EVALUATION QUESTION 2HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

FILM TRAILERS When promotion a brand new film the main goal is to grab a large and

suitable audience to watch it. Trailer are used as a main way to create a strong and persuasive message about the film and create a buzz within minutes. The images below show how these three big blockbuster film used their trailers. Due to this day and age social media has become a huge way to create a viral buzz over night for almost nothing. These trailer were posted on YouTube, which allowed their audience to comment feedback, like or dislike the trailer and share to create word of mouth.

FILM TRAILER – LIGHTS OUT The USP (unique selling point) is that all of our footage will

be handheld to create a realistic feel, and armature filmed/ found footage style movie. The event that accrues is a modern and less typical problem as it comes from a power cut instead of a disease or illness outbreak. This challenges the typical convention of the genre as it’s shows a very real issue about sustainable energy and how modern day society would struggle to cope; with small news archives footage of fires and London riots being used to show the chaos in the community and create and realistic film. Compared to a few decades ago when people had more basic and sustainable lives. The last main USP for our film is that there is no real main character, instead there are three main groups; looking at how different types of characters react to the power cut.

The tagline to our film is very simple but again brings back the question that this could potentially happen in the future as we are not using unstainable power sources. The tagline ‘The blackout is coming’ is also a strong selling pitch of the film as it explains the plot and creates an interest.

FILM TRAILER TARGET AUDIENCE The target audience for our film trailer would be mainly young adults.

Due to are film being about power cuts and coping with out electricity, we are aiming the film at people that it would effect the most. Young adults are always on social networking sites and surfing the web on their phone, so the film would be a refection on their heavy reliance to power and how hard it would be to cope without.

The classification for our trailer is a 15. We choose to give it a high age rating because we felt that as the film is very survival orientated and we show scenes of panic in the city. The film also contains some scenes of violence and strong language due to the intensity of the situation. In our trailer we wanted to show so hints of the reactions in the film as a way of drawing in but also the style of the film.

In order to reach a wider audience we wanted to heavily use social media and web 2.0 to promote our film. We will put the trailer on our Facebook page and twitter page to allow the audience to comment and share their opinions. It also allows people to easily share their feedback with their friends and for us to see and interact with our audience.

The release date for our film is on the 4th of April 2014, we wanted to realise it on a Friday so that it could gain its main views over the weekend. We also knew that they are fewer large scale film similar to our , meaning that their would be less competitions for our film. The date 4.4.14 is also very catchy and easy to remember and promote.

FILM TRAILER TARGET AUDIENCEWhen we were research music ideas for our trailer we found a song called ‘follow me’ by Muse. We felt that the lyric and tempo of the song really fit well with the film and its themes of lost and loneliness. However due to copyright issue we could not use the original music as we weren’t able to talk to Muse and ask for permission. We then decided to search on YouTube and we found a cover of the song which we really like the cover as it was also very dark and meaningful like the original. We then emailed the band and got permission to use their work as long as they were credited. This then allowed us to use the music we wanted as well as collaboration with the band which we credited in the description.

FILM POSTERThis is the film poster I research as I wanted to see how big mainstream films have create strong advertising through their poster. I wanted to see how the titles had been placed to maximize the attention of the image and major information. I notice how the image is very dominate as it shows what the film is about and the strong colours and setting catch the eye. The font is also very clear and heavily contrast with the image so that it stands out.

FILM POSTER The poster is a simple form of promotion that can be

placed online or around the city in order to draw attention to the film and possible excited new audiences. The poster is design to highlight and express the film in a short and direct way.

The poster for our film is very effect as we can place it in location that we know our target audience visit. Our target audience is mainly younger adults and so we would aim to be showing the poster in store windows or bust stops so that we could directly promote to them. As well as this by looking at how much this generation use social media and web 2.0, we would use the poster to share across our Facebook and twitter page. This would allow people to see and share the image as well as talk about their experience and opinions that relate; for example stories of when they had a short power cut. The poster could also be shown on the side of YouTube pages to reach global audiences and still be relevant to our target audience, in terms of where they search for entertainment. When searching YouTube for research were saw direct social and audience interaction points where they could share an comments on their ideas.

FILM POSTER Advertising slots.

Way of sharing content and gaining feedback.

FILM POSTERThe poster uses very clear and professional style front to make the titles and information stand out and. We have also used different size fonts to add depth to the image as well as separation up the titles. We have used large font for the title and dates to make them dramatic and kept the credit block smaller. The different sizes of font also create small pockets of data instead of a huge wall that would turn off viewers.Instead of wall of information we used a large, simple image of a shattered light bulb. We choose this image as it related to the themes of no power, but as the bulb and glass is shattered it strongly related to the reaction. The shattered glass represents how society is starting to fall apart and shatter in such a small space of time due to the lack of power and control. The smaller images also add to the genre and style of the film with the simple and relatable characters and a hint of the destruction and panic in the middle.

