CONSTRUCTION: FILMING THE REPORTER SCENE

Although I only used a small clip from this scene and was not crucial to part of the trailer in the end, it was beneficial for the group to work on an aspect of the trailer close together due to most of it being independent. By not using the majority of this clip, in the end, helped show me how the story and structure of the trailer may change and adapt over time. I see this as a positive as I have found other routes which I believe would captivate the audience and entice them to the story constructed.

 

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING IN THE FOG

For our filming, we used a drone to capture some establishing and aerial shots which otherwise would not have been accomplished with equipment such as a tripod. We chose to film in the fog to add to the eerie and mysterious atmosphere which helps to reinforce the genre we have chosen, horror.

 

CONSTRUCTION: SCRIPT

 As a group we decided to put our initial ideas into a script using Celtx. Here is our final product:

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONAIRE RESULTS

My audience questionnaire has provided informative and illuminating responses which confirm our production teams assumptions about the ways in which audiences actively seek escapism, diversion and entertainment from the horror genre. Our film will meet these needs by atmospheric locations, convincing props, intriguing situations, moments that generate fear through tension and menace, and tropes like jump scares.

PLANNING: MY PROMO PACK

 

Online Copywriter Socal Media Specialist Final Artist by Harrison Allman-Varty

CONSTRUCTION: SMASH CUT

The purpose of a smash cut is to jar the audience with a sudden and unexpected change in image or sound. I aim to use this technique to help heighten the emotion of anxiety and increase the fear which I believe is one of the main goals of a horror/ thriller film. This can be created by a series of fast-moving, disorderly shots combined with images flashing up to confuse the viewer in an uneasy and sinister way. Ways that I intend to use a smash cut is a sudden brief appearance of our unexpected horror character (Charlotte) complemented by a sharp and shocking sound the audience will most likely not expect. This smash cut will take place towards the end of the trailer, after a build-up of tension.

The book "Cinematic Storytelling" outlines the different uses of smash cuts with examples from renowned film Psycho and American Beauty. In American Beauty, a smash cut jumps from a wide aerial shot to an imposing close-up, jolting the audience. Psycho uses a moving shot than then slam to a stop with a static shot, making the audience feel as if they have ground to a halt. 

PLANNING: TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

 Before brainstorming any fundamental storyline we thought it would be wise to evaluate our target audience and see their needs and desires. In order to find out my target audiences reaction to this type of film, I needed to know how they would feel about my chosen genre of film and used Google Forms to retrieve this information.  I also use this platform in my previous A1 work so I was able to navigate fluently throughout the interface which resulted in me being more effective in fixing together the questions and results.  

PLANNING: SIMILLAR FILMS

SIMILIAR FIMLS by Harrison Allman-Varty

PLANNING: TREATMENT

Our film 'Charlotte' is about a group of teenage friends who seek adventure at the abandoned school, Claremont for Princess Charlotte's ghost. They set out on their risky adventure to the death place of Charlotte on the anniversary of when she died. Emily, the paranormal expert gathers her friends Jack and Gibby to join her on her quest to communicate with the ghost where they are truly pushed to their limits.

Later on in the production, the viewer sees a distressed Emily who is unlucky enough to be separated from the group where she herself discovered that the once-friendly spirit may not possess those qualities any more. The pace and intensity of the film is then drastically increased as they race against the odds and time to find Emily before the demon of Claremont takes Emily away and is lost forever.

We will use this treatment as the baseline for our film and helps to explain the narrative of the production in a simple form. This allows the directors to refer to the treatment so they don't stray away from the main storyline.

We watched Frank Ash, a BBC Creative Consultant, and learned of the topline and big questions.

PLANNING: CASTING

 

PLANNING: MINDMAP

PLANNING: LOCATION RECCE

 

PLANNING: PROPS LIST

 

PLANNING: HOW OUR PRODUCTION RELATES TO SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES

 Pinterest

I have used Pinterest to gather an image that relates to my productions. The type of audience who will want to watch my trailer will be able to identify where most the images have been sourced. This will help to reinforce my audience base and will help attract and target my trailer more specifically at those who enjoy horror productions.

