Conventional elements of film posters, teaser trailers, theatrical trailers and film websites were extensively researched and studied to ensure that my product both applied to and subverted the common conventions of the film industry’s marketing strategies. Beginning with the poster and how I created it to appeal to typical conventions. By conforming to what was expected in regards to professional projects, I created a film poster that seemed successfully conventional and realistic. In terms of comedy and fantasy film posters, I studied a wide range to ensure that I applied everything to convention, whilst developing on them and providing my own ideas on the subject which provided originality. This was done through the use of online research and print-based research that provided me with the information that I needed in order to produce a film poster that conformed to the conventional elements of the hybrid genre of magical realism, fantasy and comedy that I created in order to make the genre of my film unconventional in the visual aspect. My film poster was created in a certain way in order to conform to the conventional comedy film posters that usually consist of a white background and black, capitalised typography in order to draw in the attention of the target audience in front of a cinema, online or wherever the marketing campaign is located at the time a few months before the film’s release to build hype within the audience demographic. None of the conventions of this genre of poster are challenged as I used Adobe’s photography editing software, Photoshop to incorporate the typical elements of comedy film posters such as catchy taglines, ‘sometimes power is given to the right person at the wrong time’ which provides the audience with a sense of enigma, leaving them to wonder what power was given to who at what time, what the correct definition of ‘time’ is due to the linked connection with the title, ‘Altered Reality’, which signifies a change in a timeline or universe on its own. Conventions of many film posters continue to be conformed to through the use of the labeling of the distribution company, Fox Searchlight Pictures which is owned by 21st Century Fox as founded by Rupert Murdoch, a well-known and loved conglomerate in the film industry that have produced films such as The Favourite, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Slumdog Millionaire which are widely adored by fans of the trusted company. Because Fox Searchlight Pictures are trusted by fans to distribute high-quality films and commonly provides the Academy with Oscar nominated films such as recent examples of 2017 Oscar-winners, The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Due to staying loyal to the conventions of many film posters, I intentionally incorporated Richard Dyer’s star theory when placing the names of the actors who star in the film that will bring in a tertiary audience of fans of the actors as the theory states. The names of the actors on the front of the poster are listed as conventions because of the marketing technique that they provide for the film. By placing the awards that the film has both won and been nominated for at the top of the poster, I am conforming to convention of many magical realist films that are commonly featured at film festivals across the world. Because my film is of British production with American standard distribution companies, the nomination for the British Academy Film Awards is passable considering the nominations are depicted in the link between the poster and the website.
The website itself conforms to convention when addressing the usual features a film’s partnering website should contain. This should follow along the lines of the following; home page, cast and crew listings, a page depicting the synopsis, where one can view the film, links to the trailers and other promotional material. The website is a form of synergy that is common with many films looking to promote their film in a different way to a wider audience of many who use modern technology of the internet. This is conventional in regards to many large blockbuster films that typically have a connected website that contains more information for the fans to discover and learn about. There are no conventions subverted in the creation of my website, which applies it to the majority of my research on the film website for An Education which incorporates several more conventions that didn’t apply to my film. The incorporation of images from the film known as stills, and information about the actors that portray the main characters link to the conventions installed in most film websites. This expands upon what can be considered necessary when advertising for my film in the required campaign, relating a page of the website to linking the audience member to the trailers.
When studying trailers, I looked closely at films such as Lady Bird and The Edge of Seventeen in their representation of young people as well as the conventional aspect of trailer creation that would correlate with the trailers I needed to create for the course. Referring to other theatrical trailers from other genres like Orphan, Suffragette and Nocturnal Animals, I created a trailer of my own that consisted of many conventional elements. These were closely analysed and integrated into the trailers in selected parts where the music allowed a seamless correlation. Distribution companies involved such as 20th Century Fox, Twenty-One Laps Entertainment and my self-made logo, KEW Productions. The trailer also features the conventional element of the names of the stars in the film towards the end before the title appears and the trailer ends on the hashtag and credit block. Music that suits the genre as well as the diegetic and non-diegetic voice overs from the several different characters are featured in the trailer, which is removed from the conventions of my teaser trailer. The typography that is also used to advertise the other films that the distribution companies featured is an important convention to input to attract a tertiary audience of fans of the referred films, Trainspotting and Room, both of which were extremely successful.
