Evaluation 2 - Sam McLeish

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

Transcript

Poster

As well as the short film, I also created two more products out of the ancillary tasks; the film poster and the short film review.

A film poster's main role is to make your film stand out from the rest in the market. This is especially important in terms of feature films because my targeted demographic of 16 - 24 year olds will typically only have enough money to see one film a month and you want it to be yours. 

The role of any film poster, regardless of it being short of feature-length, is to build a brand. This means that elements such as text fonts, and and main visuals are shared between the two. For example, the Spiderman poster shares the same font that is used the opening sequence in the film. This idea is also reflected in my products; it is clear to see that the title sequence at the beginning of the short film uses the same font on the poster 'beautiful mess', a font that also supports the idea that the characters are connected, as suggested in the title. As well as creating a brand, this is effective because this repetition of the same font makes it more recognisable to the audience meaning they'll investigate the meaning further. The meaning I intended to convey through my font choice is that love is elegant, even when applying it to non-typical types of love. This idea could also be seen in the poster for 'Moments', in which a similar font is used for a similar genre of film.

Next, despite the fact that our main film's main theme is around LGBT issues in the modern day, we chose to not make the poster obviously queer. If I want the audience to to come to the conclusion that there is no difference between types of love, it is very important not to rub this fact in the audience's face. If you do so, the audience is less likely to react well to it; you have to give the impression that the audience came to this conclusion themselves. Even though there is more social acceptance of queer people today, there is still this idea of 'don't ask, don't tell' that some people still follow in order to sheild them from potential shame, especially if they are closeted. So, like in real life, I feel that the poster needs to not show the film's main theme straight away because the target audience, that will consist of mostly heterosexual people, are diffcult to present a queer character without them automatically thinking of a stereotypically camp and effamative gay man. Therefore, I want to make the audience to not rely on clichés during character development, which is why it is so difficult to represent these characters in productions. For example, this indirect approach has also been followed in the poster for the film 'Floating Skyscrapers', another film with themes surrounding homosexuality.

Also, it is key to mention that the additional items on the poster are important too: The film festival logo that is mentioned is The Court Métrage award from The Festival de Cannes. This is incredibly significant because it is the highest award that can be given to a short film at the festival, so this supports the film when it is advertised to the audience because they can be assured that the film is of high quality, as the festival is incredibly well respected across the world. As well as this, there are clear social media links that are displayed on the poster, with the well known logos of twitter and facebook, as well as a website for the film. This is useful in this age, because due to the limited budget of a short film, there would be very little money to fund a trailer. Therefore, these websites allows the audience to engage with the film more like they would a trailer, meaning this works incredibly well because the audience are then more likely to see the film if they like the online content. 

Finally, the main aim of my poster was to make it relatable for my target demographic. For example, the location that the female character is in could be in any public park in the country. This is useful when advertising because the audience feels like they could be in the same situation one day. Then, under Barthes' enigma codes, the audience is more likely to engage with the sequence as they can relate it with their everyday lives and they're intrigued to see what happens. This is done by many film advertisers, as is the case for the poster for 'Take Your Time' in which the films could be anywhere in the English countryside. Therefore, if the audience can relate it to their personal experiences, they are more likely to go see the film. 

Review

It is important to note that there is two very different target audiences between the review and the film. Our short film targets both men and women aged between 16 - 24. However, Little White Lies main demographic that they target are aged between 25 - 34, and the overall readership is 62% men. Due to such, the actual content of the review still has to appeal to both genders, but in reality it would have to be written to appeal more to a male audience. In doing so, the reviewer (in our case, us) would be helping the producers to get a larger male audience, as it is incredibly difficult to sell rom-coms to a male audience alone. If this is successful, then this combination of products works.

However, this assumes that the LWL review would be positive towards the short film. If the overall review is negative however, it could mean the death of a small-budget short film with an already limited fanbase. This would especially be the case for a rom-com that targets both a male and female audience, such as 'Intertwined'. Due to such, the producers would have to find another way to target their intended demographic, and this would mainly be done from connections at film festivals, with in the case of 'Intertwined' and Cannes. Potentially, social media buzz could be used to advertise your film, but it is incredibly unlikely for a short film of this size and budget to receive that much attention. Overall, you want to appeal to your reviewer in order for your film to be successful. As we've 'been reviewed' in a positive light, it can be seen as an effective combination of products. 

Finally, it is clear to see that Little White Lies will assume that their target audience is educated well enough to understand the complex filming terms that they so frequently refer to in their reviews. Also, it could be said that that the publication is trying to relate to their audience via their use of direct address language techniques, such as using rhetorical questions, and through the use of informal language. Although this mix of techniques are contradictory, it is clear to see that they balance it correctly as they have a large readership from a millennial audience. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the publication will target members of C1/C2 social classes and upwards. This is because it is unlikely that anyone from the D or E classes will be able to spare £6 for a magazine. Due to all the above, it is safe to say that our review is most likely to support our short film because it is styalised to copy the house style of LWL, who can clearly be seen as an expert for targeting their demographic successfully.