3 Ancillary Task Annotated Examples (Film Poster)

Main Image: Within the sports biopic genre, the athlete is the central and predominant focus of the film. Therefore, it is logical for the character or athlete to be the main focus of the film poster. The main image consists of Pelé attempting an overhead kick over a favela in Brazil in front of a blue sky. The positioning of the character suggests that he is acrobatic and that at that time he changed how footballers played in an attacking sense. Furthermore, the fact that he is trying an overhead kick shows that he is willing to take a risk and be different to his teammates and opponents. He is also dressed in a top with black-and-white stripes and white shorts while wearing black boots with white laces. This contrasts with the rest of the poster because the background behind the main image mostly consists of vibrant and vivid colours. It also reinforces the fact that he wanted to be different to his surroundings and his teammates. 

Background: The background is composed of a collection of favelas under a clear blue sky with a small amount of clouds. It shows that the film also focuses on where Pelé came from and what his roots were. This suggests that the story is very grounded despite the athlete being portrayed achieving so much through his football, it suggests Pele doesn't forget where he grew up and the friends and family he knew there. Therefore, it shows that his fame hasn't made him arrogant enough to forget the people that helped him and the ones that he grew up with that weren't as successful as he has become.  

Colours: Most of the colours on this poster are quite bright and vibrant but there is a wide variety of different colours on this poster. For example, a few of the houses clearest on the poster are in red and orange and the bottom of the sky has a light blue/turquoise colour along with pale white clouds. The vibrant colours reflects the culture of Brazil, which is where Pelé is from, and this is present as a theme throughout the film. On the other hand, Pelé is dressed in a black and white kit with white shorts. This suggests that he is willing to be different from his surroundings and achieve greatness in football. 

Typography: The title is in a golden font and capital letters to suggest that the main character becomes one of the biggest stars in football. The colour of gold infers connotations of prosperity and wealth but it also suggests passion, wisdom and courage. This can be reflected in the narrative of the film through various scenes and the overall message of the film. The bottom part of the title, "Birth Of A Legend", is in much smaller text and the colour of it is white unlike the main part of the title. In addition, the font of the text is different to the main part of the title. 

Tagline: The tagline used on this poster indicates that the narrative of the film involves the main character coming from nothing to be the best individual he can to help Brazil win the World Cup in 1958. It reads: "A boy with nothing who changed everything". This could suggest that the narrative is about Pelé coming from nothing all the way to changing Brazilian football. 

Mise-en-scene: On this poster, the mise-en-scene suggests that the film is about the journey of a footballer coming from nothing to achieving greatness through his sport. This is represented through the images of the favelas and Pelé being above them. The colour scheme consists of bright vibrant colours such as red, green and blue and black/white. 

Conventions: The film poster conforms to most of the conventions of the sport biopic genre through having an image of the main character being dressed in sports attire and attempting to do an athletic manoeuvre of the overhead kicking of a football. 

Target Audience: The target audience of this film poster would be males that are football fans or specifically fans of the Brazil National team or Pelé. The audience of this film may be too young to have seen Pelé play in real life, therefore, this is one of the best ways for younger football fans to get a good idea of what he was like as a footballer and a person. In addition, it could allow people that were able to watch him to relive viewing his footballing abilities and his meteoric rise in the world of football. 

Main Image: Within this genre of sports fiction films, the main character is predominant and the principal focus of the story in the film. The main image consists of the young footballer holding a ball towards his head in front of a sunrise at a beach. This suggests that the main character has dedicated their life to football and that's the only thing that will allow them to succeed in life. The main character has his eyes closed and is wearing a black top with white stripes on the sleeves and white chevrons on the front of it.  

Background: The background shows the main character with his arms stretched out and looking up to the orange sky while his football is on the ground to the right of him. The football next to the character in the background is different to the one he is holding in the main focus of the film poster. This could suggest that he is really dedicated to football because he has more than one football in his possession. 

Colours: The colours of the poster consist of a bright orange scheme and plain colours such as black and white. All of the text on the poster is in white, however, the types of text are all in different sizes from each other. The colour black could suggest that the young footballer isn't dressed too extravagantly as his biggest focus is achieving success in his football. 

Typography: All of the text on poster is in a white font and the title is formatted in large capital letters. The tagline, which is above the title, is also in white capital letters but the text is much smaller and is in a different font than the title.  The connotations of this could be that

Tagline: On this poster the tagline is located above the title and reads: "Every dream has a beginning". This tagline is quite powerful because it is suggesting that everyone has to have a beginning to what they want to achieve in the future and in this case it is Santiago Munez dreaming of becoming a professional footballer. Furthermore, 

Mise-en-scene: The mise-en-scene displayed on this poster consists of the footballer being focused on his football in order to achieve his dream of becoming a pro footballer. 

Conventions: The film poster conforms to most of the conventions of the sport biopic genre through having an athlete focused on their sport. This is shown through the imagery of the main character holding up a football towards their head. 

Target Audience: The target audience of this film poster would be young males between the ages of 8-18 that are football fans, love playing football and have similar dreams of wanting to become professional footballers.  

Main Image: The main image on this poster is made up of 3 men sat on a bench. One of them is dressed in a red and white strip with white shorts and red, black and white socks while wearing black boots. The second person is dressed in all-black clothes while wearing a watch and dark boots.

