OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE

For our film OFF THE LEASH we wanted to create a line of merchandise. This is useful because it creates it supplies two key elements. First of all, the money involved. If people are looking to buy our products, we will be earning money from these sales. This allows us to recoup some of the costs involved in the production of the film. It also increases the profitability of the film. The merchandise allows for free marketing. If consumers were to purchase a product, that product is then exposed to the public. If customers were to walk around in public with one of our products like a phone case or t-shirt, lots of people are going to see it, giving the film 'free' marketing. When people see the film art, or even just the title, they will associate it with our film and it means they are likely to visit our social media platforms or look at content related to the film. Some of the products that we are offering include phone cases and T-shirts. Both the products come in a variety of sizes and colours, allowing for a wider range of consumers. We want to allow everyone to access and use our products, so offering a wide availability means we are more likely to sell the product.

Phone Cases

T-Shirt

SOCIAL MEDIA (TIK TOK)

 

I took up the task of running a Tik Tok account for our film - OFF THE LEASH. This allowed me to set up the account and make videos to show the public. I took the art from our various social media profiles and used it for our profile picture. This is so that everyone that sees the video and sees the account will be able to see our movie art. I created a Tik Tok account because the platform is one of the most used in the world. Releasing videos on this platforms allows our content to be exposed to lots of people. Tik Tok is used by a younger age group so I made our first video with this in mind. I wanted to create a fun and dramatic video to keep the audience interested. With the younger age audience, they are more likely to become uninterested quicker. Because of this, using fast paced editing and loud music will keep the audience interested throughout the duration of the short video. Throughout the video I added a series of short intertitles. I showed that this project was from the same people that created SUSPECT. This can lure in former audiences of the previous film and we will have an already built up audience.

PLANNING: COSTUMES

 

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PLANNING: PROPS

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PLANNING: RISK ASSESSMENT

 

Risk Assessment	Hazard Proposed	Hazard posed to whom	Risk Level	How Risk was Controlled
Journey to location of filming.	Walking from Esher to the woods  and back from to Esher from the woods– cars.      Travelling via train to and from Esher – big step between train and platform, fast moving trains, public behaviour.                  Travelling via car to and from Esher – be aware of other drivers and pedestrians.	All 4 of us.               Sam, Finn                              Ben, Matt	High               Medium                              High	We took extra care when travelling to our site of filming, always looking both ways when crossing a road.   Sam and Finn will take extra care when entering and exiting the train making sure to check how big the gap between the train and platform is. Make sure to stand behind the yellow line on platforms. Avoid public confrontation.   When driving always check your mirrors and stick to the speed limit to reduce chance of accidents. Always look for pedestrians.
First Aid	Tripping/falling when filming in the woods.           Falling ill/sick Lack of vision - animal masks greatly reduce vision.	All 4 of us               All 4 of us All 4 of us	Medium               Low High	Take care when walking on uneven surfaces. We will carry plasters at all time to accommodate for any cuts.   Taking appropriate measures to help individuals who feel unwell i.e. calling their parents or getting them water. Walking slowly through woods when filming.
General public	Theft - drone, laptop, phones. Assault	All 4 of us                 All 4 of us	High High	Always carry items in a zipped up bag and never leave unattended when filming. Always checking we still have our valuables.   We will walk through public areas as a group of 4 in order to look less approachable. Will not speak to any other members of public.
Public incidents	Terrorism - caught up in terrorist activity leading to injury or confusion. COVID-19 lockdown - preventing us from filming.	All 4 of us All 4 of us	High High	We will follow given government guidelines and be aware of our surroundings so we do not get lost. Make sure everyone knows emergency contacts if needed e.g. 999. Making sure everyone follows covid-19 government guidelines and not breaking the law. Waiting until after the lockdown to continue filming.

CONSTRUCTION: MAKING PROPS

For our trailer OFF THE LEASH we wanted to create a sequence of shots, showing protestors holding banners and placards. Therefore, I needed to make relevant props for this scene using different technology. 

The first prop I created was the placard. A placard is something you see in almost every protest so we thought we would make the relevant props. During the construction of this prop, I had time to think about the message we wanted to present. I found spare wood of different sizes which allowed us to piece the placard together. I nailed two flat planks of wood together and then used a sharpie to write the message. The first message showed "Boris Lied People Died". The message on the other side showed "Freedom". These messages would be relevant to the topic of our trailer about lockdown and the outrage caused from it.

