The combination of the filmmaker's main product (film) and ancillary texts (poster and magazine review) effectively promote the film. The poster and review tie into the film by featuring stills and conveying the film's emotion of fear/distress. Both highlight the main character Levi to create intrigue. Similar designs and imagery were used to connect the products and instantly signal they relate to the same film. The genre and plot are represented accurately across the materials to engage the intended audience. Overall, a cohesive brand identity was achieved through the consistent theme running through the finalized products.

1. How effective is the
combination of your main
products and ancillary texts?

2. I feel the combination of my ancillary texts and my main product are
effective, they all work alongside each other to promote our film
successfully. Our accompanying ancillary texts included a Film Poster,
created using Photoshop and a Magazine Film Review created using
Microsoft Publisher.

3. I believe that my film
poster, uses a lot of conventions
of already existing media
products. After researching real
media products we realised
there was some sort of
‘guidelines’ that most film
posters follow and comply to.
Initially I planned to use a camera
still from the short film but then I
realised that no existing products
did this and also it looked quite
amateurish and lacked
professionalism. I took a separate
picture of the actor and used a
green screen, imitating one of the
facial expressions he shows during
the film.

4. The contrast between
the quality of the
image taken from the
film (camera still,)
above, and one taken
specifically for the film
poster with the aid of
the green
screen, below.

5. Running down the right side of my film review I decided to include a film
strip with a variety of still shots of different scenes taken from our short
film which enables the main product and the ancillary tasks to work well
as an effective combination because both tie in well together.
The title of the review ‘The
MISE-EN-SCENE’, I think will
appeal strongly to media
specific people, as normal
people will most likely not
understand the review title
which ties in with the plot of
the film, as the film is not
that easy to grasp and
understand which slightly
broadens our audience.

6. Both the magazine review and the poster help to anchor the fact that
Levi (Andy Cutajar) is the main character or anti-hero which was our
intention, to put the audience/reader in suspense and to create enigma.
The main image on the poster is of the main character Levi however,
there is nothing to suggest what role, the character will play in the film.
The image on the front of the film poster could also be seen as very
ambiguous as the character looks somewhat distressed which then works
well with the short film genre of thriller/horror and targets the
audience. The BBFC classification of '15' is clearly shown to inform the
audience of the certificate of the film.

8. I didn’t exactly follow the typical codes and conventions of a film
review as from research I noticed that most review pages include
three films whereas mine only includes one but I wanted a lengthy
review and more camera stills to ‘grab’ the readers
attention, similarly to the examples shown above. I took inspiration
for the film review from the Empire magazine and www.totalfilm.com.
Therefore the genre of the film and the reviews on the film poster are
a good combination.

9. The specific design of the title ‘Malice’ is featured both on the
review and the poster. I wanted the same design so the
audience/reader would instantly recognise the film.
I also decided to keep the image on the review quite similar to the image
on the poster by trying to convey the same emotion which is a running
theme throughout the film, being fear which adds to the horror/ thriller
genre. As you can see the character is very distressed.
I think this is effective because there is clearly a
running theme through the final products.

10. Overall, I believe we successfully achieved the creation of a film
product, movie poster and magazine review that combine
realistically to create a brand identity surrounding the post-
production stages of the film, ‘Malice’.

11. HOW THE IMAGE AND TEXT ARE WORKING
TOGETHER TO PROMOTE THE FILM.
(QUOTES).