CONSTRUCTION: HOT SEAT

hot seatinG: FINAL CUT by Morven McIntyre

CONSTRUCTION: BBFC CERTIFICATE

BBFC CERTIFICATE by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

THE INSTITUTE by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: RISK ASSESSMENT

RISK ASSESSMENT by Morven McIntyre

CONSTRUCTION: SMASH CUT

by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: SOCIAL ISSUES/ GROUPS

social by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: THE MARKETING PLAN

Made with Visme

PLANNING: CHARACTER CASTING

We had originally planned to use multiple different characters representing the social group of school girls in the boarding house, these actresses included Lara Watkin and Gabriella Lowe. Although they were not presented to the audience within the trailer they would be represented in the film as a whole when produced. 

PLANNING: HORROR CODES AND CONVENTIONS

huge by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

I created an audience questionnaire to produce further research into my target audience, my questionnaire is personalised and adapted around the type of film my peers and I plan to produce: horror/thriller. My questionnaire helps me draw together both qualitative and quantitative date which I can later put together into diagrams or words to help me plan further on how I should produce my trailer, in order to fit the needs and wants of my target audience. 

PLANNING: PROP LIST

These are a lists of props that we will need for our production:

ro ck by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: TREATMENT

FRANK ASH: treatment, TOP-LINE & big question by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

 

We have done a brief plan of a storyboard, this a rough idea of how the trailer will flow. Although, because we are creating a trailer it will not flow as much. With lots of hard cuts and the trailer jumping back and forward, as I have learnt from watching trailers that they flow at the beginning and have a continuous story to it until the drama hits and it becomes more suspenseful with lots of hard cuts and dark screens and flashes. So although we have created a storyboard the trailer may not continuously show this order. This is just so we know what kind of shots we want, scenes and people. 

PLANNING : LOCATION RECCE

Our locations of our film trailer is mostly based in the same place. We will be using our beautiful school grounds as the location for our film, we luckily have lots of different rooms with different aesthetics. Our first shots will be of the exterior of the building. However, we plan to also use the basement of our school this gives a very dark and gloomy aesthetic this will be where the dark and suspicious scenes will take place it has the perfect environment for these horror scenes, with chipped paint and mossy walls.

The basement is the perfect location for our film trailer with the white stained walls it gives the perfect location to film horror films underground in a basement that will be seen as an institution almost like an asylum. 

PLANNING: TARGET AUDIENCE

Heart- Dominant People by Morven McIntyre

PLANNING: CHARACTER TYPES

 CHARACTER OF REBELLIOUS GIRL 

When planning the character of Susannah, I researched and looked at how women dressed in the 1960's, I looked at different styles of dressing some being more casual and some being more upper-class and posh. This will be used as inspiration for when our character arrives at the boarding school before she is forced to change into uniform and school attire. 

MATRON

A matron is a woman that is in charge of taking care of students at a boarding school or any other type of institution. She will take care of the medical and domestic side of things. Matrons were often shown in films in the 1960's/80's as they defined a stereotype at the time, they were often shown as rule-bound and regimented, non comforting figures. In our film we will have the matron as a recurring character who is in charge of the girls in the boarding house, however, is there something suspicious about the matron? 

We will aim to have an older actress to play the character of matron, dressing them in mostly white long dresses and a head piece to make it authentic. 

FATHER 

In the 1960's many upper - class men were very proper and dressed very formally, I looked at upper class men as my inspiration as the character of Susannah father is going to be portrayed as wealthy, the reason for him being able to afford to send her away to a posh luxury boarding school. Our character will wear a suit with a handkerchief and top hat. The character of her Father will be strict and firm, someone who cares about his family's image and how that may impact himself and his business more than anything. 

SCHOOL GIRLS 

For the school uniform my friends and I will wear our old school uniforms partnering them with knit jumpers to make them look older as well as adding high knee socks and ties this will make the school uniform look more strict and put together, showing they must behave and take orders.

PLANNING: INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

When planning our trailer as a group we put together a mind map of ideas to give us a clear sense of what props, locations and people we would need to be able to cast and create a realistic film trailer. We also put together the rough idea of the plot summary that we think the trailer will finalise. These ideas may change as we go on to plan more but these are our initial rough ideas. The film will be set in the 1960's this will be shown by the use of mise-en-scene by how the characters present themselves with their clothing, alongside the idea of using cod-liver which is dietary supplement that was used more commonly in the 1960's.

 

PLANNING: SIMILAR FILMS

Dirty Pretty

BOARDING SCHOOL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USw3qAOm5xY&feature=emb_logo

Pathology

TRAILER ANALYSIS

 

TRAILER ANALYSIS: 



THE REPORT

Film trailers are used as a form of advertisement for a film, to captivate an audience , it will reflect what the audience can expect to see at the cinema, what genre it identifies as and sell the film with its exciting visuals, The Report does exactly this. 

The genre of drama/thriller is shown almost instantly when the trailer begins with the use of orchestral music with violins and cell  the music is very dark and leads to a high pitch sound , this indicates the start of something bad , something that will continue to get worse and the audience anticipate what will occur . With a sound bridge to "after 9/11 everyone was scared", this sets the time period roughly and tells the audience the film will be based off a politics. "2nd day of grad school" this introduces the audence further to the main character throughout the film and makes them more familiar with who he is, his age, and what his interests are. 

