2

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

To create a brand identity is to sum up the genre and tonality of a product. It is to make the product instantly recognisable and to set it aside from the many others that swamp every form of media. Many things contribute to a brand identity through simple things such as colours, music, text and logos, through branding the audience should identify the theme of the product and in many ways the branding is what catches the themes not only within individuality of products but also common themes are witnessed through genre thus making the audience have a clear picture of what type of theme appeals to them. In my product the branding is very evident.

Here is an example of the products signature font on each of the three tasks.

Magazine cover:

Poster:

Introductory text on the film trailer:

Apart from the products signature text, another theme seen throughout the three tasks is the use of black and white/lack of colour. This has been used as it represents good and evil and is not striking, reflecting the main characters position and the story. It is also a nod to probably the most well known and best film in same genre of all time, Psycho. Here is some examples of this.

This is the front cover of the magazine displaying the main character without colour:

This is screenshots of the film trailer - notice how the footage has been de-saturated (colour drained) to give it a mundane realistic wash.

The film poster displays the theme in its fullest form notice the tagline 'Life isnt always black & white'. Also the character throughout the film and on the other promotional materials only wears black and white.

Another noticeable use of a theme adding to the brand and style is the use of mundane everyday environments as the setting to the product. The main backdrops in the product include run down mills typical of northern towns, canals, estates, empty grass areas and an ex-primary school. Here are some examples of this theme.

A mill in leigh, Lancashire as seen in the beginning of the film trailer

The same mill displayed in Adobe Premiere before colour grading

Wigan, Orrell Waterpark



Haydock, ex primary school (caretakers closet)



Our film trailer also contains unusual music such as in the beginning with 'I don't Want To Set the World On Fire' by The Ink Spots. This music juxtaposes the imagery on screen as it is fairly upbeat and the lyrics 'I don't want to set the world on fire' suggests that the song, written in the 1930s-40s may be a reference to war. The song therefore ties in with the film as the protaganist is under threat and the music, fairly obscure is instantly recognised as a part of the brand with its individuality.



Another part of brand identity is the films tagline - 'Life isn't always black & white'. This phrase is heard on the voice over on the video and is on the film poster. The tag line is key part of branding and is designed to reinforce audiences memory of the product by it being easily memorable and catchy.