PLANNING: GENRE CODES AND CONVENTIONS

The horror genre has a set of codes and conventions. In order to identify them, I researched a number of horror films. Amongst other conventions I identified the following: 

Paranormal Activity 

The Blair Witch Project

 

RESEARCH: HOW THE CAMPAIGN WORKS

Distributors will eventually look at how they distribute a film. They will need to focus on the cost of the campaign. The FDA website states that there are two important factors that distributors focus on when looking at the costs which are: 

ABOVE THE LINE COSTS

Above the line costs. These costs will be spent on creating marketing materials such as trailers and poster, purchasing media advertising such as websites, website banners, radio adverts or newspaper adverts etc. Finally is creating an online presence such as social media platforms that are commonly used, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

BELOW THE LINE COSTS

Below the line costs. When you are a public figure in a certain industry such as in the film industry, it builds further awareness and interest into a certain film. Some distributors use editorial interviews and authored articles are sometimes generally more trusted. Such events to build awareness could be special access to the stars and fans who wait alongside the red carpet for such things as, autographs and selfies.

ADVERTISING

Advertising a film will be the most expensive part of ant P&A budget. In the UK, rates for advertising are very expensive. The most common form of advertising option for distributors are:

 - TV advertising  - Social media networks - Press advertising  - Websites - Trailers - Posters - Radio advertising - Merchandise  - Cross-promotion

THE POSTER

The Image of the poster, just make thew audience aware of the existence of the film and entice us to go and watch it along with putting across ideas of what the film could possibly be about. Most posters want to include stars of the film,  credits and often if its effective the tag line.

The art and main image and design of a films poster is called 'ket art'. This is central to the films identity and an essential feature of its release campaign. An effective poster is able to catch the eye of a potential viewer and is able to temp the mind.

If the film follows a series of films or is a sequel, its poster must immediately make it similar and able to recognise it is a continuing series. If the film being release is an original, the poster has to be able to be bold and eye-catching and make their message and branding heard to anyone who witnesses.

The posters have the potential to put its message across in numerous ways such as:

 - The colours being used (and how bright they are)

 - The image or images used on the poster and the sizing o them

 - The size of specific eye-catching words on the poster 

 - The use of familiar faces of experienced and favourable actors.

 - The style of the poster such as the graphics and any other words used on the poster.

 - The certificate awarded.

POSTER ANALYSIS

TYPES OF TRAILER 

A film trailer is one of the most cost-effective ways of advertising in the film industry as they are shown in cinemas to an audience that will most likely be engaged by the following along with websites and TV. A trailer will give a brief insight into what to expect when watching. The trailer will be a selection of interesting and captivating clips to help grab and retain the audience's attention whilst creating awareness of the upcoming film and generating the 'must-see' attitude from audiences.
A trailer will give an audience:

- What the story will consist of/what it's about
- The talent of the film such as who is in the film
- The genre of the film
- Key dates such as when the film will be released

Trailers are generally categorised into four different ways:

- The T.V spot
- Teaser Trailer
- Full trailer
- On-set bios published by the key members of the cast or crew members

IMPORTANT!

Teaser trailers are released way before a full trailer to help build hype and anticipation generally a whole year before. A full trailer will help enhance that anticipation when it is released 1-2 months before release while TV spots place themselves at 1-2 weeks before initial release.

TRAILER ANALYSIS

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

The trailer is interesting to watch and high-quality production is clear when watching. Two main factors were editing and sound which helped to reinforce the genre of the film. By establishing the genre of the film it will help establish an audience that identifies itself with enjoying that specific genre. The clear hook and engagement of the film is the way women are portrayed, as strong and dominant figures going against what is socially acceptable at the time. Another hook is a familiar actor, Lily James who will help entice viewers who have previously enjoyed films she played a role in such as Cinderella. There is a deep and engaging contrast of the trailer starting with women doing usual women hobbies with calming classical music playing for it to change dramatically e.g. violence and a drastic change in music. 

In the heart of the sea

The sound that runs throughout the trailer is one that is quite and calm but slowly reaches a crescendo as the tension increases. To reinforce this crescendo, at the start you hear the natural dietetic sound of the ocean and the boat moving to then crashing sounds of the boat. The overall lighting is dark which makes It hard for the viewer to understand what is going on, almost as confused as the character at the start. One of the films major hooks is using very popular and recognisable actors such as Tom Holland and Chris Hemsworth. This will help draw in audiences who generally watch films they are in regardless of the story or genre. The pace of the editing is very fast and making it dramatic and captivating for thrill-seeking audiences.