A mid-shot of the room full of government officials with 9/11 being played on screen followed by a reaction shot of government officials shows different points of views. The use of mise-en-scene in this trailer is very telling of the different hierarchy status' , from what seems like an elected official. His importance and power is shown through mise-en-scene with a gold plated room and picture frames, wooden door and other luxurys where as everyone else is in a room together not isolated in private like himself and they are in basic monotone rooms. Him being shot in the frame individually shows his importance. This shot then cuts to the main character Daniel Jones who at the time was a grad student in a bar this close up shot helps to further introduce the audience and shows his devastation. 

Establishing shot of the Capitol building in Washington DC further tells the audience how political this film is as Washington is the US heart of politics and where all the big decisions are made, it tells hte audience where in the US the film is set and shows a symbol of government power. A close up pan over the keyboard and  newspapers fills the screen  this shows the constant bombard these politicians face and how their work is very public and they cannot escape from it. The use of dialogue from one scene to the next shows a visual representation of what they are talking about (CIA destroying tape sof interrogations of al-gaeda detainees) with a mid shot of the tapes being thrown in to fire shows the extremity of the situation and how many tapes there were that got destroyed. By showing the audience the physical tapes it makes them more intrigued by what was on them, were they that bad that they had to get thrown away? what are the government hiding from us? It also makes the audience suspicious of the government. A close up shot of Jones' hand using the key card to go into the file room shows how secretive and exclusive it is to get in there, that it is not open for everyone to see. Although the government are shown to be untrustworthy and suspicious we are to believe that Daniel Jones is an anomaly. The use of editing throughout with each clip fading to a black screen then back to the clip creates suspicion and suspense, this happens when Jones is inspecting the file room that ironically has no files but instead is an almost empty room filled with dull lighting and closed in cream walls and computer screens. "No paper?" "Paper has a way of getting us in trouble at our place" "at our place, paper so we keep track of laws" this use of conversational dialogue where Jones repeats the mans works back to him shows that he is suspicious of the government and does not agree with them, this conversation creates tension and shows that the government cannot be trusted and makes the audience feel uneasy that these are the people in power. 

A montage of different articles/ reports "top secret" then cut to women reading something of these papers, this creates the idea that this is a point of view shot, that the audience are getting an insight into the reports. A change in location with harsh man made yellow dim lighting with cracks and leaks all over the walls shows that this is a rundown very shady and secretive location in comparison to the built up modern rooms earlier in the trailer. This is a mid shot / 4 people shot with CIA members the audience also see through a camera lens (POV) this shows that they are there to film something but because of the location it gives the audience the idea that it is not very moral or legal. A close up shot of them shaving a mans beard off this implys they are preparing him for something and punishing him, making him less of a man? perhaps. "They waterboarded him 183 times" mise-en-scene, the audience are shown the gallons of water as well as the individual who is doing the waterboarding is covered head to toe in black clothing so he cannot be identified, the camera work mostly uses mid shots and close ups for this scene, this means that the audience are not shown too much and its not so graphic, but by the use of dialogue and mise-en-scene they are aware of how devistating and terrible these actions are. The juxtaposition between the cut from the dark basement where illegal activity is taking place to the politicians office that is full of bright lights and flags, shows patriatism and safety the people in power have. 

The film is based on actual events, this can be used as a selling point as there is an audience of people who love movies based on true stories. The font use to show this is very creative and smart as it typed up like a type -writer in the same writing as the newspapers/reports. As the trailer comes to an end editing is used greatley and helps heighten emotion and build to a dramatic crescendo. With quicker shots, faster pace music (drumming) and lots of different close up shots of different individuals the dialogue grows louder "human rights violation... war crimes" this shows the anger that Jones is feeling and the seriousness of the situation. A master shot of the white house is used as the building is hidden behind trees, this symbolises they are trying to hide and they (compared to others such as the man being waterboarded) have the power and resources to do so. With a mid-shot and tracking shot of Daniel Jones walking down a narrow dark corridor, looking back over his shoulder as dialogue "they can't destroy the documents but they can go after the next best thing... you" plays, as he looks back this creates the idea that he is looking back over his shoulder as if someone is coming after him. This tells the audience that by him trying to do the right thing he is putting himself in danger. 

A behind shot of Dan sitting in a room full of government officials with the files piled next to him shows that he is now in power and it is him vs the government. The trailer ends with a montage of close up shots of different polticians and people from different hierarchy status' as the sound grows louder and faster, as they share their thoughts on the issue shows different perspectives and shows the audience how real people are affected, each clip contradicts the next making the audience question who they can trust. "Truth Matters" this implys if the audience see this film, they will finally recieve the truth. 

TRAILER ANALYSIS:

AMERICAN SNIPER

The trailer begins by setting the scene and introducing the audience to the type of genre it is, which is a War/Action film. It does this by using minimalistic sound throughout the majority of the trailer. The introduction of a the sound of a loading gun from a hard cut of black screen to a mid shot of the rifle, where there are fragments of destroyed architecture and stones on the floor, this use of mine-en-scene creates a sense of danger and discomfort for the audience. 

