Evaluation Part 2

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

My main project is a horror film trailer and my ancillary texts take aspects out of my trailer to make them together very effective at symbolising the horror genre. The other texts I have produced are a website and poster. I have produced my trailer on IMovie using the colleges MAC’s this was not without difficulty because my sound effects and music would not play when I went back onto IMovie in another lesson. For my poster I have print screened images off of my trailer in order to combine the two projects to create an effective campaign that connotes the horror genre to my target audience in order to lure them to wanting to watch my film.

For my website I have completed two websites this was because my storyline for my film is about a sorority and so I have one website that is all about the sorority and one separate website that advertises the film. Therefore I feel that this combination of websites is very effective in connoting the iconography of the film across to the audience. However I did come into some difficulties in creating my websites because the images I used would not appear once I logged out of my site, therefore I have re- put them in several times and I hope now that they have stayed so my target audience can gain the visual effects that I want.

However before I could even start creating my main project and ancillary texts I had to research into existing products in order to study how real media products target their audience with their campaign. From this I have been able to produce my own ideas and deliver a pitch to introduce my ideas to audience members in order to ensure that my media project will appeal to them. From doing my pitch I have been able to summarise from my primary audience research and the feedback of what codes and conventions of horror will appeal to my target audience most. I then feel that I have been able to apply these techniques to my main project and ancillary texts making the combination of them quite effective.

This is a print screen from my pitch, showing two of the questions from my primary research survey when I started my project in order to identify which audience member watch which type of films. From this research I was enabled to identify my target audience and what genre will be most successful to target them.



One of the effects I have identified that is very important in order to create enigmas for my target audience is the typography and copy used on my main products and ancillary texts.  This convention of horror of the copy I have used throughout my campaign so I can have a constant effect and image that my target audience will recognise from my trailer to print advertising to my website. To create my typography I used the font ‘cracked’ from powerpoint and then edited it on Pixlr an internet photo editor programme.

 

Here is an example of how I have edited my typography for my trailer and websites. I have used the brush as a stamp the styles 'cracked and 'splattered' these were the most horror genre stamps. In order to connote the codes and conventions of horror I used red and black to symbolise death and blood.

 












Therefore in order to find out if my combination of my main product and ancillary texts are effective I have conducted a focus group, to gain feedback from my target audience. My film is targeted at 15-26 year olds and targeted mainly at women because the film has an all-girl cast.

Here is a summary of the main feedback points I received once I showed them my main project and ancillary texts.

Name, age	Feedback on main project	Feedback on poster	Feedback on Website
Philippa Andrews- 24	The best part of the teaser trailer for me is the build-up of the sound effects and the loud scream at the end of the trailer I feel this makes the trailer a horror trailer. One part that could be improved is the typography bit where it says ‘if you get caught I love the style of it but the ‘if you ‘ bit could be more in the middle of the screen	I like the image used on the poster I think it creates questions for us the audience as to who the girl is and what has happened to her, however I feel the writing of the tittle on the poster could have been boulder.	I really liked that Kate had done two websites, I like the back ground of the second website with the same typography she used in the trailer.
Chloe Guest- 17	The best part of the trailer is the close up of the villains with the weapons this builds tension. One part that could be improved is the close up on the letter be more steady so can see address more clearly.	I like the caption at the top of the poster I feel it draws the audience in.	I like the second website the one with the information about the film best because I feel that the first website could have had more colours on it especially on the home page however Kate did explain that she did have images on it but she couldn’t get them to stay on the web page.
John Copper- 19	The best part of the trailer is the part where the villain strikes a knife through the fence and the scream sound effect to end the trailer. I agree with Chloe about the address being more clear for the audience.	I liked the poster however I felt that the typography for the title could have stood out more so that it draws the audience in more however I did like the effect used on the image I feel that shows it’s a horror genre film being advertised.	The black and red used on both the websites showed that this is a horror genre product and the websites linked nicely to her poster and trailer.
Leanne Adams- 21	The best part is the typography it tells the story as the trailer goes along and the colour and effects used go really well with the horror genre. However I do agree with philippa about the ‘if you get’ bit being more in the middle of the screen.	I liked the composition of the image, looking down on the victim with the black smudge showing to me that she is trapped however I feel the wiring could stand out more.	The websites have good designs and I like the fact that they are not too similar but still both tie in to the poster and trailer however I do feel that she could have put up some more videos of the film.

From this audience feedback I can conclude that if I could of spent more time on my poster in order for it to have more codes and conventions of the horror genre and focus on it having a u.s.p to attract my target audience. However the time I had allocated to completely my poster was taken up by me having to re add the sound to my trailer server times because it kept stop working and re adding the images to my websites because they kept disappearing.  My websites are good at attaching my target audience and all the people in my focus group liked the back ground of my second website and the fact that I made the sorority website to almost trick my audience into thinking that the A Association is a real organisation. However they did say I should have used more images on my first website but this was not possible because I could not get the images to still be on my website next time I went onto my website. My focus group all liked my trailer and all agreed that they like the effects I have used on my images, negative and x-ray. They said it works really well connoting the horror genre to my audience. Also they liked the design of my typography and said it looked professionally done. The sound effects build up tension very well and go well the with the trailer and they said that the scream at the end lured them in to wanting to see what happens to the girls. However I did go into my contingency week because we could not access the college macs straight away and if I had more time I would have played around with the brightness/ imagery colour more in order to get the best possible effects for my trailer.