For the second prop, it was a more complicated and advanced prop. I obtained a large piece of white cloth and cut it to the correct size needed for our catchline. Creating a stencil using a Computer Aided Design software. After we created the stencil we stapled the stencil onto the white cloth so that it wouldn't move and the lettering would be precise.  I used a red spray paint for the lettering "Transparent Animals" and then used black spray paint for the outline of the crow. I used a crow on our banner because one of the animals in our trailer is a crow and I felt that the crow framed the words nicely and also looked intimidating. Our trailer consists of animals like penguins and pandas which I experimented with,  however they weren't as intimidating as the crow which we ended up using. Overall I thought the props came out very successful and will be effective in our trailer.

PLANNING: COMP LIST

 

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PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

I started by investigating how brands define audiences in preparation for creating my own audience for my production. For example, I saw how Bauer Media, NME and Sky defined audiences. This helped my produce my audience profile.

To plan how to reach your specific target audience you need to know who they are and what their interests are. You create an audience questionnaire to research the age, gender, ethnicity and social class of your target audience. You also find out what their media needs and wants are so that you can create a film that will satisfy them. Ultimately in order to market your movie you have to find out the best way to reach your target audience. To show how your research has helped with your planning, you have answered the questions below with pictures to support your post. 

1. Who is my primary target audience?

15 - 25 unisex

2. What kind of films and television are they likely to prefer?

Our audience are likely to prefer horror films like, The Conjuring and The Blair Witch Project

3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information about films?

My audience would have access to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime in order to watch films. The audience are going to be exposed to advertisement and information about films on social media sites like Instagram, Twitter and FaceBook.

4. What brands do they prefer?

I feel like our audience would be interested more of the mainstream, popular brands. They would wear popular sports brands like Adidas and Nike and be interested in the mainstream music artists. To access screenings they are most likely to visit the Odeon.

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?

One of our USP's for our film is the found footage we use. Found footage allows our audience to feel connected with the characters as we watch the film through the eyes of one of the characters. With the audience feeling a connection to the characters allows them to create a rapport with them and it feels more personal.

6 . Why should my audience watch my film? 

My audience should watch my film because it's not traditional. It is not the same as other horror movies, and my film will keep my audience hooked throughout.

 

PLANNING TARGET AUDIENCE & SIMILAR FILMS

 Kezia Williams, of Entertainment One UK, on the FutureLearn Film Distribution by the Film Distributors Association, speaks about how film distributors build a 'comp list' of comparable films that their target audience would enjoy. 

She highlights the importance of knowing your target audience. She asks questions like "what drives them to the cinema" and "what interests do they have". She also says distributors will compare data of films that are similar in their genre, selling points and story. The target audience and budget is formulated from what box office take was like with previous films and the types of audience that saw those films. The target audience can be analysed to find the gender gap, and which cinemas the target audience usually frequent.

The genre of our film is a mix of action and thriller.

Similar films include:

- Prisoners (2013 Thriller/Crime)

Prisoners is a Thriller/Crime film about a man who kidnapped a fathers daughter. The father ends up torturing the kidnapper to get to the bottom of the case. The film offers a variety of violent scenes including graphic torture scenes and police chases. This film appeals to audiences who are interested in crime films. The story line is exciting and filled with action. Prisoners amassed over $120million at box office, with nominations for the Empire Award for Best Thriller and more. One of prisoners USP was the cast for this film, including star names within the industry like, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman and Paul Dano

- Inception (2010 Action/Sci-Fi)

I believe this movie is similar to the one we intend to make due to the similarities in genre, which is a an action/thriller. Inception was a film directed by Christopher Nolan, someone who has already achieved big success in the film industry from the Dark Knight and other movies like Interstellar and Tenet. Inception had a range of selling points, however, one of the main selling points was the strong cast consisting of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy. Another selling point was the extremely sophisticated use of sound, created by renowned composer Hans Zimmer. It is clear to see why this movie amassed $836.8 million through the use of high production values and large production budget. The target audience for this movie was supposedly equal for all genders, in the sense that it doesn't have to appeal to specific gender norms. However, a marketing campaign that was carried out for this movie was on the Empire magazine, whereby there are over 570,000 men reading this magazine frequently. Therefore, this is one way in which the creators of Inception showed their knowledge of their target audience as statistics show that over 86% of readers that saw the advertisements for Inception in the Empire Magazine went on to watch the movie when it was released.

Today we carried out similar research.

seconds KEZIA WILLIAMS: Really important to understand who your audience is and what motivates them and what’s going to interest them and drive them to go to the cinema. So you start, often, by examining similar films that have been released in the past– comparable films is a way in which we refer to them in the industry– and create a set that we can then look back at data so we can look at lots of different data and do research, really, on those comparable films to identify who the audience was on those films. So it might be that we look at demographic data and think about, did it skew more male or more female? What’s the age group that it appeals to?