There is a use of an extreme close up shot using an upwards pan to the eyes of the main character Chris Kyle (played by well known actor Bradley Cooper), this introduces the audience to the main character and shows his concentration and professionalism. As well as use of master shot of local surroundings showing military men laying on the floor with their rifles and the town being destroyed also introduces the audience to the environment that these men are in. Trailers are made to introduce the audience to the central character and the location of the film. 

Unlike other trailers the beginning half of this trailer uses little to no dialogue at all, with just non-diegetic sounds of rifles, vehicles moving around and men kicking doors open. This shows the audience the seriousness behind working in this job and that one sound could cause errors. The silence creates suspense and keeps the audience on edge. 

Mise-en-scene in any film is important to set the scene and give the audience the idea of characters personalities, locations and personal life. In this trailer the use of Mis-en-scene with the costumes for the actors is important as all of them are dressed in the exact same uniform, being combat uniform, this shows that they are part of the military, showing the genre of a War film. 

As well as this all the actors we come across dressed in military clothing are men, this shows a stereotype, that it is seen as a 'mans job'. The use of military clothing represents the fact that these men are not seen as individuals, instead just numbers or another man there to fight for America. 

The use of editing + camera work is very effective in this part of the trailer with a point of view shot this implies that this man may be shot, or that he is a cause for suspicion. The use of ethnic diversity represents the current state at the time in America (1999–2009) that muslims were portrayed as the enemy of Americans. With the first bit of dialouge coming in at the same time of this shot - "I've got a military aged male on a cellphone watching convoy, over", this helps to create suspicion of

male and makes the audience question the

innocene of him. 

The rest of the trailer focuses greatly on the mother and the child with a downward pan towards them as though we are seeing it how Chris played by Bradley Cooper is seeing it. By using a child to question the innocence of the situation it contradicts our usual stereotype of  a child where we automatically assume innocence. The use of editing with a cross cut to flashbacks that Chris Kyle is experiencing scenes of him at his wedding with his wife, as well as a montage of flashbacks of his life at home with his child. This creates meaning and shows the audience a different side to Chris, showing he is vulnerable and that he sympathises with this mother and child as he would do anything to protect his own. The juxtaposition between the little boy holding a grenade to his duaghter running around in a safe home, living a life a child should, creates emotion for the audience that although this little boy may have a grenade and be a danger to people, they sympathse with him and feel sorry for him. 

By the end of the trailer there is a huge acceleration in pace to build a dramatic crescendo, with music having a massive impact on dramatic effect. There is a use of loud drumming music with the music getting higher pitched and a intense heartbeat sound, this gives the audience an insight into his feelings and emotions, creating anxiety and unease. When the music comes to a sudden end with an extreme close up of Chris hovering over the trigger and a black screen with the title 'American Sniper'. This creates the hook and suspense for the audience, making them wonder questions but the big question is - will he pull the trigger on the young boy? 

TRAILER ANALYSIS :

GRAVITY 

The start of the trailer begins with absolute silence and a black screen which appears to have white writing giving facts and figures about space, when you are in the cinema and see this inter title there is nothing there there is nothing else in the cinema, its silent and you feel as if you are in space, its a very immersive film.

This instantly tells the audience the genre of film this will be - Sci/Fi thriller. The whole of the trailer is set in space, we are never shown life on earth, this tells us where the film will be located the whole time because the film is all set in the same place the use of graphics, sound and camera movement is really important and effective to make the film exciting and unique. The creators of the trailer used name dropping as a selling point of the film, with big names such as Sandra Bullock and George Clooney this will attract a large audience. 

It cuts from silence to extreme loud noise with banging this shock of sudden loud noise grabs the audiences attention, followed by a mid shot full of action and a voice over of "explorers been hit" - this automatically sets the plot and central conflict and tells the audience that the astronaut is in danger. By having the movement of the space ship move towards the camera rather than the camera move with it  when spinning rapidly, this helps to intensify the speed and show the audience the extreme nature of this situation, making them feel the anxiety that Ryan Stone played by Bullock must be feeling. 

The film is based around Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski and how they will survive the disruption of their shuttle that they were using for the journey into space. At the beginning Stone seems petrified this is shown by her emotion as well as sound and editing. The use of montage and fast pace editing alongside lots of point of view shots creates the impression of fear and the overwhelming feeling of what is going on, by using a point of view shot it allows the audience to see what Stone may be seeing and how she feels overwhelmed, scared and confused in how to act next. Throughout the trailer there is a faint ringing noise as well as deep orchestral music and heartbeat sounds, this implys what Stone is hearing and feeling in this traumatic moment. The sound of alarms ringing signifys that she needs to get out as alarms are usually a warning sound to leave a dangerous situation. 

