Marketing Campaign- Devil Baby Attack

The genre I have chosen for my media product is the horror genre, this is because I have always been insterested on creating my own horror trailer, so hopefully the outcome of my groups trailer will be positive. I have looked at marketing campaigns whilst going through research for my film trailer, I have chosen a recent film release which comes out on the 17th January 2014 which is called, Devils Due. The production team has come up with its own original idea to promote the film, basically by scaring people so that know what the film is.
Devils Due have created their own marketing technique to get their film known, they have used a viral marketing technique. The film is about a couple whos baby so happens to be 'possed' by the devil, to promote this film they have create this baby in real life by creating a mechanical baby and placing it in a remote control pram, the baby can cry like a real baby, scream and chase people away being controlled manually via remote. The artistic work produced on the evil babys face is very realistic and makes the baby seem possessed.

Profile of Characters

My group colleagues and I decided when discussing what type of characters we wanted in our trailer were two friends that would work well together, but also they would have to fit the role of the typical teenage boy.
Ryan is about 17 years of age and he is the more confident out of the two main characters. He has grew up with a  rough childhood and he has had to go through things the hard way in life which has developed who he is now. He is extremely brave and never back down from a challenge and doesn't let anything stand in his way.
The type of costume he will be wearing will be a very typical outfit of a teenage boy, a t-shirt, hoody, pants and a pair of trainers is what he will be wearing. 
Shaun is also 17 years of age and is less confident out of the two main characters. In fact, he is the total opposite to Ryan, he is scared very easily and doesn't like a challenge. Shaun has grew up in a large family and has always been looked after extremely well by his mum, because of this he finds it difficult to be left alone.
This character will also be wearing the same outfit as the other character, he will be wearing slightly different colours in his outfit so they do not look exactly the same as it will not look right if they are dressed the same.

Photoshoot 14/12/13



 Some of these images took time to get right, as you can see, they not look real enough to use for my magazine or poster.

 For example on the above image, he is 'smiling' and it took time to get the shot right.

 The above image is what i wanted from the start and eventually worked.

I wanted a shot of the antagonist from being without the mask on, but holding it bit not showning any of the face, this shot worked well first time round and I did not have to take many more after this first shot as it was what I wanted.

 The above image looks the same as every other image we took of the antagonist, this is the best quality version of it which will be used in my magazine cover.

As you can see the above 3 images took time to get right, I understood that it was going to be a challenge getting the lighting right when taking this shot, so instead of making the room dark and not allowing me or the viewrs to see the image, i took it will the lights on, I will use photoshop to edit this image to make the background much darker, like on the strangers poster as shown below.

Call Sheet

Shown above is the call sheet that me and my group have created, it shows whether the shots are either interior or exterior, where the shootings are going to take place, what the weather is like on that day and lastly, what people are going to be acting in these shots, as shown above it states that Ryan and Shaun are going to be acting Sunday 1st December. This makes things much more efficient so that we know what needs film and what we have filmed so far, it will makes things run alot smoother for us.

Poster Inspiration

For my poster I have took most of my inspiration from 'The Strangers' Poster.

When I first seen this poster I instantly took a huge liking to it. I liked the idea of barely just being able to see the antagonist in the darkness of the background behind the woman as I thought it was very creepy and just by that image it already shows you the genre of the film. Due to a dark man wearing a man in the background staring at a 'scared' looking woman in the centre of the image gives it away. So basically, just from seeing the mask in the background should suggest that it is potentially some sort of horror poster. A common convention used in horror films is to feature masked killers, hiding their true identity, and making them seem inhuman and eerie. The name of the film again suggests the genre as the name ‘The Strangers’ suggests an unwelcomed guest, and linking it to the picture, the audience will become aware that there are some strange people tormenting this woman. I think this is really affective and I would like to re-create something just like this for my movie poster. It will be hard to re-create so it is going to take me a while to make sure the lighting for the photo is perfect, as if it is to dark, or to bright, it wont give off the same effect. The reason I am choosing this certain poster, is not just because it is a really good poster, but it is based in a house, and so is mine so it will easier to imitate this poster. I also really like the idea of this poster having slogan at the top and I am going do this for mine. I have thought of a sinister slogan for my film, for example 'home sweet home' is what i have come up with to use at the top of my poster, I have decided to go with this as it gives off a really creepy effect, as it is about a person who intrudes homes. The 'strangers' title across the bottom middle of the page also looks good as it is underneath the picture, the blurred effect on the text also looks really good and I could potentially do this to mine to make it stand out more than just being boring and plain. It is so affective because It is one of the first things you see when looking at the poster, and if it stands out, it will keep your attention drawn at the poster looking at everything else. I will also have to create my own credit block for the bottom of my poster to make it look much more realistic.

