How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?

The film distributor is the person or company who is responsible for releasing the film, whether it's for in the cinema or releasing on DVD.
It's important that the distributor comes out on top, therefore has to compete with other film distributors to make their film the best. This would include advertising and promotion campaigns to gain the audiences interest at greatest. For example, billboards, trailers, internet websites and trailers, radio adverts, merchadise selling.

The way the film distributors advertise will vary depending on who the target audience is. For example, older audiences wouldn't necessarily appreciate merchandise, a trailer and radio adverts would appeal to them more, and to promote further interviews with characters. Where as, for a teenage audience distributors use social network sites, for example, Facebook. The particular audience are able to become 'fans' of the film or even of the cast. This also applies to twitter, where the audience can follow their favourite stars and keep 'in the know' with their actions. These sites can also feature competitions for the audience which keep the attention of them until the films release. But most of all these are held responsible for the word of mouth, if people post about the movie, or show interest others are likely to pick up on it and then want to view the film themselves.

When it comes to an audience of young children, or young teenagers merchadise is a more successful way of promoting the film to them as they are more likely to show interest than through written text or listening to adverts or interviews. A great example of this is the way Disney and other film companies use McDonalds to promote their films. This is not only a way to gain the childrens interest to collect toys for the upcoming film but it makes them want to eat here especially for the toys they receive in the Happy Meals Mcdonalds sell.
Another example of merchadising is when the Twilight films were released not only could toys be purchased but accessories including bags and also t-shirts could be purchased. The companies can then monitor these sales and use the amounts as a guide to how well they have done into promoting up until and after the film is released.

This image of the Twilight merchandise shows a variety of clothing and accessories but also the posters they used. A poster is one of the most important ways to the audience because its image based and this alone will draw the attention of the audience in. They can then chose to read the inserted text or discover the release date once the image has caught their attention. Each poster will follow the conventions of a film poster which includes detailed mise-en-scene, to give them a guide to the film. A tag line or slogan to make the film memorable and billing block.


Audience research is very important to film distributors so they know they are aiming in the right direction to attract their target audience. They use ways such as Questionnaires and film previews to let the audience have their opinion which can then become feedback to the distributor. This then makes them aware of what the audience are looking for, what they want to see in the film, so they become a successful target audience.
Before producing our trailer, in pre-planning we created a brief questionnaire to ask the audience what they found most scary in a horror film for example, men, women, children or animals and also what setting they find most successful, for example, a basement or graveyard. We then had a stronger idea on what to create to reach our target audience.

Ive chose these to posters to analyse because they are two different genres of film. This shows the different techniques distribtors use depending on the genre.
The Notebook poster immediately gives a way the genre of the film, the couple positioned on the front connote this. The fact it's raining on top of the image refers to the romance genre and the kick some people get from the 'kissing in the rain' saga. Soft colours are used throughout which relates to the mood of the film. From this poster we recognise the target audience is likely to be female because of the way the image is addressed.
Where as on the Hostel poster, dark, bold colours are used hiding the image in focus just with a faint amber light which draws attention to the subject. This poster is more likely to appeal to an  older audience because of the horror style and conventions used. This also is more likely to be a male audience because of the scarce approach to the image and its features.


An advertising campaign is a series of linked advertisments usually through various media channels. This focuses on one particular product or production that are directed to a particular target audience. Successful advertising campaigns achieve far more that sporadic advertising and can last for weeks, months or even years.

www.youhavebeenwarned.co.uk

This viral campaign for the horror film Hostel appears effective to me because they use the correct conventions to reach their target audience. This includes games and creepy clips from the film for the audience to get involved. Also supporting the launch of this they had support from email and advertising in NME and Kerrang and other websites. This shows they used further sources to attract their audience not only to view the film/trailer but also the viral campaign that had been produced. This enables the audience to gain further interest and keep 'in the know' with the film and also the characters. When entering or downloading from the site you have to 'agree' that you are 18 as it states, 'stictly for adults' sticking to the certificate of the film so the same age as there target audience.

The unified identity of a film is important because it makes the film recognisable to the audience through themes and logo's. This enables the audience to link the trailer to the poster they see on a bus for example, or merchandise they see in a shop. This is used by the presentation of colour schemes and logo's which help the audience recognise and immediately associate.

An example of this is the 'Shrek' films. The marjority of the text used is in a green font relating to the Ogar in the film. They also use ears on some of the letters which also connote this. The audience can then recognise and associate these texts with the film and also the characters which could also feature on the posters and merchandise.

The classification we used for our 'Alice' trailer was '15'. We used this because it gives us a wider audience to target and advertise to. This age made it simple for us to follow similar conventions from other films and help us relate to the audience we were after. We had to consider the horror side of our film as in our thought it seemed a terrifying plot but when producing it needed work to effect the audience for this genre.