Because most of the characters within my film are female, the representation of women came from my elucidated research of films that use women to push their narrative forwards and create a sense of relatability and identification according to the uses and gratifications audience theory created by Blumler and Katz. There are no real social issues represented by the social groups in the marketing campaign for my film, with the only representation being the representation of young people and women, commenting upon the issues that played out over the course of history. The trailer itself doesn’t show the names of the historical figures that the protagonist of the film removes from the course of history, only mentioning William Shakespeare whose removal was depicted to be accidental. Because of the conformity to social groups and no issues being conveyed, the two trailers both introduce the audience to the film with no problem when being distributed, which ensures its success rate with the mass audience when the film is sent into theatres depicted worldwide in the countries that are listed on the ‘see the film’ section of the website.
To conclude, the conventions of both teaser and theatrical trailers were conformed to and subverted due to the hybrid genre of my film, introducing the audience to a different style of filmography that conforms to many typical attributes of coming-of-age, fantasy, comedy dramas whilst also forming an original idea that hasn’t been developed in such a way before. The sheer innocence of the issues presented to the target demographic of teenagers and young adults, typically female, is low enough to fall under the radar of issues that could be addressed in the films narrative, for example the different areas of history that could be viewed as controversial subjects. This was not applied to my trailer as I intended to keep the subjects tackled in my film as lowkey as I could, considering the subject matter that could be addressed, wasn’t.
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
The elements of production are commonly identified with continuity and something that relates each of the sections of the marketing campaign, more specifically known as ‘branding’. Within the production process of my two trailers, website and film poster, I imported several different examples of branding that work together to connect each of the sections in the promotional package. Within the poster I incorporated the distribution companies in both small logos that are positioned conventionally underneath the credit block at the bottom of the theatrical poster for my film. By applying my film poster to the conventions of many other examples studied in the research process such as Juno, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, The Shape of Water and Spotlight and what makes them conventional of their genre of film. As a whole, using the distribution company’s logo on a poster is a typical convention listed in all film posters across the industry which applies to mine. Before venturing into the description of the different distribution companies featured in my film promotion campaign, we must first consider what is known as the ‘Big Six’ in Hollywood - known as the respected film distribution companies that produce the majority of films. The Big Six are consist of Warner Brothers Entertainment known for distributing the Harry Potter film franchise as well as all of the DC films), Paramount Pictures (who developed Titanic and produced the Shrek franchise), Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox (known for the Marvel films, including the X-Men films and the widely successful Star Wars franchise), Universal Pictures (reached fame and success with films such as the Jurassic Park franchise and the Fast and Furious franchise) and Sony Pictures Entertainment (who distributed the early 2000 Spider-Man reboots and all of the Resident Evil film franchise). By using one of the Big Six in the distribution of my film, I am developing an understanding of branding and how it can be used to demonstrate success in the film industry from box office numbers to critical reflection and professional reviews. I used my research on different distribution companies to identify which one would be conventional when considering the genre and overall finish product of my film. There are four different distribution companies attached to my film, Altered Reality, one of which, is a distribution company of my own creation which keeps the film a fairly independent project with the main distribution company being on of the Big Six, 20th Century Fox, connected with Fox Searchlight Pictures as a conglomerate company that owns Fox Searchlight Pictures. This, linked with Film4, who are well-known for producing independent films that are highly successful in the Academy like 2018’s Best Picture nominee, The Favourite, Best Adapted Screenplay nominee, Trainspotting and 2011’s Best Picture nominee, 127 Hours. The same hope was to win the trust of film-goers into watching a film by a trusted company that is known for distributing at a wide success rate. The third distribution company is Twenty-One Laps Entertainment which is most known for Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Arrival and the Night at the Museum trilogy. These three distribution companies that are on-board for my created film, are three trusted industries between both critics and audiences alike. Due to this, the logos shown on the poster are also shown within the trailer at the beginning of the two minute piece. This ensures a well-linked connection with each of the companies and the target audience at the beginning which would immediately draw their attention to the film. The first logo to appear is the 20th Century Fox logo which is used first in order to hold the audience’s interest and trust in the film. This is closely followed by Twenty-One Laps Entertainment’s logo that is used between a fade out of the 20th Century Fox logo and the introduction of the KEW Pictures logo. By applying these logos to the front of my trailer, I am conforming to conventions that relate to these logos being placed into the trailer just after the introduction of an essential plot point or a pivotal character is introduced. Because of this, branding becomes the most important element of a trailer, an obvious link between the trailer and the poster that provides the same information just on a smaller scale. Within the poster, this crosses over, only advertising Fox Searchlight Pictures, KEW Pictures and Film4 for a reason. It suggests that the distribution logos cannot all occupy one part of the campaign at once, this, as well as the fact that Film4 films tend to get more critical and commercial recognition when released to the public, sitting better with audiences as a whole.
