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

Promotion and Marketing

The main types of marketing are viral and heritage:• Viral Marketing uses the internet (for example, blogs, social networking and apps) to spread

information on the internet and slowly releasing information about the film. It’s good for gaining attention from the online target audience and generate hype that relies on word-of-mouth , utilising social networking sites and all at a low-cost that is ideal for indie film companies. An example of this is ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007), with the small budget of $15,000 they managed to earn $3,593,762 in the box office opening weekend due to their successful marketing campaign, getting fans to demand the film came to their town where they recorded reactions and put them online to generate hype, getting fans to ‘tweet their scream’ on the social network Twitter to easily, quickly and effectively spread the word.

• Heritage Marketing uses analogue methods, such as posters, newspapers/magazines, billboards, bus spreads and interviews, to advertise the film. A conglomerate that took this offline approach was ‘Warner Bros.’ with ‘The Hangover’ (2009), putting wanted/missing campaign posters relating to and making the narrative seem real, this was very effective, generating $3,193,806 in it’s UK opening weekend.

My marketing scheme involves the use of posters, magazine covers and trailers, taking inspiration from existing materials of the same genre.

Ancillary ProductsThe inspiration for both of my ancillaries are different, with my poster being influenced strongly by ‘The Notebook’ (2004) and ‘I Give It A Year’ (2013) and my magazine cover being influenced by two covers by ‘Total Film’. When researching ancillaries for analysis, while I didn’t have trouble finding plenty of posters, I could not find any magazines covers of the romance genre. As a result I decided to select two magazine for their layout, taking inspiration from ‘The Notebook’ and ‘I Give It A Year’ posters for the background image.

PosterFor my poster I found inspiration in romance film ‘The Notebook’ and ‘I Give It A Year’. In both posters the typography is similar to my own, with a simple, plain coloured font being used for the tagline and cast names with a different but similar style font used for the credits. However, I decided to use a feminine, handwritten style font for the title alike ‘The Notebook’ as I believe it suited the design more than the large, bold font demonstrated in ‘I Give It A Year’ and, as it is more unusual, when used in the other marketing products it will be more easily linked to the film while also being relatable to my female target audience. For my colour scheme I have used two colours for the typography, alike ‘I Give It A Year’, using red for the title and strapline as it connotes romance while making them stand out. But instead of using it on the cast names also I decided to just use it on the title and strapline as they form the most important piece of text on the poster and will draw the audience’s eyes to it. The background image includes the two main characters in costumes from the film, alike both of the other posters, as

well as one of the locations featured, linking all the marketing products together, each image also outlines the narrative, with ‘The Notebook’ showing the couple together clearly in love shown by the romantic embrace and ‘I Give It A Year’ with two groups behind a different member of the couple, showing a divide, I have replicated this by making the main male character look like a ghost, standing behind the female character dressed in funeral attire in a graveyard, standing over a grave holding a red rose, showing they were a couple before he died. For the layout I have arranged the text to leave the centre bare so the characters aren’t covered and remain the focal point of the poster, this is shown in ‘The Notebook’ and ‘I Give It A Year’ with the text being put behind the character and not covered up, keeping the title near the centre so it is more likely to be seen first also. I have included the title, strapline, cast names, credits, other titles the producers are responsible for and the production company logos alike both posters.

However, it is not entirely conventional of the genre, as to make the narrative clearer and to show that one of the main characters was dead I made them look ghostly, the effect I created is more typical of a horror film and would rarely (if at all) be used to relate to a romance, which could be misleading to the audience. I think that it would have been better to use a different font for the cast names as I feel that the combination of the simple font and plain colour used against the light background make it unable to stand out.

Magazine CoverFor my magazine cover I found inspiration in ‘Total Films’ ‘Skyfall’ and ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ covers as I was unable to find any romance film covers. I have made my typography similar to both, with the magazine name large and bold to stand out with the title of the film being the second largest in the same colour, alike ‘Skyfall’, with buzz words and titles in bold and/or in different fonts, alike both covers, to grab the audience’s attention, using fonts for the film title that relate to the genre, with bold plain text being related to action films often, alike the feminine handwritten style font used in my romance film cover. I have used four colours in my cover, dark red, dark red/pink, light red/pink and white, as red and pink connotes romance, alike mine the two other covers use colour schemes that suit the genre of the film featured on the cover, with gold, white, black and mainly dark colours being used in action/adventure film promotion, using three or four colours alike mine also. The background image featured is the same used for my poster, again using the same locations, costumes

and main characters from the film alike the two examples, while also outlining the basic narrative, with ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ photo showing the two character are a couple, shown by them holding hands, and that they are running away from someone, shown by their stance and the shadows behind them, and ‘Skyfall’ showing a spy, shown by the smart suit costume and the gun he is holding. I replicated this by using a ghost affect on the male main character to show he is dead, reinforcing this by dressing the other character in funeral attire in a graveyard and standing over a grave with a rose and lastly reinforcing the romantic connection via the rose and his hand on her shoulder. Alike the two covers I have laid it out so the magazine title, tagline, website and magazine issue at the top, the film title is in the middle/bottom surrounded by article titles, buzz words and barcode with all content shown in both included. The buzz words and article titles attracting the audience as the content is similar to that of the film and thus will appeal to my target audience.

This cover is convention and typical of the genre but, as I have said before, the ghost affect I have used is not typical of the genre so may be confusing to the audience. I do believe if I had used more colours on the buzz words it would be better as I feel it sinks into the background when it should stand out alike the magazine and film title. I feel that using a different colour for the magazine and film title would have improved the cover also as red can also connote blood and together with the ghost effect this could, again, confuse the audience.