Pre-production

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

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

Please watch the annotated video below:

Part 2

The role of a film distributor is to promote and attract the target audience by using research, advertisement and timing to create an excitement for the films release. . A film distributor is responsible for identifying and delivering the film to the audience. The film distributor organizes a distribution plan based upon the target audience and other Market research.  The distributor works alongside with the producers of the film in order to gain the film’s full potential upon its release. They also make an educated prediction of what the film will make and prepare an overall budget. The film distributor will represent the film at different events including festivals. They will also attempt to sell the film to television companies and other companies that show short films. They also look at the circulation and marketing of the film itself including viewing the film on the television or on DVD. A distribution plan is a tailor made plan that is put in place by the distributor and the producers of the film. This plan details when the film will be released in order to optimize the success of the film. This plan also details how the film will be released to the general public. This is a combination of market knowledge, commercial experience, statistical research and professional judgement. The point of the distribution plan is to find the costs and turn a profit. However releasing a film can be risky and can be very expensive to do and in theory most of the films released do not make a profit.To make the film successful then it must not solely rely upon the conventional wisdom; every film that is made is individual so adaptions to the distribution plan must be made in order to reach the film’s full potential.

As part of the distribution plan promotion and media platforms will be discussed. The promotion of the film will be directly aimed towards the primary audience of the particular film as well as the secondary audience, however more emphasis will be attracting as much of the target audience as possible. The film distributor and the producers will anyalise their audience and the different media platforms that are popular with the audience members.
Examples of media platforms include:

• Magazines, Books and newspapers 
• Radio
• Television 
• Billboards 
• Social media 
• Posters 
• Interviews 
• Youtube 
• Internet 
• Sides of buses 
• Festivals and music events . 
• Merchandise 

As the film distributor works to promote the film they will consider the age and interests of the target audience in order to reach as many members of their primary audience as possible. A good example of this is if the target audience was teenagers, the film distributor will promote the film more through platforms such as magazines, music festivals, radio, television and social media as these platforms are popular with the target audience. So the film distributor will enhance the use of these platforms in particular to make the target audience aware of the film. 

Audience research is of up most importance when it comes to promotion and the making of a film. The audience know what they want and it is important to find out what interests them and find out how to attract them to the film. A primary audience will be decided from the story-line of the film and this will allow the researchers to discover and highlight elements which will bring in the primary audience. They will research occupation, interests, hobbies, clothes and favorite activities amongst other elements in order to promote and advertise the film to maximize the films potential. The audience research will allow the film distributor to bombard the target audience with their new film and place promotions where they will maximize the audience viewing, such as in popular magazines. 

Advertisement is very audience specific so this will depend on the audience that the film is attracting. Due to the audience research that will be done different audiences will want different things so it important for the advertisement of the film to be spot on and within particular conventions to attract the audience they will to watch the film .

Above are two completely different posters which represent two different target audiences and this can be seen from the way the poster is presented.

22 jump street- There are many features of the poster that gives away the target audience of the film. for example the main image is of the two main characters walking on the beach while a party is going on behind them. This will appeal to an audience who like parties and big events such as festivals. Next the characters both have guns implying that there will be action present within the film itself. This will appeal to lovers of action films and potential violence. Often associated with this is a chase scene again implying an action film. The phrases written on both the main characters t-shirts give the poster a comical twist implying to an audience who enjoy comedy films. As well as this the poster depicts predominantly females in bikinis implying that the makers of the film are trying to attract younger males ( roughly 16-24 years old) . Finally the main characters are played by well known actors which will work to attract their fans who follow them. From looking at all the different features of the film it is clear that the target audience is Men aged 16-24 who enjoy action/comedy movies.

Frozen- This film poster presents a different demographic all together in terms of target audience. From the main image an audience is able to tell that this is a princess/magical movie as the female characters are all wearing ball gowns and the female in the back appears to be making a snowflake float above her hand. This will appeal to an audience who enjoy movies about princesses and magic. The obvious element of the poster is that the film is animated which will appeal to fans of animation. The next big element of the poster is that the film is made by 'Disney' which many have grown up with throughout their childhood meaning that the film will appeal to many many people regardless of age. The feature of talking animals can also be seen on the poster which will appeal to animal lovers. The colours that are used within the poster are soft colours implying that the target audience will be more female. Overall the target audience for Frozen is girls aged 5-10 who enjoy 'Disney' films, princesses and animation.  

Both of these were part of viral campaigns that captured the target audience that they were intending. This was enhanced by the individuality of the film and untold successes of both the films. Each of these films have a unified identity which they carry throughout the advertisement  and promotion of the films. This unified identity is what sets the film apart from other films that are being promoted and advertised and will show the audience specifically what they film is about. 

