Final Evaluation Question 2How effective is the combination of your main

product and ancillary texts?

Maintaining consistency among the products is important in order to give the film an identity. If the film has a set identity used across all marketing products, it can easily be recognisable by those interested in it. For example, the Star Wars films have a very distinct identity that is recognisable anywhere. The same style is used in all their marketing products as well as using the same font style for every film in the franchise. This makes the films very recognisable, if someone passes a Star Wars poster, they will instantly know it’s for Star Wars due to the similar layout and colour schemes used in all Star Wars posters. This means a Star Wars fan will be more likely to take notice of the poster because even if they are simply passing, it is instantly recognisable.

I took note of this and decided that maintaining consistency across my products was very important for marketing. It is a way of communicating with the audience and developing a relationship between the audience and the product.

One way I maintained consistency throughout my products was through Mis-En-Scene. The image on the left is the one used for the magazine cover, the one on the right is a shot from the trailer. Both are images of the protagonist wearing the same coat. This is because the coat is part of the character’s costume and makes up her image, the character is easily recognised through this coat and therefore shows a combination between products. Also, by using the same characters throughout marketing products also adds recognition to the film. Those who have already seen the poster, magazine cover, or trailer will recognise a character from one of these products if they see another product. For example, those who have watched the trailer will then recognise this character on the magazine cover and may want to buy the magazine to find out more about the film. This is also the case for the poster as the victim that appears in the magazine is also the model on the poster.

This also applies to the reuse of setting used for my trailer and magazine cover. Like the ‘Shutter Island’ trailer, poster, and magazine cover as all three of these feature the mental institution the film is set in. My trailer and magazine cover do this by both featuring the church the story is set around. This has the same effect as the reuse of models by giving the film an identity so it is recognisable when passed in a public place or in the cinema.

Before I created the title font for my film, I created a target audience questionnaire and asked my audience which font they preferred. In the end I chose a formal sans-serif style font which I decided would be the font style for my film title in all my marketing products. Just like how the Star Wars movies use the same font design in every release, my movie will also do the same in order to maintain an identity that will be recognisable for fans of the film.

This also shows professionalism as it would be unprofessional to use multiple different fonts for one movie title. When used on the magazine, this tactic will also make the movie’s name stand out on the magazine cover as it will be using a different font to the ones used for the rest of the magazine, making it more noticeable and attracting more people to read it.

I also maintained consistency in the colour scheme of my poster and film magazine cover. After researching colour schemes used in other professional works, I decided that the best colour schemes to use in my poster and magazine cover would be blue and black. This was also the colour scheme that was most popular in my target audience questionnaire. This colour scheme also gives off a calm yet eerie atmosphere in exchange for the gory and dark colour schemes given off by common horror movie colour schemes. The consistency in this colour scheme further gives my film an identity that can be recognised by the target audience.

Maintaining consistency across products is also important as it expands the audience. My film has a narrowed down niche target audience of adults aged 18-45 who are fans of other indie films such as The Machinist and Memento. Therefore my film works to deliver to this audience.

However, my film magazine has a target audience of 20-45 year olds and although this is similar to the target audience of my film, my film magazine will also feature some blockbuster films as well as indie which means it reaches to a further audience than my trailer does as the target audience isn’t just a niche audience but a mainstream one as well.