Eilish - Continuity
Our Main aim from the very beginning was based heavily on establishing continuity, we found that by looking at certain fonts or even certain colours on a film poster we were able to associate them to films or trailers which we have seen. Saw is a good example of this, and is also very similar to numerous conventions which we use throughout each of our individual products.
Throughout our planning and research stages we spoke to loads of different people about what they expect to see in a horror film and things that they like and dislike, one thing which we didn't mention was consistency as we felt that it comes naturally when marketing a product. Brand identity is how big companies manage to make so much money and help sell products which may not even be needed, only wanted because of the society we have grown into. Having a certain product for its name could be a bigger reason for buying something as its a necessity. We, being a non existent brand according to the rest of the world have had to try and find our feet in promoting our product without the use of brand Identity.There are different types of media which can help and aid us in our promotion, the main media being the Internet. By sharing our products online we are hopefully creating the brand identity it would need for us to actually sell well in the actually distribution to the film following this small teaser trailer. There is a theory called uses and Gratification theory which as a concept looks at the way people accept media and whether they choose what type of media impacts them and why. How conscious we are of the media and how we choose to perceive it is down to everyones personal opinion although applied to our campaign, using a constant growing media which is able to impact the world subconsciously or not is probably the best way to do it.
Planetary Productions is our Production company which we have established is a versatile company which do not only focus on the genre of horror but include all different types of genres which has been represented through our Production logo and its adaptation of the design to suite the film being produced. The company logo is used in the trailer and the poster, however its not used on our Magazine which might be something to improve on and could potentially enhance the identity of the brand. Our company would be that very similar to the Paranormal Activity production as it uses a small budget and is able to create something which will have a big impact. Although 'Woe Is Me,' as a brand is very british, its a Psychological film with a hint of slasher. Its the film that the Saw audience are able to move onto now that Saw is over. We are targeting an audience which are seeking what was missing from The Hills have Eyes and those who were horrified by hostel.
'Woe Is Me' is the name of our film and it connotes a very classical tone as its referring back to an ancient time of Shakespeare which again defines the identity of the film being British. The actual words of woe is me mean 'poor me' which round up our whole product as its completely victim led. The title is only the highlight of the victims impact, although we decided from a very early stage that in order to maintain all of the tension and the mystery surrounding the film that we would not show the Killer at any stage throughout the whole campaign which is why the one singular shot of the killer is of his feet alone and are walking towards a door which only tenses the tension and adds to the mystery which is exactly what we wanted.
Characters- Peace
In order for us to be effective we have to be consistent which we have maintained through firstly our actress, she is focused on heavily in the trailer and is in both images for the poster and the magazine however, some of the characteristics of a horror film would be seen through a 'Final Girl'. Our actress has only some traits of a final girl as she is female, caucasian and has a light hair colour which is almost blonde but with some red in which all suit the conventions. Instead of being the final girl, our actress is more similar to the 'Girl Next Door' as she has not actually done anything wrong as she is not slutty, rude or arrogant nor does she cause any offence which means that she has a likeable presence which will ultimately make the audience sympathise for her as they are more likely than not able to relate to someone similar they know. This teaser trailer campaign is very similar to the SAW franchise as we reveal a second victim within the teaser leaving the audience with the questions of Why is she there? Are there any more people? SAW is about a group of people who are psychologically (slasher) tortured similarly to our film however our teaser indicates a stronger lead role and only have implements of the genre slasher.
Similarly to character of Annie in Friday the 13th, our victim has no real reason as to why she was chosen, none of it is her fault. Although most victims who are female and typically girl next door haven't done anything for anyone to dislike them however they have done something for people to actually like them which is something that we would rethink if we were doing this project again. We would have included our character doing something good or cute in order for the audience to like her and then feel more sorry for the victim. Generally, our female victim is similar to those in See No Evil, The Hills have Eyes as the women are in the wrong place at the wrong time or decide to do something silly which results in a huge pressure and impact (the killer) seeking to kill them.