For our film 'Alice' is our unique selling point. The young girl we used in the trailer has the biggest effect on the film so I have used her on both my acillery texts.

Storyboard

Draft for audience feedback

After summerising our audience feedback we learnt what things we needed to improve and what worked for us. This includes:

• Sound effects - Getting them 'in sync'
• Add more clips of little girl
• Include house more
• Make storyline clear ( add footage?)

The Return of the Repressed

Sigmund Freud theory

Definition- The unconscious exclusion of painful impulses, desires, or fears from the conscious mind.

 

A process whereby repressed elements, preserved in the unconscious, tend to reappear, in consciousness or in behavior, in the shape of secondary and more or less unrecognizable "derivatives of the unconscious." http://www.answers.com/topic/return-of-the-repressed#ixzz1GIy5ssc1

 

This for example, is when an audience of a particular horror film has a past which causes the film to relate to them strongly and bring back memories. They then feel like they become the victim themselves.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

These images above illustrate all the technologies we used to produce our teaser trailer.

The advantages of Web 2.0 technologies for low budget/no budget film makers are that with the availability of the websites and software such as the ones above, own media texts can be made, distributed, researched and promoted.

These technologies enabled me to learn new things and create using more complex programmes. For example, learning and becoming confident using the different tools on Final Cut Pro. Which could now become useful to me in other areas of my education.

PHOTOSHOP: Photoshop enabled me to create my ancillery texts, which include my film poster and magazine cover. This programme means I could upload images of my choice and edit them using the different tools and effects. This was helpful when creating these texts to make them realistic. A text tool was also used so I could layer my writing over the top of the images to stick to the conventions of a usual poster and magazine.

GARAGEBAND - Garageband is music composition software which we used to create original sounds and also to distort rights-free music and voices. It enabled us to create an effective sound track by adding reverb and mixing instruments. 

YOUTUBE: I used YouTube while reasearching for our main product. This was to view old and current trailers to gain knowledge of the conventions, analyse them and recognise the camera work/techniques used. We also used this website to upload our first draft of our teaser trailers and then our final trailer. This made it easier for us to then upload to our blog.

FINAL CUT PRO: After filming our first footage for our trailer using a video camera we connected it to a Mac computer and transfered it onto a programme called Final Cut Pro. This enabled us to edit and add sound effects to our footage and bring it together as a trailer. With a timeline style format it makes the shots easier to rearrange and edit. Effects we used on this programme include an old TV, to make the picture look distorted and a flash between shots which messed with the footage. Final Cut also enabled us to add our images from photoshop, for example, our title which we put on the programme to edit the colours. To begin with Final Cut seemed quite a complex programme but the more I played around the more I got to know it and understood the editing process.

DIGITAL CAMERA: We used a digital camera to photograph the girl we used in our trailer for images to create our ancillery texts.

MY FONTS.COM: This is a distributor of digital fonts. We used this website to find the font we used for our 'Alice' title.

FLICKR: This website gave us access to upload photo's and annotate them using tags. This task could then be linked straight to our blogs so when viewing the annotations on the blog it links you to flickr. I used this when reseaching ancillery texts before it came to creating my own.

MAC COMPUTER: This is the computer we used to create our trailer. It has the appropriate programme (Final Cut Pro.) to edit our footage and complete our main product.

IPHONE: This is the mobile phone I have. I used this to contact members of the group to arrange filming time and create schedules for completing work.

VIDEO CAMERA: We used this device to record all our scenes and footage to create our teaser trailer. When filming for some of the scenes we used a Tripod to keep the camera steady if the character was moving. Other than this most of our usage was handheld because of the way we were responding to a conventional low-budget, britsh film and this is what it expected. Another feature we used was nightmode, it had an shadow effect on the girl in the shot and helped with the conventions of a horror genre.

GOOGLE: Google is a popular search engine used worldwide. I use this daily to search anything I'm willing to find out. This included searching for images and particular posters and magazines for when reseaching and creating my ancillery texts. This also helped me gather the logo's for this post.

BLOGGER: This website was useful because we could upload and produce posts to record our work and show development post by post. When creating the blog a choice of background is available to create a taster of your identity and the genre of work. An advantage of Blogger is that it enables you to record and evaluate word without it seeming in essay format which helps me personally to stay focused and become more keen on completing the work. 

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

In what ways does your media prouduct use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?



These screenshots are from The Ring (left) and Alice (right) I have paired up images from both our trailer and The Ring trailer to make comparisons.

This first set of images I captured when a static effect was used representing an old TV to make theframe look distorted and aged. You cannot recognise a shot type in the image from the ring traileras its a wide shot of the TV effect. Where as in our trailer there is a faint vision of the backgroundshowing a long shot of the area this particular part of the trailer was set.



