Evaluation Q2

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

I believe my three media products, short film, film poster, and film magazine cover, all combine well with each other as a media package because they all look similar as I have kept the continuity between them all.

The mise en scene of my film is crucial in creating semantic connotations and helping the audience understand the characters and what their role in the narrative is. After researching the conventions of thrillers, and watching many thriller feature and short films, I came up with the following costume for my antagonist; black balaclava, grey jacket, black leather gloves, jeans, and a handgun. This is a typical costume which is worn by the antagonist of thriller films, depending on the type of story that it is. I used a balaclava because I wanted to keep the identity of the killer hidden until the very end as this gives a greater sense of danger and mystery. This mystery also helps build the atmosphere because the character seems unpredictable due to the connotations of balaclavas, which are that they are used by criminals and are often associated with violent crimes.

The costume I have chosen for my protagonist is: black jacket, black jeans, and styled hair. I have chosen to dress him in casual clothes because I wanted him to look like an average person as this is a convention of thrillers and it makes the audience feel like the same thing could happen to them, increasing the anxiety and suspense. 

I chose a garage location because for a similar reason - I wanted it to look like it could happen to any normal person . The garage was a good place to film this as it looks quite well-used, because it is, and it is located behind a house in a residential area.

The picture I used for my ancillary texts is a screenshot from my film. I used a screenshot from my film because many film posters do this as it gives audiences a glimpse of the style of the film, which is often a big selling point of a film.

You can see here that I have only used the right third of the frame because it is a very nice low key silhouette where we can see the outline of his face. This shot on its own gives an element of mystery and tells the audience what kind of film it is going to be because they can see the style of the shots uesd etc.