0:46Skip to 0 minutes and 46 secondsDoes it have multiple different audiences that that can appeal to? And there’s lots and lots of cinema-going trends that you can dig into from that comparable set. We’ll also look at box office data to understand regionality, to look at the cinema-going skew– so did more people go to a certain cinema chain to see these comparable films? Right down to which cinemas performed. So it might be that there’s a cinema in London that had a fantastic box office share, and that’s an important aspect for us to consider. And then once you really understand who the audience on those comparable films were, you can start to talk about the differences and similarities between those films and the film that you’re working on.

PLANNING: ADVANCED PRODUCTION

 

1. The name of our film: 
2. The name of our Production Company and our co-production companies: Chambers Production & Holding Production
3. The name of the director that will appear in our trailers: Finn Hanley
4. The name of the 2-3 main actors that will appear in our trailers: Finn Hanley, Ben Richardson
5. (Optional)  "From the director of..." - Suspect.
6. The names of the film festivals where our film will be screened (more festival names here): London Film Festival
7. Pull quotes from reviews etc; wording:
8. Our location recce - take photos and collate in an attractive way + written explanation: Woods and Shed
9. Our target audience: 15+
10. Social groups and issues in our film...
11. Our props list - photos + stereotypes + clothing: fake blood, mask, weapons
12. Our social media - write down decisions about who is taking responsibility for which platforms: Sam, Finn, Matt, Ben
13. Our music - we researched (this type of music) as the background track... and narrowed down our choice to include...
14. Our call sheets are being written by ... 
15. Make your storyboard - include... Finn Hanley

RESEARCH: WHEN ARE TRAILERS SHOWN?

 Trailers are shown at the same time as the film is being produced. Seasonal changes can affect when trailers are shown. A horror/thriller film is likely to be released throughout the halloween period and other light hearted films might be released throughout the spring/summer seasons.

Toy Story 4

Toy Story 4 is a sequel from Walt Disney and Pixar It has an established fan base and loyal followers. One of the first things to stand out is the theme song You Got Friend In Me by Randy Newman. It is able to retain followers easily by using the nostalgic characters throughout the film, whilst also attracting new audiences by introducing new, unseen characters as the sequel develops. American audiences are able to connect with the film as it is based around a summer road trip. Massive names within the industry such as Tom Hanks voice over, attracting large amounts of new audiences. It will appeal to young audiences due to the animation elements while it also being child friendly. Boys are able to connect through the main characters like Woody and Buzz Lightyear, whilst girls are able to connect via Bo-Peep as she is a strong and independent woman. Adults are able to connect via The Beach Boys song God Only Knows.

.

Yesterday

For Yesterday, it is a film about a man who has woken up from injury. The film gives off a festival vibes from the constant music. The music throughout the trailer is relentless giving off the vibe that the full film will be the same. Famous faces in thee music industry appear at times like Ed Sheeran. From these guest appearances they are able to bring in new audiences from the music industry over to the film audiences. 4 ways in which it is a summer feel good film is because it is about The Beatles. The Beatles music also features multiple times throughout the trailer. The trailer gives off a summer/feel good feeling that encourages people to go out and enjoy summer. The film creates excitement for audiences. More guest audiences from people like James Corden they are able to attract brand new audiences to the film. The film would appeal to both younger and older audiences as everyone can connect through music and I believe that the target audience is very broad.

The Brink

The Brink, a film from Dogwoof is about Steve Bannon who has anointed himself the leader of 'populist movement.' He travels around North America and Europe spreading his hard-line anti-immigration message. The film targets a right wing audience. The Brink offers big names within the industry like Steve Bannon, Nigel Farage and Piers Morgan. This film was released soon after elections were held meaning that information would still be fairly fresh in audiences heads. This is attractive for potential audiences as it offers behind the scene footage and unseen evidence which is interesting for lots of people. The trailer perhaps doesn't create enough buzz for audiences. It doesn't challenge enough but instead it just observes over everything happening. 

RESEARCH: WHERE ARE TRAILERS SHOWN?