When thinking about incorporating branding from the trailer into the poster, I addressed the essential information that included maintaining the house style by making the traditional iconography of the red Film4 logo, black to fit the aesthetic that runs across the colour palette of the poster, which is that of black and white, subjecting itself to conventions previously stated. The element of typography and it’s incorporated addition to the star appeal theory created by Richard Dyer is used to create a sense of branding across each platform of film promotion packaging. This form of branding differs from the traditional sense of brands that most would be familiar with, because within the film industry, names of actors and actresses, directors or producers would be considered to be a brand. For example, large names in the film industry such as actor, George Clooney or director, Steven Spielberg will be considered brands as their names alone would be enough to pull in a large financial budget that will be made up by the target audience and general public who trust in the crew. In my promotional campaign, the names of the people who worked on producing my film are consistently placed across all three elements of my marketing, making sure that the addition of their names comes across as a brand that can be profited upon.
Externally to the project, I understood the different release dates can also be a factor involved when considering what films will be released at what time. For example, Christmas films wouldn’t be released in January, and a DC film wouldn’t be released on the same weekend as a Marvel film. Due to my film being a hybrid genre and not set in any specific holiday, I ensured free rein as to when I decided to release the film - choosing to produce the advertisements to state ‘spring’ which would be updated on the website to a more specific timeframe that fans can look forward to and build hype towards. Smaller elements of branding such as official brands featured in some films such as Coca Cola in Jurassic World were not featured in my film. One of the earliest examples of product placement came from the scenes depicting James Dean’s use of ACE combs in Rebel Without A Cause back in 1955, and since then, it has become a massive use to blockbuster films in Hollywood due to the fact that primarily about audience engagement, showing the connection between the film world and the real world, forming a sense of identification with the production. However, I chose to maintain the film as product-placement-free.
All in all, the use of branding in films is used for multiple reasons. These mostly stem from audience reception and financial gain that would benefit both the producer and the receiver.
How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?
Engagement with an audience is an element of filmmaking that should begin consideration in the pre-production stages of the creation. However, the focus of my course was to produce a promotional campaign that will be distributed to be marketing the film across the world. These consisted of a teaser trailer, theatrical trailer, theatrical poster and official website which all represented a certain engagement with the participating active audience in different ways. The two trailers are distributed onto video sharing websites, public sites such as YouTube and more niche websites like IMDb where an active members of the audience can find trailers and material about the film in regards to trailers and video activity. If the trailer is successful in drawing in the required target audience, and maintains a high audience expectation for the film’s eventual release, it will make its way around via word-of-mouth spread from one person, who will then share the video further on either through conversation with friends and family or sharing the video across other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. This type of exposure continues the popularity and hype surrounding the film until its eventual release, this form of audience engagement is a verbal marketing strategy that is commonly referred to as The Snowball Effect. Audience engagement is vital in terms of marketing and the spread of film popularity in many ways; one, it can boost the value of audience anticipation, and two, it can result in a larger box office both domestic and worldwide. When it comes to smaller ways of engaging the audience, it can be done through the conventions of trailers and film posters. Looking at my research for film posters and the conventions they hold to engage and audience, I was able to create a typical sense of audience engagement from the link to the website which acts as a link in the package of my promotional campaign. The website link at the bottom of theatrical posters is common due to the promotion that it gives the film, overall, a website dedicated to a film is supposed to provide essential information to an audience who is willing to understand the film and its creation. Each page of the website is used as conventionally engaging towards the audience from the introductory home page featuring pull quotes and awards such as the two BAFTA nominations at the top of the page reading ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ and ‘Outstanding British Film’ to the page where audience members can be linked to showings of the film in cinemas in their hometown which can be accessed via the drop-down menu on the site which creates a sense of individuality in each member of the audience in regards to the website accessing their hometown cinema screenings and pointing them in the direction of the closest theatre via location scouting depending on the whereabouts of the individual. This form of engagement conveys a sense of identity where the audience can feel like the film is directly for them and them only, not the mass audience that it truly appeals to. By creating a page for the audience to meet the cast and crew in the ‘cast and crew’ section it brings the audience engagement close to the film’s production crew who created the film for the enjoyment of viewers.
