The Role Of The Distribution

The role of the distributor has a big role to play when they have to try and identify the right target audience for each film.

There are many film comanies who would recieve the film straight from the film production companies such as the big markets Warner Bros. But there are still quite small companies who purchase the films from festivials instead which can be harder to try and sell to the right target audience, such as Lionsgate and Metrodome.

All distributors can get very competitive with trying to promote a certain film. When being set with this task they all take into consideration the key factors, Identifying the target audience, estimating how diverse the film could go and how they are going to plan on competing with other companies and persuading the cinemas to play the film. Before considering how to tackle the target audience, they have to see if they will be able to make a profit from it.


On thing the distributor has to tackle is what the USP is and be very clear on who their target audience is and they need to decide when they are going to release the film as there is a high rating in competion for when other big films will be released.


Their main objective for distributing a film is the advertising process. They do this in many ways such as:


Trailers: When doing the trailer their are two types of trailers. A teaser trailer and a main theaterical trailer. A teaser trailer is the one they release before the main trailer which can contain scenes from the film which don't get used in the proper film. They will also show trailers in the cinema when there is a film which relates to the trailer so the right target audienc is watching.

Billboards: These are big boards which show the poster of the film on them. It shows the release date, title of the film, and the main actors in the film.

Magazines: In most magazines, they have articles about the film and its reviews which helps the distributors get more audience for the film.

Television: During adverts on TV, they would play the trailers, but they may just be teaser ones that they show on TV. On the trailer they give out information such as the website for the film and the release date so that the target audience will research more into it and may go watch it at the cinema.

Analysis Film Poster 2

mirrors2-movie-poster, a photo by Lucie'x on Flickr.

Final Cut Pro Screen Shot

Storyboards

Original Photos For Both Products

From doing my research into various Film Magazine covers and Film Posters, i have looked into the ones that i personally like and i have tried to respond in trying out their techniques on how to compose a poster and magazine. I made sure that i took a lot of photos in different ways to i could get the right look i was looking for. For the first 6 photos in the line up they are for my Film Poster for my Trailer 'Abandoned', i will hopefully use the right photo to present and edit in my work to try and make sure it relates to our storyline of our film idea. The last 4 photos in the line up are photos for my Film Magazine. I have looked into magazines such as Empire and Total Film. From looking at the various compostions of both magazine covers I can try and respond to various ways they compose the photos on the front and what we should include on the front cover.

The differences between a Teaser Trailer and a Main Theatrical Trailer

Teaser Trailer

A teaser trailer is a much shorter trailer which can last under 2 minutes which is advertising an upcoming film. Some teaser trailers are produced before the filnal cut of the film is complete which can contain various small scenes which may not be used in the film. an example of this could be paranormal activity, they placed scenes in the trailer which never got used in the final film. Their called teaser trailers so it can tease the audience to want to watch the full film.

• No longer than 2 minutes.
• In some cases they may not use to much dialogue.
• The scenes are much shorter and quicker
• They use a samll amount of main characters in the scenes

The Main Trailer

The main trailer is on for much longer and contains more scenes and characters in the trailer. They will add more intertitles explain main parts of the film and information which isn't said in the main movie.

• At the end of the trailer it will stop suddenly so you want to watch more of the film
• They use more dialouge so you can understand the narrative of the film more clearer.
• They show the last release date of the film.

I have found examples of a teaser trailer and a full trailer:

Final Product

Ancillary Texts

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

Research and Planning

This stage of the project involved undertaking research into a target audience and the analysis of existing products.  Several web technologies were really useful for this stage.

SurveyMonkey: This website was used to do our audience research. This website was designed to create various surveys to do with horror films. We used this partiuclar website as we found it easy to use and easy to access. I believe that this helped us gather the right feedback for us to think about our own horror idea/trailer.

Flickr: Flickr was used to show our research for our ancillary texts. For the research we looked at various Film Posters and Film Magazine Covers. We annoted various parts of each product and explained why they would use these various techniques to promote a various topic. I believe that Flickr is a very creative way to show other products and explin why they use different conventions.

Google: Google is a massive search engine and has everything you would need to search. Throughout or work we had to use google to search various products. Such as the Film Magazine Covers, Film Posters and Horror trailers.

Construction

FinalCutPro: This programme was used to upload or clips for or teaser trailer. On this programme we was able to edit various parts and we added various effects to certain clips. We were also able to add music on top of the clips and sound effects to make sure we followed different horror conventions. The format of the programme made it easier for use to understand how to use various tools. This programme was the most important programme out of all the media technologies as it was used to create our horror trailer which took most of time up on.

Digital Camera: The digital camera was used to take photos for our ancillary texts, the Film Poster and Film Magazine. The photos were uploaded straight from the digital camera so it was good time consuming.

Video Camera: The video camera was used to film our own horror trailer. Whilst filming our teaser trailer we used props such as the tripod which helped us keep the frame more accurate and still so we could get good still shots. But most of our teaser trailer was filmed handheld as we felt that for our particular story we needed to use this particualr technique in our work. And it helped our trailer look like someone is following them around in the trailer.

