Evaluation Question 2 - How Effective Is The Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts
- 1. How effective is the combination of your main production and ancillary products? Evaluation Question 2
- 2. Both main images have quite low satura- tion to connote the sad atmos- phere in the film. I have included a film award in the poster and the double-page spread as seeing that a film has been successful/critically acclaimed may make someone more likely to want to watch it I included a star rating as this could also attract people’s attention to the article and lead to them watching them film. The article was too long so I had to write ‘continues page 17’ however if this was the end of the article I would’ve written where the film can be watched. I made the heading two different colours so that ‘different’ and ‘dementia’ stood out on the page to draw the readers attention to what the film is about before they read the article. I created a house style for both products by using black, white and grey as the main colours of both texts. This creates synergy between the products and would lead to more effective promotion of my film because the poster is recognisable to be a scene from the film and so is the main image of the double-page spread. I used the names of the actors as this is a convention of film posters so people know who is in the film. I used behind the scenes photos and stills from the film as secondary images to make the article feel more exclusive. Drop-caps, standfirsts, captions on images and pull- quotes are convention of magazine articles Produc- tion comp- any logo adds brand identity to the film. Social media links so people know where to watch the film. Hashtag to encourage a conversation online about the film and dementia. Tagline gives a hint at what the film is about. Colour fades on the film title to connote Henry’s memory getting worse.
- 3. In the scene it is visible that Emily is on her phone, so I chose to have her phone on the table in the image. This conforms to the stereotype of teenagers being addicted to technology. For my poster I decided to use a still from the conservatory scene because it is the flashback where Henry’s dementia is most obvious and Gen and Emily finally have to stop being in denial. It is a point of high drama and I feel like the conservatory is quite a unique filming location and memorable for the audience so when they see the film they will be waiting to see what happens in this scene. This is the only scene where all three characters are present and therefore I wanted to use this scene on my poster to show them as a family. The image for my poster is taken at a slightly higher angle than this two shot of Henry and Gen, so it gives a clearer view of the table. It also shows the audience who is going to be in the film. Also mise-en-scene in the image reflects what is in the actual scene (same costumes, props, etc) My Poster – The Main Image I chose an image where Gen and Emily are looking at each other as opposed to looking at Henry because at the end of the scene Emily says ‘I told you there was something wrong’ and Gen looks at Emily worriedly. Therefore by using this image the poster reflects what happens in the scene and also implies how the film is about the effects of dementia on the family as well as the patient.
- 4. I used a still from the bathroom scene for a secondary image because it gives the audience an exclusive look at the film before actually watching it. I also really like this over-the-shoulder shot and as Henry looks to be in distress this may make the reader want to watch the film to see what happens in this scene. My Double-Page Spread – Image Choice I used more than one image in my double-page spread because it is conventional for magazine spreads to have one primary image as well as other smaller secondary images. Here I used one main image and too secondary images. I included a photo of the cast and crew together after filming to show again give the reader a behind the scenes look at the film which is one of the purposes of film review magazines. I have presented my article in the form of an interview with the director (me) and in the interview the director talks about the filmmaking process so having a photo of the crew compliments this. Like my poster, I decided to use a still from the conservatory scene for the main image of my double-page spread because it is a point of high drama and I feel like the conservatory and when Henry’s dementia is most obvious to Emily and Gen. The main image is very similar to that of my poster because I took the photos while they ran then scene, however this is from a different angle. I chose this one as Gen is closer to the foreground and therefore the fact she is holding her dad’s hand is more obvious for the audience to see, and it shows that she loves and cares about her Dad. However if I had had more time I would’ve re-taken photos for my main image so that it isn’t so similar to the poster, because although it doesn’t help to create a house- style/synergy between the products I could’ve been a lot more creative with the photo I used.
