Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary tasks?
Introduction
The poster and the magazine review are crucial for the promotion of any film and can be a defining factor for the audience to watch the film or not. This adds emphasis for media institutions to ensure that great detail goes into making, not only the film itself, but also the poster as best they can. This in turn leads to positive reviews being circulated about the film. All of these measures imposed by the institution is done with the intention to make the the film more appealing the the public, in order to make it successful.
For our short film, we decided to make it within the genre of 'social realism', and with that in mind we needed the film poster and the magazine review,in a nutshell, to reflect what our short film is going to be about and how we incorporated that genre to the audience in hopes to get them to watch our film. This presentation will be focusing in detail about the effectiveness of the film poster and the magazine review alongside our short film.
Ancillary Tasks
Film Poster
For the film poster, we wanted it to catch the audiences attention in order to give them an incentive to watch the short film. It contains most of the features you would see on film posters in this day and age, but we needed to be different and contrast itself from other posters in order for the audience to notice it. In addition, the effect we were trying convey was empathy from the audience to the protagonist due to the main image of the film poster.
However, for the film poster we needed to adjust a few features and even add some new features. Firstly, upon looking at the initial design, we noticed that it did not contain a release date. This is important for any film poster as it allows the audience to know when the short film will be released, otherwise the audience will lose interest.
Secondly, we also needed to review the film title as it was not an appropriate fit for the poster. In the short film itself, the colour of the title is white, and on the film poster it is red. This did not work for a number of reasons, first was that it did not show continuity among the short film and film poster and the second reason was the the colour red is usually associated with the 'horror' genre, since we are making a 'social realistic' short film, we needed to make some adjustments that are more appropriate.
Before
After
We needed to change the colour from red to white due to the colour 'white' showing innocence and it would clearly represent the nature of the character and the font representing the breakdown of the relationship between the young girl and the mother through the use of cracks and tears within the letters. Overall, the film poster ties in with the codes and convention of 'social realism and fits in with what the audience expects to see when they see, for example, a character that the audience will feel empathic for, this creates a bond between the character and the audience.
Ancillary Tasks
For our magazine review, we decided to create it as informative and entertaining as it can be. It fully covers the short film with specifics and goes into depth about the film, covering topics such as: the narrative, the editing and the inner meaning that the film institution intends to convey to the audience. Furthermore, the style and layout of the magazine review gives off a 'professional' aspect towards the audience and would encourage them to watch the short film.
However, for the magazine review we needed to adjust a few features and even add some new features. Firstly, upon looking at the initial design, we realised that we did not have the title of the film, and the current one did not suffice for the magazine review. In order to maintain the consistency we used the same title that was in our short film and the film poster,
Secondly, upon further analysis, the main image for the magazine review was not to a standard of quality we wanted, it was a bit blurry and needed to be replaced with a picture that was not blurry and suited better to the narrative, This ensures that it would be more eye-catching and easier for the audience to notice therefore it will be more likely that the audience would want to watch the short film.
Magazine Review
Before
After
Overall, the magazine review does match the expectation of the audience, in terms of the style and layout that would classify it as a 'social realistic' magazine review, with features like: a empathetic photo, a film title that represents innocence and struggle, which can be identified through the font, and a reassuring slogan.
Short Film-'Jade'
This is a over the shoulder of our main character, Jade, in the beginning of the film, she's getting ready for school and making breakfast. This shows that she is indepdendant and self-reliant to wake up and get ready for school without any assistance from her mother. This gives the audience the impression that she doesn't need her mother in her daily tasks. In addition, this raises question to the audience about the whereabouts other mother. The magazine review carries the same effect that this shot does, it makes the audience more curious to see what will happen in the short film.
This is a mid shot of the mother on her phone and she's shouting at Jade. This gives the perception that the mum does not like her own child, which make her out to be a horrible person. This makes the audience feel hateful to the mum for doing an awful action such as shouting at her. As a result, the audience will look at the mother in a bad light and will assume that she is most likely to be the antagonist within the short film, despite the well-known stereotype of mothers being nice to their children.
This is another mid shot of Jade, she's seen on her bed crying due to her mother. This shows the result of of all that constant abuse and how it resulted in Jade crying and having a break down. This make the audience feel empathetic for Jade for what she has to go through. Furthermore, this would create a bond between the character and the audience and as a result the short film will leave a stronger impact on the viewers once they watch the film. This has a similar effect to what the poster was trying to convey, a sense of empathy through the use of the main image to entice the audience to watch the short film.
In conclusion, these screenshots from the short film are specific because they all represent what the audience would expect to see, the daily struggles of a neglected young girl, this is due to the film poster and magazine review setting these expectations beforehand for the audience. This is beneficial for the KAM Productions as they have set expectations from the ancillary tasks that have been met by the short film which would encourage the audience to spread positive reviews about the short film.
Combination of Short Film & Ancillary Tasks
Film Poster
Magazine Review
Overall, the combination of both the film poster and magazine review with the short film, create a certain 'brand image' that KAM Productions have set to the audience would easily distinguish from other 'social realism' short films. The 'brand image' that the audience would be able to identify consists of the daily struggle of a neglected young girl with broken relationships. In addition, since young adults are our target audience, we decided that we would make the audience would feel empathetic towards the young girl so in turn they would create a bond between the character and the audience.
Throughout the the ancillary tasks and short film, we used the same title that has a font that represents the broken relationships she has, primarily her mother. This is also used to create consistency and to enforce the current 'brand image' that KAM Productions want to convey to the audience. In conclusion, both the ancillary tasks and short film possess strong links between each other, they make the audience feel empathetic for the protagonist, they set and achieve expectations from the audience and contain certain features that uphold the 'brand image' KAM Productions has set.