'The Shining' Theatrical Trailer

MERCHANDISING - How are films promoted?

Films are promoted via merchandise. The type of merchandise gives the audience an idea about the target age range of the film, for example, action figures and stuffed toys represent a film for children. This is an effective method of promotion as children become obsessed with toys and so the movie would gain exposure.

Toy Story 3 is a good example of creating merchandise for a film, the already popular Toy Story sequel created a new toy for their upcoming Toy Story 3, and thus they brought out the Toy Story 3 version of the same Toy Story 1 and 2 characters. Children would buy this because it is the "latest" toy.

SOCIAL MEDIA - How are films promoted?

Films are promoted via social media advertisements and people who have large followings on twitter, instagram, facebook and vine post a spoiler for the movie (a teaser poster). The internet is a great tool for film promotion as posts can go viral within hours. As well as this, social media marketing is very cost effective as you can get thousands of views for a few dollars on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Jerome Jarre is a popular viner with 8.5 million followers. He featured Ben Stiller on his vine and snapchat account with the tag #Zoolander2, this then lead to a mass attraction and many people posted on their social media #Zoolander2, which was a great source of promotion.

Shortly after the Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 release, a remix of the popular song "The Hanging Tree," was created featuring a short animation of the hunger games symbolisms. The original version was at number 12 on the Billboard charts and therefore the directors of the Hunger Games used this to gain more popularity. Both versions of the song have gotten over 20 million views on their YouTube page. The song created enigma around the Hunger Games and people went online to search for more information.

POSTERS - How are films promoted?

One way in which films are promoted are by promotional posters. Posters usually include a picture of the protagonist or antagonist, and suggest the genre of the film to the audiences. Directors rely on the pre-existing understanding of colour, lighting and facial expression to attract their target audience.

This is the promotion poster for Shutter Island. Leonardo DiCaprio is a world famous actor and features on the front of the poster, the darkness surrounding his face suggests that the film contains genres of danger, secrecy and mystery. As well as this, the picture of the island suggests isolation and crime and this matches up to the blood-coloured title "Shutter Island". The poster creates enigma and therefore is an effective method of promotion. 

This is the promotional poster for Avatar. The blue overlay and the starlight in the top half of the poster suggests the audience is about space travel and other planets. We also see the main character and the words "From the director of Terminator 2 and Titanic". This would gain attention as both are popular films and so the expectation is that this film is also very high quality. On the bottom half, the orange overlay, dragon and hovering mountains suggest that this is a science fiction film. Another selling point is that audiences can view it in 3D.

What are trailers used for?

THEATRICAL VS. TEASER

RESEARCH AND PLANNING - What would I change and why?

When shooting my preliminary task, little preparation and planning was completed. The project was unorganised and we did not do any test shoots or storyboarding. Consequently, on shooting day we mixed up some shots and the continuity was slightly off in some shots. As a result, I understand how important research and planning is, when aiming to shoot footage and create a film opening or trailer - and so for my A2 project I will plan and research strongly into the conventions of my chosen genre and become familiar with the look and feel of other, more successful, trailers.

Considering my AS opening - research and planning was crucial. I had one shooting day, in Hastings, and due to the nature of the shots and the location, re-shooting was not an option. The shooting schedule that I created helped keep the shots organised, as well as the detailed, digital story board. Keeping to schedule was helpful as it was a less stressful day, knowing that I was running on-time. However, I feel that I did not do a in-detail location recce and so I did not know what to expect on the day. For my A2 shooting day(s), I have decided to carry out several location recce's and a detailed shooting script that contains the time, the shot type, shot length time and which actors feature in the shot. 

REAL MEDIA CONVENTIONS - What would I change and why?

In the preliminary task I conformed to the conventions of a spy thriller by making use of an over the shoulder shot and a match on action. I also used a blue overlay which created a colder atmosphere and the audience would feel this and therefore they would understand that it is a spy thriller. In my trailer, I will strongly conform to the conventions of my chosen genre and do some research into the conventions of my trailer.

In my AS coursework, I conformed to the expectations of a thriller - I used long shots and long takes, especially when Russel was on the floor. As well as this, I used a high angle shot and a low angle shot consecutively which created tension. The long shots intensify the strong feeling of the characters' isolation which is supported by the loose frame. The change in shot-length (varying from long takes to short takes) speeds and slows the pace of the opening which conforms to the audience expectations.

Therefore, for my A2 project I will conform to the expectations of my genre which will be formed from the expectations of mise en scene, cinematography, editing and sound. I want to strongly focus on reaching a professional level audio in order to draw in audiences and produce an effective trailer. I will also concentrate on lighting levels to ensure that the continuity is perfect.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY - What would I change and why?

When shooting the preliminary, I used an iPhone 6 camera (with the iPhone 6 integrated microphone), the audio and visual quality was noticeably lower than my AS coursework. When I filmed the opening, I used a RODE microphone and a steadicam which was very effective as the camera shots were of a professional quality. As well as this I used a screen to watch the shot back which allowed me to re-shoot some of the shots I was not content with. Next year, I will upgrade the camera equipment to allow me to shoot cleaner, higher definition shots.

I used blogger for my AS media blog. Blogger is very easy and simple to use and understand, it also has the potential to create some great blogs with a variety of different themes that suited my needs of creating a physiological thriller based blog. For my trailer, I have found a theme that suits my chosen trailer genre and for my A2 coursework, I will change the way that I create new blogs on blogger by creating labels for each beforehand, to ensure that each write-up is kept in a sensible order. This means that I can spend less time organising the blogs that I write, and more time focusing on the content of the blog.

As stated in the previous blog, the move from iMovie to Final Cut Pro was a step forward in the aim to create an effective opening and in my A2 trailer I have decided to use FCP again.

POST PRODUCTION - What would I change and why?

In my AS preliminary task, I used iMovie to piece together and edit the shots that I took. iMovie has many limitations; first of all, the overlay feature is very limited and I was only able to put a basic blue overlay onto the opening which enhanced the isolation and cold-feel to the short-movie. Secondly, the on-screen text has a small quantity of fonts and does not allow for animation. Thirdly, there is not a shot stabilising feature, which I relied on when editing my main opening project. Overall, my preliminary task lacked quality due to the post production software that I used.

In the opening that I created, I used Final Cut Pro to edit the shots. The array of features helped create a strong sense of continuity and a believable opening to a physiological thriller. I made use of the vignette feature to alter the lighting and make Russel the dominant in each shot (as well as use the depth of focus to help the audience understand what Russel is doing). I also used the stability feature for the opening tracking shot. For my A2 coursework, I will know how to use FCP and when reflecting on my AS opening I think that I would use more of the audio adjustment tools as I feel as though in some places the sound reduced the overall quality of the opening.