2.

How effective is the combination of your main product and

ancillary tasks?
Poster to film:
Through the course of A2 I was asked to create a main task and two
ancillary tasks. The film, poster and double page spread. In creating
my poster and double page spread after the making of the film
elements from the film such as shots, characters and storyline
references were used in the creation of the poster and double page
spread to link them to the film. In the creation of the poster images
and shots were taken and selected from the filming process of the
course. This helped a lot as there was already a fully created film
done taking shots from there to use was easy, however choosing the
right shots from the film was a bit more complicated. Especially for
the poster here I had a selection of about 5-6 shots that gave the
impression of a horror film, each could have been used for the film
but when it came to actually importing them into Photoshop I found
that only one really worked effectively and captured the paranormal
horror aspect that I wanted the image included similar colours such
as white and black which I wanted to create a successful grey scale
effect. Another link that I included from the poster to the film was
the identification of the actors in the film. In the poster I included
the names of all actors in the film and producers in the film. I did
this so that people would look at the poster and recognize or
remember the names of the actors in the film.
Another link from the poster to the film was the choice of shots I
made. Collating the shots from the film by screenshotting parts of
the film and gaining shots from excess footage of Erik running down
the corridor and Jason trapped in the lecture theatre allowed me to
choose the best shots. I found that the common shots I liked and
used in the poster to the film was scenes with dim lighting and a
dark atmosphere. This effect was exactly I wanted as it instantly
gave the impression of horror. It worked especially well with the
poster as a poster is instantly meant to give a snapshot of what the
film is and what it is going to be like. This meant that the audience
would be able to identify what genre the film is instantly. The shot
used in the poster resembles the final scene of the film where Erik is
being chased by an unnatural being. This links the poster to the film
in terms of story. Colour in the film also contributed to the poster in
terms of look and theme. Through the creation of the poster I
wanted to follow a gloomy and paranormal theme similar to posters
from my research such as The Witch and One missed call. Here
the use of a highlighted oval shape placed in the middle of the
frame brings attention to the center of the poster. This is effectively
used to draw attention and give emphasis on an image or object. I
needed to find an appropriate image to follow this effect. One of the
images I got from the shot of the film already had the appropriate

colours to create this effect with dark toned and dull colours such as
black, white and greys. This was a great image to use because when
I incorporated the oval shape effect I found that it worked really well
in terms of highlighting a point of significance which in this case is
the character Erik.

DPS to film:
The creation of double page spread also links to the main product
too. In the double page spread alike the poster. I have included
images and shots from the film process of the film. The images
used in the double page spread came from a range of shots from
start to end of the film no secondary images relating to the film
were used. Here to choose the images that I wanted from a
selection of about ten I wanted to have images that were somewhat
self explanatory and not images that would confuse the audience;
here the inclusion of the review helped as it referred to the storyline
and characters matching with the images used in the double page
spread.
The written review was written with the audience feedback from the
premier lunch in mind. For example as the feedback from question
How would you rate the film out of 5 with 5 being the highest
results showed that people rated it 39% for both 4 and 5 stars this
meant that I could decide to go with 4,4.5 or 5 star rating for the
film in the review. Another piece of feedback from the premier lunch
that was mentioned in the feedback was results from the rating of
the camera work, sound, editing and mise en scene in the film.
Results showed that people like them all on a whole with majority of
the results showing a high percentage of good and very good
from results. However things such as camera work, sound and mise
en scene got a few poor results. This meant that near the end of
the review I spoke about these aspects of the film and how they
could have been improved which then led on to the final stage of
the review which was the review concluded with the rating of the
film. In the review the tone that I wanted to portray was a
professional and opinionated while remaining somewhat
sophisticated using developed language. I wanted to make the
language in the review as professional as possible this then gives
the audience an idea of the intelligence of the reviewer meaning
that they are more likely to take on board opinions and conclusions
that the reviewer comes to. I also thought the conclusion of the
reviewers rating of the short film 4 out of 5 stars was necessary in
attracting the audience to come and watch the film. This added on
to the effect of using a professional and sophisticated tone in the
language of the review. In the review images that were used
conveyed different tones and were selected from different parts of

the film. I wanted the review to show emphasis on the horror genre
with the selection of shots but also have some neutral shots that
showed off the characters and setting. The selection of images of
both horror and clarity shots matches with the storyline and overall
plot of the film. Starts peaceful, something happens to disturb the
balance, the problem is found out, people go missing and the film
ends at a climax where the three have all been taken by the evil
spirit. With the selection of images I didnt want to use any images
that gave the audience an idea of the ending so shots such as Erik
on the floor to find that Sonia had been possessed was a no go.
Instead I looked for more action and reaction shots that showcased
not only the plot but also the acting of the actors in the film. The
fonts used in the double page spread such as Friday 13 and
Darkness used in the double page spread for the title and captions
of images were included from the creation and production of a
horror film. These fonts resembled similar fonts that I have used in
the creation of the poster and also resembled to similar serif style
fonts that are used in horror double page spreads and posters for
the title of their respective films.

