2. Poster
The poster for the film is pretty basic, yet very
effective. It uses a simple colour design for the
background, with half being in black, and half in
white. This represents the segregation which is
highlighted time after time in the film, while also
creating a striking image. The colours chosen for
the background are polar opposite to make them
stand out to create a feel of opposites. The lead
actor is the main focus of the shot, and is
coloured in a greyscale way so he stands out from
both colours of the background. This could also
be interpreted in a way as a hint to racism, where
the message could be that instead of dividing the
colours, they can be merged.
3. Poster
The poster uses a bold font, and doesn’t fill the
image with writing, instead just including the
main pieces of information the audience will
want to know. The font would have been chosen
to add to the serious and scary theme of the
film, and the colours chosen as opposite to the
background to make them stand out helps to
create a feel of opposites. The film’s poster uses
a simple layout, with the protagonist the central
figure of the shot to highlight how he is the main
focus of the story. His terror is something
immediately noticed by the audience, which
helps to give them an immediate impression of
what type of film it is.
4. Poster
The image of the main actor, Daniel Kaluuya,
shows him looking terrified while trapped in a
chair, which is a very iconic scene in the film and
gives a hint as to how the film will play out without
revealing any major details. The poster also lists
Jordan Peele's name and his previous films that he
has worked on, which features some big names
such as The Visit and Insidious. This will help
attract people who had already seen and enjoyed
these films, and make them want to watch this one
as well. The overall tone of the poster is a
disturbing one, which creates anxiety and a sense
of fear for the audience, but also interests them
into watching the film upon its release.
5.
6. Trailer
The first trailer released for the film created a huge buzz
over social media, and helped build the anticipation for
the film even further. The film’s first trailer showed lots
of quick cuts from the film’s scenes, particularly some
of the more horrifying or unnerving ones with no real
context added, meaning the audience would be left to
speculate on the reasons why the various things
happen. The trailer makes use of the Horror and the
Thriller genre and the various conventions from each
style of films. The film makes use of a simple
soundtrack, slowly building up in tempo and pitch as
the trailer gets deeper and deeper into the story. This
helps to show the audience the film has many Horror
elements within it.
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=DzfpyUB60YY
7. Trailer
The trailer doesn’t actually feature the names of any of
the main actors, which could have been done due to the
fact that the film didn’t feature any huge name actors,
and instead gave chances to more unheard of ones, like
Daniel Kaluuya and Allisson Williams. The trailer created
a very unnerving tone, as the upbeat but borderline
creepy music, pace of editing and the shots shown all
make the audience feel a sense of anticipation and fear.
The trailer again featured Jordan Peele's name, as well
as the films he had worked on before this one, for the
same effect as the poster did. It has various basic
conventions of the horror genre, such as dark colours,
music gaining pace throughout the trailer to the big
finale at the end. It also makes use of conventions from
the thriller genre, with the high paced ending sequence
in the trailer, the violent fight scene shown, and the
ordinary start to the trailer before the mood is changed
to be much more terrifying and action packed.
8. Trailer
The first release date for the film was the 24th of
February, which is different to the normal release dates
of Horror films as they often are released in October.
However, it was held back so it could be entered into next
year's Oscars, which the film was nominated for 4
different awards as a result of being held back. This helps
to give the audience an idea of what kind of film it is, but
with the twist that it has a real life element, which will
particularly influence people in younger generations to
watch the film, as they will relate to the racial issues
being mentioned in the trailer more than older ones
might. The trailer helps to give the audience an idea of
what kind of film it is, but with the twist that it has a real
life element, which will particularly influence people in
younger generations to watch the film, as they will relate
to the racial issues being mentioned in the trailer more
than older ones might.
9.
10. Interview
One of the interviews released before the film's initial
release featured a conversation with the film's director
Jordan Peele about the basic concept of the film and the
underlying theme of racism. This interview gained many
views, and was released around 2 weeks before the
film's release, meaning the film had a lot of hype
surrounding it as the interview built up the hype. The
interview was released online, and was held with the
channel Blacktree TV, which hold many interviews and
other content for upcoming films online. The channel’s
main audience will be a similar target audience for the
film itself, meaning the interview would have helped the
film build its revenue and also allow the fans already
excited for the film to learn more from the questions
that are answered and the topics discussed in the
interview. The interview gained around 30,000 views
before the film’s release, meaning the interview was
beneficial for both sides.
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=5an4Juy7Lp4
11. Interview
The main theme of the conversation was about racism,
which is also a key theme throughout the film. This
would attract a large percentage of the public who
would then watch the film from the interview as racism
is a big discussion point in modern society, meaning it
would be discussed greatly. The channel has a wide
target audience of many film fans and critics online who
will know about the channel, as well as people who are
interested in the film who will search for the interview
on sites such as YouTube. These online YouTube sites are
a popular place to look for film interviews as it is a very
big market in modern times, meaning there is also a
wider target audience. This channel usually releases
content at around 5-6pm, which is a very popular time
for TV and has a large chance of gaining viewers. This
release would have been at around the same time but
on YouTube, meaning it would have then grown across
social media and gained a large amount of hype.
12.
13. Marketing Strategy
Since the film was released at a different time to most horror films, the
first trailer was dropped on the 4th October 2016, before various other
little teasers and information about the film begun to be released to the
public, spawning plenty of internet speculation about the film’s story,
before it had even been released yet. Interviews with the cast and the
director, Jordan Peele, were being held by various big TV and YouTube
channels, once again building up the anticipation for the film. Due to
the film’s underlying theme of racism, it gained a lot of online support
on social media sites such as Twitter, particularly from the African-
American community but also worldwide. The film had enough hype
building from the small bits of information released that they didn’t
need to do any additional marketing with other brands, although there
was a clear focus on Microsoft products, which is shown in the film as
the film and laptop used in the film.
