How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
In order to create a good relationship with the audience, we had to combine our main product (Trailer), with our ancillary texts (Magazine, Poster and Website). We also created social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) in order to interact with our audience and receive feedback about 'The Mermaid's Myth'.
Trailer
In our trailer we have included the website and social media sites on the end slide. This means the audience are able to react with the film in several different ways. Not only is this a positive for the audience, but the institutions can also use this to interact with the audience through different texts. As the trailer is our main text, this is one of the most important ways in which to persuade people to watch the full film and therefore by linking them to social media sites, they are able to view other teasers and interact with others. This way, the film can receive a range of audience feedback and their reactions to the trailer itself. As well as being shown on TV adverts and at the cinema, the trailer will also be posted on YouTube and other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This way it can be shared worldwide across a worldwide popular platform. The use of cross media convergence means that the audience are able to find out more information about the film simply by visiting the website.
Poster
Our website is also written on our poster. This is typical of film posters, as it combines the different texts together effectively. Although it is only written in a small font, it is identifiable to the audience meaning they can choose to visit other sites that are linked this the particular film. There are often many versions of posters for the same film, but they will always include the same website link. This shows how important and effective a website is when making a film, as this is a major way for the audience to interact. Although separate images are taken for our poster, the same characters and locations are used which links them effectively to the film and the trailer as they can be recognized across all of the texts. Several different images have been combined together and edited in order to create my poster however each element can be established in the trailer, due to costumes, props and mise en scene. My poster also includes some of the cast and crew names which can be seen on the trailer end slide. This is all included in the billing block, which provides the audience with lots of information regarding the making of the film. The production company logos, Lionsgate and Eli Entertainment, can also be seen on both the poster and trailer. A similar font is also used on the poster that is used for the main title of our film, which is shown in the trailer. This helps to combine the two texts together.
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Magazine
The major link between the texts is, of course, the name of the film 'The Mermaid's Myth' and the font used which is presented on all of my texts: trailer, poster and magazine. The name of the font can be seen clearly on each of the texts, meaning the audience can combine them all together and receive teasers and information on the film in several ways. This is effective for both the audience and institutions as it makes sharing and receiving easy and simple. On the magazine, the names of some of the cast and the film name are written in a bold, yellow text which is different from the rest. These names are recognisable as can be seen across each of the texts. The base image of my magazine is also one main character, Sonnie, who is highly reflected in the trailer and is also the character on my poster and on the background of my website, highlighting her importance and effect within the film. The use of the red effect on her eyes helps to combine the texts together, as this is one of our money shots within our trailer, showing her transformation from human to mermaid. One main feature that can be established throughout the texts is the films tag line 'Keep all Enemies at Bay'. This is present in the trailer, on the poster, on the magazine front cover and on the website. The tagline is specific to this film and therefore combines the main text to my ancillary products.
Website
In order to combine our website with our other texts, we used the same image used on one of our posters (which focuses on one of our main characters, Sonnie) as the background. This image, and character, will now be recognisable for the audience across the different texts. One of our main features on our website, is the social media page. This links the audience to every social media account that we have and also highlights to them what we would like them to do on each one, in order to benefit both them and us. Our website also includes a pop up of our trailer as soon as someone enters the site, persuading the audience to watch it if they haven't already seen it. This links our ancillary directly to our main text. The gallery on the website also includes photos of our posters and magazine front covers, further promoting more teasers.
Social Media
We created a range of social media accounts in order to target a wide range of people. Our film is mainly targeted at teens and young adults and therefore this was the best platform to use in order to share teasers and information about 'The Mermaid's Myth'. However, social media is such a big staple in millions of people's lives, including adults, that it can be used to our advantage in promoting our film. In today's film society, using social media is very common as it effectively targets an audience in a simple way that they can react, interact and comment . This means that audience feedback is also being received. In order to combine our accounts with our other texts, we linked our website onto every form of social media, that could be easily accessed with one click of a button. The audience are more likely to explore when the interaction is simple and easy to do. We also made sure that each of our accounts had the same, and simple, name: 'The Mermaid's Myth', so that they could each be found easily. This is shown clearly on our trailer too '@themermaidsmyth', which encourages the audience to follow them.
I believe that the combination between my main product and ancillary tasks have been very effective through the use of images, text and links. Cross media convergence is used to link the website and social media accounts which also link to each other. Each ancillary includes an element from the trailer, such as an image or text. These combinations have made it simple for the audience to choose which texts to interact with.