2. Introduction
The title of my film is ‘unsettled’ the synopsis of the film is that two sisters are
watched by an ominous figure in the night, and the film is a horror as it has
scary tones and the target audience for my film is 15-25 people who are familiar
with macabre and horror themes, people with strong morales and who are
particularly non religious, and would be in a social grade of E/D and be in a
younger demographic. I would consider this film to be a 15 rating because it
features moderate levels of threat, horror, and violence according to the BBFC.
The release date for our film would be around Halloween due to it being a
horror film and it would be best to release it around this time as it would garner
more of an audience being around Halloween, it is typical for horror films to be
released around the Halloween period, as it is typical for people to watch more
horror films around that time
3. Marketing of films
Typically, productions will use lots of different methods to gain popularity and a
wide audience when promoting their film, some of these methods are through
the use of social media, trailers, interviews, and can be done with non digital
outlets (e.g. posters, billboards, teasers, etc.) to create hype for the film, by
doing this they are able to advertise themselves to a wider audience who would
typically not fit into the target demographics and it is important to do because it
will help the film to be more successful.
4. Purpose of a marketing campaign
The purpose of a marketing campaign are to
promote their film and to boost its popularity through
different types of media such as radios, television
print, online ads, trailers/teasers. Marketing
campaigns are tailored to appeal to audiences and
build a cohesive brand to raise the sales of their film,
it is important to do this as a a campaign raised
awareness it creates a bigger chance of raising
sales.
5. Primary research.
For my primary research I thought it would be. A
good idea to create a survey in which I will question
people on their knowledge of campaigns, awareness
online, and their use of social media.
6. Primary research results
How did you hear about films typically?
80% = social media
20% = television
Favourite genre of film?
10% = action
40% = horror
30% = romance
20% = comedy
How often do you visit the cinema
10% = bimonthly
50% = every 2-3 month
40% = every month
What is your preferred way to watch a film
60% = at home
40% = at cinema
How do you consume media
90% = digitally
10% = non-digitally
What social media do you spend more time on
40% = instagram
30% = snapchat
10% = Facebook
20% = twitter
Do you read magazines/ newspapers?
80% = no
20% = yes
Would you be interested in watching a horror
70% = yes
30% = no
With my results I can tailor a campaign that would best
suit my film and gives me ideas on how I am going to
design and market it now that I am aware of what an
audience wants and can appeal to my audience more,
through trailers, posters, What social media I will use to
7. Secondary research
Paranormal activity is a 2007 horror-found
footage film based on a young couple haunted by
a supernatural presence in their home. Originally
developed as an independent film and given film
festival screenings in 2007, the film was for $15k
and then acquired by paramount pictures Mx and
then a new ending which cost around $200k
8. Marketing - trailer
For the marketing of paranormal activity, they decided to market it trying to sell it
as an experience, rather than immerse the audience in the story, they done this by
using the audiences and the scariness of the film to sell it, so with select viewings
across America they recorded the audiences reactions to the film instead of the
actual film itself and they took the footage of the audience and made that into a
trailer, making it seem mysterious as the to the contents of the film, therefore
intriguing the viewers, they took a postmodern approach marketing the film by
being aware that it is a horror film, they did this because the film was a “slow build
into terror” said marketing director John Greenstien, “we didn’t want to show your
usual kind of scenes and cutting styles horror movies have been using we wanted
to use an experimental sell to help dictate how and where it rolled out to the
consumer” This was very smart to use people to sell the film to other people, this
was done in 2009, but echoes similar campaigns such as the Blair Witch
campaign which went similarly viral for its mysterious online-hoax campaign, in
which they made missing posters of the films protagonists. Campaigns typically
follow this pattern now and try to achieve vital success in their campaigns, in
which they will reach a level of popularity and buzz it will sell itself, therefore
driving sales. This was very well done from the campaign as the internet wasn’t as
prevalent as it was in 1999, with online sites such as YouTube, instagram, not
having as much as a platform it does now however by paranormal activity doing
this they gained themselves $500k in the first weekend of the films release in Oct
9. Marketing continued - poster
After the first wave of major success and feedback from the film, paramount
stuck with the marketing strategy and continued selling it as an experience
through other mediums, such as the poster, and tag lines, and then extended
the film to a regular showtime schedule in 46 markets in 170 theatre’s
In the poster they had the tag line “don’t see it alone” and here they are
reinforcing the experience aspect of the film, but to also gain credibility to sell it
further they added reviews to the poster, which films often do, that read
“paranormal activity is one of the scariest movies of all time, you will be
affected as it’s hard to ignore the imprint on your psyche, nightmares are
guaranteed” this sells the films tag line as well reinforcing the horror experience
of the filmThey also tried to mimic the same approach as “the Blaire witch” a
film 10 years older than but in the same found footage style as paranormal
