Evaluation Activity 2

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

We aimed for the three texts of the film trailer, the magazine cover and the film poster to share consistencies with one another such as colouring and font so that our film "Old Habits Die Hard" becomes a recognisable brand of it's own as it develops certain attributes that become associated with it. Throughout the three texts we aimed for their to be consistencies in the overall mood of the three pieces providing a dark and sinister mood to the film.


 For example, in our film trailer we were particularly keen to make advantageous use of darkness and exploit the use of a lack of lighting to subsequently create a dark mood. This use of darkness and secondary colours, colours such as  sharp, metallic greys and a grimmer use of lighting were used to create the embodiment of an environment on the underbelly of society. Throughout all three texts we were primarily concerning ourselves with how best to replicate social isolation, dependency and an urban environment having been starved of economic growth and investment, an environment in need of regeneration. Through the use of this stereotypically and decidedly urban environment we were hoping to replicate within our work the living conditions of working class members of society. A working class member of society is exactly who our central protagonist, Toby Scott, is a member of. As such, we are hoping the audience would better be able to understand his addiction to drugs as he is surrounded by depravity and social and economic upheaval, we were hoping to show that his addiction to drugs is seen as an understandable, but by no means excusable, release from his difficulties.  A working class urban environment, is a consistency we were hoping to effectively replicate across the range of the three promotional texts. I believe we have been able to fulfil our  desired aim as the setting for all three promotional texts bears a recognisable consistency with one another that I feel emphasises our film to great effect and marks our film out in a unique way.


As this is the case, our film was able to manifest an identity of it's own in a similar way to how existing Social Realism film example, This is England demonstrates effectively.   This was done through the showcasing  of an economically deprived area to highlight to the respective audience the genre of the film effectively and clearly. In the marketing campaign for This is England it too uses, in a similar way to how we also effectively applied a dark mood through effective lighting was used. The use of atmospheric, natural lighting is one of the consistencies shared by all of the products as being dark and ominous giving clear indications as to the dark, avaricious nature of events that will unfold in the production.

The two Ancillary Tasks of the magazine cover and my film poster share common consistencies of being united through the binary opposite colours of green and red in their styling. Not only do these colour consistencies act as an identity for the film but the use of the two colours, in a similar way to Toby's binary opposition with the antagonists of the piece, share directly opposing connotations with the Colour red implying danger and deceit whilst the colour green acts as a metaphor for positivity and a healthy wellbeing which is in direct opposition to what is showcased within  our main trailer with the central protagonist seen to be smoking consistently throughout the course of the trailer. We felt it was important for the two Ancillary Texts to share consistencies with one another so that they could be identified as part of the same promotional package, which I believe works very successfully.

I think that all of our products share a common consistency in that relatively little is revealed about the central protagonist. The character's dark clothing is used to compliment the lighting so his identity remains an intended secret. This is due to the fact that Toby could be "any man" essentially and as such we wanted to not mark him out as a specific individual or focal point particularly, as we were very keen on the idea that Toby should effectively be able to blend into everyday society and his surroundings. The reason for giving Toby a greater concealed identity is in reference to the idea that     anybody could effectively find themselves in Toby's position and fighting an addiction of their own. We felt that this approach therefore improve the chemistry between the viewer and the character despite on a superficial level seeming to distance the audience from an initially unknown character.