Stone states "I have a daughter" this shows the audience a different side to the character, shows that she is human and has loved ones, this makes the audience connect and sympathise with her further . Although I believe she breaks the stereotype of women (or mother) which is a maternal figure who stays at home and doesn't work, where as she is an astronaut which traditionally is seen as a mans job, this shows strong female empowerment. She goes on to say "tell her I'm not quitting" this tells the audience that she is adement to fight for her life and come home, it shows a change in attitude from the beginning of the film where she was scared and vulnerable, she is now shown to be strong and independent. The trailer ends with her holding on for dear life and screaming, this creates the hook and creates questions such as - what will happen to her next? will she survive? will she return to her daughter? 

TRAILER ANALYSIS :

CLOVERFIELD

The trailer begins with a plain black screen giving information to the audience before they are visually shown what is happening/ what the plot is. With the footage being reversed and the camera rewind sound gives the idea of the type of filming style the film will be in, in this case a documentary style, this is also portrayed through hand held camera movement. The documentary style gives the film a more personal touch with what looks like a lower quality camera and the re-wind makes it seem like someone is watching it back. With a mid shot of the room full of people and all these people having their backs turned to the camera it instantly brings our attention to one specific man this implys he will be the main character throughout the film. It also introduces him as an enthusiastic person with his social life and a party scene. There is a sudden change when we hear a dark gloomy noise occur as well as screaming and the sound of people in distress this implies that people are in danger and something bad is about to happen. The camera keeps zooming in and out this adds to the idea of documentary style and gives the perception of the character to the audience. The use of editing to create a freeze frame where the image changes to a black and white comic like image indicates the idea of news and newspapers, this show that whatever is happening is big news. 

The camera moves with the movement of the actors and with the movement of the explosions and buildings falling, this makes the audience feel as though they are part of this moment, making them feel involved, making them feel the emotions and fear that these people must be feeling. The use of mis-en-scene such as the statue of liberty head falling helps the audience identify more where the film is set, by using famous landmarks as props. The main character in this film introduces himself directly "my name is Robert Hawkins" by using a vlog style of filming turning the camera towards his face, creating an extreme close up. This means the audience get to see him and close, where he is shown to be sweaty this shows that he has been trying to get away after being stuck in this devastating horror. 

The clips throughout the trailer are all edited so they are cut short, this creates speed in the trailer intensifying the emotion and genre of horror, as everything happens quickly and causes frantic emotions for the viewer. The use of montage within this and quick pace represents how scary everything is and that so much is happening at once. The use of glitching effects throughout intensifies the idea of danger and damage, it matches the distress that is happening throughout NYC, nothing is surviving, everything is broken. 

Towards the end of the trailer, the speed has accelerated greatly to increase the drama and emotion, however, there is a low angle shot of the camera slanted on the floor while someone runs towards shouting, this gives the impression that who ever is filming has been injured, hurt or killed? making the audience question who is it? and are they okay? The dark rooms/outdoors with harsh unnatural yellow lighting helps to fit the genre of horror and fits the stereotype that bad things happen at night and people are safer in the light, it also shows that whatever this thing is can hide from them and sneak up on them. 

The trailer ends showing familiar characters going up on a helicopter and then what looks like the helicopter spinning out of control. This makes the audience question - will they survive? where are they going? what is the creature? 

TRAILER ANALYSIS :

JOKER

From the beginning of the trailer we are shown the famous New York City skyline with an establishing shot, this introduces the audience to the location of where the film is set. The film focuses on a divide in Gotham City between the rich and poor, we are shown Arthurs class status with a mid-shot of him walking the streets of NYC which look run down, dull colours and graffiti everywhere this setting implies these are the run down parts of the city and that he has a low income. 

"my mother always tells me to smile and put on a happy face" - as clip of of him bathing his mother appears laughing and being loving with a cut to Arther looking distressed by himself, this gives the impression that his realtionship with his mother is so strong that he will always put on a brave face infront of her but when he's alone he feels the complete opposite. This gives that audience the impression that Arthur struggles with twisted thoughts and masks his emotions (a bit like the clown masks/makeup he later puts on). Birdseye shot of his notebook, medication and other objects gives more of an insight into his life and personality, having an insight into his dark humour and showing he is on medication. "To bring laughter and joy to the world" - as a mid shot of teenage boys hit the sign out of his hand bullying him and laughing at him instead of with him, this juxtaposition with the way his mother  describes him and instead shows him as a victim to the world. This use of voice over is really effective as it shows a contrasts in his life. The close up with a zoom out this makes the audience sympathise with him and feel some what sorry for him. Hard cuts are used repeatedly to symbolise his recurring emotions of anger which exhibit his tiresome life. 

Throughout the trailer there has been a use of non-diegetic sound of sinister music that increase in speed and volume to build to the climax and create suspense for the audience, the sinister music leads to the song 'Smile' by Charlie Chaplin begins "smile though your heart is aching, smile even though its breaking", with a mid shot of the Joker making a young women smile, this implys that the young women will play a significant role within the movie. The lyrics in the song fit perfectly and seem as though the character of Arthur could relate.

This cuts to a close up shot of Arthur looking calm and collected then a cut to a mid shot/4 shot of him in his surroundings, him in a lift with police officer, doctor and man kicking uncontrollably this shows that this man is unstable. Him being so unfazed by the actions around him shows that he is use to this behaviour and it is normality to him. 

