Ancillary product planning

As part of the promotion package I am going to be making, I have to create a film magazine front cover featuring the film and a film poster. The ancillary products will advertise my film just as effectively as the teaser trailer.

Initial poster ideas
For my poster I am planning to use a dominant image of the flat. I have decided that it would be interesting to use a few layers of graphology on the poster to portray that the narrative of my film has many layers and is not just a simple plot. For one of the layers I am planning to have the flat number '39' somewhere on the poster to draw the audiences attention to that specific flat number and it's significance. As well as the exterior of the flat and the number '39' I am planning to use a close up image of the female protagonist/victim who will be featured throughout the trailer. By using a close up image of her, a particular emotion can be conveyed through her worried facial expression and with the effect of the layer onto the flat it will show that something inside the flat or perhaps the flat itself is making her troubled. I have decided to use very dark colours on the film poster, similar to that on the shutter island poster. I am going to use a lot of black surrounding the flat and the girl, perhaps to convey that the flat itself is part of a bigger 'evil' than first percieved. I have decided to use the bold colour red on my film poster as red has connotations of danger which is what I wish to convey on my film poster so that the genre can be easily established. I think that the composition of images on my poster is going to be one of the most important things as my main aim is to convey a complex plot and to attract my target audience by allowing them to realize that there is a lot to the narrative which makes it appear interesting and intruiging.

Initial magazine cover feature ideas
As I want to establish a sense of branding across the trailer, the poster and the magazine front cover feature I must decide on a dominant idea/image to work with and alter for both the poster and the magazine cover feature. I must do this so that when my target audience views the promotion package they will be able to establish what film it is and it's genre. I plan to have a dominant image of the exterior of the flat as well as the iconic image of '39' and the close up image of the female character as my dominant idea/image. I have decided to be experimental and maybe for the magazine front cover feature, or the poster (I am yet to decide) have an extreme close up of an eye with the faded number '39' inside the pupil.
The use of these layered images will be recognisable for my target audience who would have seen the poster and it's similar style. As the poster can effectively 'speak for itself' because it just features the notion of the film and nothing else, I must establish a unique selling point when constructing my magazine front cover feature. As researched, both the 'Empire' and 'Total Film' magazine front cover features for The Dark Knight have USP's, Empire's being the interview with the character 'the joker' and Total Film's being the use of graffiti to attract the already established target audience for The Dark Knight. For my USP I am going to include 'on set' images and commentaries from characters and the director so that the target audience are intruiged by what is happening behind the scenes of this new horror film.

As well as using my creativity to construct a poster and magazine cover feature, I will also be including conventional text captions on my magazine cover feauture - "coming soon", "most anticipated film of the year", "5 ***** - Empire", "Thrilling - Total Film" are some examples I may use.



Here are some practice 'mock ups' of my initial poster and magazine front cover feature ideas.