Another positive aspect continued would be our font. In order to determine synergy we have kept our font the same throughout each of the products. The font Zapfino which is a very old-fashioned italic style of writing has been kept and displayed on each of the products. Although the layout and the positioning could be more consistent, we have layered the writing in both the Film poster and the magazine but not in the trailer which could be a room for improvement. We have also used a section of our film poster without the text, but with the colour remaining as the background to our captions within the teaser which is a way of connecting the two. The background image was taken from my cheek which has a filter on highlighting my freckles which actually connotes innocence. The character from the play is in fact innocent however when the background of our slogan 'Forced to face your Fears…' it could be seen as quite a malicious thing as even if she wasn't innocent then she would still have to face her fears ad she is being forced to.
Sepia Explanation- John
Another aspect commonly shown with our text is a sepia colour or tint which we have maintained throughout the whole teaser trailer and both other pieces. The reasoning behind using sepia links back to our old fashioned name and font style ensuring that the classical tone is used throughout. Our visuals however are very modern as during the teaser trailer we see a video camera and a CCTV shot which is a way of appealing to todays audience which confused some people when watching the teaser trailer. One improvement would be to be more consistent with the match of old vs new throughout all 3 pieces instead of being on the trailer alone. This is what we would use as our USP (Unique Selling Point) not many films which are produced today really highlight and respect old films, there are countless remakes which keep storylines and concepts although they have all been transformed to suite todays audience. Our film is modern and it uses the technologies which surround us today, although it appreciates older eras such as the elizabethan times when shakespeare was in his prime, as well as old cinemas which is something that is not seen before.
This is evidence of the limitations of a teaser trailer and how we were unable to connect all of the dots and explain everything completely as it would ruin the whole teaser campaign. To some members of our audience it may entice them into coming and seeing the film resulting in all of their questions answered, however some may feel that the teaser doesn't work. There was also not enough to to develop our second character within the teaser although this might have enhanced the mystery and only help tease the audience, it would depend on your personal opinion.
We began our project by making the teaser trailer although it was the last of the 3 to be completed. Once we had filmed it almost became a hardship to actually complete it as it was a very big task and was almost intimidating, this could be why as a team we find the teaser the least effective. As we were creating the 3 at one time, it was much easier to turn our attention to the film poster and feature magazine as it was a shorter and possibly more creative task. The fact that we hadn't made a video before and we still had to get used to the software was also a deterrent for us not to work on the teaser. As there was so many options we spent numerous weeks coming up with new ideas and concepts that we could implement to our teaser as it was so varied, it was almost problematic as we had so many options. Another reason we find it least effective could be that we lost critical distance with the trailer as it became so familiar. Eventually we stuck with our original storyboard minus a few changes throughout so we were essentially brainstorming for no reason except to see how far we could go to adapt it. Overall is the biggest part of the campaign and it is effective, although we have learnt from experience and may have done things better.
The most effective we feel is our film poster, it was one of our original and initial ideas which meant that after completion it was satisfying to see it alongside others and still looking professional. As we have two members of our team who were very creative and were able to use photoshop very well. that might be a possibility as to why we enjoyed creating the poster most as we had a bigger range of skills. With our teaser, one member took lead role however even they had to learn new skills based around a whole new software meaning it was more effort. The order in which we created them in had an impact on our preferences certainly, however it might not have with all of our audience.
Ryan - Cross Media Promotions
When producing our media products we had to take into account how they would look on different media platforms. We uploaded our trailer to YouTube to see how it looked via the internet. This also allowed us to see how our trailer looked through smart phone devices as we could access the trailer through YouTube.
We also used social networking sites such as Facebook to promote our media products. This not only helped with our audience feedback but also helped us see how our products looked via smart phones and computers.
We decided to print off an A3 copy of our film poster and an A4 copy of our magazine cover to see how they would look in print form. We placed our poster on the wall in our media classroom next to professional film posters to see whether or not it was noticeably different to the professional ones. We also took photographs of our magazine cover next to other film magazine covers to compare to the professional magazines.
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