The use of mise-en-scene throughout is extremely important for the use of location and to symbolise the harsh reality of Gotham City. With graffiti filled walls shows the lack of respect locals have for the area and the harsh yellow lighting shows a sense of dullness and danger. Him being beaten up again with the lights cutting out shows there is no safety in NYC and that the people in power don't care for the local community. 

The train being packed filled with people in clown masks while the police fight through the crowd as the voice over of  "someone who hides behind a mask" shows that most of NYC citizens are hiding behind a mask as part of a protest. 

A mid-shot of his whole figure filling the frame as curtains open shows he sees himself as a performer and he is confident within himself. Followed by a shot of the police vs the public, them violently fighting showing a negative relationship between police and citizens of Gotham, it shows a political message that could some what be relevant to the audience? The trailer ends with him dancing down the stairs he was earlier seen upon in the trailer where before he looked sad and depressed whereas now he is dressed dapper and confidently dances down the stairs. Ending with a low angle shot of Arthur strutting through the hall, this use of camera work portrays him as superior. 

RESEARCH: HOW IS THE CAMPAIGN COSTED

ABOVE THE LINE COSTS 

the costs for producing marketing material e.g. trailers and buying media advertising e.g. website banners, radio and tv spots, newspaper and creating an online source for the film.

BELOW THE LINE COSTS

publicity creates more awareness and interest In a film. This may include articles or interviews which are seen as 'more trusted' than display advertising. Premieres are included as they are the cost of getting stars and directors to attend which will generate more coverage from the press. These kinds of events offer fans opportunities to interact with the stars more at the red carpet to get selfies, autographs and more. 

Cross promotion: set up with different companies outside film industry e.g. food brands, drinks, clothing etc, to help promote the film to a different environment with hope of a wider audience.

in short video Williams explains that brand partnership important part of blockbuster marketing campaign and the promotions and messages that can be achieved. Every film will have the trailers and the assets that speak about the specific film, this is extremely single minded in how they communicate with an audience. 

She talks about brand partnerships and how they allow you to extend out to other target audiences and other areas that you usually may not be able to reach, this may allow the film to add synergy. 

Distributors look at many factors when it comes to the campaign release, they also must discuss who the potential brand partners may be, this may depend on the connection between: 

• themes in a film
• storyline
• background
• talent

The distributors brainstorm and identify who the brand partners may be and then leads to them going out and having the conversations with:

• established partners
• industry partners
• agencies 

DIGITAL PRINT AND ADVERTISING (P&A)

Once the distributor has seen the film and decided on both the hook and target audience, the distributor can now decide on a way to market the film. They must figure out how much money should be spent on publicity and advertising and on digital prints to send to the cinemas. 

Deciding how much to spend:

• predict how much film will make at box office

(using own specialist knowledge as well as comparing film with others of similar traits)

• how big the potential audience will be, the more the film makes 
• ticket sales

If the film has a wide appeal it can be released in multiple big cinemas (SATURATION RELEASE), although if the audience is smaller it can have a limited release.

When a film is given to cinemas to play in their screens they are given a digital file with the film, it's soundtrack, synchronised subtitles and audio description tracks. 

TYPES OF RELEASE

Most UK films are are launched on fewer than 100 digital copies, limited release is not massively supported by large sums of advertising spend. 

In 2014, roughly £350 million was spent on advertising films. Of this around £190 million was invested in above the line media advertising and the remainder on advertising production, cutting trailers, publicity junkets, materials, premieres and producing and delivering DCP's (digital cinema print) to be projected on cinema screens. 

When releasing a blockbuster film it is important to start the planning early as there is lots of pressure for the film to perform well and to ensure it achieves its maximum capacity of sales. To do so the distributor must understand the:

• audience
• hook
• theme
• how marketing and publicity may impact sales

Although Chris Besseling expands more on non-blockbuster films, the distributor must  find its selling point in the film, it has to offer something different, unique but also extremely powerful similar to Blockbuster films. For the smaller films they do not have the same marketing budgets to reach a wider target audience, this means that the distributor must be confident in knowing their audience and defining who that is early on, once they know who their audience is they must be committed to them. 

ADVERTISING 

The largest spend of P&A budget is on advertising the film, the main advertising methods used are:

• Posters
• Trailers
• Press advertising
• T.V. advertising
• Websites
• Outdoor
• Radio advertising
• Merchandise/Cross-promotion
• Online social media

If a film is fortunate enough to have a big film and huge talent and faces associated with the film, they will get them to the UK and use them as a press junket, and publicise with them whether thats:

• print interviews
• newspapers 
• magazines
• photoshoots
• covers
• talk shows
• radio 

If they have this talent they will try get them on as guests for example on Graham Norton Show which is seen as the biggest talk show in the UK and with 2/3 weeks until release they will appear as guests on these shows having the well known faces talk about the film to a larger audience that radio/tv shows provide. 

Social media is also an important way of advertising now, with twitter and instagram, the talent of the films may have a big following, if they tweet they are in London for release and talk about the film they are connecting directly to the fans and may attract a larger audience. Traditional media is also used still however social media is now integrated more with traditional media to help reach those audiences. 

