’s design as the group poster because it seemed the most professional due to the added reviews and it was landscape rather than portrait. The poster contains a motorcycle helmet centred in the frame with gloves crossing over it. The symbolic robin found at the end of the film can also be seen in the reflection of the helmets visor on the poster. The helmet and gloves are part of Edward’s character in the film that conform to the biker-type persona that we were trying to imply. The prominent monochrome colour scheme with hints of the colour red further reiterates the films darker tones that match the thriller genre. It took inspirations from the design of many other film posters such as The Dark Knight and Skyfall. 

Our group poster

 Our group poster in possible locations

The poster features the film’s title, productions company logo’s (as well as our own), credits and links to the films social media. It was important to add thee features because not only does it give our film an identity but also gives the audience an opportunity to interact with it. Social media links are important because it is a part of viral marketing- it gives a large online demographic the opportunity to learn about the film and/or share it with other people. We even photo shopped our poster design onto real photographs of possible locations where the film could be advertised. We asjked peers what they thought of the poster and these location photo's and they all agreed that it looks professional and appealing to the eye.

Similarly, with our radio trailer, we fashioned it in a way that would conform to the films tone and genre. The radio trailer uses non-diegetic music we already used in the film, motorbike sounds and a voice-over. It was important to have a voice-over in our radio trailer so that people could gain the key information needed for them to be interested in the film (e.g. the title, film reviews, awards, cast etc.). I did the voice-over for our film and did so in a dramatic and stereotypical radio-voice which is designed to hook and entertain the audience. We chose to not include many details on the narrative of the film so that the audience can decipher the enigmatic codes created when they watch the film. Instead, we merely hinted at the idea of their being a motorcycle present by adding sound effects and giving the impression that audiences mustn’t miss it by pointing out the films high ratings.

Overall, I feel our group’s combination of our film with our two forms of marketing were successful because it resembles real film advertising products, illustrates the films genre and tone, gave our audience the key information on the film’s release and cast and was made available for wide-spread audiences who utilise different forms of technology (e.g. radio) as well as out in the real world with the poster being accessible to anyone.