1. How Effective Is The
Combination Of Your Main
Product And Ancillary Texts?
In this slideshow I will be looking at how effectively our trailer for ‘The
Possession’ works with the film poster and magazine front cover.
Magazine front
Trailer Film Poster cover
Click To Play^
2. Main Images:
All our media products display similar main images as we wanted our work to be consistent –
all of these images focus on the locket, & show that Clarissa is ‘possessed’.
The photographs used on our film poster & film magazine were taken during the same photo-shoot and
are extremely similar, they both highlight the significance of the locket, and the way Clarissa is holding it
informs viewers that there is something wrong with her and the locket – its possessed her. It also looks
as though she is trying to push the locket away from her in both the photos, this suggests that she is a
victim and is trapped.
In both the images we do not see Clarissas full face, this generates mystery & suspicion amongst
viewers of the poster and magazine front cover. The main shots in our trailer are repeated several times
to highlight their importance. The contents and focus of many of the shots are consistent with the images
used on our other media products as they too focus on the locket and possession of Clarissa. The screen
grabs below show examples of the shots/images I have been talking about, we hope that viewers will
identify these similarities and link together the connections between the trailer, film poster and magazine
front cover.
3. Iconography:
The main icon in The Possession is the locket which possesses Clarissa. We have highlighted
the significance of the icon in our trailer, film poster, and magazine front cover. In the images
below I have circled how we have presented the iconic locket in our media products. In the trailer
the close up of Clarissa holding the locket is repeated twice and enhanced with an x-ray effect,
this informs the audience that it is important. In both the film poster and magazine front cover the
locket is being pushed towards the eye of the viewer, this draws there attention and makes them
question the significance of the locket. We hope that our target market will identify this icon in all
our products and relate it to The Possession storyline.
4. Representation of horror:
To help reach the right audience we made
sure the horror genre of the film was
expressed through all three media
products. As you can see from the images
to the right we included several ‘horror’
shots in our trailer, to make these as
believable as possible we used makeup
effects (e.g. Fake blood) and contact
lenses.
In the film poster & magazine front cover
we also used make-up in the photographs
of Clarissa to make her look un-normal,
and ‘possessed’ – this is one way we have
expressed the horror genre. Also,
Clarissas facial expression in the
magazine front cover informs people of
the horror genre as she looks crazy and
shocked.
5. Typography:
Deciding what typography/fonts to use in our media products was a big part of our
planning. As you can see from the screen grabs below we decided that the official font
we would use to write the title of our film would be ‘LEDlight’. We used this on our film
poster and magazine front cover.
Below is an screen grab of the font used for the film title in our trailer. Originally we
planned that the font in our trailer would be the same as the font on our film poster &
magazine front cover, however after running into technical difficulties with the software
‘After Effects’ we were unable to do so, thus we decided to use a similar font that was
available.
The screen grab below shows the font we used for the text that appeared in our trailer.
We used this font as it was clear and easy to read.
6. Stars:
The main star of our film is Laressa Smith
who plays Clarissa the main character in The
Possession. Laressa is an unknown actress
and therefore we did not promote her name
that much. In the trailer we are introduced to
her in the very first scene. Our film poster and
magazine front cover both feature large
pictures of Laressa, however her appearance
has been manipulated to make her appear
possessed and scary as the film has a horror
genre. As all three products focus on
introducing the audience to our main star, we
hope that people will link her to our film and
think of The Possession when they see her.