activity had which was credibility, paramount never pretended that their face
order footage was anything but fiction, but however instead of pushing the
hoax narrative and pretending it’s real they let the film speak for itself and let
viewers decide the reality. The tag line on one of the later posters read “what
happens when you sleep” and this is to enforce the ‘real’ aspect of the film but
also compliments the sell of the film being scary
10. Social media
A sponsored account was made in the wake of the viral
campaign for twitter and facebook, named
@tweetyourscream where fans/viewers would upload
their reactions to the account to be reposted à la trailer
for the film. This was a great way to boost the film
popularity virally as it creates more of connection with
the audience to, go and see the film itself and
‘experience’ it
11. Platforms
I am going to be choosing and explaining 3 platforms to create a campaign and
market my film. The platforms I will be choosing an social media profile, a
trailer/short teaser, and posters, the campaign will ‘start’ 6-9 months prior to the
films ‘release’ so posters and trailers and such can be released and social media to
be updated creating hype for the film For my social media account I will be using an
instagram account, as I feel like unlike it’s counter parts e.g. Facebook/twitterer can
create an aesthetically pleasing layout to a user and because of the results from my
primary research it will be done on instagram as that it was most people spent their
time on For the trailer/teaser of my film, I wanted it to be a short, fast paced trailer
because as it is a short film, I don’t want to show much of the film so I will try to use
shots that build tension to interest the viewer For my poster I will be doing
something similar with to what paranormal activity did in trying to convince people
to experience my film so I will be use similar techniques like having a good tag line
and having the appropriate information on it for my viewers, but also make it look
aesthetically correct to my film, so having dark colours in it that are typically
associated with horror films, blacks, grays and reds.
12. January 2020 –
start of
campaign, allows
me lots of time
to promote film
appropriately
March 2020 –
Instagram page is
created slowly
start to reveal
teaser poster 1
June 2020 –
second teaser
poster is released
August 2020
Trailer is released
and 3rd and final
teaser poster
October 2020 –
film is released
Slowly revealing the poster allows the
audience to be engaged more and has
them more interested than releasing
something and then waiting 2 months to
post something else
I have chosen these time frames in between the
release of my film, because it will allow me to be
efficient in posting with that platforms I have
available in a way that also keeps the audience
interested and by posting certain key information is
also allows for viewers to be informed as well as
aesthetically interested in the film
I have chosen to release my film around Halloween as
that is the most appropriate time to release a horror
film if I want to generate the correct audience, and I
could also use the fact it’s Halloween to also use
promotional material that can use that fact and help
sell it more to a wider audience
Campaign timeline
13. Here are examples of some the fonts i want to use in my
poster / teasers, the reason I chose these fonts is
because I wanted them to thematically read as a font that
would be used on a horror film, all the fonts i collected are
from DaFont.com and the name of the font itself
14. Flatplan ideas
For the teaser posters of my film I want them to be a build up and slowly reveal small bits of
information about the film itself, visually and verbally, it will give viewers what to expect
about the film so, typically in teaser trailers early on they feature something symbolic to the
film so for example in teaser #1 there could be a still of a knife to let viewers know what
kind of film it is, the theme of it and then give the year it will be released. Then cut to teaser
#3 when teasers are more developed and reveal more it will show things like the actors
names, possibly a still of the killer or one of the main cast, and a exact release date. It is
important to do so because this is a good way of keeping viewers anticipated for the actual
film and the release of the posters will have to be done with a lot of consideration as I have
to articulately release them in a way in which my viewers will be excited and interested. For
the creative side of my posters I used elements of horror posters to influence my posters
which I think will be useful as they will serve as a template for my posters (a few references
and some I took inspiration on will be in the next slide)For my theatrically poster that is an
accumulation of everything the teasers will have revealed and more, it will be of a higher
standard than the rest because this is not just what followers of the film will be seeing but
people who have never have heard of the film so in order to get people interested i have to
cram as much information into the poster while also keeping it aesthetically correct and in
order (so it doesn’t look messy/ not put together) this will be released before the actual
release of the film
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20. Creation of teaser posters
To create my teaser I used images from the internet and because of quarantine I was unable to use images from the film
itself so I used a mix of both images I had used and others from the internet
However to create my unsettled logo I first downloaded the font and then written it in white on the top of my black
background, to create the blood effect on it, I duplicated the layer and changed the colour through the ‘hue and saturation’
tool and then with that I blended them both into eachother using the ‘layer mask’ tool. For the rest of my teaser posters I
repeated this process for the rest of them and also did this on a lot of my other written fonts e.g. date cast etc.
