Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary texts?

Distribution of a media product is very important, excelling it and making it successful within the media is quite a challenge; marketing and advertising for the media product and appealing to the ideal target audience is all down to the distributors. Distributors have a lot of responsibility when it comes to making the film a success, identifying the target audience and exciting them for the film, making them want to watch it. Using techniques such as advertising on social media, within newspapers/magazines, TV adverts, cinema adverts and through exciting teasers, trailers and posters to bring the attention of the audience. Releasing exclusive clips, teasers and trailers within the timespan before the release date is extremely crucial, advertising across the media in every possible way. Not only does media advertising grab people’s attention, despite the increase of usage of the media, but also advertising incorporating posters, bus-stop adverts and billboards, all catching the eyes of the working people on their way to work. Without advertising for the film, it would not thrive and would not have any audience at all. For example, a working student might not have time to watch television, nor look at social media, but they would see the billboards, posters or bus-stop adverts on their way to work.

Audience research and target audience identification is carried out by the distributors, establishing the age demographic of their ideal audience. A way of doing this is showing the film trailer and at the end of it, asking the viewers to complete a questionnaire, or simply reading the likes, comments and shares of the viewers across social media and online software’s, such as YouTube. Most horror films, which are age restricted by the BBFC, are played late at night, exclusively shown to an older range of people; from the ages of 15+. On a rare occasion, horror/thriller films will be shown during the day, depending on the age restriction, for example, ‘The Woman in Black’ was age restricted as a 12, so it was able to be shown later during the day, attracting young teens to go and watch the film. This shows that the distributors were eager to collect a younger target audience and to introduce horror to the younger era.

My group’s film trailer is age restricted as a 15, including blood and gore within the trailer, which means that it wouldn’t be shown during the day, only late at night once children have gone to sleep, meaning that we would have to advertise more on social media, within newspapers/magazines and on billboards and posters, balancing out our advertising. Advertising for a film can be extremely difficult, if the distributors don’t identify their target audience it can go very downhill for the film product. Film distributors need to establish the target audience quickly and efficiently, accurately identifying the age demographic and possible size of the film. Advertising and the availability to advertise differs between films, for example - 

The variety of these films vary in target audience, ‘Deadpool’ attracting the young adult era who are interested in Marvel Comics and Marvel adaptation films. Here you can see that the film is aimed for young adults, incorporating a phallic representation, the gun held in a certain way to indicate the character’s genitals. The colours used in this poster are black and red, these colours indicate to possible blood spillage and usage within the film, as well as the darkness which is included. The slogan of the film including slang and again, indicating to the phallic representation of the character on the poster, “Wait til’ you get a load of me”, indicating to his semen and the gun load in his hand; both funny to the older target audience. Also, the dark colours and dim lighting of the horror film, ’10 Cloverfield Lane’, is obvious to the audience that this film is not suitable for young children. The dark and eerie setting of the poster, including the mysteriously dark clouded house at the top of the poster, and the blackness of the underground, which is the main setting of the film. Advertisement of this film has taken over across social media, television adverts and posters plastered everywhere; the distributors advertising this sequel to the original film, ‘Cloverfield’. This film already has a large target audience from the previous horror film, but wanting to receive more audience members from the then younger generation, which have now grown up.

Whereas, ‘Hail, Caesar’ and ‘The Jungle Book’ is instant identifiable difference, the lighter colours and images used within the poster, indicating that these films are more light-hearted and easy-going than the other dark films. But still incorporating a blood red within the film, showing that this film may include violence. ‘Hail, Caesar’, is obviously a comedy, including smiling faces and mid-action stills of the big name actors within the film; but including a strange image of a man carrying another man off in a kidnapping sense of manner. Included in the film tag line, “Lights. Camera. Abduction.”, indicating to the audience that this film has a humour, yet serious plot; which is identifiable to the audience. ‘The Jungle Book’ has already received excitement and interest from the younger audience, as well as, the older audience which know the film from their own childhood’s. This film is slightly different to the others, drawing in a vast target audience, from young children to adults; both excited for the real-life Disney adaptation of the children’s classic film. The colours used in this film is uni-sexed, aimed to both sexes, it is also not age restricted, the bright colours indicating that this is a children’s film but not aimed directly at a certain age demographic. The usage of the animals and wilderness presents the action and the setting of the film, identifiable to the audience that this film includes action.

When a film is during/completed filming and editing, distributors are given a marketing plan which can take up to a year of completion, depending on the film popularity itself. For example, a successful ad campaign, ‘The Hunger Games’ based on the novel, written by Suzanne Collins; already the film had a large audience, the readers of the book were excited and thrilled to see that the hit book was being adapted into a film. Due to this, it was simple to find out information and comments from the target audience, thrilling people and gaining new viewers who had never read the books. The use of big named stars has also excelled the film, such actors as Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. The budget that the film was given was $493 million, but receiving a whopping $2.9 billion in return; achieving the title of the 15^th highest-grossing film franchise ever. The film was adapted from the book to the film in 2009, the film becoming a huge success across the past few years, adapting all three of ‘The Hunger Games’ books into films. The uproar and excitement over the film, viewers speculating who would play the protagonist of the story, Katniss Everdeen.

Distributors must ensure that a film is consistent when it comes down to the theme and narrative; ensuring that they are identifiable to the viewers. Linking all the products together and allowing them to correspond, rather than have a mix of multiple different posters, billboards, adverts and trailers, the consistency of the products is vital to achieving a successful film and ad campaign. Looking at my own trailer, I have tried to keep a consistent theme, plot and narrative, keeping everything simple and easy to identify for the audience. All of the footage has a colour filter on, consistently keeping that dark and gloomy feel to the trailer, as well as incorporating blood and gore to present that our film is a horror. 

To ensure consistent ancillary texts, I researched into zombie horror films, story-lines and existing published work within the media, allowing me to create thorough ideas and consistent professional work. For my horror film poster, I wanted to create a dark and mysterious look which includes the zombie beings, the great threat which has caused panic and death within the world. In the horror film trailer, we have included multiple zombie creatures, including the recently turned journalist, who becomes one of the main zombies featured in the film trailer. Due to the excessive usage of the journalist at the beginning of the story, as a human and then further into the trailer as a transformed zombie; I decided to use an image of the journalist zombie which shows my usage of being consistent with my work. I felt that the half view of the zombie shows mysteriousness and uncertainty for the viewers, as well as, giving the audience a teaser of the film, not showing the enemy fully to the viewers and giving away the storyline or main features within the film. For my film magazine cover I have used a long shot image of the main setting of the film trailer, featuring a behind shot of the main character, 'the final girl', I feel that this image uses a variety of colour, levels and is a very clear shot of the main setting. I really like this image because it is very artistic which contributes to the 'Arthouse' feel to the image, which I decided to name the magazine. 
The consistency of my ancillary texts prove that I have conducted thorough research into real existing media products and target audience's and demographic's; this research has helped me develop my work, creating professional and realistic work. I feel that my ancillary texts are consistent and present the same storyline and ideas which have been developed by myself and my group; presenting a consistent theme.