Filming 2nd Attempt

These are screenshots of some of the scene we filmed today.
We have changed our location due to the difficulties we found on our first shoot. We have changed our story line slightly and made things more realistic for us to record by recording via interior shots as exterior were to difficult.

Location Change

For the location of our trailer, we had many ideas where to film it. Our first idea was to locate our scenes on a farm, mainly exterior shots. Our first initial choice of setting Balls Wood park in Maghull and Down Holland Hall farm. As our film is in the horror genre,to make things seem much like a horror trailer as we could we thought that we needed dark scene and thought that filming outside would be perfect. Whilst filming we came across some problems, the main problem was that it was too dark to film and we wasted alot of our time and effort trying to make this work so we all had to think things through. After looking at our footage we realised that we would be best doing mostly interior shots as we could adjust lighting properly inside and all of our shots would work much better. 

Our new location is one of my team mate home where she lives and has kindly allowed us to use her house whilst filming our trailer. We could see a massive difference in the shots when looking at them from before and to now. Overall I think it was a great solution to film inside as we did not have all the correct lighting equipment when filming outdoors and found it too difficult. 

























Above shows our old location at balls wood park, as you can see, even in day light not much light is let in and alot of darkness is caused due to the vast trees. If it was around summer time where the sky is at its brightest and for longer this would be alot more realistic to film in, we do not have the good enough lighting for our filming so it is not possible to complete our filming of exterior shots, due to this we have had to change our location and our story.

The image to the left of this text is our new location, our team colleague has kindly offered to let us use her house for filming as we never had many other options, this is the type of house we were looking for, just an ordinary looking house, i feel this gives it a creepier effect as anything can happen, even in n ordinary house like the one we have filmed in.

Story Boards

 

As shown above are the new stroyboards that we have put together as a group, we have had to resort to this as our current location did not work out. However, we have found a new location and we will be starting to film in the next few days. We are currently planning what scenes we are going to be filming first, it is quite difficult due to the lighting problems etc. but we will sort something out and hopefully produce some high quality footage.

First attempt of recording

Today was our first attempt at filming, this took place at Ballswood park, we were not prepared for how fast the sky was going dark, therefore the quality of our footage isnt so good as our lighting is poor. We are currently planning a new date for filming our trailer.

Horror Poster Analysis

This poster is for the 2012 horror film Sinister. This film poster has many features of the horror genre conventions; I know this is part of the horror genre due to how clear these conventions are.
First of all, the whole colour scheme is dark and very dull compared the blood smeared across the wall, this red blood indicates danger and is a frequent colour on posters for horror films. I will look into using this convention for my movie poster judging on how affective it looks on it. Another reason why this is obvious enough that it is part of the horror genre is the image smeared across the wall in blood by the girl is frightening, you would not have an image like this on a poster part of any other genre. The tagline “Once you see him nothing can save you” directly addresses the audience and grabs their attention to the poster as this basically indicates death, this is a typical tagline that you would find on a horror poster. The font of the title looks as if blood is dripping from it, this straight away indicates that blood is going to be involved in the film and gives away that it is potentially a horror film. This poster also follows conventions of film posters as it has a credit/ billing block at the bottom of the poster, I will have to create my own billing block to make my poster look much more realisitc. The name of the film 'sinister' is another word for 'evil' so straight away this is pretty obivous what this film is going to be as you would not name any other film in another genre by this name. At the top of the poster is says 'from the producers of paranormal activity and insidious' automatically it is going to attract a huge audience, this is because paranormal activity and insidious are really big well known/viewed horror films which had great reviews, so by putting this on the poster makes people instantly want to go and see that film.

 

Contributors Release Forms

 

As shown above are the contributors release forms, as you can see only me, Ryan and Shaun had to fill out these forms, our other memeber of our group however did not have to fill one of these out as she did not appear in any footage or any of our ancillary products.

Risk Assessment Forms

 

 

As shown above is the risk assessment form that we had to fill out for filming our trailer. This covers all potential dangers hazzards and things that could occur when filming etc. and how we are going to prevents these hazzards or dangers from happening.

Movie Trailer Synopsis

When writing out trailer synopsis we had to take cautions, this was so that we didn't give away to much of the trailer yet we had to make it sounds really good, here is what we came up with together;
15 years has passed to the day, and the case of the missing boy still remains unsolved. After last minute arrangements a group of friends embark on an camping adventure on the farm where the missing boy was last seen. Will the killer strike again or will they return home safe?

