One of the first piece of software I used for my research and planning was Blogger, which allowed me to record all my planning at various stages in different posts as well as including video clips and sound files to add a sense of realism and makes my work more immersive.
When I was researching different trailers, I had to upload then clips to my blog and show my analysis on the specific trailer I was talking about through YouTube.
Throughout my research and planning process I conducted many focus groups among my fellow students, my out of school friends and family to ask for their opinion on the design/ layout and titles in result of the feedback I made some changes to it, as well as what people expect to see and think of as authentic. A good marketing campaign is essential into how it could deliver meaning to my audience most clearly, so that they should see the film, the first example i did is distributing a questionnaires on posters as well as the results of it as you can click on the link below.
1) Can you tell what genre this poster belongs to?
2) Compare to other existing posters, does this look authentic?
3) Does the poster want to make you want to see the movie?
4) Does this poster work effectively with the other elements of my marketing campaign?
My respondents were able to tell straight away that it belongs to an action genre, pointing at the dark black background and the thick upper case of the font also the background shows that it involves top spec technology which hints it involve action. The image of the man posing with the gun is a big hint of the genre it belongs to, the fact that the image looks like a robot portrays to the audience that technology is effecting the characters life in some way.Other factors that indicate the genre is he release date which is June 24 a date typically a time that big action films tend to be released.
Again I have received positive feedback saying that my poster looks like any other action type poster with the help of some of the conventions I used such as the title of the movie is written in big writing which makes it stick out, the taglines that is used in the trailer, the reviews also add the effect to make it look authentic and the biggest feedback I got was the fact there a main central image which again adds to the effect of making it look like a real poster.
The men in particular suggested that the main central image was a big factor in encouraging them to see the film, which is a man holding a gun implying it is an action filled movie and very entertaining,The taglines also played a part in convincing the people to watch it, the fact that it says it's about his family and his fight keeps them curious/mysterious and would want to know what happened to him family and what does he do to stop it. The reviews rates the film really highly so that convinced them more to go and watch it. (But the women however suggested the opposite, saying that the film look like it involves too much action).
My respondents said that the poster does work effectively with the other elements in the marketing campaign as there are a lot of similarities between them, which combined together makes them want to go watch the film, the use of the same taglines in the poster and trailer as well as the billings which help link it together, the fact in each element of the marketing campaign has the name of film across all of it and an image or a shot of the main protagonist makes a whole lot more effective and encourages people to go watch the film.
The next element on my marketing campaign was the magazine front cover, I again distributed a questionnaire and as well the results that came in which is on the links below.
1) Can you tell is the magazine is mainstream or a independent one?
2) Does it look like a real film publication?
3) Would this magazine stick out on the shelf?
4) Can you see how the magazine reflects on the poster and trailer?
Before getting my audience to answer the first question I showed them a range of different film publications so that they can see the difference between them and what conventions they each have incorporated in them, so that they will be able to compare it to my magazine over and see if it looks as authentic as the ones they have seen.
My respondents feedback was that they can tell it is a mainstream magazine with the thick bold masthead, also the red and black writing makes it stick out and looks more hollywood style. The cover lines also suggest it's mainstream as it mentions big hollywood actors and blockbuster films.
The audience said that it does look authentic because of the conventions I used, the masthead, the dominant central image, cover lines etc, all of which I incorporated together to make it look like a real magazine front cover.
The audience response to this is that it is really eye catching with the colour scheme of a black, white and red makes it really stick out of the shelf as well as that it looked professionally done and would make them buy the magazine.
The audience feedback to this was is that they can see in some ways it reflects the other elements of the marketing campaign with the use my main protagonist image is on throughout each of them, therefore making it link between them.
With any marketing campaign it needs to have a sense of unity/continuity, across all the elements that are used to promote the film so the audience will realise that it's promoting the same film. A unified campaign helps establish the awareness of the film, so when the audience sees the images going round they will know it's associated with the film. So when creating my own marketing campaign, I had to make sure that they were consistent as well as unifying elements throughout my campaign. So the font on my poster is the same on my trailer, therefore making it instantly recognisable that it belongs to the same film. The font I used is called 'Bank Gothic' which is used for my title on my poster and trailer as well as taglines and release dates.
So when the audience are watching the teaser trailer and looking at the poster they can see it's from the same film. However for the magazine cover I used a different font since they have their own style,independant from the film, The film company may be able to convince them in to which image to put up but won't be able to tell them to change their fonts
I also used the same fonts on both the teaser trailer and on my poster as well as the same tagline. So by having the same tagline on each of them the audience will be able to associate them together and realise its from the same film. The tagline doesn't give too much information about the movie but just enough to keep the audience curious and build anticipation.
