Ancillary Text - Shutter Island

When analysing more existing media products I chose to look at the film ‘Shutter Island’ which is in the genre of psychological thriller which is what I am studying and creating. The film ‘Shutter Island’ was very widely watched by the target audience of teenagers and young adults and lots of advertisements were made to make sure that the production company made as much money possible as they could from the production. The way that they were able to get as much audience attention than they did was through the use of making billboard posters, being on the front of existing magazines such as Empire and Total Film along with then making sure that the DVD cover stood out from others on the market.

To make sure that the audience was able to see that all of the different products linked together to create the film of ‘Shutter Island’ the production company made sure that all of the products made have things in common such as the dark colour scheme that was used to show the danger to the audience of going to Shutter Island along with then the dark black and white colours used in the text to make sure that they stand out from the dim lit background to show the importance of staying in the light and the brightness of a room (in this case not going inside the mental asylum). The font that has been used on all of the products is bold and stands out from the page with every letter of the masthead being in capitals and spaced out evenly from one another varying in colour from the red writing to white title to even in one of the products being in an orange/yellow to symbolise the flames that have been lit by the characters. The smaller text is in the same font as the bigger text, this could have been because the producers didn’t want multiple texts on the front to show that only one character takes part in finding out what happens about Shutter Island and that everyone there is just the same as everyone suffers with negative mental health. Along with this the images that have been used are all very similar as the one photo of the protagonist character Leonardo DiCaprio holding the flame is an image that is seen on multiple products which will be something that the audience is then able to recognise and connect with due to seeing it so many different times. He is normally shown behind the location which might show the audience that he is suck somewhere he cannot escape or maybe he is trapped as a patient, the image is very dark showing the genre of psychological thriller.

Due to all of the print products of the film having similar colours and fonts I need to plan what all of my print products will have in common due to making sure that the audience is aware of the link in my products, making sure that the film links with what the audience would want to see. Along with this I need to make sure that all of the products that I will make need to show continuity between the products and the film I have considered this through looking at different colour schemes such as shades of pink due to it being one of the colour schemes I used in my AS coursework along with more unisex colours like red and blue as my film will need to appeal to both different genders as this is my target audience. I looked at existing products already in the media and realised that they use a lot of red to maybe show danger and importance along with bold colours such as black and then shades of grey and white, I think that this will be the colour scheme that I choose to use due to the genre of my trailer and all of my print products being a psychological thriller where I shall aim to show the genre of my products through the use of bold colours and fonts.

Right at this moment in time I am not sure on what exact fonts I will be planning to use as when it comes to making my print products I know that I shall be using a range of fonts to show that some things on the page are more important than others for example all of the cover lines on my magazine front cover will be in a more informal font that has similarities to the other fonts to make sure that they do not look ‘odd’ or ‘strange’ together on the page and to make the audience want to read it due to it looking professional. This shall be similar when it comes to making my billboard, posters and DVD front cover as I need to make sure that all of the products have some sort of continuity and link which shall be shown in the fonts that I will be using. A good example of products that all have the similar continuity would be, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ make sure that they show similarities by the use of dark images of the main characters along with the colour scheme of red and white and then making sure that the title/masthead is always the biggest thing on the page and a different colour from the rest of the information. The same font has been used on the title as it has on the smaller text, as everything on the page is written in lower case letters rather than capitals which could suggest to the audience that things constantly continue and have the same importance during the film. 

Along with this the images that I shall be using will show the main character who is played by Sophie who will be shadowed by her other personalities and character types to make sure that the audience understands the darkness of the separate characters and how they all live inside one body. The images that I am using will be different on every print product however include a different affect due to the lighting in the photographs even though the lighting shall be darkened to make the image stand out on the page along with showing the genre of psychological thriller and shows the under darkness of the character and there story (the narrative of the film trailer) which shall be shown in all print products.