2. The product generally follows the typical codes and conventions you’d expect to see within a horror trailer (dark setting, ghostly figure, large old house etc.) The trailer, I’d like to think, conforms with my research in the way that it leaves a lot to the imagination. Instead of gory, shocking clips I have used eerie settings and gradually climaxing music in order to create suspense and leave the audience guessing. As far as the ancillary tasks go, (the magazine cover and the movie poster) I have also conformed to the typical conventions that you would expect to find. Using photoshop, I have dodged and burned all my images in order to darken them and make the colours more vibrant and intense, creating the typical atmosphere of a horror movie. The ghostly figure in my movie wears a long, white dress and wears her hair down and completely straight; these could definitely be seen as a stereotypical ghostly figure in horror/thriller films. Below is my magazine poster ancillary task and under that is my movie poster; I would like to think that the general theme of the magazine cover and movie poster is dark and mysterious, at the same time not giving away too much.

3. Follows exactly the same template as SCREAM magazine Three small images used to advertise other films. This was necessary in order to make the magazine look realistic and professional Skin has been saturated in order to make my ‘ghost’ appear lifeless and ancient Eyes have been changed to an ‘off-red’ colour to appear eerie and unpredictable but not too ‘evil’ (as oppose to a bright red colour) The font is made to look like cryptic symbols; this implies a ‘curse’ or a ‘cult’ of some sort. The ‘I’ is designed to look like a girl; I intended to make people make a distinction between the ‘I’ and the girl in my trailer

4. Simple and stripped back collection of actors names to show credit to the cast while at the same time not taking away the attention from the main image A general release date to make the poster look professional Holding a chain; this is in place to look like a choice of weaponry, it also implies strength and puts her in a position of power The poster ascertains the same font used in the magazine cover in order to uphold continuity and a sense of trademark The light serves two purposes- to make the ‘ghost’ visible but also to imply that she has just been seen

5.  I believe that the ancillary texts tie in well with the main task. I believe that all of my products are strongly related; for example, the movie poster was shot in the same setting as one of the clips in my movie trailer which I felt worked well because it looks a lot more planned and professional rather than randomly chosen.  The only criticism I’d have is that I don’t believe that the trailer looks as good or as promising as the ancillary texts, so it could be said that the ancillary texts overhypes the advert.

6.  According to my feedback, the length of the trailer was almost perfect (about one and a half minutes) so I have established that in the future, if I was to make another one, I would try to keep the advert at that length and at least I have a template.  My audience seemed to be very big fans of the news report in the trailer; most of them made a point of saying that it made the trailer seem much more realistic and it essentially explained most of the story.

7.  A few people made a point of saying that the font I used in the trailer wasn’t in-keeping with the typical codes and conventions of a horror film; in hindsight I would have used a ‘scarier’ font and I maybe would have changed the colour to dark red which would have been more relevant to a horror trailer.  According to my feedback, the ancillary texts were almost perfect. The magazine especially was a talking point because my audience felt that it looked professional and very realistic. From this, I can deduct that I need to leave more time for my main task in order to keep it level to the standard of my ancillary texts.

8.  In the construction of my ancillary texts I used Adobe photoshop to edit my images and make them look more professional and ultimately scary. I used the dodge and burn tools to bring the colours out sharper and more intense; this was effective because it made my ghost look old and more intimidating to the audience.  To aid in my planning and research I used the internet to look at existing products, especially SCREAM magazine which I used as a template for my magazine task.  Below is an example of how I utilised photoshop to edit my images.

9. Example of editing my ancillary task Coloured the eye in order to make her look ‘evil’ an ghostly. This worked well because it gave her a hostile and intimidating image Saturated the skin to appear lifeless and ancient, ultimately making her look neglected and lonely This is the ‘saturate’ tool; I used it to make the skin appear grey and malnourished. I felt this went well and was appropriate because it aided in making her look more ‘scary’ Applied the grey paint tool to the bottom of her eyes to make her look unwell and also to put emphasis on the eyes