THE POSTER

The film poster is to make the audience aware of the films existence and release.It is to help attract an audience and make them want to see the film and give an idea of what the film is about. It includes:

• stars
• credits
• tagline

'KEY ART', is the iconic image on the film poster, it is usually scene as the film's identity and essential feature. A good film poster catches the eye, tempts the mind and touches the heart. Triggering viewers interests to see it and see what the experience really is.

If a film is part of a sequel, the poster must immediately show this and show that is part of a continuing saga. If it's a new and original film, the poster must be bold enough to make an impact, and be able to stand out from the competing designs, messages and branding which will be seen everywhere. 

In our modern digital age, posters are produced using sophisticated software e.g. Illustrator and Photoshop. If a film poster becomes well established as a genre of commercial 'pop art' in their own right they will have copyrighted designs. 

The poster gets is message across by:

• image used on poster
• star (talent) names/faces
• sizing of specific words
• colour 
• certificate

POSTER ANALYSIS

TYPES OF TRAILER 

Film trailer is the most cost effective way of advertising in the film industry, they are shown in cinemas to a captive audience and on website, TV. A trailer will reflect what people can expect to see at the cinema, by using parts of the finished film, the trailer can be used to excite and grab the audiences attention, creating awareness and a 'must see' attitude from the audiences.

a trailer can give an audience:

• sense of genre
• what the story is about
• who is in the film
• when the film will be released

Trailers can be classified in three ways:

• The teaser trailer
• The full trailer
• The T.V. spot 
• On-set blogs posted by key cast or crew

Teaser trailers may start to show anything up to a whole year before a film opens, a full trailer may be released 1 - 2 months before release, TV spots 1 - 2 weeks before release.

TRAILER ANALYSIS 

The trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an extremely effective trailer, it shows that the film is worth going to see because of the use of edits and sound as well as the genre of the film. The film starts off with orchestral classical music with the stereotypical vision of women in this time, however it changes to an action pact film with upbeat fast pace music, showing women as strong figures and superior. This makes it different as it is set in an older time however is action pact. The hook of this film is how they strongly portray women, with Lily James being one of the main characters who is well known talent. 

The sound and use of composition is important in this trailer, as with the orchestral music at the beginning it portrays all girls to be innocent sweet girls, however with the use of guitar music growing louder as the girls walk towards the camera as a unit with weapons, it shows that they are fighting the fight rather than the stereotype of a damsel in distress. The film is also based on a book written by the famous writer Jane Austin, she will already have a huge fan base who will be excited to see the written book turn into live action. 

The sound used within the trailer for In the Heart of the Sea is extremely simple however very effective as it creates tension as the trailer goes on, it starts off relatively quiet with a faint echo, and the natural sounds of the sea and the boat moving. The lighting is dark, creating the sense of fear and danger, with low angle shots as the actors look up and look around to find out what the noise is. The hook of this trailer is the story of men at sea when they are faced with this myth of Moby Dick. There are multiple famous actors in this film, with these faces being apart of the film it will attract an audience as they will associate them with good high quality films, with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Holland.

The fast pace editing and use of incredible CGI, excites the viewer to see the film as it looks realistic with an intense storyline. 'COMES ONE OF THE GREATEST TRUE STORIES' this is a unique selling point for the film as the action pact adventure film is based on a true story, making people want to see how it ends and how and who survive this journey. 

The33 is an inspiring, heart warming true story of the struggles in Chile when 33 men get trapped under ground after working in a gold mine. This trailer is would attract an audience who may be able to relate to the film, people who speak Spanish or come from a Spanish heritage as they may feel strongly on this subject, the subject on how the government act like they care but do very little to help. 

Within the trailer they use music with lyrics in it using well known songs, these songs heighten emotion and make the audience sympathetic and care more about what will happen and how It will be resolved. The lighting is dark when underground with only very little unnatural yellow lighting, this creates fear and unease for the audience. The fast pace editing and loud screaming and crashing sound, shows the hook of the film when the distastes strikes. 

THE TRAILER MAKER

using the FDA website I did the task of the trailer maker, this task was fun and enabled me to use my creativity skills more. They offered me clips from the Suffragette film trailer, however I could put them into my own sequence and add in my own sound. I enjoyed doing this although was difficult to get smooth cuts because I could not edit the length of the clips or add in transitions.  MY FINISHED TRAILER: 

ONLINE MARKETING 

Besseling talks about the importance of digital media and how it has become increasingly important in distribution, as distributors cannot create a marketing and publicity campaign without a digital strategy at the forefront of thinking. Distributors must ensure they maintain desired positioning, digital gives publicists fantastic opportunity to engage further with the target audience/consumers on a more targeted and personal level, and make sure they really have the films narrative and elements of campaign and use it to interact and talk about current affairs and current situations, a relevant example to current affairs now that has huge coverage online from many brands and people is the Black Lives Matter movement that sparked because of police brutality against George Floyd when huge actors such as John Boyega spoke out about it publicly at protests. 

It pushes users to engage and interact with the digital content. Digital is good because it allows users and fans to create their own content to support release. Although digital use to have an incredibly small budget of about 0.5% but over the years has increased up to 12/15% on digital spend, whether that's social media, pre-roles, display adds. 