Engagement also stems from the theatrical trailer that was produced for the film, partnering the poster. At the end of the trailer, I made a direct connection to the element of cross-media convergence, linking the Twitter and Instagram hashtag ‘WhatWouldYouChange’ to engage with the audience in terms of promotion and building hype as well as spreading word. By creating a catchy hashtag to engage an audience, it draws attention to the way that audiences can spread the word about the film’s release via their own Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages. Successful audience interaction stems from engagement which is important in regards to creating the perfect successful marketing strategy and audience expansion.
As real media texts, each section of my film promotional package would be distributed in the same way that professional productions are distributed to reach mass audiences worldwide. To begin with, the trailer would be distributed as previously stated, on YouTube and IMDb, where fans can share both the teaser trailer and the theatrical trailer. The teaser trailer would be released on YouTube and IMDb up to four months before the theatrical trailer, creating an essential build-up that would increase hype within the audience for the release of a second and theatrical trailer. By maintaining convention, I am addressing the expectations of an audience based on the extent of my trailer research, not only in my media research, but crossing over from my film course research. This influenced knowledge of the release pattern of trailers influenced the way I released my trailers and how long I waited until both were successfully distributed free of charge. For the only official worldwide poster, it would be distributed in both print and software. The print copies will be advertised on London buses, bus stops, billboards, on the advertisement spots on New York taxis and outside cinemas across the countries where the film is going to be released. I avoided conventions that state the date of release on the front of the poster so to gain more attention at a later date, by releasing the poster at the same time as the teaser trailer, the active audience member who wishes to find out more about the film’s release will use Google’s search engine to find the release date and watch out for updates on the film’s release schedule - including access to the later theatrical trailer. At the base of the poster, is the link to the website, this also directly links to the essential information about the film which will ensure that I gain more audience attraction to the website which will then link them to more information about the film they didn’t know they needed. The website would be distributed through the use of the distribution of the poster, gaining the publicity it needs when considering the information that it holds about the film. Because of this distribution method of my promotional package blurring the line between what could be considered conventional distribution and what is seen as completely unconventional, my marketing campaign for ‘Altered Reality’ stands out as somewhat complex in the engagement of an audience through finding information about the film in an unconventional way that involves the audience searching across all four of the elements of the package in order to pull what they need from the website, trailers or poster depending on the information they wish to access.
Altogether, the way in which my package interacts with the audience is intentional to form a hunt-like demonstration where the audience has to be active in order to see the film. This ensures engagement with the audience as it makes the experience more personal via the ways in which it is distributed.
How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?
Throughout the production of my film promotion package, I used both software and hardware equally. This meant that I controlled each element manually whilst also leaving some elements for the software, specifically Adobe’s Photoshop CS6 (64 bit) and Premiere Pro 2019, to control the rest when referring to effects, rendering and saving the files. I used all three elements listed in this creative critical reflection question, therefore, I will have a lot to discuss in regards to what I did, how I did it and why.