Prop List

For my trailer I will need a set of props and a dress setting to make my trailer seem as realistic as possible, I had to be careful when choosing certain props as some were totally irrelevant, shown below is a list of the props and the dress setting:

Prop List:

Police hat

Newspaper             

Torch                

Kitchen                   

Backpacks                  

Tent                 

Tree                        

Sink                      

handcuffs/chains               

Axe                        

Torch                             

Tripod                              

Camera                            

Farmers mask 
Jeans 
T-shirt
Hoody 

Dress setting:  
Kitchen 
Kitchen utensils, for example ; tea towel, sink, fridge... 
Tree 
Couch
Police tape 
Baseball Bat
Knife
Leaves

Production Company Name

When trying to decide what to name my Production Company I had to think of a name that was relevant to a horror movie, for example 'Haunted Movies' made the film insidious. This means I had to think of a spooky yet professional name for my production company.

To do this I wrote down a list of words that came to my head when trying to think of a name; as shown below is a list of the first few words that came to my head.

• Dark
• Light
• Spooky
• Loft
• Attic
• Match
• Noise

The list goes on....

I started putting words together such as 'Match' and 'Light', but this didn't sound that good and I wanted a better name than this. I carried on thinking then I thought of 'Loft & Light', I instantly thought that 'LoftLight' was the best name for my production company straight away and I think it would go great with my horror trailer that I am creating. 

Ideas of LoftLight Production Logo:

I decided I could hold my camera in a pitch black empty loft/attic where you not be able to see anything on the camera other than a black screen. I could then light a match in the loft about a metre away from the camera, as it is only a match the loft will be JUST visible in the background. So, when the match is lit, my production name 'LOFTLIGHT PRODUCTION' will appear on the screen in front of the match. After a second of this being shown it will then all fade to black off the screen. 

I feel that this is a very good idea as it can be done as it is very simple to do.

Insidious Magazine Analysis 'FANGORIA'

Man of Steel Magazine Cover Analysis

Mood Board On The Horror Genre

Shown above is my mood board for the horror genre. When trying to think of ideas for my trailer, these movie images inspire me to think deeply into finding new and terrifying ideas to use in my trailer. For example, I could use a quick cut of my main protagonist in my trailer, with a 'monster' behind him/her. This would be very effective and I could also use it for a poster to advertise my trailer.

Taken 2 Movie Poster Analysis

Grown Ups Movie Poster Analysis

Research on Marketing Campaign for a Horror

The following Market Campaign that i will be researching is The Woman in Black which is a horror movie. I have chosen this movie as it has the same genre of the film trailer I am creating. As shown above is the trailer for the 'Woman In Black' movie.

In London on the 10th April 2011, the films first teaser trailer was released for the public to view

. A second trailer was released in July 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (which also stars The Woman in Blacks main actor, Daniel Radcliffe). A worldwide trailer was then released on the 17th August 2011, which contained much more footage from the film itself.

The first official UK teaser poster was released on 24th August 2011, followed by the full UK trailer being released on 14th October 2011. 

A one minute teaser was released by CBS Films, the makers of the film, at Spike TV's Scream Awards which was held on 18th October 2011. A day later, a teaser poster was released to the public. 

In the new year, on 11th January 2012, Momentum Pictures finally released an official poster for the film, and the following day, a one minute clip from the film was released by MTV.

As a way of reaching those more interested in novelisation, the novel that the film is based on was re-released alongside the film, this time with the front cover featuring Daniel Radcliffe who is the star of the film, which would market the film further.

Blake Snyder's 10 Film Categories

Monster in the house:

The monster in the house genre is essentially the horror genre. It usually tells a story of a creature or things hurting or killing others in the film. It is then the protagonist’s job in the film to eliminate this monsters or thing before they are eliminated by it. For example, Jaws.

Golden Fleece:

The Golden Fleece categorises films as being 'road movies', this means the protagonist in the film must hit the road in the movie and find themselves, or find out things they didn't know before in the movie. An example of this is ‘the hobbit’.

Out of the bottle:

The out of the bottle type of movie is a movie suck as a fantasy or a magical film, the can also be a film where the main protagonist is granted a wish, for example, in Bruce Almighty he is given gods powers. They are granted a wish which usually changes them as a person and the film will usually have a moral.

Dude with a problem:

The dude with a problem film category usually involves comedy, action and slightly horror genres. It will usually be about a normal character in the movie that will develop the heroism and throughout the movie they have will find they will have to deal with life or death situation and may have to save their loved ones or the planet. For example taken and taken 2.