Youtube: We have used Youtube a lot throughout our work from research and our own trailer. On our blogs we were able to embed codes from youtube to put onto our blogs so we could annotate various coventions in the trailer and we discussed various aspects we would use in our own teaser trailers. Youtube was also good to use to gain audience feedback and seeing what a wide variety of people thought was good about or trailer and areas we could of improved on.

Photoshop: Photoshop was used to create our own Horror Poster and Film Magazine Cover. This programme helped me put together my ancillary tasks and by using the layers I was able to create various effects to help me create the horror effect on my poster and magazine cover.

Evaluation

Blogger: Throughout this year we have been presenting most of out work onto blogger. You can create various posts with a variety of work. Blogger also lets you upload videos and photos and its alos allows you to write about work and videos you have created. Whilst doing our work we used Flickr which can also be linked to our Blogger page to show various work and annotations. I believe that Blogger has been a very creative way of presenting our work and makes our work more presentable. As well as presenting the evaluation work on the blog we have also presented our research asnd planning onto our blogs which help show our research into different media texts.



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

The Film distributer has the task in trying to identify and deliever to the largest possible audience for every film. Films can have a massive impact on how the distributer can deliever that particular film by making sure they can represent both commercial and socially so they can really connect with the audience. Some of the examples in which a distributer would do to promote a film would be:

• Trailers
• Posters
• Magazines
• Billboards
• Websites
• Groups on Facebook/Twitter etc
• Cinema

Different distributers have differnet ways in promoting their given films. When promoting a film they mostly think about what kind of age range they will be advertising to, such as if they have a older audience they would promote the film more on TV, Radio and Magazine. On the other hand for the younger audience they would advertise films more in the cinema and TV as they know what everyone likes doing at particular ages. But as we go further in the future, we will see that things will change in the way that distributers will try and gain more of an audience.


For example, there are many ways they try and attract the right audience:



Despicable Me was released in 2010, and is an animated childrens film. This film was rated U, so there min target audience would be to children and possible married couples with small children. You can see that this film is aimed at children because they have used various characters which would appeal to children.













The Final Destination was released in 2009, and is an American horror film. The target audience for this particular film would have to be for teenagers to young adults, and from looking at the poster for the film you can see that the genre of the film is shown very well by showing broken glass and a screaming face which is an indication for horror.




The Vow was released in 2012 and is mainly aimed at teenagers, and young adults. But I could see that this film would be aimed more and girls as this genre is romatic. From looking at the poster you can see that it's a romatic film because we see two people who are close together looking like they're about to kiss.









And finally Superbad was released in 2007, and is a comedy film. The target audience for this particular film would have to be young adults. On the poster we can see two teenagers who are made to look geeky.








For our own trailer/poster we decided that we should make the certificate a 15, because when we done our research on Survey Monkey we could see that the age range varied between 17 to 20. so we felt it was apporiate to have that as our certificate. Whilst doing my advertising products i made sure that i researched into film posters and magazine covers to make sure i have the right conventions on both. Such as:

• Used either a main protagonist or director of the film on the magazine
• Placed the title of the film in the same place as other leading magazines and used a simular font
• On the poster i have used dark lighting to make sure i follow other film posters
• I have also made sure that the font is easy to read on both products and that the colours connect to the right genre of film.

To help promote our film/trailer we had to create a magazine cover. For the title of the magazine i kept it to Empire, but i have changed the colour of mine to make sure it works well with my colour scheme. From looking at the magazine Empire, i really liked their layout of their magazine and i tryed to do something simular with my own magazine. I have placed the title of the film Abandoned in the middle of the magazine cover and made sure it will be the first thing you will read. I have also added extra articles and free stickers, as i wanted to keep to the same conventions on the magazine. I have used a photo of one of the girls who directed the film/trailer and have made the colours suttle so the colours don't over do it.

For our other product, we had to produce a film poster for our trailer. From looking at various other film posters, i felt that Walled In was a good one to look at for the layout i was looking for and the style of type and the photo on the poster. On my poster i have used a simular picture which is of a girl in our trailer and i have made sure you can't see all of her face which is a good convention in most horror posters. I have also used red for the colour of my font on the poster which connotes danger and death, which a lot of horrors use it on their posters. For the compostion i have followed the simular layout to the poster Walled In, to make sure its clear to read.

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

From the film The Unborn, I found a clip which is simular to a part in our own teaser trailer. We have made the shot very dark, so when you're watching this part of the film it will be hard to see what's happening and gets the viewer thinking about the plot. The shot we used wasn't our strongest shot, and i see that we could of made the shot a bit more lighter and maybe used the gore more often.

