Question 2

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

The aim throughout our entire A2 project was to ensure that their was a clear link and sense of consistency throughout all three media products; this would then ensure we produced the most effective promotional package and reach the highest quality of work that we could. We very much focused our time and energy on the following features: fonts and texts, content, expression/emotion, lighting and body language. 

Font/text 

We wanted to ensure that the fonts we'd presented on our ancillary products were fairly similar, we attempted to use the same font style of the film title as similar as we could and feel we've achieved in this way. We wanted to create this consistency so that all media products we'd produced looked to the same professional standard, consistency creates familiarity and if the viewers had seen our ancillary products they would have linked all three media products together to create the perfect promotional package that essentially encourages them to watch the film. We kept the colouring of the texts in each product consistent which was; white, red, grey and black, all of the colours being very dark reinforced the idea of danger and a thrilling nature. We wanted to imply that the film was full of dangerous adventure and we both felt that the colouring signified this, a lot of black was use; especially in the background to again reinforce the idea of danger and death as we so commonly associate dark colours with these elements. I believe that the colouring and font/text styles built up potential for the overall outcome and essentially 'made' the product as effective as it is. 

Posing/body language 

We wanted to achieve a vulnerable look for the main actress as she was the victim of the trailer and whole film, I posed laying on the ground whilst looking up because I feel it reinforces the idea of being trapped and peering up to someone of greater power; the body language improved the quality of our media products because it does actually represent and express how vulnerable the young female was. The additional rope and tape covering her mouth promotes this as well as she looks as if she's been punished and 'caged' which is our film title.

Within the film magazine the images were fairly similar and we didn't want the audience to think it was the same image, however changing the pose of the model was beneficial, luckily we took many images during this shoot so we had plenty to choose from. By making the girl look vulnerable we ensured the audience would be able to indicate what the following film had to offer, conventional elements of rope and tape created increased vulnerability; and these evidently show she is unable to escape from the manipulator. The title 'Caged' perfectly fits in with the ancillary products because they show that the victim is inevitably caged; the effect this has is that it benefits all three of our products because each of them consist of the same themes and ideas. 
As our trailer isn't stationary it meant that we couldn't replicate such poses within our trailer that we have in our products, however as she's tied up the consistent theme of being trapped occurs in all three media products we've created. I believe Becka and I have succeeded at created and establishing binary oppositions in terms of the characters, as we've captured the villain in very dark colours and isn't directly identified whilst the protagonist appears very innocent looking and is identifiable in each part of the trailer. 

Facial expression 
As the model I attempted to look distressed within these images, however I wanted to give the impression that this was a long term abduction; that this image wasn't just at the scene of the abduction but months after he had 'caged' her in. As I didn't appear as distressed as I would have liked I definitely wanted to give the impression that it was more like imprisonment and unhappiness rather than fear, that she had fought so hard for months that she had simply given up because it had been such a long period of time. I feel the facial expressions are important and that the facial expressions we've used present effective products which provide suggestion of our trailer or film. We'd have been more conventional if we'd have chosen a more distressed expression or an action shot however I feel with the correct justification stated previously we have successfully challenged the convention to better our products. 

Lighting 
From reviewing all of our media products it's highly evident that we had enhanced the lighting. Our trailer was something we intentionally needed to enhance because if we had kept it unedited it made it look very unprofessional and student like, however the various effects we'd applied to it created a vintage look for our period shots (set in 1990's) and an eerie feel to the present day scenes. The contrast in colouring through each scene took the audience through a non-linear suggestion of what the film will later reveal, as it went from past to present. I feel the lighting we'd enhanced onto each scene ultimately made our product more effective because it actually presented the different periods of time, without this the audience may not have identified what was going on in the trailer. In conclusion, I feel the effects we've used to be highly valuable and will engage a wider audience as the use of different scenes would be able to apply to people who are older, yet the newer scenes would apply to a younger crowd. 
We'd used artificial lighting in both magazine and film poster as we'd set up a studio like setting which generally combines lighting, professional camera and an unblemished background together. We'd created a more low-key tone to the images we'd used on each ancillary product which is effective because it sticks to the conventions of real media products that centre around the thriller genre. We'd used this to strengthen the genre and message of the film itself by creating a more vulnerable looking female that was in basic surrounding darkness.