The Movie Advertisement Conventions.
During the process of promotional development for a film, it is hugely important for USPs to be utilised. This is something in which convinces its target Audience to want to, in this case, go see the Film a company is advertising as opposed to other movies which are being released parallel to theirs. There are various elements which create a USP for a Film:
Promotional Posters, Magazine Covers, Websites, and the most important factor of the Film's advertisement, the Trailer itself. All of these elements compliment one another and are all utilised to create a successful campaign for a film and synergistically causing the "Word Of Mouth", spreading awareness of the film, and creating an impact on the Public. Although, not all campaigns are successful, sometimes they do not connect with the Public or even have a lack in advertising for the Film so it does not become a success.
A campaign generally works in stages, and they go as follows:
☆ The Promotional poster, this establishes the Genre and begins to build momentum & awareness of the Film.
The Most significant part of this type of Promotion is to create a 'Theme' and a symbolisation of the Film which reoccurs throughout the advertisement (Conventionally, a style of Font or a piece of Imagery which people can recognise the Film for).
This becomes iconic for the Movie and can be used in other aspects of the campaign (e.g. The Trailer, Magazine Cover or Website) to illuminate it for the public eye, becoming a symbolisation for the Film which makes it recognisable. International Release depends on whether the promotion for the Film changes or not so it relates to a larger audience, depending on the Area of Release.
☆ Ultimately, the Teaser Trailer and the Theatrical Trailer are created and released for Public exposure, building on the promotion campaign for the film and causing more people to become aware of the Film's release.
Throughout the process of creating our own teaser Trailer for Our Target Audience, we must create our advertisement campaign to parallel our Trailer. The campaign includes a Promotional Poster and a Magazine Cover.
For the Trailer we are creating it would be appropriate to release internationally so the Film would garner exposure from overseas Audiences, but Horror Films are not strongly received by a large amount of Audiences.
The Promotional Poster Development.
The Original Photograph which was taken during the filming process.
We created our First Cut of the Promotional Poster which detailed our idea for the Title of the Trailer which was "The Tormented" as it connoted to the story of the film (An young, innocent girl being intimidated and stalked by an unknown Antagonist). The Black & White effect connotes to a 1940s Noir Styled Poster, interlinking old Horror Styles into our Media Project.The light being projected behind the image of the Antagonist highlights and outlines the figure yet also slightly highlights the features of the mask to make them seem more intimidating as we cannot see their face. The image is a Screen Capture from some of the footage we had filmed and we felt that imagery worked as it was a in-sight shot from within the film to make it seem more realistic and not so entirely edited. Also, to give the audience a taster as to what happens within the film.
Before we made any finalisations for the Promotional Poster we considered ways in which we could improve the imagery and making it more effective on our Audience by not only criticising our own decisions but also receiving constructive Criticism from others, so we got more than two opinions.
Initially, the Title was finalised as The Tormented but after some discussion we decided that the Title seemed to be too typical and conventional of such a film within the Horror Genre. We had already concluded that we wanted to go against convention so removed "The" from it and change it to 'Torment'. After further questioning to get the Title of the film at its best it was thought that 'Torment' sounds too cliche and not as frightening because it was very conventional. We wanted the film to not only emit a horrific playout and scenario but also convey a Universal message to society that situations like this occur frequently throughout the world and it makes it more real as it is something which can happen. Ultimately, the Title therefore became 'Intervention'.
Initially, the Title was finalised as The Tormented but after some discussion we decided that the Title seemed to be too typical and conventional of such a film within the Horror Genre. We had already concluded that we wanted to go against convention so removed "The" from it and change it to 'Torment'. After further questioning to get the Title of the film at its best it was thought that 'Torment' sounds too cliche and not as frightening because it was very conventional. We wanted the film to not only emit a horrific playout and scenario but also convey a Universal message to society that situations like this occur frequently throughout the world and it makes it more real as it is something which can happen. Ultimately, the Title therefore became 'Intervention'.
The Wording layout for the Tag-Line had to be re-worked as we thought it would not be as effective. Originally it was "Because once you find out, you won't forget..." but we came to the decision that this would be more effective if it was broken down into smaller captions. We loved the idea of "Won't Forget..." but instead was worked into a Statement-Stylised caption and became "Some people just do not forgive and forget."