Also from the film The Unborn, i found a clip of the woman up against a creepy wall looking scared and terrified. In our own trailer we done a simular shot of the girl getting thrown at the wall of the abandoned place. We have also darkened this shot to make sure we use different forms and conventions in our teaser trailer. In horror, they often uses a female main protagonist, who ends up surviving and becoming the hero of the film. Which we wanted to do in our own ideo for our horror film.

This title i have found is also from The Unborn. We have both used red as our typeface which is iconic in a horror film to use red, as it can connote blood and death, I feel that from looking at their title that we should of made our typography easier to read and much clearer so the viewer can see it much clearer. Also we have both placed the typeface in the middle of the screen which is done in almost every film. In most horrors films, they will use the colour red in their titles which a very common colour in horror.

Another shot I have found from a teaser trailer is loads of candles. In our own trailer we used candles which helped create a spooky atmosphere. when we filmed the candles we done it with a handheld camera because we thought it would work much better and give the shot a mysterious feel to it, and we have also made sure that we have filmed them when its much darker. In horror, they may use candle lit settings to make a scary and creepy setting, they usually use this technique in such scenes as if you were using a ouiji board or if the film involves witchcraft or vampires.

This clip I have found is from The Woman In Black. In there trailer they have set out the equilibrium of an abandoned house. We have also took some shots of the abandoned building which help the viewer know where the film maybe set. Buildings with a past are a key setting for horror because they can be a scary setting and we usually see them in horrors as a return of the past and are usually haunted.

From looking at this shot which is also from The Woman In Black, we can see that they have made a lot of shots quite dark and have used a dark corridor to make the viewer think about if anything may appear in the shadows. In our own teaser trailer we have done a simular thing by making the girls walk down a dark corridor and it makes you wonder what there waiting for or what they are looking for. I horrors, you usually see shotsb like this where you get a POV shot of the main protagonist/villian, and you see darkness or shadows, which can connote danger and they use this lighting in most horrors which is a good convention to achieve in horro films.

In this shot from Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, as you can see the girl has also used a torch which we decided to use in our own teaser trailer. The light helps give the viewer time to think what may happen next and what the person maybe pointing at or looking at.

What have you learnt in your audience feedback?

After watching the classes other teaser trailers, we got everyone in our group to give us feedback on our own trailer. From reading through our feedback sheets we can see that we could of improved on a couple of things, but overall they enjoyed our teaser trailer. From looking at the feedback sheets, i can see that they really liked our ending title page and they say it worked well with the trailer and the typeface was also effective. They also liked the newspaper scene, they believe that it was a good one to chose and the effects worked well.

We also had some people say that our end scene worked very well, and was a good way to end the trailer. They also liked the setting we choe for our trailer, and said it was creepy and worked with our story. In our trailer we used a shot of some candles, the feedback we got from them was good and they liked that we repeated it later on in the trailer. On one of our feedback sheets, someone said that "I like the shots through the fence, also like the message on the wall and how it flashed".

The shot of the graffiti on the wall was quite hard to shoot because we wanted to make sure we got the right shot and i believe that it worked out okay. Also on the feedback sheets we had some comments on what we culd improve on on our trailer.

On one of the sheets we had a comment saying that we should of took some of the shots out of Rosie running as it seemed to go on for too long. They also said that when we done the newspaper it wasn't very clear and the same goes with the ouiji board, we should of zoomed in closley and maybe left it on the screen for more time so they could read what it says. They also mentioned that the chosen music for our trailer dos'nt work well and sounds too action for a horror trailer.They also have said the scenes we did outside were too bright and we could of darkened them more. Also, they said that the narrative wasn't very clear throughout our trailer and they said that the villian wasn't very clear either. From reading the feedback sheets i can see that we could of added more jumpy parts and more gore, and when something dramatic happened we could of added the right sound effect for that particular action. From conducting the research, i feel like it was a good idea to ask our classmates because from doing our earlier research we saw that most people who watch horror are at the ages between 17 - 19. So this helped us trying to gather further feedback about our actual trailer.
The conventions of our trailer they thought was good was that:

• They liked our use of camera shots throughout the trailer
• They also liked our shot where we are showing the newspaper
• They liked our title at the end which says 'Abandoned', they said it was a good way to end it
• The setting we had chosen was also a good setting for our film idea

But there are areas that they said we needed to improve on, which was:

• They said that the music in the background sounded to much like it should be an action film
• They said that the newspaper shoot could have been more clearer
• We should of made the scenes which were outside slightly darker as it does'nt work well if its light outside.

Looking back at the feedback of our classmates, if i had the cahnce to change anything i would try and find some music which would of fitted more with our storyline and genre. I also believe that we should of darkened some of the shots in our trailer as a lot of them were outside and didnt work with our darker shots inside the abandoned house. I also think that the shots of rosie where she is running outside should of been cut much quicker as they said it went on for too long. Overall i believe that we could of improved on our trailer with various parts, and if we had more time we would definatly change parts.

Analysis Film Poster

walledinpost, a photo by Luciex1 on Flickr.

Analysis Of Magazine Cover 2

totalfilm1, a photo by Luciex1 on Flickr.