However, I will begin with discussing the addition of hardware before continuing on to analysing my use of online resources and software. Over the course of the pre-production stages, I mainly used hardware. The storyboard planning took place on paper where I used an online source to provide a printed copy of a six template block on A4 paper to roughly sketch the inspiration I had gained for both the teaser trailer and the theatrical trailer. What I produced on the pieces of paper for my storyboard turned out to be different to the final outcome because changes were made in the final stages on the software. The importance of the storyboarding process was still present as it allowed me to document my shots, angles and camera movements to take with me when it came to filming each individual section of my trailer in a non-linear way, a conventional way that most filmmakers shoot their Hollywood films. Three cameras were used within the duration of the filming processes; the Canon XA35, Sony 1300D and Canon SX50HS. The camera that I tended to film on predominantly was the Sony 1300D which provided each of my shots with colouring that complimented the natural lighting in all of the settings used to shoot in. Because of the lack of a lighting setup I had to rely on timing and framing in particular to capture the shot that would be best for a particular scene in my trailer. When shooting on the 25th of January on Azaiba beach, I instructed a member of my camera crew to use the Canon SX50HS as the lighting for the outside shots was more enhanced with that particular camera, emphasising upon each of the features of my actor’s face as well as the sea behind her being in complete focus through the panning shots directed. Hand-held equipment was the biggest asset to my film promotional package; tripods, audio recorders/handheld microphones and the cameras remained prominent on set throughout as essential hardware in order to film. The audio recorders were one of the harder elements of the hardware usage, yet ended with being the most rewarding. Because of the boom mics being taken out for the majority of the time during the production process, I had to use a separate device in order to capture audio which would have to later be lined up manually in the post-production stages via the use of software, particularly Adobe Premiere Pro. The continued use of hardware in order to film my promotional package continued onto the website and poster’s production methods as well. The website’s development was started with the use of the Sony 1300D when taking the many promotional images for the photographic sections of my website that would later be used to introduce the cast and crew as well as advertise the film through the use of props such as the history book which makes a prominent appearance over all three elements of my promotional package. Over each of the different planned pages of my website, I knew I had to organise a promotional photoshoot with all of my main actors who would be on the ‘cast and crew’ page so that audiences can gain an insight into who the actors are behind the characters they view in the later trailer. This integration of hardware remained within the use of the Sony 1300D as well as a three-point-lighting setup that gave the photographs a professional vibrance before they were even considered in the software editing in Photoshop. These photographs were later placed all across the website to act as official promotional material. The same can be discussed when regarding the poster and the photographs taken in the separate photoshoot for it. In the final decision for the theatrical poster was for it to feature one large image instead of the three protagonists which was the original intention, I positioned the three of them so that my main actress was centred at the front looking scared whilst the others stood in the back acting along with their directions that fit their character.
The online resources were used predominantly for the research elements of my process when looking up different examples of trailers, film websites and posters to use as examples when considering the conventions that I could apply to each element of the promotional campaign. The research that I conducted consisted of elucidated examples of trailers and posters with several different case studies that were used to depict each of the conventions that they hold based on the different genres. I used Weebly in order to create the film website, which matches the website that I used to create my blog for the coursework for both media and film courses. Because of this I transferred the usage of Weebly’s features onto the website when referring to my case study of An Education’s website and Lady Bird’s website for reference. These other film websites helped me with what conventions I should apply when creating a website of my own through the use of hardware and software merging with the appliances of the internet to draw in an audience due to the visual appeal that it gives whilst also conforming to the house style. The five pages; home, synopsis, cast and crew, see the film and socials were all created based on my research online of these case studies. When regarding the internet in the 21st century, I knew that almost everyone has access to the internet and sharing things is easier than ever. By using the internet to promote my film, I am appealing to the active audience members who wish to discover more about the film’s production. Online resources for research and creation aided the continuous journey to the final product of each separate element, which made websites such as depicted film websites and IMDb crucial to the success of my own film promotional package.
I predominately used software on Adobe’s platform such as Audition, Photoshop and Premiere Pro. Both trailers were created on Premiere Pro CC 2019, this meant that the knowledge obtained from previous projects was transferred onto the creation of the two trailers. To begin with, I labelled each of the folders of raw footage to the section of the trailer that was within them and dragged them into the media browser to edit them later in collective bins. These bins helped to differentiate between each section of the trailer and how I would later come to edit them. In the original shot of the three protagonists that didn’t make the final cut, I decided to alter the lighting when syncing up the audio with the visuals of my actors having a conversation as their characters. This provided me with a challenge on Movie Studio Platinum 12 to make the lighting brighter to suit with the Sony 1300D which had perfectly collected the use of the lighting to my satisfaction unlike the Canon XA35 which had a different setting of lighting. This was quickly fixed by the Sony Colour Curve tool in Video Event FX which granted me the choice to enhance the lighting to what correlated with the other shots best. However, when watching the scenes back, I observed the clear issue with my raw clips was that the background was in focus and not the foreground which led me to re-shooting the scene with a better audio and visual which I ended up using in my final cut in the original place that I had planned to film.