Rites of passage:

Usually in this type of film the protagonist will come to a point in their life where they may be divorced from their loved one. Different things will happen in their life throughout the movie. The problem is not always solved but when it does the protagonist usually feels a huge relief at the end of the movie. An example of this is Crazy Stupid Love.

Buddy love:

Buddy Love films are typically centred around 2 characters and the problems they face together. These problems usually bring them closer together and they realise that they can't live as well without each other. These films aren't always about friends, but it can be able love, for example in the notebook the 2 main characters fall apart and end up getting back together many years later as they simply can’t be without each other.

Whydunit:

In these films, the focus of the story is more why the bad guy committed the evil deed instead of who did it - it is not about the characters discovering themselves, it' about the audience discovering the evil reason why the bad guy did his evil doing (the audience are almost like the detectives). There are many extremely famous 'Whydunit' type films such as Blade Runner, Seven, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Sixth Sense.

Fool triumphant:

Fool triumphant films tend to fall under the comedy genre. They are about a character that is oblivious to the world around them labelling them as an underdog who eventually comes out on top giving the film a happy ending. Examples include Dodge ball and Forrest Gump. 

Institutionalized:

This category follows movies that are centred around a group of characters/friends who often go on quests/adventures. There are happy and sad moments in these films, with the ending usually being that of a happy outcome. Examples include ‘Stand by Me’ and The Goonies.

Superhero:

The 'Superhero' category is usually about a hero who usually, saves the world for example. In the film 'The Avengers' this happens where all of the world’s superhero's team up to fight another world. These heroes’ are usually the most loved people in the film.

Film Poster Conventions

Shown below is a list of typical conventions you would find on a movie poster,i will be sticking to these conventions when creating my poster and will try and use many of them: 

•Release dates
•Production company logos/Sound logos
•Website
•Social networking links i.e twitter, facebook
•Billing or Credit blocks
•Names of recognisable stars/Images of stars (in my case, actors in the film trailer myself and my team create)
•The film's title is usually the biggest and most bold font on the poster
•Rating
•Reviews
•Tagline
•Name of the director
•Reference to other films
•Reference to source material

Conventions of Magazine cover

As well as my film trailer and poster I will also be producing a magazine front cover. Having looked at magazine covers from scream, I have looked at magazines such as film and scream and through doing this I have realised that the basic conventions of magazine front covers are the same regardless of the genre or audience for the magazine. The following conventions appear in all types of film magazines:


Firstly, the Masthead is a common convention, this is usually, well most of the time the biggest font on the cover and is often in a colour that stands out from the background and the rest of the cover. An example of a really eye catching text is shown below;

 

Dominant central image- In a mainstream magazine this is usually an A-List character whereas in an independant film magazine, this is often of a director or a less recognizeable actor from the movie the magazine is linking to.
As shown below on the left is a mainsteam magazine called 'film' which has an image of Daniel Craig on the front of it as James Bond from the new film Skyfall. On the right is an independent film magazine with, what looks like the director of the film on the front cover.

 

The price, date and issue number are also conventions of a film magazine. Shown below is an example of a 'scream' magazine with these conventions. The website is also a typical convention, this is their so that people will know what to search for if they want to go onto the magazine website, usually to subscribe or to purchase new, and old magazines.

 

 

The Bar Code --- Example below;

 

 

 Coverlines and Banners on magazines are typical conventions, these could be things like advertisements of what is in the magazine or what you can win. Or generally just sub heading enticing the reader into reading more which will make them want to buy the magazine, these are both very important conventions.

Todorov's Narrative

In 1969, Tzvetan Todorov produced a theory which he believed can be applied to any film. The theory states that all films follow the same narrative pattern making the features of the theory typical codes and conventions of a film. If each stage has been thoroughly thought out and planned well, the film will most likely become a success.

Codes and Conventions of a Film Trailer

The codes and conventions of a film trailer consists of themes that are reflective of that film's genre. For example in horror films there would be scenes such as people screaming and any other creeky or loud noises, blood and gore and things happening between the protagonist and the 'monster' or whatever it may be, in the film. Also in a action high adrenaline film, in the trailer the audience would see scenes like explosion, fast adrenaline rushing car chases and possibly gun shootings. Lastly, in comedy's you would pretty much see scenes of people laughing, possibly telling jokes and any other humours insidents that may occur.A convention of a film trailer is that a film trailer includes graphic captions such as the release date of that film, the directors name, the actors' names starring in the film and any other text that is related to that film.
Another convention of a film trailer is the use of non-diegetic sound. This is used to help reflect the type of genre a film is. Non-diegetic sound is a sound who's source that is not visible on-screen. An example of non-diegetic is sound effects such as soundtracks to help create different effect to the feel, for example if it was a romantic fil, happy music would be played in the background to help set a mood for that part of the film.
Also included within a film trailer is the production company's logo who have made the film/trailer, a couple of examples of companies are 20th Century Fox, Paramount or Warner Bros. The production company's logos are usually show at the beginning or ending of a film trailer.
Another code and convention of a film trailer is the camera shots used within the trailer. Any camera shot can be used but when in a trailer they are showing the actors who star in the film, close up shots are usually used to show clearly who they are in the film trailer.
Editing is probably one of the most important codes and conventions of a film trailer. A film trailer will literally depend on the editing that is done in it, if the editing is very good then the movie has a high chance of getting a big audience with great review etc. In a horror film it will usually start off with slow cuts then as itb gets futher into the trailer everything usually starts to build up many cuts are used to build up alot of tension for the film.

