Evaluation - How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

Keeping a sense of continuity of media products is a key element to help promote any campaign, therefore audiences will recognise the same film that is being promoted within the media. Having a strong campaign pushes the film marketing to attract a wider audience to wanting to see the film. The whole point of having a good campaign is essential because producers want to get as many viewers to see their films.  Therefore they want to try and make images or clips stick into the audience minds for this reason.

The tagline that I used consistently though out my campaign was "They're Coming For You, Run While You Can", This is perfect for my film as it helps to show that my film is a thriller and follows conventions of other thriller films, also my tagline is catchy which will help promote my film as the audience will remember my tagline and this will help back the film up. My tagline gives a cue into the story line of the trailer. My tagline comes separately and they appear towards the middle of my trailer, the way my tagline appears in my trailer is "They're Coming For You" then a few shots then "Run While You Can" which creates tension and excitement to the audience. To help promote my film I also included the tagline on my poster which helps keep the continuity across all the media used for the film. The tagline does not appear on my Magazine front cover, however if a tagline was to appear, it would probably be different to the one in my trailer and poster.

I researched different thriller films and I looked at there taglines to find out if there any similar words use and to find out if there were any consistency between them.

Tagline Research

I also made a list of potential taglines which I made a focus group to get feedback from them on what they thought would be best for my tagline.

Potential Taglines

My dominant image on my poster and magazine both give off the same emotion and effect however they are completely different because on my poster I chose to use a silhouette of the killer and in my magazine front cover I used a clear image of the killer looking towards the camera looking serious and evil. Magazines often use pictures of the main stars or other stars if the magazine is a big budgeted film, if the film magazine is a low budget film they usually use an image of the director. I used an image of my killer who is one of my main characters and is central to my campaign.

Magazine Picture

Poster Picture

I took several pictures for both my poster and my magazine front cover so that I had an option to chose from I got my actor do try different actions or poses which I thought would be appropriate for a thriller.

Potential Poster Pictures
Potential Magazine Pictures

My Billing was the on my poster and teaser trailer, although the font use was 'Steel Tongs'. With this came my production company logo's - which were put with my billings as on other billing/credits for films that I researched. Again showing the abidance that they belong to the same film.

Billing/credits are conventions that are appear on all forms of media products, they appear on the majority of advertising campaigns, and helps to show who is involve in making the film. The only difference in my billing was in my trailer in which they where separated into two separate shots where as in the poster it was full at the bottom.

I did research on billing for posters and teaser trailers to find out the difference between them which I have showed the difference between them.

Difference Between Poster and Teaser Trailer Billing

I also did research on poster billing to find out what I needed to include in my own billing so I analysed three different poster billings again to find the similarities that they all consist.

Prisoners Billing
The American Billing
Unknown Billing

Billing Conventions

However, I did not include in my billing on my magazine front cover, instead using other conventions which I took time in researching, for example the use of cover lines, manner and the masthead is the biggest font on the page.

My production companies only appear on my poster and trailer, not on my magazine front cover, following the conventions of each.

I did research on cover lines which Helped me make my magazine front cover.

Potential Cover Lines

Release dates is not included in my campaign because the teaser trailer comes out much earlier then the poster does. This could be months or even years in advance. Therefore I simply state the season of release "Summer 2014" which i found was very common in teaser trailers because the teaser trailer comes way before the film comes out and they are used to tease the audience into wanting them to see the film and another form of advertising for the film. The poster is released towards the release of the cinema screening and helps re-enforce the film and its release. Making audiences aware of the film yet again, and prepare to go to the cinema to view it - after making them excited by seeing the teaser trailer, poster and magazine front cover.

Having done lengthy research on trailers I found out that in teaser trailers they are very vague, so I decided to make it vague as well. This is my release date what appears at the end of my trailer.

There are lots of obvious similarities in this campaign, the production companies are the same throughout the media formats. Keeping the fonts of my poster and teaser trailer the same and the billing is very similar instead of the 'steel tongs'. This is so that they all combine to my main product and advertise in the same manor.

Evaluation - Fonts

In my entire campaign I focused mainly on making sure that every single element was consistent and followed the same trend and made sure that they were authentic. For example I used the same fonts for my poster and teaser trailer making sure that the promotion of my film would reflect in all forms of promotion, and audience will engage in this. Audiences will engage with films better if the campaign is simple. When researching fonts I had to make sure that the font would help demonstrate the thriller genre but more importantly to show the audience that the film is a conspiracy. The font I have chosen is called "Telegraphem" and was used on the title, tagline, release dates for both my poster and teaser trailer.

I looked at several websites to find my fonts for my poster and or my magazine front cover as I needed to find a font that would be appropriate for a thriller.

I looked at different font sites such as:

Fonts websites

As I was looking at these websites I came across different potential fonts that I could have used for my poster, and I put them on photoshop to help me with my research and planning

Font Research

This meant that when each element of my campaign is watched and analysed through the poster, magazine and teaser trailer they can easily recognise the same film. However for my magazine front cover I used a different font and different colour scheme. My magazine was a big budgeted film magazine like Empire, because magazines have there own style depending on their target audience and what kind of magazine they are, which I am aiming for a wider audience. My dominant central image is completely different because for my poster I decided to use my killer but there would be a silhouette which would give the audience a sense of mystery.

Evaluation - Conventions Of Real Media Products (Magazines)

My last part of my A2 media coursework was to produce a front cover for a magazine. The Point of the magazine to create an excitement and help promote the film, I looked at several different magazines from low budgets British films to a big budgeted film magazine like "Empire".

