Radio Advert Researchhttp://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

www.imdb.com/title/tt0452694/

www.imdb.com/title/tt0417741/

Most radio adverts aren’t for films, although there are occasional ones for films such as most recently:

The Time Travellers Wife Sorority Row

Fame Although these films have been relatively

successful (The Time Travellers Wife grossed almost £2m in its opening weekend), their trailers didn’t seem to be seen as much on television during popular times unlike those of the latest Harry Potter film which grossed almost £20m during its opening weekend. Although I think that there are many other factors that lead to the success of the Harry Potter film, I definitely think that the fact that it was well publicised on television helped this.

Why use a radio advert?

Radio adverts have a different effect compared to the adverts shown on television mainly because they focus more on atmosphere and have to create the picture for the listener. I think they’re particularly effective for horror films as they can create an effective atmosphere and the listener has to use their own imagination to fill in the rest.

Local Radio

Local radio stations are the only ones which actually play adverts for films (or more often than not windows). Although having the advert on the radio will be a form of publicity, if it is not going to be heard by many people, is it really worth it?

I think it can be, maybe it isn't the most frequently heard form of publicity but if it is made well enough, if the music fits well enough that it makes the listener feel on edge to the degree that they tell their friends about it – I think it is definitely successful and that’s what I hope to achieve with my trailer.

How often do people listen to local radio?

This chart shows on average how many hours per day people listen to each radio station.

I chose to look at two popular BBC stations and two popular non-BBC local stations and as can be seen from the chart, there is a 30.1% increase in favour of time spent listening to the BBC stations.

9.3

11.9

6.8

8

Radio 1

Radio 2

Galaxy

Hallam FM

How many people listen to local radio? Once again after looking into how many people actually listen to local radio i

can see that the BBC stations win once again. At first i thought it might just have been a situation within south yorkshire but after looking into other regions it became clear that around the country the BBC stations monopolise the radio. At the moment BBC radio has 12 national stations and a further 47 regional stations.

When these results are compared with the fact that on record there are 46,327,000 people in britain listening to radio and 34,098,000 of them are listening to a BBC station, i think it emphasises why radio adverts could be considered redundant.

11,342,000

13,424,000

356,000

3,714,000

Radio 1Radio 2Hallam FMGalaxy

Music Films like Halloween and Jaws have that famous motif that

make people know automatically what film it is, and when used without the film listeners can remember the bits that scared them the most which in a way can make the trailer be tailered to each persons fears.

I think that the majority of people will agree in saying that orchestral music is the most effective type of horror film music. It has been used since horror films were first introduced and even in modern films is the most popular type of music used in the horror and thriller genre. One reason why orchestral music is so common in horror films is probably the diversity of emotions that it can convey.

I have made a piece of music on garage band that consists of a lot of string instruments to add the staccato that i think a horror film needs. The music will feature in my film at some point if not all the way through and therefore I would also like to include it in my trailer.

Sound Effects Sound effects also seem to play a large part in

trailers once again because the audience has to rely on what they can hear.

In my radio trailer i plan on using rain and thunder as a continuous motif throughout, a scream and then a gunshot which i think will emphasise the horror theme but also if somebody was to have their radio on in the background or in the car and was to hear the gunshot or scream i think it would definately make them pay attention in time to hear the name of the film and the release date which is ultimately the goal of a trailer.

Voice

I think that the voice used for a radio film trailer is very important especially depending on the genre. As my film is a horror/thriller film i think that the voice for my trailer should be a steriotypical deep male voice, the type used in a lot of filmed trailers. I tried using a female voice as one of the main characters is female but I decided that the male voice works better.

The script for my radio trailer can be seen below.