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

I think that my main product and ancillary texts work very well together. I based my poster in a forest because in the teaser they actors are walking and running through trees and foliage. I think my poster is successful because it effectively establishes the genre of the move. Mostly because of the girls expression and the colour scheme.

Red, black and white are the colours used mostly in horrors, in the films and in their promotional package. I have added more hints of red instead of bright red because I think it worked better because it's more subtle. Bright red I think seems a bit too over the top horror like and is also used a lot more in older horror posters. I think that my poster works best with the black and white effect because I didn't think that for my poster the colour of the trees really worked effectively and didn't portray what I was imagining in my head when creating it.

I like how my poster shows a lot of dark tones which are made up by the shadows of the trees and I have created more darkness using a black wet media brush in Photoshop. I also just didn't want to use bright colours and I made sure my highlighted tones weren't totally white because it adds more to the dark feel. I like the texture I have created in my poster, the patterns of the leaves on the trees and the interesting shadows they create.

The girl's expression looks scared and all the trees seem to over loom her which belittles her and makes her look vulnerable. She also has an objective gaze which shows she has something on her mind. I have used a female subject because it relates to the final girl idea, plus because the trailer is focused on her the entire time (plus shots of the other guys and killer), it indicates to people that she is the one to watch. You tend to find females a lot more in horrors than males, especially as the victim because they are more vulnerable and hardly able to defend themselves. And because from research males watch horrors more than females, younger women are used a lot because of their attractive looks and ditsy behavior that would typically appeal to the male audience.

I have used a bold capital letter title for the poster as it stands out to the audience. I was inspired for this approach by Eden Lake and Martyrs posters. I would have used a more delicate font if this was a more spooky and paranormal trailer, but in this case it wasn't, so it needed a more textured and brutal looking font. I have then used a smaller and horror-looking font for the tag line 'the day she'll never forget' which is also featured in the trailer so it links in very well. I have also used the standard film looking font for the credits, which I think makes it look rather professional. I have also added a website to make it seem more like a real poster.

I have also added in the mask which I took from a screenshot of the trailer, and it sits subtly just behind her head which as first doesn't stand out, but once you've noticed it, it feels as though it's watching you, which enables you to be able to relate to the final girl. Overall I am really impressed with the outcome of my poster because I feel it gives the right message across, letting the audience know it's a horror and letting the audience know where it's set and allowing them to identify the main character. I have asked my audience if they think my poster works well, most of the people said it was good and worked well and I only had one person who described it as 'iffy' but since then I retouched certain parts to improve it.

For my magazine cover design I have used a photograph of myself (as I was the lead girl) and have edited the image to make it look as if I have blood on me and use a fearfilled expression to signify that it's a horror. I have used big bold writing for the name of the movie that's similir to the poster font. Thinking back at it now I wish I had used the same poster (preferably the one I used for my poster) in all my products to make sure they all linked so the font would be recognised by people after as well and connected to Dead End. I used a rough looking texture for my mag to give it that more distressed and interesting feel.

For my actual teaser trailer (I'm going to write about my version because I find that it's a lot stronger than the groups version) I have gone for a very mysterious feel. I have edited so that you don't see the 'bad guy' until closer to the end of the trailer, and so that the villains real identity is never revealed which would make the audience want to know who he or she is and want to watch it.

For the soundtrack I have used a lot of non-diegetic whining music that somewhat builds up to the end. I have also used some diegetic sounds such as the voice of one of the characters and the footsteps when running. The sound which seems to be of a girl crying is actually me saying something when it was being film played backwards to give that eerie effect. This actually made me jump the first time I watched it back.

The trailer doesn't really show much gore because I feel it really wasn't necessarily needed for a teaser, but it does indicate that there is violence involved such as the blood on the mask and the bad guy about to hit the victim. I obviously didn't want to give the whole story away and let the audience see all the gory parts before they payed to watch the movie because this is where quite a few movies go wrong. Especially in comedy movies where they show all the jokes in the trailer and the audience pay to see the movie and feel like they haven't seen anything new and this could destroy a movies reputation through word of mouth. So I think mystery for a movie trailer is rather effective. And it's also important to let the audience know how the story line goes so this makes them want to watch it.

I have edited the colours in the trailer so that at the start they seem serene and attractive looking, then throughout the movie the colours and tones get darker as the storyline does. This is an effective way of manipulating the audiences mood to how you want.