The33

This trailer is about an emotional true story of those 33 men who were trapped underground in Chile. There was one very strong message that some audiences will be able to relate to and that's the government saying they will take action but never do. I think this story will mostly grab though seeking adventure thriller with a warm and happy ending into how 33 men work together for survival. The music being used is one that is recognised and known for its mention which further heightens the emotional tone of the trailer. The general lighting of the trailer is dark which helps create a deeper and realistic understanding and perception of what the miners were going through.

TRAILER MAKING

On the FDA website, you are able to put your creative skill to use and play around with the trailer making tool. The tasks were sliced up clips of the Suffragette film trailer and place them in an appropriate order and one that makes sense while adding sound alongside. One difficulty I did find was the smoothness of the transitions as we couldn't manually cut the clips ourselves such as in iMovie or FinalCut Pro but added to the challenge. 

RESEARCH: WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE

Kezia Williams is Head of Theatrical Distribution I Entertainment One UK, has explained that when it comes to defining a target audience it will affect the 'where' and 'how' of the marketing campaign. The first thing you can do is by looking and evaluating similar films in the past often referred to as 'comparable films'. After research and gathering lots of data they will be able to see the audience on similar films. The type of data they will look at is the demographic data such as if it is popular amongst males or females, what age group does it appeal to while also analysing cinema-going trends. Box office information is also important as it illustrates regional data. Once you understand the audience of those comparable films you can start to talk about the differences and similarities between those films and the film that you're working on.

RESEARCH: WHATS SETS A FILM APART?

What?

It is important to pick out the key themes and the hooks and what is going to really excite and engage your audience. You must be able to identify the selling points and the target audience fairly early on and also important to identify any challenges that you might need to overcome them. Once you have your strength and challenges outlined that will then allow you and determine how you can work to position your film in the market. the selling points could consist of the cast a director that may have a certain cache for a certain audience that you may want to be the spearhead of the campaign.

RESEARCH: THE ROLE OF THE DISTRIBUTOR

I looked at The Film Space from the FDA. Mark Batey who is the Chief Executive of the FDA showed us in his videos the essential roles of the distributor.

WHAT

Something to take into consideration is what is the film going to be about? Don't just focus on things such as the genre but how have other films similar and recent films performed. There must be a clear position of a film and state who it is for and what it is about.

WHO

Students and young adults such as those in their 20s make up most cinema-goers however it has recently been seen that the audience bracket has been widening from ages up to 8 years old to 80.

On-Page 71 statistics show that the age 16-34 age bracket is the largest audience sector. 91% of whom went to the cinema in 2018, which accumulated a total of 77 million visits. The FDA has realised that TV audiences are ageing (over half of TV audiences fit inside the over 54 category) whilst another survey by OFCOM found that 48% of 12-15-year-olds picked YouTube as their favourite and preferred platform and 19% chose Netflix. These figures will most likely have a huge influence on how distributors marketing their films to audiences.

WHEN

This is a very important decision as more than 700 feature films are realised every year, from little independent low budget films to big hitters such as big hitters like star wars and Spectre. This makes the market extremely competitive and means you must get your timing right to make urself stand out.

Outside factors can sometimes control how the box office works despite the very detailed planning. This can be shown from factors such as the weather or a football match due to the cinema market being product-driven. This was shown with the FIFA world cup fixtures competed for audiences from the cinema market. The third weekend in April had very nice warm and sunny weather after a cold winter, outside factors such as these control the demand and desire for cinema-goers.

HOW

How is a broad question as you need to ask equations such as, who is it for? How much can we afford to bring it to market and promote it? How many cinemas are willing to play it? It is all specific for that individual film how they can achieve the best distribution plan.

The FDA has estimated that UK film distributors investment in bringing 916 new titles to the market in 2018 which exceeded £350 million.

The FDA explains (page 77-79) the different types of marketing strategy: FDA estimates that UK film distributors’ investment in bringing 916 new titles to market in 2018 exceeded £350m. Around half of this is paid-for UK-wide advertising, using many digital, social and physical media outlets. The remainder is formed of many components: advertising, poster and trailer production; publicity and premiere costs; and digital cinema packages to be supplied to cinemas in many formats. The FDA added that although the UK is a large cinema territory in terms of box-office receipts, the high costs of marketing and distribution mean relatively low returns for the distributor. It is hard to 'cut through' in a congested marketplace and the fact that it is so crowded makes decisions on release dates very tough.

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