Project Evaluation question two - Erol Akin

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

The combination of our main product, review and poster have all been effective in terms of what type of product we have attempted to create. We have used many techniques which are used in the in real media products and this research is presented in different forms on our blog. We researched into a variety of real media products from posters, short films and also film reviews which helped us all to create products which were of professional quality. Our target audience was 18-35 both male and females who enjoy scary films. We believed this to be the most appropriate age audience group based on the fact that a lot of scary films are certificated 18 and above. Using this age group allows us to target the majority of people who are likely to watch this type of film.

Our poster was designed with the intention to suggest our genre - which is psychological thriller. These types of films are iconic for dark colours, lighting and mysterious characters. The combination of these three products will help to promote our film and give the audience a good idea about what it may be like for someone to have a psychological disorder. The Faceless Man challenges the theme of mental disorder and gives the audience an insight to what it might be like to have schizophrenia. Although it is never mentioned throughout the short film about exactly what type of illness Alex had it suggested that he may be imagining things which are shown through flashbacks, character expression and body language. We attempted to make the film seem almost paranormal at times, however it was never suggested that The Faceless Man was actually anything supernatural.

The main product itself (the film) is a psychological thriller. Something which helped to suggest genre throughout our main product was lighting. Lighting played a vital part in showing the more dark side to our film which also helped to create a good atmosphere for the audience. It was important to us that we created a realistic atmosphere which would make the audience feel scared at times which is something that is common in a psychological thriller. The typical conventions of a psychological thriller are shown throughout our film through post production, for example jump cutting was used to create a high level of tension and to show The Faceless Man up close. The reason behind us keeping his face covered up throughout the duration of our film was also to create a high level of suspense for the audience, allowing them to be guessing of who he is - this is a common technique used to create enigma in these types of films.

We were given the feedback that our film was effective in the way it delivered tension and atmosphere but someone mentioned the screaming added in at times were even comical, which is obviously something we did not want. However we understand how this may have been comical due to perhaps over using certain sounds or even using them in the wrong place. The sound was something which also played a vital role in making our film atmospheric, which is commonly seen throughout psychological thrillers. I believe sound is so useful in films like these because sound is something which can not be seen which allows our brains to make up what that sound might look like or even imagine who is making the sound. Our poster was carefully designed with a clear idea in mind. We knew we wanted something which would be striking to the eye but simplistic in design, which I believe we managed to achieve. Our poster is effective in the way that it stands out due to the layout of the poster and the colours used, although we only used three main colours I still believe this is effective in making it stand out amongst other posters alike.

The review is accurate in terms of the comparison between our product and other films which share similar ideas and a similar narrative. It follows a similar structure to that of a Little White Lies review. The style of writing is professional and gives the reader a good idea about what is to be expected of the film and has an overall accurate description of the short film. The layout of the review is professional-looking as we created a template on Adobe InDesign following the same layout as the well known magazine 'Little White Lies'. Little White Lies magazine uses a lot of mature media language which suits the audience they are aiming at. We have attempted to create the same level of sophistication throughout our review and have attempted to create their level of uniformity to their simple yet effective layout which is aimed at their demographic.