The addition of software as a whole helped me to create a widely detailed piece with different elements of several Adobe softwares coming together to provide a professional-looking promotional campaign. Thus bringing forward my development on Premiere Pro 2019. On Premiere Pro, I used several different elements of the programme to create my trailers which led to the discovery of lightning overlays and the removal of a green screen to add a newscast overlay that looks professional. Typography was an essential asset to both trailers, an additional amount of text was applied to the teaser trailer in order to apply to conventions that apply to many teaser trailers to fill the time with a description of the plot briefly. This was added through post-production software editing when the black fade outs, added in the editing software via the automatic join tool which was provided with a fade out when spacing each clip to a miniscule amount between them on the timeline. Each of my cuts related to conventional elements of trailers from the studies I conducted on trailers over the use of YouTube from modern films of different genres such as Suffragette, a biography drama, Nocturnal Animals, a drama and thriller, and Lady Bird, a comedy drama, which helped me to develop an understanding of how my trailers should be edited in order to apply to convention. Each of the trailers are relatively similar, with jump cuts, j-cuts, fades to black at dramatic scenes that are supposed to create tension or provide an enigma and each of these cuts fit with the music whatever genre the film is. Because of these elements being involved in every trailer I studied, not being able to find any differences in others, I took the knowledge of conventions and applied them to my own trailers, using a collection of these three different edits which provided me with a final professional touch to my trailers. On Photoshop, I managed to bring the pre-existing knowledge forward from my years from GCSE onwards and apply them to my film poster. I used many tools such as the magnetic lasso tool, eraser tool, background removal tool, text application with a series of fonts to create the award nominations, tagline, cast and distribution names, saving PNG files of logos to put onto the poster and of course, the creation of my own credit block from scratch. The fonts that were used were Promenade de la Croisette and capitalised Coolvetica RG which were consistent across the trailer and correctly lined up using the graph mode of photoshop. I resolved the issue of the green screen image projecting a green hue onto the white shoes of my model by applying a self-made white overlay and cutting around the shoe to make it a white blocked colour, I then lowered the opacity and cut closer with the soft eraser tool which resulted in the colouration of the shoes back to their original colour. The different tools, shortcuts and tutorials studied from prior knowledge as well as tutorials on online sources were used to emphasise my poster in several different ways that would be appealing and enigmatic for the audience to draw in attention to the film. Adobe’s audio editing software, Audition, helped me when considering the distance that the microphones were away from the actor when they were speaking. This involved enhancing the audio in some actor’s clips on Adobe Audition CC 2018, following audio enhancement tools in order to bring the audio up in volume whilst also decreasing the white noise that the microphone picked up in the background. To begin with, I imported the clip into a Audition file and selected a small clip where the white noise was prominent, after this I chose select and noise reduction/restoration followed by noise reduction (process) where it brought up a smaller menu where I closely edited the clip. The use of the capture noise print button helped me to easily select the clip that I needed to remove the white noise from. After removing the background noise from the clip of their dialogue, I decided to incorporate my newest skill on Audition onto the other clips that needed the reduction of white noise in the background taking away from the power of the dialogue picked up on the microphone. The overall use of software in my production helped me to form a professional piece of work whose voice overs sound like they were recorded professionally.
All in all, hardware, software and online resources were integrated into my film promotional package in order to appeal to the audience - the final goal for any product being distributed to the general public as well as the target audience demographic depicted in my research in the pre-production section of my blog where I stated that the target audience was females between the ages of 12 and 21, diving deeper into psychographics and interests/hobbies they may have that apply to the film to spark the theory of identification. These elements of technology were key to the finalisation of my two trailers, website and poster, bringing them all up to a professional standard.