Evaluation Activity 2

Our poster, magazine and trailer all compliment each other as they are part of a consistent and recognisable advertisement campaign. Each one was unique and had a different format-allowing our audience to see the film from a different aspect.

The main, and most obvious, link between them is the establishment of its horror genre. Each of the pieces included the props from the film,including a knife and dark hooded clothing-which is a clear indication to the genre. It was most difficult to make the magazine cover look like a horror magazine as we had to use various pictures, a mix of original and existing pictures, to compliment the final picture. We also had to make it look as sinister as the poster and did this by creating a fogged out background-setting the scene for the trailer. We gave prevalence to the main antagonist in both the poster and the magazine because we wanted to create an idea that this antagonist would not disappear and be every where you look. This made it clear that the main focus of the trailer would be the antagonist and this is evidenced in the trailer as we have various POV shots from the antagonist-to allow the audience to experience the antagonists side instead of the protagonists side, like many other horror films do. This gave the campaign its own unique feature; films usually focus on the protagonist and aim to make the audience feel for them where as we aimed to make the audience become, a sort of, detective in order to work out the mystery-viewing from the perspective of the antagonist and from a neutral perspective. At the same time we also focused on the main protagonist, Rachel, in the trailer by showing her to be different to the other characters and was also given prevalence in the trailer. This follows Claude Levi-Strauss' theory of binary oppositional forces; the stories focus on the conflict between opposite forces, in this case it is between good and evil. To make this binary opposition clear we had the the main protagonist wear white casual clothing and the main antagonist wear black hooded clothing-which makes it easily recognisable for the audience. The trailer supports this theory as the first half focuses on the antagonist, including POV shots, and the second half focuses on the protagonist and how she will survive this masked murderer.

The next obvious feature that links our campaign together is the title of the film; it is on all three pieces and is, hopefully, one of the main focal points.The titles on all three pieces is big and bold-with the most obvious part being the blood splatter behind the white text. This allows our audience to identify our advertising campaign and understand that they are all related. On the magazine front cover, the viewer will recognise the antagonist and the title as it is shown on both the poster and the trailer-making it the main feature of our advertising campaign, making it feel like the antagonist is following them around. In the trailer the title is shown right at the end, with the rest of the credits, making it very obvious and recognisable as it takes up the whole screen. This conforms to the conventions of a horror trailer; if the title was at the beginning the audience may have forgotten it by the end, whereas it the title is at the end the audience maintain their interest and are more likely to be interested in the film. Overall the title is another main focal point as it is reinforced throughout the campaign-making it very clear for audience to identify.

Another way that our advertising campaign successfully works together is through showing the film in different ways. This is highlighted in the differences between the poster, trailer and the magazine front cover. The trailer focuses more towards the storyline of the film whereas the magazine is more informative and focuses on the behind-the-scenes side, This allows the audience to get to know the film on multiple levels as they see the film from behind and in front of the camera. It also allows the audience to see how each scene was created-allowing to feel involved with the experience. The poster, however, aims to give as little away as possible-creating many enigmas. The "Enigma Codes" theory, devised by media theorist Roland Barthes, states that the purpose of the author of a media text is to keep the audience guessing through establishing enigmas for the audience to work out. Our campaign conforms to this theory as the audience are left guessing and trying to work out the motives of the antagonist and who he is.

The magazine front cover offers a slightly different perspective as it includes five star reviews and interviews with the actors-which gives the audience another reason to watch it as the film is highly rated and successful. This conforms to the "Uses and Gratifications" theory by Blumier and Katz (1970), as it fulfils the need to interact with others- as it allows the audience to watch it and talk about it with others. It also gives information that the poster nor trailer have as it has the feature of behind-the-scenes interviews, allowing the audience to understand the film and gives them something to discuss with their friends-again conforming to the "Uses and Gratifications" theory. The trailer on the other hand also conforms the "Uses and Gratifications" theory; offers a different perspective into the world as our film is a true story-creating a sense of fear and causing the audience to reinforce themselves.

Overall each part of the campaign works both individually and together to create a successful marketing campaign that is easily recognisable and is appealing to our target audience. There are many enigmas established and we have used many theories to help boost the impact of our campaign. Despite the different parts of our campaign having their own unique techniques and using different features, they all still clearly link together and make a strong, successful marketing campaign for our film.