3. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary task?

The ancillary task effectively helps promote the trailer; both magazine front cover and poster have an image of our main actor which stands out on the page. Magazine front cover has the same text of ‘The Trap’ as in the trailer and poster which shows similarities between all three media creations. The same text and colour scheme has been used in both the ancillary tasks. The pictures in the ancillary task and main task are of the actor wearing the same clothes as in the trailer, to make sure it looks more like a real media example (e.g. Andrew Garfield wearing a Spiderman costumer or Johnny Depp wearing Pirates of the Caribbean costume on a poster or magazine front cover).

We used red, black and white colour scheme on our film front cover; black and white are conventional colours that are used in many magazines. Whilst the colour red was not a predominant colour in our trailer, it is associated with my gang ‘type’ films. We kept the colour limit on our trailer, to three, as that is a usual maximum on front cover magazines. The magazine colours reflect the type of genre our film is based upon, quite dark and mysterious. Due to the film, The Trap, being not a ‘cheerful’ trailer it was most appropriate to use dark colours.

The writing on the magazine front cover stands out on the page and the ‘film real’ shows parts of the clips from our trailer. The pictures from the trailer help the audience to engage more with it and then have an urge to find out more. On the magazine, there are many codes & conventions from real magazines, such as a ‘pug’ and ‘the chance to win a prize’. The magazine helps to give the audience an insight into the main character of our trailer is and helps to boost the reputation, a strapline at the top of our trailer helps to do this; it states ‘Interview with The Trap star, Seni Adams’.

Due to our trailer being mostly filmed on ‘dark’ and ‘cloudy’ days, it seemed suitable that we included an element of grey within the background, in the similar form of clouds. With this, we wanted to create a link between both projects.

The poster is dark and mysterious, just as the trailer demonstrates. As I was in charge of taking the photographs for the ancillary task, I used lighting that wanted to compliment the trailer well. For example, half of the main actor’s face is in bright light whilst a half of it is presented in ‘dark format’. One of the main initial reasons this was done was to emphasise how originally he was a ‘good person’ but then needed a job and turned to ‘selling drugs’. Behind the main actor is the antagonist, it shows he is ‘lurking behind him’ and is potentially ‘in his shadow’ by watching his every move.

The picture of the antagonist was also taken in the studio by me; the picture had the same lighting and costume as shown in the trailer. The poster contains the protagonist and antagonist which help to tell the audience who the most important characters are. One of the phrases “they call it The Trap for a reason” is part of the dialogue, setting the scene for the audience, at the start of our trailer. This cleverly links from the poster to the film trailer, as a section of the dialogue used at the start of the trailer is featured on the poster. From the magazine and poster ancillary tasks, the audience will be able to notice who the protagonist is immediately. For example, Seni our main actor is placed in front of the antagonist in the poster. Also, he features directly in the centre of our magazine front cover.

The poster is dark and mysterious, just as the trailer demonstrates. As I was in charge of taking the photographs for the ancillary task, I used lighting that wanted to compliment the trailer well. For example, half of the main actor’s face is in bright light whilst a half of it is presented in ‘dark format’. One of the main initial reasons this was done was to emphasise how originally he was a ‘good person’ but then needed a job and turned to ‘selling drugs’. Behind the main actor is the antagonist, it shows he is ‘lurking behind him’ and is potentially ‘in his shadow’ by watching his every move. I also took the picture of the antagonist in the studio; the picture had the same lighting and costume as shown in the trailer.

The poster contains the protagonist and antagonist that help to tell the audience who the most important characters are. One of the phrases “they call it The Trap for a reason” is part of the dialogue, setting the scene for the audience, at the start of our trailer. This cleverly links from the poster to the film trailer, once again, demonstrating that they are linked together. From the magazine and poster ancillary tasks, the audience will be able to notice who the protagonist is immediately. For example, Seni our main actor is placed in front of the antagonist in the poster. Also, he features directly in the centre of our magazine front cover.

The poster also contains the same font as shown in the trailer and magazine front cover of presenting the words ‘The Trap’. This shows that all three media items are linked together. Dark colouring, a main big main image of the actor and the same font helps to link all three different media products, together. Both the film trailer and poster contain the actor names and logos, which show similarity between the two projects. This therefore chains both projects together and reflects one-another.