Question 3: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

From close study and analysis, we strategically combined the main production task with the ancillary texts in order to develop our skills and knowledge as well as to successfully complete our given task: to create a Film Poster and Film Review for my short film Prodigy.

The Poster

After carrying out extensive research into film posters we decided to look into film posters that are within the same genre and portraying similar theme styles like 'Prodigy' which is a drama related arond social realism. We looked at the following film posters:

When looking at these posters we realised that they all had the main characters on them. All of these posters however are not screenshots of images from the films that they are advertisisng. We chose to go forth with this idea but also combine an image from the short film thus making it more effective when the audience watched the short film.

This is our Film poster:

 The Poster serves the purpose of initially advertising the film, and creating suspense for the audience as to what the film is about seeing as though there isn’t much to go on from the poster. This was deliberate. I wanted the poster to give a feel for the film but not to fully give away the plot, as this was the job of the next product.

With our poster we ensured that we stuck to the codes and conevtions of a film poster by ensuring that the title of the film stood out. I added the islamic symbol which relates to narrative within the film in terms of Stan finding out that his brother is a Muslim. This also ties into the use of Islamic Writing which also says 'Prodigy'.  The poster draw in the audience via how the images are postioned. So the way both characters are facing each other, the black and white faded background image. Overall the poster is not bright or lightly coloured and this means and reflects on the film itself.  The colour contrast makes the audience expect that this film is not going to have any happy aspects in them better yet have them solved. The use of text stands out because it is not usaully seen on a Social realist film poster but because of the underlying theme of religion running through the short film we decided to use text that could relate to this somehow and be a identifier for the audience.

The poster can somewaht be a subversion to the film because the 'Flash back' image shown as the background is in black and white and the two main characters are n colour where as in the film this is the opposite. We decided to have the main characters in colour because the Audience when seeing the poster will differeniate the past and present. I feel that our poster will appeal to audicnes because it looks very intense and mysterious in terms of the images that are being displayed also the choice of text adds to this appeal.

I think the Poster links and relates to the main task (short film) because we decided to have the two characters facing each other. The reason for this was to show the tension between them. In the short film the two characters are in a similar situation where they are facing each other with around the same expression as seen in the poster. The only difference is, is that the sides that they are on are flipped. So in the film Daniel is on the left whilst Shola is on the right.  The gloomy atmosphere seen in the film reflects the expression of the characters. We also wanted to highlight the same distance displayed in the film within the poster and so having the space inbetween them was vital. Throughout the short film sequence the characters are facing each other in many different ways and so it would only be right to show to this in he poster.

The Review