From the images below i am able to establish the similarities between the posters for both of these films and the DVD covers for both films, This keeps with the unified identities that have been  given to the film. The unified identities of the films give the target audience a narrative throughout the advertisement and promotion of the film. The trailers give a visual narrative to the unified identity to each of these films and predominantly show what the film is about. 

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

Representation Questionaire

Questionnaire

1. Who wrote about the “final girl” in 1992?

The author which wrote about the ‘final girl’ is Carol J. Clover, who is a professor of Film Studies in America.

2. In what book did they write about final girl”?

The book is called ‘Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film’.

3. List three traits of the “final girl”/three ‘conventions’.

·         Sexually unavailable or virginal.

·         The last surviving member of the group of people who the killer murders.

·         Is sometimes the one who vanquishes the killer.

4. Who wrote about existing research on women’s roles in media texts in 1983?

Jeremy Tunstall wrote research on women’s roles in media texts.

5. What were the 4 roles mentioned?

·         Domestic.

·         Sexual

·         Consumer.

·         Martial.

6. In 1992 research showed that men dominated women on-screen, but by what ratio?

Research in 1992 showed that men out-numbers women with the ratio two to one.

7. What was the only genre in which the ratio of males to females was more equal?

The only genre where the ratio is more equal is Prime time TV adverts.

8. Name one of the three problems with the findings?

Males are significantly more likely than females to be shown having an occupation.

9. Why does the reading suggest that Ripley (Alien) is ‘more progressive’ than Lara Croft (TR)?

This is due to Lara Croft is presented in a more objectifying and sexualised way than previous female protagonists.

10. What are the 3 ‘C’s when discussing the portrayal of women in some lifestyle magazines?

·         Cooking,

·         Cleaning

·         Caring.

11. Who wrote Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema?

Laura Mulvey wrote both books.

12. (Briefly) describe what is meant by the ‘male gaze’

'Male gaze' is a term for when the audience of a media text is into the position of an 'appraising heterosexual male' using techniques such as close-ups or point-of-view shots.

13. Give an example

An example of this can be found in 'The Cabin in the Woods' during the scene where Curt and Jules are having sex in the woods. The scene is constructed for the male viewers and through a males eye. This can been seen through different elements, such as the camera angles.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is extremely important when it comes to promotion of a film. What an audience think of the promotion of a film will indicate the film’s success and profits that the film will have. The process of advertisement will allow the audience to capture a glimpse of what the film is going to be about and gives just enough information to allow potential audiences to judge whether they will enjoy the film or not. There are many different aspects of the advertisement campaign that need to be in place in order to attract an audience to the product. These include:

All of these elements are specifically coordinated in order to maintain the audience’s interest for the product, which in this case is a film.

One example of a well-coordinated advertisement campaign is ‘The Woman in Black’. The advertisement for ‘The Woman in black’ was hugely successful which resulted in the overwhelming success of the film itself. Months before the woman in black was even released we were swarmed with Posters, billboards and the infamous teaser trailer to keep the audiences appetite for the film. After the official trailer was released the franchise was everywhere with Daniel Radcliff giving exclusive interviews to magazines, radio, television and newspapers alike. They also had a website packed full of exclusive information about the film and events such as meet and greets with the cast and merchandise available for everyone. They even went as far as releasing the original book with a new cover from the film and had an on-going successful stage production of the film targeting more of a different and wide ranging audience.

Teaser trailer-

Official trailer-  

The research done for ‘The Woman In Black’ clearly contributed to the success of the film as they were aware of the likes and dislikes of their target audience and allowed changes to be made to the film in order to attract a larger audience without straying too far away from the original story. If the advertisement and the research for the first film hadn't been so detailed and coordinated then I feel that the franchise would have not been as successful also due to the success of the first film there is now a second film that has just been released with undoubted success.

If we were to make our film ‘We’re alive’, to be successful, we would need to increase and coordinate our audience research and advertisement allowing the audience to envision what we are portraying through the use of different mediums and through analyzing our target audience.

We set up screenings for our target audience allowing them to give critical feedback on our product and any improvements that could be made in order to enhance the full capability of our trailer. As the demographics of our target audience are teenagers who enjoy watching horror films in groups we showed our trailer to a class of students ranging from 17-19 in order to see what our target audience said about the trailer itself.

Overall the feedback that we received was positive, a majority of the target audience felt that the props and costumes that were used were used well within the trailer and added to the effect and they also enjoyed the scenes where ‘James’ is going ‘Crazy’ in the wheel chair was executed well, however the target audience felt that the story line was not very evident leading to them not understanding the trailer and the music doesn’t escalate therefore not creating an horror atmosphere.

In light of the feedback that we have received from the group about our trailer we have now adapted parts of the trailer including the sound track and we have inserted a series of scientific notes into the trailer giving the audience more of a glimpse into the world of ‘We’re Alive’ and more about the characters in the story. 

Poster and magazine plans