Question 2. How effective is the combination of my main product andancillary texts?

A film distributor is a company/individual that is responsible for the marketing of a film. The distributor can select the film exhibition choice and set the release date. There are three types of exhibition choice; theatrical, non-theatrical, and home video.

  

In order to promote the film, different techniques are used to increase the target audience. Trailers are used before films in the cinema to alert customers, promoting the cinema and the film. Trailers are also used on TV as adverts and placed at times and on channels that apply to their specific target audience. Posters are also used to increase awareness in hotspots of human activity, i.e. bus stops, where constant flows of people see the poster and also when waiting for a bus can look at the poster in further detail. magazines are another good way of advertising as unlike posters, they are are 'hard copy print' and will remain in consumer view for a long period of time. Web-links and pop-ups are another good way of advertising as on the internet you can monitor how many people see the product and who maintain watching it too, which enables the distributor to know whether or not that marketing technique is working or not. plus it's easy and can be promoted further on social networking sites. Press releases are another good way of advertising as the media do the work for you and becomes a good topic for people to talk about. Following on, chat shows and interviews are also a brilliant way of advertising as they are a free way of getting your film out there, to a a large audience that already watches the TV show for example. Merchandise is another marketing technique that I'd suggest as a next level of promotion. For example this would only really work for young target audiences, as adults wouldn't buy a McDonald's happy meal for the toy, whereas they would for their child. The rule for marketing is that half of the production cost is how much you spend on advertising (on average).

Marketing differs depending on different audiences. As previously said, age related audiences apply substantially; like the McDonald's toys for example. You have to market differently to age as most children/adolescents use social networking sites so a film age rated 12 would be appropriately marketed on the internet for example as a promotion on Twitter or Facebook. The marketing technique used may be different depending on whether its a niche or mainstream audience you're targeting too. Let's say that the mainstream audience can be marketed via television ads, all day long- whereas, a horror film that isn't every bodies taste may only be played on certain channels at specific times for example, it wouldn't be appropriate on ITV at 5 O'clock in the evening. However, it would be put to better use on Film4 when special 'Fright Fest' nights are on every week, to target a much more interested audience.


Audience research is extremely valuable because it puts the audience at the heart of what you do. It also challenges the developer, and gives the developer a deeper insight into what makes the audience value the institution. The greater the understanding of audience needs, then the greater you can raise your expectations of the product, as it also en-powers the audience. It also helps the developer find it's most attracted target audience as well, and measures the impact on the market. When you measure the impact you can then ask whether money has been well spent, and whether it's increased profits. This will lead to long term strategic decisions.

Recent campaigns include the film 'Divergent'. This is currently number 2 in the charts at the moment, and I've even seen it on TV adverts. The actress Kate Winslet being present makes me want to go and watch the film, as she is a renowned actress that has been in many good films. This is a good marketing technique. she may cost more money than a less proved actress but she'll bring in a larger target audience. the film has also been given a rating by the audience as 7.6/10 and this makes me believe it's a good film once again.

'Noah' on the other hand is number 1 in the charts, however I've not seen any advertising whatsoever. Is this due to the fact that it's just a good film and spread through word of mouth? Or maybe I'm not the films target audience, and henceforth seen it's marketing techniques used.

'Mr. Peabody & Sherman', is a children's film that I've seen been advertised through television and merchandise, this has even attracted my brother and sister via toys alone (and they've gone to the effort of viewing the film just from the production of cheap toys).

'Need for Speed 14', if I dare say so, has slightly played on the tragic death of Paul Walker. They've kind of used it as a way of promoting the new film as a way of saying goodbye to him. As if using the news to promote the film. Also, the adverts just promote the action rather than storyline as they know the loyal consumers will already be 'on-board' so they've targeted the "action hungry" audience.