Yr 13 student: I liked the film I thought that the paranormal and

possession aspects were done well. The poster links in well with the
film but I thought that there was problems with parts of the film
such for example the editing and camerawork could have been
improved abit. Looking at the poster I expect some sort of twisted
and sinister horror and thats kind of what I got. The poster looked
very professional too and I thought the use of a shot from the film
with editing over it worked quite well.
Yr 12 student:
"The film was okay, the acting was good and you
were especially good in the acting in the film. The posters were
really professional and I liked some of them, yours was good I liked
the fact you used an image from the film and edited to make it
scarier onto the poster. Liked the fact that it was shot in a school
location you never get horror films shot in locations like this. Youre
making the building scarier.
Teacher:
"Didn't enjoy it, it was a good attempt but for me not good enough
setting was off should have been filmed somewhere else like the
woods or something. The posters however were very good and
professional I liked the link with the use of color and images in the
film into the poster, the poster matches well with the sort or horror
in the film. Which was paranormal or possession I think. Overall I
liked the posters but the film was a bit off putting.

Premier lunch:
Holding a premier lunch allowed us to gain valuable information on
people opinions of the quality of our film and poster. However it was
not only pupils that joined staff did too. A few media teachers
attended the event too. Their feedback on the questionnaire is
useful from a professional standpoint and they were able to give us
critical viewpoints on aspects such as Camera work, mise en scene
and editing. Before showing the audience our films we showed them
our posters so that they could recognize and relate the poster to the
next film this meant that they were able to identify the genre of
horror the film is going to be about and also prepared them for
aspects of the film that that genre are particularly known for, for
example our was paranormal horror so the audience would expect
strange noises, weird events tension and climax scenes. As they
knew the type of horror before watching the film indicated from the
posters, the audience were able to compare the quality to existing
products from the same genre of horror, Paranormal activity for
example. If the audience were being critical viewers the results
from our questionnaire could have been different as they were
friends, teachers and colleges in sixth form they could have been
obliged to be nice to us. If this was to be shown to the general
public we may have had very different results. Giving out a
questionnaire to everyone in the lecture theatre and reviewing the
results found that overall people enjoyed our film but they really
loved the posters. From the results I felt that the linking of the
poster and film was successful. So successful that after the premier
lunch people were able to link the posters with the film and give
their opinions to me and others on the quality, making and overall
enjoyment of the film. Holding the event and giving out our
questionnaire was a risk of getting biased results due to a lot of
colleges and friends being there in the lecture theatre. The results
that we got were very mixed in the sense that not everyone voted
for 4s 5s out of 5 but we got results like 1s and 2s as well. The
fact that some people didnt feel obliged to be nice was more helpful
than discouraging to us as I was able to effectively analyse the data.
From the feedback I was still able to identify areas that potentially
needed working on for example the camera work, mise en scene
and sound in the film which all got a few votes for poor from our
feedback.

Film to poster and double page spread:

Over the whole A2 course I have created three products. Film, poster
and review. I have looked to relate all my products together through
different elements. Shooting the film first allowed me to collate
video clips and shots of images to use in both my review and poster
later on in the creation process. I wanted my ancillary tasks to use
similar shots to the ones found in the horror film at different times in
the story. For example in the poster I have used a image from the
scene where the character Erik is being chased by a paranormal
force and edited that image to resemble factors of paranormal
horror. In my double page spread instead of using the same image
in the poster or one image I have used a range of images from the
film at different times to give the double page spread character and
follow conventions of existing double page spread reviews. Images
that I selected for both ancillary tasks, I wanted them to be as self
explanatory as possible to the reader, for example with the review
using a range of images and showcasing all the characters I wanted
to show the audience the plot and relate the images to information
given in the written review. Another link in all three tasks is the
colour used in my ancillary tasks from the film. Scenes filmed in the
dark for example the lecture theatre scene, toilet scene and final
chase scene, all shots taken form these example scenes are used in
relation to the review and the poster. Its the dark and gloomy
solours I was looking to use in my ancillary tasks. They clearly
portray horror and paranormal aspects in the film represented by
the choice and selection of my images.