Existing Film Publications

In order to create my magazine front cover I needed to acknowledge all the conventions that film magazines include. I thought it would be a good idea for me to analyse different magazine front covers and find the conventions that they include and find the consistency of these conventions. I chose to analyse "Empire", "Total Film", "Sight & Sound", "American Cinematographer" and "Film Maker"

Empire

Total Film

Sight & Sound

American Cinematographer

Film Maker

Having analysed these magazine I wrote a list of all the convention that kept appearing in all these magazines. Doing this really helped me when it came to making my magazine front cover. 

Conventions Of Film Magazines

Some of the key things that I found out when analysing these magazines:

• Masthead was the biggest font on page 
• Image of star dominates frame 
• Cover lines referencing other films 
• Barcode        

Having done load of research I have found that they include several conventions that I included on my magazine front cover

I found out that the mast head is always the biggest font on the page so I made sure that I did the same so my magazine look authentic.

Mast Head

Cover Lines

Banners

Barcode

Name of Film

Here is my final magazine front cover

Evaluation - Conventions Of Real Media Products (Poster)

Also for my A2 media project I had to produce a poster for my film. To do this I looked at different posters from a variety of genres which helped me understand and get a sense of all the conventions. For example I looked at "Admission" (Romanic comedy), "Battle Of The Years" (Musical), "We're The Millers" (Comedy) and "World's End" (Action). I analysed each of these posters to see if I could find any similarities.

Admission
Battle Of The Year
We're The Millers
World's End

After analysing all these poster I made a new post stating all the similarities that I found in these posters which would help me when it came to making my poster because when I made my poster I look over this and I thought of all the things that I needed to include for My Poster to look real. I found a number of conventions that appeared in almost every single one regardless of the genre, including billing and credits, the fact that the film's title was always the biggest font on the page, release dates and rating reviews.

Conventions Of Posters

To make my Poster as authentic as possible I tried to use all the conventions of conventions and design that I found in my research regardless of the genre. When I decided what genre I wanted my film to be I started to look at posters for "The Adjustment Bureau", "The Next Three Days", "Prisoners", "Fair Game" and "Unknown", This time I analysed how the genre is represented in these posters, through iconography and props and other design features such as colour scheme and font.

The Adjustment Bureau
The Next Three Days
Prisoners
Fair Game
Unknown

After analysing these poster in the sense of genre I made a list of all the conventions that kept on appearing in these poster so that it would indicate to me what I needed to include for my poster.

List Of Thriller Poster Conventions

Having done research on conventions of poster I used all the research I did and I included all the conventions that I found in my research.

Film Name

Tagline

Stars Names

Billing

Image Of Star

Reviews

Release Date

My finished Poster

A2 Evaluation - Beginning

For my main production task I filmed and edited a teaser trailer which was inspired by a big budgeted Hollywood thriller film. Before I had decided on the genre, I decided to research differences between theatrical trailers to teaser trailers to help me understand and think about content and in particular, structure.


I looked at both types of trailer for the big budgeted Hollywood blockbuster "Star Trek", "Just Go With It" and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation". During this research I found that Teaser were only really produced for either high-budgeted movies, or for films with an existing audience - my film "The Conspiracy" is a Main stream movie. Having watched these trailers, I made a list of the differences between teaser trailers, which can be found in my research and planning.


Theatrical vs. Teaser Trailers 1
Theatrical vs. Teaser Trailers 2
Theatrical vs. Teaser Trailers 3

I also analysed a number of teaser trailers and "big game spots" to see if there was a consistency within the medium terms of structure, editing, camerawork and the use of sound. I also noted the use of captions, which included tag lines, release dates and credits, all of which I included in my teaser for "The Conspiracy"


Comparing Teaser Trailers

Which I then wrote a list of all the things that kept appearing in teaser trailer and jotted them down to help make my trailer look as realistic.

Poster Questionnaire (Post production)

Having finished my poster I went back to my audience who helped with with the layout, design etc. to ask them what they thought of the final product.

1. Is there anything on my poster, you feel, does not have on it that it should?

Weapons
Another Actor

2. Rate the poster out of 10 on how much content the poster has in relation to there factors: Images of the stars, Taglines, Billing, Release date, Reviews, Stars Names

The average rating was 9.4

3. Having looked at my poster, what is it that you would mot likely persuade you to by the product

The Silhouette image and the big red film title

4. Looking at these factors of the layout, which of them persuade you to buy the product, and whig did not?

The majority of people said the title being the biggest font and in the centre was the reason behind them buying it. 

Comparing this to my first questionnaire, it seems that I have pleased my audience and met most of their needs on my poster.

Poster Questionnaire

Magazine Questionnaire (Poster Film)

Having finished my final magazine front cover, I went back to the audience who helped me decide on layout, deign etc. to ask what they thought of the final product.

1. Is there anything that my magazine front cover, you feel, does not have on it that it should?

Adverts/Poster 

2. Rate the magazine out of 10 on how much content the magazine cover has in relation to these factors: Images if the stars, Images of the characters, Large Banner(s), Name of the film in the magazine, Website, Barcode/Issue/Price, References to stars, Directors of films, References to posters or competitions, The Masthead.

The average rating was 8.5

3. Having looked at my magazine cover, what is it that would most likely persuade you to buy the product?

The bold Title, big image of star and banners were overall described as the most persuasive.

4. Looking as these factors of the layout, which of them persuade you to buy the product, and which did not?

The majority of people said the masthead being the biggest text was the reason behind them buying it. 


Comparing this to the first questionnaire, it seems that I have pleased my audience and met most of their needs in a magazine front cover.

Magazine Questionnaire

My Finished Magazine Front Cover

This is my finished magazine front cover