Ideas

After the results i received from the questionnaire, i decided that after decideing on the genre of film that was most popular, i would need to look into rival products such as trailers on youtube and thriller marketing campaigns which were most successful.
After asking what kind of thriller they would like to see at the cinema, the majority of people were up for anything. I have decided to do a trailer for a film about a stalker.

The main plot will revolve around a teenage girl getting stalked by this talk, shadowy figure who is obssessed with her, following her around town, in her home, walking down the street ect... I have a clear idea in my head and want to get some test shots to see if where i would like to film, whether the sound and surrounding would work.
Im now starting to look art music to accompany the trailer.
I want it to be classical to starrt but then speed up the pace at the volta point in the trailer where some action starts to happen.

I have come up with 3 questions i want to ask people about as well before i maike any more plans.
What is your biggest fear?
What would you like to see in a film involving stalkers?
What is your favourite pyscological thriller and why?

I came up with these questions so i could see what really gets people clinging to their seats, not just by watching the trailer but have elements of what would be in the film in the trailer.
I wanted to know what people would like to see the trailer as well, not just the usual conventions of a thriller.
The favourite thriller question is so i could look at the trailers for the films they answer to incorporate some ideas from them but not mirror the trailers.

I think im going to film these questions being asked, as a vox pop, so i can get use to the camera's we'll ber working with.

Progess!

I have finally finished finalising my questionnaire results. Last week when i found out about the coursework, i came up with a questionnaire to ask around 25-30 people about film trailers/posters/magazines.
The questions were;
Gender and Age - to determine which demographic i was appealing to most.
Favourite genre of film- Thriller, Horror, Rom-Com, Comedy, Action, War, Mystery (I only included the genres i would be able to make a trailer for with the resources and time that i have to complete this project)
Favourite film of that genre?
Second favourite film?
Do you like fast paced trailers that build suspension throughout?
Favourite film magazine?
What do you look for when buying a film magazine? Interviews, Film news, Previews, Reviews, New releases, Freebies?
What do you look for on a film poster?

I based my questionnaire around the main elements i would need to appeal to a wide audience, mainly to do with the film trailer because the poster and magazine will need to be genre specific. I can add to the poster and magazine with conventions of the genre of film trailer rather than surveying more people for 2 more questionnaires. Instead i decided that i will get feedback from people during the stages of development.

I stood out side my local cinema on a Monday because that is half price night and lots of people turn out to see the films  such as 'Resident Evil' and 'The Other Guys'. This worked well because people who turned out to watch Resident Evil was mainly young 20 year old with girlfriends and middle aged men whereas generally females and a few males turned out to see 'The Other Guys', meaning i got varied results which is what i wanted.

I asked 20 males and 18 females to complete a questionnaire (which they did happily)
The age was ranged between 15-48
The top 3 genres was Horror/Thriller, Comedy and Rom-Com's
There were a mixture of favourite films but quite a few people went for Nightmare on Elm street and more recently Paranormal activity. Other popular favourites included Inception, The Grudge and the Bounty Hunter.

From this i can gather who my target audience will be; it will generally appeal to the younger generation (around 16-30) as they are most likely to be attracted to a thriller and would watch television more so would see the trailer and be sucked in to the campaign from being the audience who are targeted most by advertising.
The poster and film questions had a very wide range on what people went for but most answers revolved around colour, photo's and household names.

From this i can now decide which direction I'm going in and make some real progress on planning for my promotional package.

Trailers

After researching at home and watching some films like Cloverfield and [REC], i have taken a real interest in the hand held camera effect. I would like to use this for my trailer, maybe for a trailer about a stalker (thriller) or for a trailer about the end of the world (apocalyptic) .
I have added the trailers off of YouTube below.



This is the trailer from Cloverfield. It starts off at a party and then the accidents happen. I like how the chain of events follow and the last line "I'm going to be the best man ever". Personally i prefer the film's cinematography as opposed to the trailer as i got most of my inspiration from that so i would know what shots to use for my trailer.



This is the trailer for [REC], what i loved about this trailer was that there was no music just the sounds of movement which i think is more effective than a voice over or music. In this trailer i really like the text is incorporated through showing facts about the Spanish fire brigade and fires. After watching the film itself, i think the trailer could have done it more justice and given away a bit more about the film but i still think that the amount of information included in the trailer is enough to leave the audience in suspense.