I've noticed '300: Rise of an Empire' being advertised absolutely everywhere. This may be due to the fact that this is the sequel and the original is one of my all time favourites, hence why I've been more attracted to the ad campaign compared to the mainstream audience. It's used the original to promote the sequel and push the film as being more action packed and uses revenge as a source of power, motivating the audience. I saw this film on Twitter, Facebook, banners, and TV adverts. I'm still yet to go and see the film though. It's already made over $100 million. This shows the wide amount of marketing techniques used were put to good use.

Below I have annotated my Poster, Magazine and Trailer, and compared them to real horror products showing their effectiveness.



or if annotations don't work: http://youtu.be/EuVvzN8jc7I

Mood Board

Analysis of a Horror Character

I chose to analyse Hannibal Lecter, as my horror character. this is because Hannibal is known by everyone for his infamous prowess as Anthony Hopkins plays a psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer of which sinking his teeth into the zeitgeist, oscar award winning, iconic role, in The Silence of The Lambs. The film had a budget of $19 million and made $273 million through box office. 

Hannibals role in the film is to serve as a protagonist if antagonist, or otherwise known as assisting Clarice (the detective) in solving the "Buffalo Bill" serial killing- of which Jame Grumb (the "Buffalo Bill serial killer) skins his female victims - later believed to be due to his rejection of a sex-change.

Hannibal literally feeds off Clarice and plays mind-games with her, even though parallel to his genius plan, she's 'eating away' at the case. 

Throughout the film you mainly just see close-ups of Hannibals face as his head is dipped with a slight tilt looking up at the villain to show his power and imply his dark, criminal mind. The clothes (costumes) within the film are either to restrain him for example the famous straight jacket and mask that he wears when being transferred... 

However when he is in his cell, he appears to be wearing simple plain white clothing, that connotes innocence and purity. Yet this could be used as a contrast to his mind. 

The mise-en-scene wherever he travels appears to be dull and gloomy, for example the cage that he fell that he gets transferred too, is more like a cage. This could once again represent his mind as a cage, and he wants to be free to express his 'idea' of his elaborative evilness. 

I believe his motivation is none other than to prove to himself of his shear intelligence. I think he strives off people's reaction to his judgements, which could also connote why he's wearing white frequently, as if he believes he's godly. 

Over all, his character is well thought of and appreciated by many a critic, due to mysterious prowess. Anthony Hopkins is therefore one of my favourite actors as he plays this role to a sublime amount of perfection and somewhat lives as the character, just like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

Link to the trailer- click below

http://youtu.be/lQKs169Sl0I

Audience Research Analysis- Questionnaire and Impact of Research

The reason why I created a questionnaire before creating my trailer poster and magazine, was to get a feel for what type of audience I was going to be dealing with. This also helped me target my ideas towards the audience that were already interested and give them what they wanted, as well as trying to make my products aimed towards a larger target audience to increase the population of which would like to see my film. By creating a questionnaire I was able to find out a few more things about my audience than what I would have done without one. It gave me a greater insight into the demographics of my audience.

Firstly, I asked my audience what age and gender they were firstly to find out the demographics of my audience. My feedback of audience research came from 9 boys and 6 girls between the ages of 17 to 19. I distributed my questionnaire to the an audience of both genders and between the ages of 17-19 because this was going to be my target audience, plus when I want to create my audience feedback for the creation/production of my trailer, it would be easy to get feedback from such an audience because they're the ages of the people at college who I'm with on a day to day basis. I asked this audience whether they liked horror films so that I could take into account the people that don't like horror films when asking them questions on the topic. In my questionnaire 2 people said that they didn't like horror, so these peoples views were taken into separate account. For example, when I asked my audience whether they liked the idea for my horror film, one of them has actually stated that they do like the idea, therefore, changing someones mind of the stereotypical horror genre. 15/16 liked the idea of having a drug twisted film, and hence, liked the plot for our trailer, which gave the group a great go ahead for making a trailer based on this story line.