The Production Credits positioned at the bottom of the poster worked well and gave it a more professional edge to it. But some of the information contained within it had to be changed due to the addition of the second Antagonist.
The Decision was to keep the Title Text of the Film Poster as the eerie stylings it emitted created a Horror Effect for the Trailer. Making it seem apart of the Horror Variety and accentuating to Audiences of its Dark Themes. As for the Tag-Line of the Film Poster we decided to keep the style of the text as the simplicity of it accentuated the Dark Tones as it is not urging itself onto the Audience yet is still visible through the Black and White contrast.
We made the decision to keep the main image as the lighting and the shadows complimented each other which worked well for the Horror Theme. Although the Protagonist is knelt down in front of the door 'Hiding' from the Antagonist as he has discovered her whereabouts. We wanted to lighten the image of the Woman without brightening the entire shot as it would not seem as realistic and would make the overall image too light to be a poster for a film within the Horror Genre.
☆ So, we had previously taking a picture of the exact same shot, as opposed to a Screen Capture which was significantly brighter than the shot from within the trailer. We was unable to utilise that image as it was too light and the shot composition was not as good as the Screen Capture, so we lasso round the image of the Protagonist on Photoshop and combined this with an identical, darkened capture to slightly enlighten the Female without brightening the entire image.
The Magazine Cover Development.
After finalising the Mainstream Promotional Poster for the Trailer we continued onto the next element of the campaign, which was the Magazine Cover.
As the Main imagery of the Poster was iconic for our Trailer and the Magazine which we are creating for the campaign is promoting the Film, it seemed appropriate to include elements of the Poster on the Cover itself so the Audience would recognise the Film e.g. The Title. Initially, we wanted to utilise previous images we had taken during the filming process as apart of the Advertisement to widen our imagery and promotion of the film. When it came down to creating the Cover itself these images were not as effective as the Mainstream Poster Image.
We re-positioned the Image of the Poster slightly to the Left, cutting some of the image but not ridding of a significant amount so it was unrecognisable. It allowed the Magazine to have a strong promotion of the Film as it used the Main Poster itself in its Advertisement, which raises awareness of the Film.
Distribution.
For the Distribution Factors of producing the Final Product, there is a hugely significant thought process and a large amount of Research needed to produce an effective campaign. There are drastic and huge decisions needed to be made though the Creative Process which consider the right elements for it to appeal to the Audience of choice. You have to take into consideration Casting, Costumes, Locations, Mise-En-Scene, Editing, and the right camera angles and compositions to illustrate the appropriate Themes, Tones and emotional intentions.
To Produce a Film which could potentially become a Box Office Smash there would have to be a mass promotion campaign for the film. Promotional Campaigns for the Promotional Poster would include advertisement within Cinemas, Bus Shelters, the sides of Busses and Billboards this would begin to gain momentum for the Film's release. This would prove profitable as it would to create a wave of Word of Mouth, this proving to be one of the most effective forms of advertisement.
Another effective form of Advertisement is through Social Networking Websites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc.) placing and spanning multiple promotions for the film. This would prove effective as a huge majority of People utilise them daily and because of the Day & Age we live within Social Networking is massively significant as people want to stay in contact with others - It has become apart of a huge amount of Peoples Everyday Lifestyles so to spread adds throughout them would raise awareness of the Film.
For the Trailer itself it would be shown within commercials of Film screenings which fit the Horror Genre, to build its Target Audience and raising awareness of the Films release. Another proven effective form of advertisement is through Commercial Broadcasting for the Film, this would occur during which a hugely significant amount of the Target Audience would be watching Television, by doing this is would raise awareness of the Film more, but because of the Dark and Horrific Themes, it would placed within a later slot of the day, after 9pm.
Taking into consideration all the promotional elements for the Film and creating this campaign to make the project unique and memorable for its Audience, there would have to be signifiers for the Audience recognise the Film from others (USP). If well produced there would be factors which Assist the Audience in the recognisation of the film and making the Film more unique and differenciating from others e.g. The Imagery Presented, the Tag-Line or more significantly the Title stylisation. If all elements are proven successful and accomplished in a synergistic manner then all the elements will combine together to create a campaign which causes the Word Of Mouth element of the promotion to become huge and the Public would become more aware of the Films release.
