How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts Jonathon Stephenson

Outline In this case, our main product is the trailer that we have been working on planning, filming and editing over the past weeks. The ancillary texts are the supporting film promotion work that we have been assigned to do, this takes the form of a film poster, such as one may find on a wall in a shopping centre, and the front cover of a film magazine.

Audience The key factor in this case is the target audience. Throughout our production, we have endlessly been over how the trailer would be pitched to the relevant group of people, and have needed to adjust our work in order to appeal specifically to that particular audience, since they are the ones most likely to want to spend money on our film.

Research The best way to go about doing so, is by being highly clued up on other films, which have set out to impress the same target audience, since this way we get to know what they find appealing in a film and what marketing techniques would catch their attention. Some examples of films we thought would fit into this section of the market, and that we took inspiration from were This is England, Fish Tank, Brick Lane and Dirty Pretty Things. We have used films in this vein because they all illustrate the gritty types of relationships that we aim to convey in our main product, and many include reference to various ethnic minorities, which is particularly relevant to our trailer.

The Trailer While filming our main piece, the group regularly stopped and discussed what ways we could improve the trailer, and more importantly, how we could make it more target audience focused. This included things such as the storyline itself, which attracted a multitude of debate, and also the visual cues we used. Everything from how the characters should react in a certain situation, to how a shot was set up. This audience relationship, that we paid focus to did not end in the production, but carried right through the post production. How the shots were cut together, what dialogue was used and what accompanying music was appropriate. The trailers ethnic theme was of paramount importance to the whole project and therefore, much of our focus while planning and filming the trailer was aimed at that. This needed to be balanced with a sense of stereotypical teenage behaviour.

Designing The Poster The film poster was just as important, since we had to make the film look gritty and stereotypically social realism, however had to also make it look interesting, and as though something new and a bit different is going on within the film. This is much more difficult with the poster, since we had to make up our minds and use one static image. Finding the right image to front our marketing campaign would be paramount to the success of the film. It would need to be at the same time striking, yet well representational of the film. My poster was heavily influenced by the one which was used in the marketing campaign for the film Kidulthood. This is due to the fact, that they are both English indie films, which tackle the subject of teenage life. Due to the slightly different subject matter of Eastern religion in the UK, I wanted to incorporate this ethnic element in the poster (and the other two products). In addition the film focuses more singularly on the character of Anita, when compared to the multi faceted storyline of Kidulthood. It was important for that to be evident in the poster.

Synergy of All 3 Artefacts It was important right from the outset that we plan out, not merely to create a film trailer and two ancillary texts, but that we have a brand image that would be incorporated into all 3 products. This project needed to work as a whole, and not simply as three separate pieces. Possibly the best demonstration of the synergy, and the main thing that brings all three products together is the typography. We decided that it would be best to use one font style across the main product and the print artefacts. We chose a font called ArabDances, due to the fact that it exemplified the ethnic, Muslim element to the concept. It also gave the film a strong brand image, due to it becoming something of a logo.