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

In my poster I wanted to have a photo of the main character in the trailer with a hand across her mouth. However in horror posters and all mainstream advertising material you are not allowed to show danger towards women. To avoid this censorship issue I have made the model pose with her hand across her mouth although it could still possibly be mistaken for someone else's hand due to the lighting effects I have used to create shadows and darkness around the main image of the model. Also with the use of nail varnish it’s clear that either way it is a woman's hand covering her mouth this seems a lot less controversial. The title of my media product was 'Behind the Shadows' I thought that a key part in my poster would, of course, be shadows, I have used lighting effects to do this I chose ‘Filters’ ‘Render’ and‘Lighting effects’ to add the idea of shadows to the image. I chose the ‘Omni’ lighting effect as it created a circular shadow around the models face, I also chose this as the

image of the poster is now focused upon the centre of the models face and the hand over her mouth, this also creates a shadow all around the model with just her face in clear view, this adds a sense of eeriness and mystery to the poster. I also edited the contrast balance on the image to make certain areas a lot darker than others. I also changed the colour of the models eyes to a brighter green colour, I chose this colour as green symbolises envy and also the bright colour makes the eyes more distinctive and freaky. (I used Adobe Photoshop for all of these effects.)

This use of shadows and low key lighting are reminiscent of lots of horror movies, especially in posters. Such as THE GODFATHER(1972) although the poster uses an image of an older manthe shadows across half of his face suggest a 'darker' side to this man which may be revealed in the film, also on the ORPHAN(2009) poster the girls face has very dark shadows on either side of her very, 'freakishly'symmetrical face. This suggests that there is something that this character has something to hide or that she is not 'real' in the sense that nobody has a face that is as symmetrical as hers.I chose to design a cover for Empire magazine; I chose Empire as it is the

most mainstream movie magazine and thought that my media product would 'sell' well in this magazine. For the cover I wanted to have a picture to relate to my media product instead of a more 'posed' picture of the actress, so I have chosen a dynamic picture for my magazine cover as I thought that this would help to sell the product better. Although the image is fairly posed the model has a pose which is very suspicious (the finger covering her lips) and also her gaze is looking straight intothe camera lens with a slight frown both create an eeriness and sense of mystery to the image which relates it to the character of the film. This is like the HARRY POTTER cover for Empire, although in a way the actor is 'posing' he is not

posing as himself (Daniel Radcliffe) but as the character he plays (Harry Potter) this is helped from the 'gory' make up effects and the 'grubby' look he has, this look is also seen in the film. This is very different to the Empire magazine cover that uses Megan Fox for the front image, in this she is very posed but as herself not portraying the role of a character, this is because the article in the magazine is based on her as a person compared to the role she is playing in the TRANSFORMERS film.

For my magazine cover image I chose to use the second, more mysterious woman that appears in the trailer, this time with her finger over her lips as a way of signalling silence, this again creates mystery which I think would capture people’s attention and want to read more into the media product BEHIND THE

SHADOWS. I made the model for the poster wear a deep red nail

varnish (although a small detail), I did this because I red connotes danger but on the flip side it also connotes love, so there are controversial reasons as to why the main character (Susan) would be wearing red nail varnish. Either because she is the murderer or because she is in love with her husband, but as this is a horror product the audience would be more inclined to think that the nail varnish connotes danger, therefore making her the main suspect of the murder.

My poster has a 15 rating, as the type of horror film I was trying to emulate was a crime/thriller which included brief scenes of body horror which may be unsuitable for children under the age of 15. Other horror movies that are similar to this are; ORPHAN(2009), SOLITARY(2009) and

PSYCHO(1960) all three of these films are thrillers which include minimal body horror, such as restricted narration or not even any body horror at all, yet they are still successful as horror films this is because of the 'artsy' suspense, and mystery that is built up throughout the films/trailers.

I chose to shoot both of the photos in the snow (luckily for me it had snowed) as shooting in the snow creates a crisp, clear and adds a natural brightness to the images. Also in both of the images the models are surrounded by white connotes 'purity' and 'innocence', I exaggerated the blueness of the models eyes to connote this 'innocence' even more. I think that it is key that both images are surrounded by the snow which creates a clear, pure and innocent background as the audience still can't actually tell who is the hero and who is the villain, which in turn all adds to the suspense and mystery of the main media product.

In the end, the main aim behind the ancillary products was to sell the style of the main film. Although it would be hard to get a mainstream magazine like 'Empire' to advertise the film on the cover, the powerful image used represents the mysterious style of BEHIND THE SHADOWS. For both the magazine cover and the poster I used an expressionist close-up at a level angle. I wanted close-ups of each of the 'characters' faces as this will help the audience understand the character that little bit more and possible create an emotional attachment between them. This is also why both of the models are looking directly into the camera, it creates direct eye contact with the audience which draws them in. I haven't used any other angles such as low, or high as I didn't want either of the models/characters to have more power over the other this is to keep the plot behind the narrative as mysterious as possible. The audience are made to believe both characters have equal power and so cannot make assumptions to who is the murderer. With all of these features taken into consideration, I definitely think my combination of a trailer and ancillary products really 'sell' BEHIND THE SHADOWS' narrative successfully.