FILM POSTERThe colours of the poster are very subtle yet the strong black text create contract and separate the background. I think the simple blue makes the poster seem calm which again contract to the image and themes of the film. The simple background colour relates to how our film in centred around a power cut that most people have experienced and aren’t fazed by. However like the film the poster has points of interest and dramatic colours. The titles and dates are very bold as well as the credit block and logos dominate the background. The images also show sneak peaks from the film and how its all changes, whilst the background and core of the film is a simple blackout, but it what happens after and the reacting that is driving and intense.At the bottom of the poster we added the logos to our social media so that people can interact with the poster and have a way of sharing their reactions, which give us a direct way to receive and connect with our audience.

FILM MAGAZINE COVERThese are some of the film magazine covers I looked at. I wanted to see the layout, and also see how different style of magazine design their covers. The film we are making is more independent and low budget, so we wanted to look at magazines that advertise these types of film. Overall we choose ‘Little White Lies’ as it focuses on one smaller film compared to ‘Empire’ who advertise multiple blockbuster films on the cover.

FILM MAGAZINE COVERThe main purpose for our magazine cover is for more publicity for our film. The magazine cover allows us to advertise our film to a wide audience as well as give a deeper review of the film.

Overall I feel the magazine cover is a very effective way of promoting our film. Not only does it allow different audience member to fee the film but they can also read deeper into it. The magazine article allows the public to read what the film is about, where the ideas and styles comes from, as well as getting sneak previews from the images and synopsis. I think that this form of promotion will engage different people as the can see more of behind the scene and what the director was trying to portray, whereas with the trailer the audience see small parts of the narrative and characters and so they are able to create the questions and missing pieces themselves.

Our film fits the readership of the film magazine as it is very similar to the style of film that are show in this magazine. We choose this magazine as it has a similar target audience as we aim our film at. Due to the close target audience it also allows us to push the film to a wider audience that can still relate to the themes and characters.

FILM MAGAZINE COVERThe main images we used from our magazine cover was a close up of a character. In the trailer they are seen talking directly to the camera, making a documentary of her experience and how her family are coping. We choose this image the character is a young adult which is similar to are target audience, this means that they would be able to relate more to the character and so will be attacked by the image. The angle of the images is very full on and the lighting is very amateur that relates and highlights the style of ‘found footage’ or hand held cinematography that is one of the film main selling point. Due to the less conventional angles and controlled lighting it helps emphasis the amateur and rushed footage, this all related to the themes of panic and dystopia.

FILM MAGAZINE COVERThe comic/cartoon style of the image is due to the style of the magazine company we are using. We have chosen ‘Little White Lies’ as it focuses on more independent and convention challenging film. The magazine is more suited to film fans as they show case film that mainstream audience may not understand straight away due to challenging and complex narratives. Our film focuses on a multiple characters and at part it challenges the genre conventions that mainstream audiences are used to and know. An example is the cinematography is solely from the character point of view and so at time it can be hard to fully see what is going on; however it is used to draw you into the film. The characters themselves are also postmodern as there is no main hero or villain, as the main threat is the lack of power and film follows more then one group of characters and their journey through the dystopia.

FILM PROMOTION/ MARKETING PLAN

Overall our film poster, magazine cover and trailer all make up a strong ‘promotional package’ that can be show to wide audiences on multiple platforms and mediums.

When marking our film we will use Web 2.0 to show our trailer and ‘promotional products’ to a wide audience and create fast interaction for our audience. We would realise our trailer on our YouTube page so that our audience could view and comment on our trailer. Through YouTube our audience could easily share the trailer and their opinions across social media sites, like Facebook and twitter using our #lightsout. Through web 2.0 we would also use our poster as a form of advertising across busy webpages as well as making our magazine cover and article online for readers. We would also heavily push web 2.0 adventism in order to save money as its and independent film.

As well as this we would put up poster on bus stops, city billboards and cinema displays. This would then allow our target audience and wider public audience and chance to see the film as its in busy centre locations. We would also then publish our magazine cover to the public so that film fans and regular readers can experience the film. This means that the film would be promoted across all major mediums through web 2.0 and public promotion to create a wide and strong audience to come and watch the film once it has been released.

FILM PROMOTION/ MARKETING PLANWith our film as it is more independent we would want to show case it at film festival so that people can see and give feedback. Also it can be voted on and it allows the audience to directly interact and potential award the film, which would then be used as a form of adventism to draw in audiences.When promoting our film we would want to create hype with the film and themes but creating small torches with the film title on them. These could then be bought by the audience so they can ‘survive the blackout’. These torches can also be away of promoting the film to other people who are yet to watch it as their friends can tweet their picture with the torches. These can also be a small way to interact with the audience and when the film has small screening test to gain feedback a room or area can be set up where the public can go and experience the dark and use their torches to try and make it out. These areas can then be set up in key cities to create hype of the film and social media can be used to promote them and share the picture of the ‘survivors’; these areas would be similar to the ‘infected zones’ that were create to promote ‘Monsters’ (Gareth Edwards, 2010).