I also asked my audience how many films on average that they watch a month over 50% of which don't watch films very often (between 0 and 5 times) which i percived to be quite normal, and expected this percentage to be higher. But the other percentage, surprisingly, watch a lot of films each month, one of which 16+ a month. I found this very surprising, and made me realise that my audience where quite knowledgeable and experienced when coming to terms with film and potentially analysis of films too. This means that my feedback should be fairly reliable. I wanted to know a bit more about my audience and so asked them what was their favourite horror sub-genre. The majority either said psychological or paranormal both with 35% of votes each. This was good because our trailer was going to be made as a psychological, and helped us in having a greater audience.

The impact of research tells you in detail the difference between initial ideas/research and the viability of ideas to create a more thorough and 'appetizing' product. 

Trailer Conventions- Analysis

The trailer 'The Shining' has contrapuntal music at the start, where a beautiful setting in an isolated location (also a key convention of horror) has deep, quiet, spine-chilling music. The intensity of the music changes over time and towards the end it just sounds like constant violin epilepsy, as it mimics your heart beat. The music also keeps contrasting in noise levels too, as it goes from being quiet one second to a sudden scream for example, this also occurs when there's a sudden increase in shot speed. The length of the shots is slow at the start and uses a fade to drag the shots out, and towards the end for example from 1:39 to 1:54 of the trailer, there are 22 different shots! This build up in tension creates a nerve-racking atmosphere and influences the amount of drama created by the trailer. The narrator at the start explains the story so you get a sense of the story line, and then towards the end he is no longer a part of the trailer and the action speaks for itself. This is also done to let your mind be creative and essentially allows you to scare yourself.


'The Others' is one of my favourite films, created on a low budget, and with a brilliant twist at the end, it's got to be up there with some of the best horror classics. During the trailer it begins as if the main character is reading you a story, which is quite creepy especially as the following music sounds ery and holy. The mise-en-scene is like an old Victorian house, and the clothes that the characters are wearing are old and creepy. the lighting is very low key, and sets the scene for a dark and mysterious setting. The children seem surprisingly confident and somewhat add a fear factor to the trailer, as they say things which any parent would be freaked out by. Using children to impact dialogue is a conventional way of creating horror. the dialogue is also very vague yet precise in implying 'other' things. This is done in most horrors to make you expect the worst. the sound is very contrasting too as it goes from being very quite whispers to loud screams/ instrumental music. During the film there's a lot of suspense created and it constantly builds you up, making you hold your breathe and tense up in fear (if you replay the trailer you will suddenly notice that you're doing this). these jump scares are repeated throughout. Things also move on there own in the trailer, and is a key convention for adding to the suspense, as the audience want to know what/who is doing it.


'Nothing Left To Fear' isn't a film/ trailer that appeals to me but it follows modern conventions of horror films. Something that I haven't discussed yet is the film length, but as you can see all three are of similar length (around the 2 minute mark) this is because it holds the audience attention giving them enough information to watch the film, however, leaves you with questions making you go and watch the film. At the start the scenery appears to be in a nice rural location (just like the other trailers) showing it follows typical horror conventions. The music starts off innocent and quiet, yet a little creepy, and also when dialogue is exchanged and something suspicious is said, a sound effect 'booms' in the background, creating drama. About a minute into the trailer the innocent music suddenly goes and the boom effect of noise is added to, to create tension. The lighting at the point also goes from vivid colours to gloomy, also backed up by the initial word 'darkness' whilst what appears to be blood is dripping, implementing fear. Intertitles within the trailer have an effect added to the text that looks scary as the text crumbles away just like the happiness. The intertitles also add information to either increase knowledge of the story-line,  increase audience size through bigger star names, or to increase the impact of a shocking sentence/key word. The trailer also uses modern technology to create forms of 'monsters' to increase the fear being drilled into the audience. at the end of the trailer is a jump scare too, which is typical of modern day horrors. it starts of in equillibrium and ends in disequilibrium like the other trailers. The title also follows the theme of the movie as well, and the words themself are repeated at the end to make you remember the film. Also with modern films hash tags are used to identify the film with social media and allows people to find out more information with other fanatics. this acts as an extra advertising technique.

Separate Storyboards

Poster Draft