Background: The background consists of a white wall with red and white strips on hooks 

Colours: The colours are mainly white 

Typography: The majority of the text on the poster is in black capital letters 

Tagline: The tagline describes what the film is about 

Mise-en-scene: The use of mise-en-scene

Conventions: The film poster conforms to most of the conventions of the sport biopic genre through

Target Audience: The target audience of this film poster would be suitable for 

Ancillary Tasks Research

The conventions and purpose of an ancillary product is to promote and market the main product and to more importantly promote the creator of the main product. These products often take up the form of magazines, posters, websites and other types of promotional platforms. The conventions of a film poster are that it has to be eye-catching and captivating to the audience. There must also be a focal picture that draws in the eyes of the audience. Furthermore, the title has to be displayed in a large and eye-catching font. There also has to be an indicator of when the film will be released. In addition, the information about directors and the production company is usually displayed in a billing block at the bottom of the poster. On top of this, there may be reviews or titles of other films that the company has made.

The conventions of a film magazine front cover are that it has to have a masthead, which is usually at the top of the page and indicates what magazine it is, and an image that must reflect the audience and the style of the magazine. The main image is normally a mid shot and should reflect what the film featured is about. This would usually involve the main actor from the featured film. A further convention of a film magazine front cover is that they have to have buzzwords such as 'free' and 'exclusive' in order to capture the attention of the reader and make them want to buy the magazine. Another convention of a film magazine front cover is the anchorage text; this is the text that often overlaps the image to tell what the story inside the magazine will involve. This could be a quote taken from a interview inside the magazine. The next convention of a film magazine front cover is the banner, which gives overall information about the magazine and what will be found inside. The final conventions are the barcode, date and issue number, something that every magazine front cover requires.

For my ancillary tasks, I will be producing a poster and a film magazine front cover featuring my film. I have chosen to do a poster because I have had experience of making posters at a previous school during Year 7 Media lessons. Therefore, the previous knowledge that I have gained will allow me to produce a higher quality poster to promote my short film trailer using similar or more advanced software such as Photoshop and InDesign. Another reason for choosing to do a film poster as one of my two ancillary products is that a lot of posters that I've seen have attracted my attention and resulted in me watching the film it was promoting. I chose to do a magazine cover as my second ancillary task to promote my film trailer because I've seen many magazine covers that have promoted blockbuster films successfully. This is what I want to do with my second ancillary product because I wish to produce a high-quality and professional poster that effectively promotes my film trailer.

Peer Feedback (Rough Cut)

In order to gauge what improvements I can make to my film, it is important to gain feedback from peers by allowing them to watch what I have produced so far and critique it. Through this process, they may suggest improvements to my project that I may have missed or could develop upon ways in which I thought my film could be improved. Therefore, I asked a peer in my A2 Media Studies class to watch my trailer all the way through and offer improvements that they thought could be made to my film in order to get a better final product.

The first improvement that was suggested by my peer was to make the titles at the beginning of my film longer. I agree with this improvement because I feel that the transition between the two sets of titles is too fast and doesn't give the audience enough time to read and process them. To act on this improvement, I will increase the length of the black video and decrease the speed of the titles so that both of them appear for longer. In addition, I need to find a way to make the transition between the titles less sudden and abrupt in order to make the beginning of the trailer more seamless.

Another improvement that was suggested by my peer was to cut the beginning of the clip at 00:33:25 slightly so that there isn't a pause. This improvement is quite valid because the start of the clip seems too long. Due to my project being a trailer, it can only be 1:30-2:00 mins long and cutting bits of clips like this will allow me to create a better trailer. In order to have the best trailer possible, the clips within it have to be the best moments and this can only be done if the unimportant parts that slow down the flow of the trailer are cut. Therefore, the trailer has to showcase the best moments of the film with an uninterrupted flow in order to persuade the target audience to watch the film.

A further improvement that was recommended by my peer was to cut the beginning of the clip starting at 00:01:49:47 so the character is already walking forwards rather than standing still. I agree with this suggestion because I feel that having the character standing then walking is less interesting for the audience to watch. The purpose of my trailer is to keep the audience interested and having this part of the trailer edited will help in achieving this. This will allow me to achieve this by cutting the beginnings of clips that slow down the flow of the trailer.

The fourth improvement that was suggested by a fellow student was to cut the clips starting from 00:02:41:21 so they move quicker between the shots as this will help portray the continuous practice the main character is doing. They also said that due to the fact that the audience doesn't know what I'm trying to show, I will have to make it easy for them to understand. Therefore, this would mean I would have to ensure that my trailer fits in well with the genre conventions of my project. Making the shots of the young footballer practising move quicker between each other will keep the audience interested for longer and allow them to understand what I'm trying to show much easier for them.

The fifth improvement that was proposed by my peer student was to make the part of the clip at 00:03:03:40 a 1/4 of the length and to overlay the teacher's voice under the clips. I feel this a good improvement because in this collection of clips my main character is looking out into the distance contemplating his future in football and adding more audio of the coach motivating him will only enhance this piece of footage. This is great to have in the trailer because it perfectly portrays the narrative of the story and it is the best dialogue that I have filmed.

The final improvement that was suggested by my peer was to add a song underneath the trailer that is based on the theme and feelings that I want to portray. I agree with this improvement because I feel that the music will have to complement the themes and narrative of the trailer. This could be achieved by finding royalty free music with a motivational theme or a fast-paced RnB beat. However, if I find a song that is more suitable, I can ask the artist for permission and then use it in my trailer.