The central image of my poster is not the same as my magazine cover, however they will be featuring my main protagonist so the audience cas as well associate between them and know that it's marketing the same film.
Other factors that were similar across the products were production company logos on both the teaser trailer and my poster, as well as the billing on both and the constant use of the film title across all elements of my marketing campaign.
The release date on my poster and my teaser trailer are very similar which helps lining them together. The coverage of the film on the magazine will be the final push o try convince people to go and watch the film just before it's release.
In what ways does your media use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Teaser Trailer
As part of my main coursework I had to create a teaser trailer to advertise my film, so to do that I had to research the conventions of trailers.
I first started with by comparing/analysing two existing films with teaser trailers and theatrical trailers. I had to find the differences and similarities between them and by the end of the task it will show me what I need to put in my trailer to make it look real.
After looking at the differences between teaser and theatrical trailer I found out that teaser trailers is much shorter than a normal trailer as well as that it does not give much info on what's happening in the trailer it just gives you the 'teasing' bits of it so will try attract the audience to watch it.
After looking at different genres on trailers I decided the genre of my teaser trailer will be Action. So I went on the film site to research all about the action genre and what type of conventions consist in them, this would help me when it comes to the making of my own trailer and I will know what to put it to make it look authentic. I then looked at a variety of trailers of the action genre to get an idea of how it's done.
In what ways does your media use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?- Magazine
As part of my marketing campaign I have to design my own magazine front cover and I did so by looking at two different magazine front covers from different publications targeting different audiences and studying the conventions of it and to see if they share the same conventions in terms of layout, style and content. The first magazine I looked at was SFX which is more mainstream type of films and the second one I looked at was America Cinematographer which is aimed at less independant films.
After analysing these two different publications, I gathered the conventions that I found between them and realised although the America Cinematographer have less conventions than the big mainstream one, however it still shares quite a few of the same conventions. Both had a big mast head, the name of the movie, the image of the star, barcode and cover lines that make references to the stories inside
Then I researched five different types of film publications and had to study the layout, style and content to see which one fits best for what I want. The five types were
After researching different publications for magazine front cover, I came to a conclusion that I wanted the magazine Empire which is a big hollywood blockbuster magazine and want it to look like my magazine front cover, so now i'm going to be analysing three covers of the Empire magazine in terms of layout and content so I will know what type of conventions I need to include when it comes to making my own front cover.
After all this research in magazine front covers, I incorporated all these bits of information/conventions into my front cover as you can see below is the stages from the beginning of the process and slowly started adding these convention to make it look real and authentic like any other existing magazine front cover.
Every magazine front cover has a masthead and in which I did mine in big, thick, bold font which makes in look more mainstream like Empire.
Magazine also add a slogan to make it stick out and try encourage the audience to buy it.
Often they add a website that the audience can check online and view it on there as well and getting other news about it as well, therefore i put one on in my magazine.
Every magazine has a dominant central image of the main character of the main film that is being advertised, so I did the same on my cover
Magazines publication add cover lines that try attract their target audience, usually mentioning their favourite film/actors so would make them buy it and see what is inside, so I added a few cover lines into mine as well as I made sure that they were big films so would make my magazine look more mainstream.
Also in magazines they tend to add banners to try make something stand out and it comes in with a variety shapes and sizes, so again I added it into mine .
Ber codes are included in every magazine so I put one in mine to make it look more authentic.
In What Ways Does Your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Below is my finished poster
In the beginning of mr research for posters I had to look at a variety of them from different genres and had to point out the similar conventions they had between them which will help in what is needed to be put on my poster. For example I picked ANTMAN ( a sci-fi genre), WHITE CHICKS (a comedy genre), KNOCK KNOCK (a horror genre), SOUTHPAW ( a action genre) and LEGEND (a drama genre) and at the end I had to show that no matter what the genre is the conventions of each of these posters are still very similar.
After analysing these posters I decided I wanted to do an action teaser trailer so therefore I done research on five action poster and found that the conventions on them is the name of the film, taglines, name of star(s), image of stars etc. I also looked at these posters in terms of the colour, font and layout.
After researching action posters it gave me a clearer idea on what conventions are found in action posters so it would help me when I create my own action poster, i included on my poster these conventions which would all indicate that it's an action genre. Below are the conventions that are found in poster which include image/name of stars, title of film, billings etc.
After learning the conventions that is on action posters, I then incorporated them into my poster to make it look authentic like any other action poster.
