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

On top of having to produce a trailer, we were given a task of producing both a poster and a magazine front cover to promote our film. As the encoder of these media texts I had to keep in mind the intended target audience and had to make sure the finished product would attract them to viewing my film. Because I produced the two ancillary texts after the film trailer I was able to intertextually link certain images and themes that the decoder will be able to recognise in the familiarity.

To determine the success of the combination between my trailer and the ancillary texts i had to make sure that there was a clear link between the three products. The poster i constructed was formed from screen shots from the actual film and anchored with the title of the film centred in the middle of the poster. I chose to include images from the film trailer on the poster for a couple of reasons. One was that after researching previous film posters i found that a montage of separate images looks rather eye catching in a unique way and with various action shots appropriate for the genre, the images anchor the films genre and should appeal to the target audience. The second reason for choosing a montage of screenshots was that it connects the audience with the film at a more advanced level; by this i mean the audience get a further look into the film and when they are watching it they would be familiarised with key scenes in the film. A familiar face is consistent through each of the media texts – this being the main character of the film, who’s heroic, active performance in the trailer is mirrored by the determined forceful figure surrounded by aggressive flames on the magazine cover. 

The bold tile of the film ‘Betrayal and Retribution’ explodes onto the screen at the end of the trailer, and it is this same title that inexplicitly links all three products by anchoring the images.

Within my film trailer i included key signs and props that signified the action/thriller genre and i therefore wanted to transfer these over to the ancillary tasks to continue the intertextuality. The binoculars that feature in a short clip in the trailer is a main focus on my magazine front cover. The front cover shows the main character (Mark Steele) appearing from flames standing face on with the binoculars raised to his eyes. I chose this image for the film magazine cover because, i think, it depicts well the feelings and emotions present in the film and would appeal to the readers of the magazine – thus making them want to watch it. The main character is searching for his son and the binoculars signify this in a literal sense as well as metaphorically, much like the aggressive flames surrounding him, which signify the fiery aggression that he does in fact feel inside.