History of Film Trailers

1937 - Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs
In this trailer there is no actual footage from the film only single cells of Walt Disney showing us these cells. Also in this trailer to introduce the audience to the characters Walt Disney describes who all the characters are and their personalities. This is one of the very first movie trailers to come out and the first of its kind for a cartoon based film. Without the technology we have today it would of been to demanding in 1937 to create a trailer with actual clips from this film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kWr9e4JN5I

1942 - Casablanca
In this trailer the whole trailer was in black and white with lots of colour text covering the majority of the screen which means it is a heavily texted film, in moderns days around now their are not many film trailers made like this, if not none are made like this. This is because companies now feel that showing more images and film scenes than text it will get a bigger audience, film trailers have much bigger audiences now-a-days without much text used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJvlGh_FgcI

1960 - Psycho
The Psycho trailer is very different to any other trailers as it is on for 6 minutes and 36 seconds. Whereas most every other trailer is roughly 2 minutes long. Only one trailer per year from a certain production company is aloud to exceed the 2 minute mark. In this trailer we see Alfred Hitchcock giving us an in site into the film by giving the audience a tour of the set of were Psycho was filmed. We see no footage from this film and there is no text either. He takes the audience on the tour to tell them about certain significant events in the film and describes what happened, making the audience want to go the cinema and see what actually happens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps8H3rg5GfM

1991 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
This trailer has come on alot in terms of the technology it has used. There is alot of CGI used but it is not of the great quality we have today, they have used this format when you see lightning, characters morphing and explosions taking place. In the trailer there is also a very loud voice over giving the audience a better insite to the film. But in my opinion this trailer is in danger of showing all the best scenes from the film in the trailer because of the amount of detail it goes in to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eajuMYNYtuY

2010 - Inception
Inception is a trailer that shows modern technology at its very best. CGI is more enhanced so that it looks more realistic for the audience. When you compare this trailer to Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs from 1937 you can see a drastic change in technology and see how technology has advanced in this space of time. For example at the start of the Inception trailer we see three logos from different production companies and in Snow White we don't. This trailer consists of footage from the film itself and has quick cuts from one scene to the next. Whereas in Snow White there is no footage from the film. Text that is used in this film trailer shows the director's name Christopher Nolan, the main actor's name Leonardo DiCaprio and other text saying "your mind", "the scene of the crime" and finally the title of the film "Inception".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM


After studying these five trailers from 1937 - 2010 we can see how technology has drastically changed. Where technolgy has become more advanced and more and more CGI Technology has been used, less text on the trailers and more footage from the film included within the trailer.

Trailer Analysis- The Conjuring

From the directors of Saw and Insidious they have brought us 'The Cunjuring'. This film trailer stands out from the rest of the film trailers i have watched in class, this is why i have nominated this trailer to review it. This trailers stands out for the rest of the trailers for many, many reasons, first of all the story begins with to protagonists, shown through a video camera which gives it the 'home recorded' video type look. This give a great affect to this trailer and may possibly make it seem more nerve-wrecking to watch, it also gives you a solid idea on what the story may possibly be about. Whereas the other trailers that i have viewed where not created in this way. When the trailer starts you first see the two people ;who both seem to be either friends or husband and wife; in a dark basement which really sets a creepy mood for the trailer which automatically caught my attention when watching this trailer.  Their is a quick fade between each cut in this trailer, then as it gets further into the trailer more faster jump cuts are used to build a lot of tension as sop many things are happening at once. Their is some text used throughout this trailer but the text that caught my attention most was near the ending of the trailer when it says ‘It will consume you’  this gives you the impression that their is something in the film that we cannot see until we watch the full movie. The last great thing about this terrifying horror trailer is that it doesn't give away to much information to spoil the whole movie for you, but it shows you enough to make you want to see more to see what happens next which is a great and easy way of making people want to go and see this film.