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

Aswell as producing a short film, I was given the task of also producing two ancillary products, a poster for my film, and a double page magazine spread with an article. To first deceiver the effectiveness of my main product and ancillary texts, I must first look at the four Fs of poster and magazine design:

• Format - They are the design choices that are repeated. These are used to define the magazine/posters overall look and feel. Included are a logo, cover line, size, department headers and other things that repeat in every issue.

• Formal - It is the editorial content (eg: what is included in the magazine). This includes the type of articles, their length, departments in the back and front of the book (The same sections used in every issue of the magazine) all make the formula.

• Frame - The frame is the standard size for outer pages, margins and also gutters. Majority of magazines use the same sort of margin width throughout the content of the magazine; others sometimes vary the width, using tall top margins for features to set apart the well, for instance. The rule for using margins establishes consistency from issue to issue.

• Function - What the magazine and poster itself is trying to achieve and the message it is trying to send.

Poster and Film

Crucially my poster and film had to match each other as in the industry itself, the advertising and the production of the film are all done by the same company so unlike the magazine spread, there had to be consistency and similarities. The text I used for the tag line and the actor names is the same text used at the beginning sequence of my film, this is the sort of level of consistency and familiarity I needed to keep throughout the entire production. The characters are both wearing the same costumes that they are wearing in the actual film which massively links the two production pieces together.
I used a red colour filter over the images of the two characters, as a subliminal message to the viewer of danger, as we know that red represents this as well as anger, which ties in with the theme of revenge throughout the film. In keeping with the use of colour as a tool of representation I also used black as a secondary colour for the text at the masthead and footer of the poster, due to black representing death and darkness, again, another theme of the film.
To add authenticity and a sense of realism to my poster I added at the bottom four logos, a "R" rating, which is an American certification system I know but in my opinion it looks better than the British certificate ratings. The logo for the "Motion picture association of America" was added because through looking at other different movie posters, there was a common theme that the majority of them were approved by this association or one similar, by having their logo at the bottom, so for this reason I chose to put it on my poster as well. Finally the "20th Century Fox" and "Dolby Digital" logos to make it appear like it was produced by real, big time production companies, again, to add authenticity.

Double Page Spread and Film

For the second ancillary task, I created a double page magazine spread, which unlike my poster, did not have to show as many signs of similarities to my film, because usually the film and magazine production companies are entirely separate manufacturers of entertainment, with some, very few exceptions. However, having said this, I did need it to show signs and indications to the reader that the pages were about my film, even before reading a single word, this was done through use of images and text. The first thing you'll notice when looking at my double page spread is the title of the film at the top of the page, for obvious reasons this is vital for gaining the readers attention and highlighting to them that these two pages are all about the film. Moving down on the first page reads the films tagline "What is lurking behind you?", not only does this, as a rhetorical question, involve and entice the reader into the article, it also gets them thinking further, wondering what the film is about, whilst showing them that there is a horror/thriller aspect about it. Beneath that is a "fake" quote from a real movie critic, Peter Travis, who is a well respected and highly popularized critic within the film industry. The quote, along with the five star rating, is the kind of positive note that forces you to indulge deeper into the article and read what its about, all the while adding an authentic essence to the entire spread, like that you would find in a real magazine article about a film. I used varying fonts and text sizes to make each section stand out individually, and to come across as unique.

The second page features a large body of text from a real person, Shaun Goater (ex-professional footballer) but fake movie reviewer. Again, at the top of the page reads the film title "Don't Turn Around", which instantly tells the reader that this is linked to the last page, that along with the background image of the house split into each side of the two pages. Beneath the body of text is an image of our main actor and protagonist, Ashleigh, as the film is centered around her, it shows only her eyes which is effective in the sense that it looks like you are being watched, which links in with the tag like "What is lurking behind you?". The colour scheme on both pages had to match the theme and emotional feel of the film, for that reason I chose a very dark and dull colour scheme, but not so much as to appear boring and unappealing, I feel a created the right balance of grey, black and white to indicate to the audience the theme of darkness in the film, just by looking at the page before reading a single word.