- 5. Comparing My Poster To ‘The Silent Child’ (2017, dir. Chris Overton) Poster ‘FADING’ POSTER ‘THE SILENT CHILD’ POSTER
- 6. Comparing My Poster To ‘The Silent Child’ (2017, dir. Chris Overton) Poster The poster for ‘The Silent Child’ has a billing block at the bottom to credit all the crew that worked on the film which is conventional of film posters. I didn’t include one on my poster, and instead just included the names of the actors above the title. I did this because I didn’t want too much text on my poster as I wanted the main focus to be the image. Both posters follow the convention of having characters from the film on it. On ‘The Silent Child’ poster there is a silhouette picture of the two main protagonists, Joanne and Libby, and in my poster I all of the characters are on there. For both posters, the main image comes from a scene within the film. Both posters have the title of the film on them. Mine uses a serif font as I feel like these fonts look more old-fashioned and traditional, and the story is about Henry’s dementia and he is an older person. However ‘The Silent Child’ uses a sans serif font which is more modern and suites the film. My poster includes a tagline to hint at what the film is about, however ‘The Silent Child’ poster doesn’t. On the poster my short film is credited to a production company whereas The Silent Child only names the director outside of the billing block. Conventional things that my poster included but ‘The Silent Child’ poster didn’t include a film award and social media links. I included social media links because this is how my film is distributed, however because The Silent Child had a big budget behind it is toured Film Festivals and was premiered on BBC One after winning an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
- 7. Overall I found it quite hard to find posters for short films, and I think this could be to do with the fact most short films are distributed on social media and just use a still or the thumbnail of the video to promote it instead of making a poster, or they do have a poster but promote in more unique ways. For example, the sci-fi short film series ‘2097: We Made Ourselves Over’ was promoted through a multi-platform campaign of using social media, journalism and publicity stunts. The film was made for Hull City of Culture and therefore they wanted to involve the people of Hull. Therefore prior to the release of the first film they made all the telephone boxes in Hull ring and there was clues to the narrative in the phone call. This got people from Hull talking about the film and got them excited about watching them. Also, an app was created with exclusive content about the films. Extract from Hull 2017 websitewemadeourselvesover.com
- 8. Challenging Conventions or Favouring Digitalisation? MY SHORT FILM POSTER Conventionally, a lot of film posters are portrait as this is the common orientation for how posters are displayed e.g. on bus shelters, some billboards, magazine pages. However in this new social media-dominated, digital age a lot of film posters are now made landscape as they are the dimensions which are used on social media. This is especially relevant for independent film companies as they will not be able to afford to pay advertisers and have their posters placed in bus shelters and magazines, so being able to share it online for free is good for them, and this is why I made my poster landscape. This challenges the conventions of traditional film posters but is more accessible for an online audience ‘Titanic’ (1997, dir. James Cameron) The poster is portrait because it was distributed in print form as it was released before the proliferation of smartphones and digital technology. Director and Actress Thea Gajic promoted her short film ‘The Importance of Skin’ (2017) on Instagram, as it was distributed online on Vimeo.
- 9. Comparing My Double-Page Spread To A Total Film Magazine Double-Page Spread MY DOUBLE-PAGE SPREAD TOTAL FILM DOUBLE-PAGE SPREAD The house style of my page is grey, white and black. The house style of this page is black, yellow and red.
- 10. Comparing My Double-Page Spread To A Total Film Magazine Double-Page Spread Both double page spreads have a large main image which takes up a lot of space. The Total Films one takes up a full half of the spread however mine only takes up about ¼. The images are both taken from the films to give the reader a sense of what the film is like and an exclusive look before they see the film. The images include captions to give more detail in the context of the film to the reader. Both my magazine page and the Total Films one have star ratings of how good the film is. These are decided by critics and show the audience at a glance whether the film is good or not from the perspective of experts and fellow audience members. Another convention of magazines is to use a drop cap on the first letter of the first word of the article . I have done this however Total Films haven’t, instead they have made the first two words of the paragraph read to make them stand out. Total Films have a skyline with page numbers of what other articles are featured in the magazine. This is useful because when you have finished an article you can look to what you want to read next. I haven’t done this however we have both included a sub-heading about the article. Mine is the fact Fading is the short film is the week and the subheading for Total Films is the name of the film which the review is about. Captioned secondary images to support the article.
- 11. Comparing My Double-Page Spread To A Total Film Magazine Double-Page Spread Both pages have a heading. For mine I used two different colours to make the words ‘different’ and ‘dementia’ stand out on the page. Total Films heading states that the next few pages in the magazine are about new films, including this one Both my film review page and the Total Films ones use pull quotes from the article and they are placed with the article – this is conventional. We have both picked a phrase from the article which will capture the readers attention as they scan the page and it will make them want to read the article. In the top left corner of my page there is another subheading that says ‘Short Film of The Week’. I included this here because in English we read from left to right so this is the first thing readers will see when they turn the page, and knowing a film has been picked as the best of the week infers it is good and will make the reader want to read about it. In Total Films they have done a similar thing by putting ‘Movie of the Month’ in a red circle. The colour makes it stand out on the white page and the positioning of it means when the reader starts reading the article they will see it straight away and know this review is going to be quite positive and the film is good. Something conventional that I didn’t include in my double-page spread is an ‘In-Short’ section, which gives the reader a brief synopsis of the film in case they don’t want to read the whole review to know what they film is about, and a section crediting the Creative Team which tells the reader who directed, wrote, produced the film etc..