Evaluation

My ancillaries work with my media product mainly because the same image is used in both the review and the poster. I also used the same font for both products. Though this seems trivial, small details like the fonts are acknowledges by viewers, sometimes subconsciously. I wanted to use this to my advantage. It also created a sense of uniformity as both the poster and the review looked smart when in the same font. Also, I included the actors’ names on the posters and added them later on the review. I also named the film ‘Beautiful People: A Short Film’. This made it more memorable, and the fact that I presented ‘A Short Film’ as a subtitle, means that the title appears in an identical fashion on both ancillaries. I wanted to create a sense of uniformity as it ties the products together and makes my ancillaries identifiable to my film.

I wanted to convey parts of the message through my poster and so I used an image which depicted both characters standing at the top of the alleyway in the film. I constructed the costumes and positions that the actors are standing in, in order to represent their personalities through their stances. I did this by having the woman wearing black and white, standing in a closed position. I also had the actor stare towards the camera to create the feeling that the character is staring at the viewer. This makes the viewer feel like the character is staring at only them, and generates interest in the film. I also did research into short film posters and researched posters that went with the short films I had already watched. This was useful as I found that posters are usually implicit and enigmatic, with a single image, title and credits written over it. I chose to include conventions of these posters in mine. I therefore chose to contrast the tramp with the woman in the picture, to emphasise the divide between the two characters. I positioned the tramp leaning casually against the pole at the front of the alleyway, with loose clothing on, staring into the distance. This emphasised the tramps freedom and obviously contrasts between the two characters. The fact that they barely seem to be acknowledging each other beckons questions from the viewer – as I found from my questionnaire. The fact that questions are provoked means interest is generated which, in turn, means that the poster is fulfilling its purpose. The alleyway acts as a sort of ‘no man’s land’ or ‘middle ground’ and is a pivotal part of the plot – hence its inclusion in the poster.

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