I then with the layer mask also blended some of the written fonts out into the background to fit thematically to create a
horror theme throughout my posters.
For my first poster, the main image I used was from the internet and with that I went into the light settings and changed the
hue and saturation to ‘0-‘ so it would become black and white, then with a layer mask blended the arm holding the knife
out so it wouldn’t look chunky
For the second poster, I did the same and got it off the internet, and repeated the exact same process making it b/w and
then using a layer mask to blend it out and remove the background from it
For the third poster, I this time used an image I had previously took from another piece of work and for this I did the same
process making it b/w, layer mask, but this time I added a bloodstain which I had gotten from the internet which I then went
into the blend tool on the layer itself and changed it to ‘colour’ so it would blend well on the image but as an added bonus it
also made for a cool effect on the text when I enlarged it, which helped communicate that horror theme to it.
21. Theatrical poster 1
I have started creating the theatrical poster to my my film, to
start I used 3 images to create my main image, 2 from the
internet and 1 from personal belonging.
With the black base I added the basics which was the BTEC
media presents which I use on all my posters and then the 15
age rating which I had gotten from the BBFC, I then first made
all the layers b/w and then layer masked them all blended
out, i then got the knife layer and placed it carefully to cover
the eyes of the image below, then with the image of my cast
member I then cut around her eyes with a layer mask and
placed them on the knife
22. Official poster
This is my complete theatrical poster, I now have added
the appropriate information in which a theatrical
poster would have such as a tagline, cast etc.
I added my signature unsettled title with the red
bottom to create a bloody theme and then also aptly
added red where it fits such as the cast last names and
the tagline
I also added the date and the billing box ontop of that
using a template I got from the internet, for aesthetic
purposes a lot of the text I went through with a layer
mask and blended it out to create a darker tone to the
poster all together
23. Poster feedback
I had asked a few friends and family for feedback
on my posters and if there was anything I could in
some way correct or improve them. I received very
positive feedback but one main point that was
brought up was that everything seemed
Small and that I wasn’t effectively using the room
of all my poster, this feedback will see result in my
next posters I do by using as much as I can to
create a cohesive and well designed poster
24. Trailer
Unfortunately for my trailer I could not complete it
as it because of quarantine so instead I created a
storyboard for what my actual trailer would be with
detailed explanation of what would consist in the
scene
25. Instagram page
On my Instagram page I have posted the posters, in a
way to help lead up to the film and then just before
the release upload my theatrical poster the same
way.
I cut the images up into grids to create this cool
aesthetic to my page and blend all the posters in a
way that makes my page look as aesthetically
interesting and also interests my viewers
By dong this style of posting it also gives me the
ability to bring hype to my film as I could slowly
reveal the posters
26. Production log
29/4/20
Introduction finished
Marketing of films
Purpose of marketing
2/5/20
Primary research
4/5/20
Secondary research
Marketing trailer
5/5/20
Marketing social media
8/5/20
Platforms
Fonts
10/5/20
FLATPLAN ideas
Creation of FLATPLAN
Images of movie posters
12-13/5/20
Creation of teaser posters and
theatrical poster
15/5/20
Creation of teaser posters
Creation of theatrical posters
17/5/20
Trailer storyboard created
18/5/20
Storyboard slide done
19/5/20
Social media created
Posters uploaded
Slide done
25/5/20
Campaign timeline
Feedback
1/6/20
Image links done