16-24 year olds are the wide majority of target audiences and are an important part of the market group as they use mostly mobile devices and online to listen to music, play games, use multiple of apps and engage with their friends and family online through speaking with them on social media platforms. This audience moves seamlessly from on thing to the next quickly and can get bored easily, so being online is so important to them. They may choose to ignore or pay less attention to the more traditional methods of advertising e.g. TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. 

Kezia Williams also touches on the importance of digital as it is an element of everything we do in our day to day lives. She states how it is hard to distinguish boundaries between digital activity and non digital as it crosses over everything, publicity, magazines, newspapers but this will also live online as well. Digital media, digital promotion, social media can reach audience through digital. The first place an audience sees a trailer in the modern day is on mobile devices, online rather than in cinema unlike 20 years ago. 

Big film franchises such as Star Wars and the Bond films are shared hugely through social media, the power of online is so potent because of the conversation that happens there is so much buzz around the trailers, this means they go viral and trend on twitter, instagram etc, people will tag each other and spread even more awareness on it. At this point marketing can be drawn in as well and put money behind it to push it a bit further to enhance the natural launch that has already happened through social media and fans. 

It is important to tailer the message for digital environment, the traditional method is adapted for this new modern environment. For an active audience who are scrolling through there social media pages there is only a few seconds to capture that audiences attention before they scroll on and move onto the next thing, within the trailer it is important to rather than start with a logo or establishing shot they must start by put in the most compelling messages of the film, who's in it, why they should see it, capture their attention before they get into the main trailer. 

Example of how traditional and digital media overlaps. 

(from the FDA Yearbook 2020)

RESEARCH: WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE

Reaching Me

Every film has to be carefully planned by positioning it through the selling points by understanding of different 

• gender
• lifestyles
• activities 
• ages

of audiences available. This results in the decision on how and where a film is promoted, the film industry is a very competitive market and has to compete for audiences' time as well and income. 

Genre and Audience 

Keiza Williams from eOne, explains the importance of understanding your target audience In order to market the film.     

• what motivates them?
• interests them?
• what drives them to going to the cinema?

The distributors will examine comparable films, films that are similar to one the distributor is working with. They then create a set that they can look back at data and research to identify who the audience was for those films. 

Looking at demographic data

• male
• female
• age group

Box office data

• regionality 
• how each cinema performs 
• was there a specific cinema chain people went to?

They must also do this research to understand their target audience 

• bespoke research
• focus groups
• go out and talk to potential audiences 
• film may be an established book/game, this will have data on who is already interested
• is there certain talent that appeals to certain demographic/group
• understand core audience and persuadable audience 
• if the film is a 4 quadrant film (Film with multiple target audiences)

Chris Bessling talks about how distributors need to research to support the release strategy, as the film industry is massively high risk, there are anomaly at box office weekly as it is unpredictable. This is why the mostly rely on historical data.

The historical data helps them get an idea of makeup of the audience who saw the films, age demographics, socio economical standing, who should they be target? how comparable titles performed at box office? This will allow the distributors to forecast potential taking. 

The hook and the audience 

When completing this task I thought about what Kezia Williams and Chris Besseling said, thinking about demographics and socio-groups as well as the type of films I believe I would like thinking about my own age demographic. 

Some films I thought would be dependant on a specific person and their hobbies and interests rather than just an age group.

Reaching the Target Audience 

 

I thought about how I would market a film using the information I learnt from Williams and Besseling in the short videos. 

Marketability and Playability

Marketability is the ability for a product or service to be sold or marketed. Marketability for film is extremely important otherwise people may not have awareness of the film and pay much attention to it. 

Playability is the quality of the product or service, it is how the audience react to the film and if they are satisfied, if the audience are satisfied this will mean there will be good word of mouth and they may encourage peers to see the film. It is about the outcome of the film and how many people continue to watch the film after using DVD, streaming.

RESEARCH: WHAT SETS A FILM APART

When distributing a film, the distributors need to figure out what sets this specific film apart from the competition that are on release at the same time, to do so they look for unique selling points and hooks. 

I watched interviews of Kezia Williams Head of Theatrical Distribution at eOne and Chris Besseling Director of Marketing from Pathe UK. Kezia states that to start the distribution process they must pick out the key themes and hooks and choose what will excite and interest an audience, what are the engaging motivating aspects of the story? This could be seen during production or later when the final film is finished. This develops the film and the hooks which can be shown through publicity and marketing.












Besseling talks more into depth about the USP's and how the distributors will use them, unique selling points may include the cast, director, quality performance, reviews, awards that will be show cased to the target audience, as well as the film being an adaptation of a book or being part of a sequel or franchise this will mean that the film will already have a built in audience that the distributors can build upon. They will look for the key strengths to exploite over the course of the campaign, as well making sure they identify any challenges that the film release may face such as Roma, with the release of Roma there were issues such as the film is in a different language, it was black and white and had no famous talent within it, this meant that some people were not willing to see the film, however in the trailer they exploited the film directors name Cuaron, as he had done many famous movies and he was the unique selling point of this film. Once the distributors have figured out all these aspects they can position the film as something special and unique. 