After class today i also wanted to look in to films about stalkers and how their trailers worked. The 2 which i found most interesting an effective was One Hour Photo and Hard Candy. I have seen Hard Candy which is why i chose that trailer because i love the sound of the camera snapping and the effects of quick cuts between scenes towards the end which i would use if i do a stalker film or thriller in general.



I especially like the opening as well with the computer screen. I think this really captivates the audience, it caught my attention. It contains a lot of dialogue but still doesn't give the whole film away, just back ground information on the 2 main characters. The sound is effective as well towards the end of the wind blowing the curtains because it leaves a lot for the audience to predict what happens.



I really liked 2 things from this trailer which i had already thought about using for a horror/thriller film trailer, i liked the way the camera zoomed in to the camera Robin Williams was using and then show the text on screen and i like how at the end he is watching the family from outside their house with a camera. We know its outside as there is foliage in the corner and can see him on the outside of the window.

I found that hand held cameras are really used for horror/thriller films as thast is the only convention they fall in to, except for documentaires. I would need to do a trailer for them genres of films for me to use that effect but after talking to friends and family and work collegues, i am leaning towards the horror/thriller genre from their comments.

Criteria

Produce a viral marketing campaign for a new film, aiming to attract an audience primarily through social networking sites and YouTube. The trailer and website will be the primary marketing tools to be disseminated via the Internet. The poster and magazine cover will be the secondary phrase, adopting mainstream ‘above and below the line’ marketing techniques after the viral marketing campaign has secured media interest.

This is the criteria we must follow for our coursework. I took this to mean that we will need to make a film trailer (I guess that will need to be around 2 minutes) for the primary marketing tools and create a poster and magazine cover for the secondary phrase which will advertise the film.

I decided to look into some institutions already established which use the web (viral marketing) to create a buzz around the film.

This was used for 'Cloverfield', a low budget film that unknown actors and actresses starred in, shot from a single point of view from a hand held camera. I t was such a success just from the promotional package. The producers also created myspace pages for the characters in the film so people could track their events and lives.

I want to incorporate some factors of viral marketing which 'Cloverfield' used as that is one of the most successful films to be promoted by viral marketing. I could also take inspiration from The Dark Night, they set up a website for The Joker, the villain in the film, which contained a to do list, raising suspicions and hype about the film. This could be a good idea but i would need to see what others think by using a questionnaire. Also since it is not part of the brief that we were given, i dont think it would be necessary for this assignment as the main focus will be on the trailer, poster and mag cover.

While researching the Dark Knight, i came across the teaser trailer, i loved the idea of having just a voice over for the trailer but will need to decided on a genre first.

http://www.whysoserious.com/

http://www.1-18-08.com/

Essentials

Been studying trailers last night and researching what must be included in mine for it reach the high standard i have set out to achieve.
They need to include:
A studio and/or distrubutors logo
Images/clips from the film itself
Contain background information without giving the story away (can be done by using a voice over, text or dialogue from the film)
Music- suited to the genre of film
Directors name
Actors and actresses that star in the film
(NB. Promote the name that people would recognise more such as in Avatar, they played on the fact that it was from the director of Titanic)
Rhythem change- suited to whats happening, could create suspense or create a different atmosphere
Title of the film
Release date- need to research when films are released such as block buster seasons ect...
Credits and websites

They don't have to be in that order as they can be altered to tailor the type of trailer I am creating.

Getting the basics down

First lesson back and we're researching the film industry and how to create trailers. We have also watched work from the students last year to help inspire us and give us a target to aspire to.

I have been looking at the different genres of films, and conventions of certain genres. See attachment for spider diagram.

I also watched some film trailers from YouTube. I have added links to the trailers i liked certain features of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0e8SfWvXdM
I really liked this trailer of Gothika, a horror film, because the text was incorporated in to the trailer with out disturbing their voice over which i don't want to do in my trailer if i can help it. Also the text on screen and the short takes are features of the video i want to incorporate if possible and if it suits the conventions of the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBvRuPGMSgM
This trailer of the Bounty Hunter is a good trailer, in my opinion, because it uses lengthy takes from the film to explain the film instead of a simple voice over. However i didn't like the titles of the director and cast popping up between scenes, i would like them to all be shown at either the bigging or the end.