Trailers are shown at the cinema, on TV and online with poster campaigns and radio campaigns also giving wide coverage for new film releases. Dedicated trailer sites and official film websites often carry trailers that have been cut for a general audience and are suitable for viewers of any age, whereas trailers shown in the cinema usually correspond to the classification of the film being screened. When people watch live TV people usually tend not to watch or concentrate during the adverts shown. This is because people only tune in because they want to watch the show and they have no interest in the adverts and trailers screened. Often it is not important to them and they tend to go off and do other things or are distracted by other forms of

technology. Overall, people tend to watch TV more than going to the cinema. This could be due to timing difficulty or some people prefer to just watch TV series rather than watching one individual movie. If a trailer for a film is cut for a general audience viewing could be dissatisfying for older audiences. This is because people who want to watch 18 rated films are signing up for watching some sort of violence or things you tend to see in 18's. If there wasn't this entertainment that they wanted to watch is is likely to dissatisfy the audience. When people watch a DVD people often fast forward to the beginning on the film and ignore all the previous adverts and trailers. This is because people signed up for watching the film and they don't care about anything else shown, they want to get straight into the action.

The Teaser Trailer:

Is a shorter and faster paced version of the trailer that is released prior to the full trailer. It is used to excite audiences and attract audiences. It is normally the first form of marketing that is released. The point of the teaser trailer is to give audiences a brief story line and only small elements of the movie are actually screened.

The Main Trailer:

Main trailers give audiences a more detailed plot of the story line including a lot more narrative giving audiences more information about what is going to happen in the movie. Often they are slower paced than the teaser trailer but it depends on the genre. Sometimes action and dramas are fast paced in editing but others are much slower and detailed.

TV Spots:

TV spots are much shorter version, are often not story focused and are more focused on creating an impression. They either last 10, 20 or 30 seconds. They appear on online services like Netflix. They contain the most exciting lines and shots that will be in the movie.

Using Graphics:

There are two types of graphics that are used in trailers. One being 'copy' and the other being 'pedigree'

Copy - will help tell the story of the movie. Some trailers have lots of copy in the. This is often used when the story is quite complicated to tell so the copy helps point to certain aspects of the story that are important.

Pedigree - graphics from the studio and are about things like distributors and companies. (Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox)

Trailers in the Digital Age:

Trailers in the digital age are more about visual elements and sound quality. The producers are aware that things will sound different on different devices. A trailer will sound better if it was screened at a cinema rather than on a mobile or laptop. Production companies are also adapting trailers to suit a variety of devices.

SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE ANALYSIS

 

Analysis still by Finn Hanley

RESEARCH: HOW TRAILERS HELP FILL CINEMAS

 The FDA resource 'Teaching Trailers' suggest that whilst a film should clearly signal a genre in order to help audiences make decisions about whether they would like the film, but the marketing campaign and the film trailer should also offer audiences new experiences that make the film fresh and different from others in the same genre. This is known as the unique selling point or USP.

Given three trailers, I identified what was the USP in each:

Lion King

USP - Film consists of only talking animals and offers extremely high quality and realistic animation.

Late Night

USP - Film consists of star talents, Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson with the main focus being on women and femenism.

Spies In Disguise

USP - Film consists of extremely well known stars within the industry, Will Smith and Tom Holland. High quality animation is also present.

RESEARCH: WHO ARE TRAILERS AIMED AT?

 I watched the trailers for three films: VITA AND VIRGINIA, FROZEN II and APOLLO 11 

Trailers are generally aimed at the same audience as the films they publicise. Different types of people like different sorts of films and whilst everyone is an individual there are certain features that will have wide appeal to specific groups of people. I analysed the trailers and attempted to match the potential target audience to the categories below:

Vita and Virginia - is aimed towards all couples, aged 35+ and a more prestige audience. It seems to be better suited for an older age group. It appeals to socially aware women who are interested in the history of women's powers and what it was like for a woman in the 1920s. Admirers of The National Trust may also be interested due to the high production settings of gardens. Viewers can also notice the exquisite housing and mise-en-scene in Sissinghurst. Vita and Virginia is based on a 1990 stage play.

Frozen II - is aimed towards children under 13 and families taking their children to the movies. This is due to the style of animation used and the fact it is produced by Disney. This film appeals to the audiences who are interested in action and adventure as the trailers shows constant action. This film is a traditional Disney family friendly, feel good movie. The film is bright and bursting with colour which is attractive for the younger audiences.

Apollo 11 - is aimed towards families and teenage boys and girls. The trailer straight away shows their accolades which also interests more prestigious audiences. It is a documentary type production which also interests the older and prestige audiences. It attracts any audience who is interested in history, documentary and outer space. A long side this it can attract an American audience that is interested in the Apollo 11 operation. It consists solely of archival footage which makes it so convincing for the audience. Recently i have watched the trailer for Gravity which appeals for a different kind of audience, people that like drama as it is more unsettling however Apollo 11 feels like the movie is going to reach a justified conclusion.