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

When film distributors want to market/advertise their movies, they produce a trailer and poster which effectively becomes the reputation and face of that movie until it is released. Trailers are short clips which tease and show what the film is about. They are designed to make people want to see what happens in the movie so they go to see it. A poster works with the trailer for example it refreshes someone's mind after they have watched the trailer. This way they do not forget about it. The same happens vice versa and the poster makes someone want to watch the trailer for the movie. With websites such as YouTube, it is becoming much easier to view trailers and it gives individuals the freedom to watch trailers whenever they like. There are three main parts of making a movie. Publicity, Advertising and Promotion. Each part has it's own say and improtance when it comes to making a movie. These things are what make people initially go and see a movie.


Distributors have to make a tailor-made production plan according to the studio/directors. The most important decision a distributor has to make is when to release a film and how to release it. Their main job is to get the target audience indulged into the movie and the excitement that follows. These techniques are done through marketing knowledge, statistical research, professional judgement and commericial experience. Throughout the filmmaking the distributor has to make sure the whole film is being based around it's core target audience. However, a lot of distributors hope that the film will 'break out' or 'cross over' between different audiences so they are able to make more money. Even though 15 - 25s visit the cinema at least once a month, creating a film is still a risky business.


The distributors consider what a film might earn. Once they have done this, they start to think about budget. They have to make sure to get it right because they cannot be sure they are going to make back the money they spend. As digital media is getting more and more popular, film distributors have to start thinking about other ways to promote or advertise their film. They need to find a decent source where many people visit daily. YouTube is an excellent site for advertising because it is a video sharing website. Millions of people access the site everyday to watch their favourite amatuer film makers. Buying an advertisment on the front page will definately increase the chances of people people knowing about the film. Also being a video sharing website, the advert can directly link to the trailer of the movie.


Another way film distributors rely on is 'Word of Mouth'. Word of Mouth is an extremely effective way of getting people to watch their movie however the content and ending must be good so people praise the movie to their friends. People are more likely to go see a movie if they recieved positive feedback from them. Distributors have to try and stop negative word of mouth as it is very hard to overcome. Their aim is to make the film good before it is released therefore many people will watch it initially. This is the only way to fight negative word of mouth. Publicity of a movie is also very important as it becomes yet another eye-opener like the poster or trailer.


Distributors and special agencies work with the media to arrange cast interviews. This gives out information to the public about the actors andthe things they had to do in the movie. Photographs taken from highly qualified photographers are shown with clips from the movie before, during and after production. A preview screening at some cinemas occurs when you go to watch one movie and before the movie you wanted to watch begins a pre-screening is shown. This is a small part or a special one-off shot of the movie in question which gives the audience no choice to watch. This promotes the content of the film and maybe a little cliffhanger to get the audience to remember that part so when they next come to the cinema, they want to see that particular movie. Merchandising is another part of a movies distribution which helps it sales. Each film has it's own soundtrack which can on it's own produce revenue.


Synergy with other companies to sell figures, soft toys, ringtones, games and books can all help the build up to a movie. These techniques are usually used with children's movies however the sight of a game or a soft toy to the older generation can still make them want to see that movie. It can saturate the streets and media so much that nearly everyone is exposed to it's existance.


I think that my poster and main product work well together because the main colours used in horror are red, black and white. On my poster, I have used all three of these colours to express the horror genre and in my trailer we used mainly black and whites. We didn't want to use red in our trailer because we thought that it may make the trailer look amateur. A lot of our footage in our trailer is around trees and church. I did not want to take a screenshot from the trailer and place it on my poster for two reasons. The quality of the screenshot wouldn't have been very good and professionals never use screenshots from a movie on a poster. For this, we went out for a seperate photo shoot and took some images for the poster. The image that I used for the poster is a close up of the monk. We cannot see all of his face but I think that this reflects the horror genre and the mystery of the movie.


Throughout our trailer, we had numerous shots of the monk but we never had any close ups of his face. I think that the poster is almost adding another medium towards the movie marketing. The facial expression of the monk is very bold and still. This shows that he has no emotion for anyone or anything. In our trailer, we used a distorted, old english font which gave the effect of an old Monk that has come back from the dead. I tried to cooperate this with the poster by using the same font for the title, date and tagline. I found that when I used that font for the title, it did not work because it looked amateur and not scary enough. So I found a scribble/eroded font which worked much better. I also turned it white which made it stand out from the other parts of the poster. Also on my poster is a billing block, certificate badge and website. On most modern film posters, they have all of these. I thought that by adding these it would make my poster look much more professional.


The Monk is featured in all my media products and presented in different ways. On my poster, a close up of the Monk is shown because it is more direct with the audience. The magazine shows a picture of a Monk within a forest. This is to make the magazine look good so the audience pick up the magazine and buy it. Within our trailer, the monk is hidden but effectively always there. By focusing the Monk as the main part of the film it shows that we have a lot to learn about the viscous attacks the Monk may do. I also think that the Monk is shown in a professional way in a all media products. In the poster, magazine and trailer there are no signs that the Monk is violent. The three friends summon the Monk from the dead but this is only seen in the trailer. This means that each media product gives a different story towards the film and what it is about.


Overall I think that all my media products work well together because they each tell a different story and they draw the audience in with different ways. It think that when the audience see the trailer on television or YouTube, the poster will remind them of the trailer and it will make them want to see the movie even more. And also, if they are movie enthusiasts, they may see the cover of EMPIRE and be influenced to see the movie even more.