Evaluation Question 2 Qu.2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Film trailer The USP for our film trailer, is the main character being female. This challenges the typical dystopian/horror male hero and creates a postmodern cowboy. Our film trailer is also unique due to the editing. We used clips of static and explosion sound tracks to for shadow certain parts of the plot. The title for our film is called “Possessed”. This instantly will suggest to the viewer its some kind of disease/zombie styled film. “Be Possessed by the best dystopian film of the year”. The word possessed will make the audience expect the film to be of great interest to them, but also to have an element of a horror/zombie style to it. “Who will survive?” is another tagline we used. This creates a dilemma for the audience, for they now have to guess who will die or is there a twist.

Film trailer Our target audience is mainly aimed to people around the ages of 15 – 25. We researched into other dystopian films such as, I am legend and District 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82s9atP0teY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewpYq9rgg3w. We found that the age groups were similar. Our film is a hybrid genre between dystopian and romantic. This will hopefully appeal to a larger target audience as it has elements preferred by both genders. It is also post-modern. Our age classification would be 15 plus. Therefore it can still appeal to a younger audience but contain more graphic and inappropriate scenes which is sometimes valued by the older audiences. Our film would be realised in cinemas at first and then sold as DVDs.

Film poster The film poster helps to promote our film by advertising the product without the internet or TV. It also provides more in-depth information about the cast. The main image will attract our target audience due to the actor being the same age as the target audiences age group. This is effective as the audience will feel they can relate. The genre is most clearly established through the main header. The main header is the title of the film “Possessed”. This gives the impression the film is a horror styled movie. The tagline reads “Will they survive?”. This keeps the reader guessing and interests them. It also informs the viewer that the story is not just based on one character but that others are included in the struggle to survive. The tag line sells the USP by focusing on how it is not just one character trying to survive. Instead it’s a pair of people forming a relationship while being hunted by the possessed. A red font is used in the tagline with the word survive. This is likely to attract a “blood thirsty” audience. The background of the poster is mainly white which draws attention to the main image as there is no other images to divert the viewers focus. We have the two main characters names at the top corners of the poster. This will attract the target audience as they are respectable and popular actors who appeal to the target audience. Ratings from newspapers and magazines have been put on the poster. This will appeal to the target audience as the ratings come from newspapers with similar target audiences. Therefore the target audience are more likely to trust or value the rating. Our poster will be presented mainly in busy public areas, on billboards, bus stops and shop windows.

Film magazine The purpose of the film magazine is to promote the product without advertising on the internet or TV. The magazine will give the viewer a greater, in depth explanation of the story plot, setting, actors, other roles, taken out scenes and just general information that you don’t get from a poster or trailer. The cover image promotes the film by introducing the main protagonist. This will appeal to the viewer as the protagonist is around the same age as the target audience. This will cause the audience to feel they have things in common and can relate to the actor and the film. The genre is mostly established through the font colours and film title. Red is used three times in fonts on the magazine. This colour foreshadows danger, romance and death. Due to this the genre of the film is made clear. The title “The Possessed” also clearly establishes the film genre. The font is run down and patchy. Possessed means taken over or not your self. This is a typical convention of dystopian films. For example I Am Legend, where a city gets taken over every night time from humans in a zombie form. The USP is sold through the main image. Its USP is that the main protagonist is female and under eighteen.

Film Magazine The front cover will grab the readers attention mostly due to the main image. This is because its been blown up to a large scale and is overlapping with the magazine name. We also used a minimal plain background to draw more attention to the main image. We used dark colours for the fonts and features. This makes the brighter features stand out more and grab the readers attention. We used a bold red font to make it stand out and grab the readers eye. The magazine has underneath its company name “the worlds biggest movie magazine”. This will appeal to a broader audience not just the younger viewers. By creating a magazine cover we have advertised to a broader audience. This is due to the magazine advertising other products as well as our own. This appeals to a larger audience because they may at first, only have an interest in a similar film and then see our film and compare it to the other film because their being advertised in the same magazine. We will also reach a larger audience through Web 2.0. Our film will be advertised through Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. A website link will be shown on the magazine, therefore allowing the audience to learn more and share with the friends.

Film Promotion/Marketing Plan The products we produced will we will work effectively together as they coverall aspects of advertising to our target audience. The magazine will be advertised and sold in shops, the film poster will be placed in largely populated areas where it will grab peoples attention and the trailer will be advertised through the internet and TV. The film will be advertised through websites such as social network sites Cinema sites and film information sites such as IMDB. I intend to use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to advertise the film. Facebook will advertise our product by being shared or liked which will then make then film randomly appear on peoples newsfeed. One way in which we will get people to like our product will be to offer a prize to a small majority of the people who liked the film page or post. Youtube will advertise the film by showing the trailer and giving viewers the chance to communicate with each other about the film and also give feedback about how successful they think it is. Our film will be advertised at a film festival. This is a more independent way to advertise our film and therefore we will reach both types of audiences (independent and Blockbuster) as our film will be advertised through TV and Internet, and through posters and film festivals. The film festival we chose to advertise and promote our film was Cannes film festival. We informed the viewers by having “best new comer at Cannes film festival” early on in our trailer.