Evaluation Question 2:

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

Final Trailer:

 Final Poster:

 Final Website:

Typography:  

(website)

(poster)

After creating the credits for our teaser trailer by hand to get the stop motion effect, we realised we wouldn't be able to do the same for our poster and our website. We chose to look at various handwriting fonts on Photoshop that we would be able to use instead and came across "Crimes Times Six" which we liked as it looked scribbled and messy which worked with our character and the shot of him writing in the trailer. This was simple enough for the poster however when it came to including it on our website we were unable to use the specific font. Thankfully Megan managed to save it without a background and so we were able to import the title onto the website as an image as she explained in this blog post.

Polaroids: 

(trailer)

One of the main features of our promotional package is the use of Polaroids during the trailer and also on the poster and website. In the trailer, the physical Polaroids have been positioned in the killers book with him stroking the pictures. They are also flashed up at the end in chronological order as the tension builds up.

(poster) 

We knew we wanted the Polaroids to be the focus of our poster after deconstructing 'Memento' posters and so drafted numerous versions where they were scattered across the poster. Finally we decided to use a different image of our victim Emily, and so we organised a photoshoot where we preferred the shot of her with the gloves covering her mouth. We then had to import that onto Photoshop to edit out the background and change the format of it. Similarly for the poster, I went on a website  and edited all the images so they were black and white and had the Polaroid border around the edge before adding them to the poster.

(website)

(website) 

For the website,  we decided to use the Polaroids as links to social media and the other pages of the website. Megan succeeded in editing the Polaroids so that when the mouse rolls over the image it flashes.

On one side of the trailer are the links to 'home', 'cast', 'gallery' and 'cast' whereas the other side is links to social media, however when we used wording it didn't look as effective as the original logos although they needed to be edited to make it darker.

Colour Scheme:

(release date on poster)

Due to the killer's book being a significant aspect to highlight his psychological issues and his obsession with the homeless teenagers, we had to make sure the book we chose was suitable. The pages were a brown, coffee colour and we wanted this to be featured when choosing the colour of some of the typography on our poster.

(scribbly handwriting in book)

Similarly the colour scheme of our products is predominantly dark, dull colours such as black, white and brown, including typography, choosing to have the Polaroids black and white and the brick background, which we had to edit to make it more darker. However, when looking at the Polaroid for the 9th victim, we decided to have that in colour to show to the audience that she is still alive and along with this we edited the graffiti background (where he finds her in the trailer) behind her to make it stand out against the others even more.


Images:

(background used for poster and website)

In our final versions of the poster and website, we chose a brick background to add to the urban

(one of the few shots of our killer)

element of living on the streets but in a draft of the website we had the option of using an edited picture of our victim, however we decided against this as it wouldn't fit in with the poster. Even so, our victim is still heavily featured in the trailer and the poster whereas the killer is only included in the trailer, as we didn't want to reveal too much about him in the promotional package. Similarly we used the Polaroids to express the psychological, obsessive side of our killer and so to highlight the genre, we felt these needed to be featured in all three media products. However we didn't include the dates of their deaths (as seen in the trailer) choosing instead to have the tagline as the captions on the poster and to use the picture itself as links to other pages for our website.

Overall I feel the combination of our trailer, poster and website is effective in its purpose of promoting the film. It should be clear the audience that our film is a psychological thriller with a focus on serial killers and obsession.