Evaluation Part 2

Insaniterium

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

When we created the idea for Insanitarium we were aiming at an audience of both psychological and gory horror fans. My poster on the left hand side has an 18 certicate because we aimed to include a few bits of extreme violence, like the sewed up wound in the trailer. We had to get this style into both my poster and my magazine cover, using images that would be sent out to people in media production companies and magazines etc. 

The first of my ancillary texts, my movie poster, follows most movie poster conventions and uses certain key aspects to attract and audience off horror fans. A large menacing – and distorted - image of my antagonist sneaking up on one of the victims in my trailer occupies most of my poster The looming shadows are frightening and also intrigue the audience. I have used a lot of red text on both my ancillary texts to connote blood and gore in general.  For the most part the rest of my text is in a white colour. This connotes the innocence of my victims which makes the antagonist seem even more evil and sadist and adds general horror as the victims are normal teens, like the majority of the audience. I have used a recurring font for the title of my film throughout all of my products, like a logo this will help my trailer become recognizable. The antagonist in the photo is holding a rather large knife to the female victim’s neck. This is quite obviously a phallic symbol, the slight hint that the killer has a sexist feel when it comes to killing. In the trailer we don’t actually see a male victim being killed or tortured, but we do see the psychotic doctor kill a female victim and cut into her neck with a scalpel. This key misogynist aspect of the main product is portrayed in this ancillary product. To finish the piece, I have used a lot of blood splatter effects on my poster as this just shows the audience that the film is going to be bloody and full of body horror.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77955575@N03/7023653951/ Please follow this link to see a visual analysis of my poster.

My second ancillary text is a film magazine cover (Empire) with my movie as its headlining topic.  This also uses most conventional methods of grabbing the audience’s attention. A large and bold film title above the title of the magazine shows that Insanitarium has been highly anticipated. Again I’ve used lots of red and grimy colours to connote gore and muck in general. A doctor is seemingly scarier if he’s unsanitary and uses rusty tools, the opposite to the highly clean antiseptic doctors of real life. The Hostel poster also has a grimy surgeon looking character as the central image.  I used a ‘sticker’ as most magazines of today have a small image to stand out and show the depth of content the magazine offers. Along with the barcode I added a scanning symbol that smart phones can scan to view more content, a key component in our technological age. I used a scratch overlay over the whole poster to add a sinister feel to the mise-en-scene.

The most powerful aspect of my Empire cover is the image. A close up of my antagonist with slices extended his creepy grin. This is a shocking and attention grabbing main image, which is one usually used my magazine covers as it grabs the attention of the audience as soon as they sight the cover. Empire always use a striking image for their cover piece, sometimes the antagonist pulling a sinister pose. The image is also taken from a low expressionist angle, making the killer seem powerful and even more menacing, along with the smile he is sort of mocking the audience and almost daring them to buy and read the magazine. Some bold cover lines and inventive inside stories are also included on the front cover help selling the magazine as more content is more value for money.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77955575@N03/7023653843/ Please see my Flickr image for a visual analysis.

Both my poster and my magazine cover are linked to my film trailer through certain auteur like aspects. The amount of gore on all three products show the audience that body horror effects will be delivered in this film. We set out to create Insanitarium to appeal to a target audience of mainstream horror fans, many of which are teenagers and young adults used to such gory modern horrors as Saw, and the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Our research in class showed that our trailer was mostly successful at achieving this, and so we used the ancillary products to advertise it even more. As I used Empire as my cover my target audience must be mainstream as well, and I feel this is reflected in the modern power of Insanitarium.