These images are similar because they are part of the trailer which give the impression

everything is OK. Starting the trailer with what Todorov suggested to be an equilibrium.

The left image shows an over the shoulder shot of a couple talking to show his natural expression following what she said. The same is with in our image, but a long shot is used to show all characters inthe frame. In both images there is dim lighting which gives an uneasy impression on the scene. Suggesting things could start to go wrong.



These are both shots showing a spirit or strange presence. From 'The Ring' screenshot, we see thering appear on the television screen to represent the unwanted appearing. To the right, from our trailer we used a light flashing through a window to signify the presence of the young girl aroundand make the audience feel uneasy towards the presence.

The Ring shows a medium close up including the television and the light from it reflecting on the face of the character. The shot is taken from a particular angle showing both her face and the television screen. Our shot was a medium shot of the window to make sure part of the house was included. To also show where the light subject is coming from and to identify the windows location.



The fourth screenshot I made was featuring another old TV effect. This time each trailer includeda shot as a distorted picture with the presence of each girl behind them. We used a clip of our little girlholding a lighter and desaturated the footage adding the effect to distort the image. Both images are taken as a medium close up showing the expression on the characters faces even though its shaken.



Both of these shots compare because I have captured the female screaming in each trailer.

A close up and medium close up is used to express the feelings and detailed expression

on the characters faces. We chose to film this to add drama to the sequence and make the audiencefeel uneasy about the presence as well as the characters to gain their in interest.





Like dreamworks whenever they produce films their logo is uncluded in the film and it's trailer. We decided to call ours 'Channel Fix' we also featured this in the trailer to make it more realisticlike an every day production. We used a typewriter effect and font to relate to the rest of our text usedin the trailer. This keeps it simple and easy for the audience to read.



I chose to relate these images because they show the innocence of the children involved. In The Ring the boy is pictured drawing quietly to himself. Showing ignorance to the place around him. In our trailer we filmed the girl skipping across a field. This also shows the way they are in their own little world ignoring the space around them.  In 'The Ring' they have used a medium close up of the young boy, showing the concentration on his face. Where as we used a long shot of the girl showing her skipping away from the camera creating a thought that shes escaping from her interupted life to return like nothings wrong.



These images show the titles used in both trailers. In comparision white on black is used on both which makes the text stand out to the audience. The Ring title also uses an outer glow on the ring itself to relate to the film and its purpose. Both logo's show movement when coming on or are on the screen. The Rings outer glow moves to refer to the trailers narrative and keep the audience engaged. Where as with our title we used a zoom in zoom out process to make the title larger when on the screen, and zoo out at appropriate timing.



Finally,  both trailers include a website address somewhere through the trailer. This was used to make our trailer realistic because it can help with the ad campaign for the movie. Again, both feature the white on black text to carry on the theme throughout. We used a website to stick to the conventions of a trailer and make it realistic. As well as helping for advertising and promotion people could visit the website for more information on the movie or even buy merchandise maybe. Having a website can be a judgement to audience interest too as the creator can check the amount of hits the website has had.





The idea of a teaser trailer is produced when creating the main film itself. It is used as part of an advertising campaign for the main product. A teaser trailer gives he audience an opportunity to view areas of the film to wet their appetite without giving away the whole narrative. This is important as it depends on the success when releasing the film. If the audience are engaged to the trailer they gain interest and decided to view the film when its released. YouTube becomes an advantage to these producers because trailers get uploaded to these websites and it tracks the amount of views. If the audience has out of choice gone to view the trailer without waiting for it in advertising of television,for example,the film is proved to have a chance in suceeding.

These are known to create tension for the audience and cause them to gain excitement for when the film is released which is a great way of marketing.

When creating a teaser trailers there is need to follow the conventions for the specific genre. This includes in horror films that the narrative will include an uneasy feel, something to disturb the audience and cause tension which gains their attention. In terms of mise-en-scene specific settings are used repeatedly in creation of horror films, personally from our questionaires we found out that settings like graveyards, basements, big fields, dark empty spaces are used for location. This links to the camerawork used, there is so little light in the scene, and shakey or stiff movements are used to cause tension. Sound effects are really important stereotypically the same sounds are used for example, screaming or the sound of weapons, torture. Which can help send shivers down the audiences spine. In terms of dialogue its very rare for a horror trailer to have voiceover. The trailer should be so powerful its not needed, it can ruin it in some way. The natural sounds or added effects for example are important to illustrate the trailer. Quick shots are formed when editing to add suspence a relate to the conventions of a horror trailer.

When creating a teaser trailer its important the creator is aware of their target audience and what they look for. Following what they choose and prefer give more chance of their views and interest in the new production. Also following general conventions means sticking to the horror genre and specifying the category for the film. Which allows the audience to recognise and view the genre of their favour.