RESEARCH: ROLE OF THE DISTRIBUTOR

I used the FDA site The Film Space to research the role of the distributor. Distribution is about connecting the films to the audiences it is the heart of the film enterprise.

WHAT?

From what I learnt from the FDA site all films must be looked at as individuals and must be handled at its own value with an individual plan being made up and not just be planned just based on numbers and statistics. The must get this right so they can ensure they distribute it to the right target audience and in a way, it will reach them. This is dependent on whether the film is a sequel, based on a play/book or part of a movie franchise. This is also dependent on who is in the film, how famous they believe the film will be if they have old established talent for example Tom Cruise or they draw attention to new talent, talent that has just been seen in a recent successful film. The distributor must look at what is the particular film genre, how similar films have performed. 

EXAMPLE: CAPTAIN MARVEL 

Captain Marvel for example had to focus on WHAT the film was about and WHAT they were trying to achieve, Marvel were trying to achieve a strong female image, so they can distribute their film to a wider target audience.

As Batey says each film has its own individual distribution plan as there are so many different genres. I looked at the distributor Working Title and looked at the different films they produce and how they distribute them with posters, trailers and more. 

The High Note is a new romantic comedy about a musician set in the glamorous world of LA. 

Johnny English Strikes Again is a comedic spy parody.

Mary Queen of Scots is a historical film adaptation.

Yesterday is a musical romcom biopic.

These are all film trailers that grabbed my attention and I myself am interested in, this is only a handful of the films that Working Title distribute and make distribution plans for, it shows the wide variety of films they deal with and how they target the right audience. 

WHEN?

Acquire film for release, it is about when the distributor is going to release the film, this is an important decision as shown in the videos Batey states that this in the UK 700 feature films are released every year, this shows the competitiveness in the film industry, and when you distribute is very important as it will determine which film is doing better, each film wants to be the best. Different types of films will be released at specific times in the year dependant on the genre of the film and when they think they are most likely going to reach their target audience, for example horror movies are most likely going to be released at Halloween, Family movies will be released in the summer as families have more time to go together and Art House movies will jostle in the market place as they want to be released well in advance to be considered for a big film award such as Cannes, Oscars etc.

Stephen King’s IT, was released In September

 a month before Halloween, giving it time to grow

 and be heard about before Halloween season.

Grown Ups, a family friendly film was released in summer so families could see this film together.

The FDA yearbook shows us films that came out in the Christmas period, these included the animated Grinch and the Nutcracker, these are both remakes of famous Christmas films that have already been produced and are newer versions or for the Nutcracker it is a remake of the ballet that is performed yearly around the seasonal time. These films are clearly relevant to release at Christmas as they have always been marketed as Christmas films or ballet. 

Often other factors that the distributors cannot control will effect the release and the box office figures, for example football matches or a change in weather because cinemas are product driven, distributors are trying to widen their target audience. In 2018 the FIFA World Cup took some audience members away from cinema for multiple weekends to watch the football. Weather can also impact as if the weather has been bad and there is a sudden change with hot sunny weather audience members are less likely to attend the cinema. 

Genre can affect timing of the film release compared to trailer as shown in the graph above by the FDA. Animated films usually will have a longer period between the release of the trailer and the cinematic release, this is to excite the audience more and drip feed them sneak peeks of the film to heighten excitement and anticipation this is done by lots of live action films such as the Avengers films. 

WHO?

Key consideration has to be made to this point. The most frequent cinema goers tend to be young adults (20’s), however in our modern world the audience Is becoming even more varied and now varies between 8-80-year olds. The largest audience sector for cinema is between the ages of 16-32, 91% of this age bracket attended the cinema In 2018, this resulted in 77 million visits. The FDA researched a growing change on viewing, by age, TV audiences are getting older whilst OFCOM found that 48% of 12-15 year olds say that YouTube is their favourite online platform for entertainment and 19% picked Netflix. This will impact distributors greatly on how they market and distribute their films. 

Audiences contain a complex pattern of consumer segments, which varies substantially film by film, week by week. Different movies can have different appeals to people at different times for example, family outings, a girls night for example seeing Mama Mia Here we go again.

HOW?

This is about what the best distribution plan is for the specific film, how is it going to be marketed? What the distributor thinks they can achieve at the box office? How much can they afford to spend on the release of the film? An example of really good distribution method is Ken Loach’s, Sorry We Missed You. eOne the distributors of this film offered the opportunity for global screenings to be made local so they could reach their specific target audience, and the people the film is really about, by offering local screenings at schools, community halls and local pubs. 

The FDA talks about the different kinds of marketing strategies. They estimate that the UK's film distributors' investment in accompanying 916 new films to the market in 2018 surpass expectations with an astonishing £350m. Half this of this is paid for advertising, using digital platforms such as social media and physical media around the UK. The rest of the money goes towards advertising in more cinematic ways such as film posters, trailer productions, publicity and premieres, digital cinema packages. The UK is a large territory for box office figures although the high costs of marketing and distribution results in the distributor gains low returns. The film industry is an extremely competitive congested marketplace this means that it makes decision making more difficult and makes planning release dates hard.