RESEARCH: HOW THE THE CAMPAIGN WORKS

Above the Line costs:

These are known costs for creating marketing material like trailers and buying media advertising such as website banners, radio or tv spots and creating an online presence for the film

Below the Line costs:

Publicity creates more awareness and interest In a film. This may include articles or interviews which are seen as 'more trusted' than display advertising. Premieres are included as they are the cost of getting stars and directors to attend which will generate more coverage from the press. These kinds of events offer fans opportunities to interact with the stars more at the red carpet to get selfies, autographs and more. 

Cross promotion: set up with different companies outside film industry e.g. food brands, drinks, clothing etc, to help promote the film to a different environment with hope of a wider audience.

In short video Williams explains that brand partnership is an important part of blockbuster marketing campaign and the promotions and messages that can be achieved. Every film will have the trailers and the assets that speak about the specific film, this is extremely single minded in how they communicate with an audience. 

She talks about brand partnerships and how they allow you to extend out to other target audiences and other areas that you usually may not be able to reach, this may allow the film to add synergy. 

Distributors look at many factors when it comes to the campaign release, they also must discuss who the potential brand partners may be, this may depend on the connection between: 

• themes in a film
• storyline
• background
• talent

The distributors brainstorm and identify who the brand partners may be and then leads to them going out and having the conversations with:

• established partners
• industry partners
• agencies 

PRINTS AND ADVERTSING:


Types of Release:

Most films released in the UK are launched on fewer than 100 digital copies 
(and, as a 'linited' release will not be heavily supported by large amounts of advertising spend). Only 5% of films are released with over 500 copies (and accompanied by a large P&A spend).

In 2014, distributors spent approximately £350 million on advertising their films. Of this, around £190 million was invested in above-the-line media advertising, and the remainder on advertising production, cutting trailers, publicity junkets and materials, premieres, and producing and delivering DCP’s to be projected on screen.

The more money that the distributor estimates will be taken by the cinemas in box office ticket sales, the more they will invest in marketing the film. Typically, the smaller the film, the smaller the spend.

Advertising:

The largest ‘spend’ of any P&A budget will be on advertising a film. In the UK, media advertising is very expensive. The main advertising avenues open to any distributor are:

Posters Trailers Press advertising T.V. advertising Websites Outdoor Radio advertising Merchandise/Cross-promotion Online social media

The poster:

The image on the poster must make us aware of the existence of the film, must make us want to see the film, and put across ideas of what the film could be about. 
Most posters want to include:

• the film
• the stars
• credits 
• and often a tagline.

The iconic image or design in a film’s poster – the so-called ‘key art’ – is central to the film’s identity and an essential feature of its release campaign. A great poster catches the eye, tempts the mind and touches the heart, arousing viewers’ interest in the experience that’s promised.

If the film is a sequel, its poster must immediately make it recognisable as part of a continuing saga. If it’s an original movie, the poster has to be bold enough to cut through having messaging and branding that are stands out.

The poster must generate interest, or even excitement, without revealing too much. Or it may largely be a montage of the principal cast with their costumes giving clues to their particular roles. The mandatory credits must be incorporated in their due proportions too.

Illustrations or paintings were commonplace in film poster artworks up to the 1980s. In our digital media age, posters are often created using sophisticated software such as Illustrator or Photoshop. In any event, film posters are well established as a genre of commercial ‘pop art’ in their own right – copyrighted designs to cherish, savour, remember for a lifetime, collect and even share.

The poster gets its message across in a number of ways:

• The image or images used on the poster
• The use of ‘star’ names/faces
• The size of specific words on the poster
• The use of colour
• The graphic style of any words used on the poster
• The certificate

POSTER ANALYSIS:

Types of trailers:

The film trailer is probably the most cost effective advertising technique available to the film distributor. It can give audiences a sense of genre, what the story is about, who is in the film and when it opens. 

Trailers can be classified in three ways:

• The teaser trailer
• The full trailer
• The T.V. spot 
• On-set blogs posted by key cast or crew

Trailer Analysis:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:
This trailer is extremely interesting and was created very well. The editing and sound played a huge factor that added to the genre of the film and would make viewers want to watch it. The hook of the film is how strongly women are being portrayed. This is extremely captivating for many women watching, making them want to go and watch the full movie to see how empowering the women in it are. With Elizabeth Bennet played by Lily James who is a very well-known actress who starred in Mamma Mia! Here we go Again, Baby driver and Cinderella. The film starts with orchestral classical music with the stereotypical women in shot, but then it rapidly changes to an action pact part of the film with upbeat, fast music showing women to be the strong figures. The sound and use of composition is very important in this trailer, as it begins with the girls being stereotypical by using orchestral music over the top. But, the use of the guitar music that starts to become louder as the women walk towards the camera portrays them as a group of strong and powerful women.

In the heart of the sea:

In this film there are many well known actors, by including these talented actors and making them the face of the film it will attract an audience as they will associate the film with the talent involved and assume it will be excellent. By including cast such as Chris Hemsworth and Tom Holland it makes a whole target audience immediately intrigued to watch the film. The fast paced editing and great use of CGI excites the viewer to see the film as it looks very realistic with an intense and powerful storyline.The hook of the film trailer is the story of the men as sea when they are faced with the myth of Moby Dick. The sound used within the trailer is very simple but effective as it creates a lot of tension. The unique selling point here is the fact that it is based on a true story as people will be more interested it to and to see who survives the story. 

The 33:
Based on an inspiring true story of the struggles that occurred in Chile when 33 men get trapped under ground after working in a gold mine. The trailer immediately will gravitate to those who speak Spanish or come from a Spanish heritage as they may feel very strongly about the situation and making it relatable to them. The soft, orchestral music really draws the viewer in and by using well known songs, it heightens the emotions and makes the audience empathise about what they are watching. Fast pace editing and loud screaming and crashing sound shows the hook of the film when the men get trapped.

The trailer maker: 
Using the FDA site I created my own trailer, this task was very fun and allowed me to be creative. They gave me clips from the Suffragette film trailer and I placed them in my own order and added my own sound. I enjoyed doing this but did find it hard to have smooth cuts as I could not edit the length of the clips or add in transitions to make it smoother. MY FINISHED TRAILER

Online marketing:

On-line marketing of a film allows distributors to access an increasingly fragmented audience. 16-24 year-olds have more and more calls on their "entertainment" time. The majority of this important market group are online using mobile devices to listen to music, play interactive games, using a multitude of apps and engaging with their online friends through social media. This is an audience, a generation that moves seamlessly from one thing to the next, and being online and connected is so important to them.

They may not pay attention to more traditional methods of advertising – television, radio, newspapers and magazines. 

Chris Besseling discusses: 

• How important digital media is 
• Perception of a film is shaped within the digital space
• Have to be careful that we maintain a positioning within a space
• Digital marketing also gives publishers and marketeers the best opportunity to engage with consumers on a targeted and more personal level
• Easy to have instant interactivity with consumers making marketing more effective
• Users and fans can generate own content to support your release, adding to the marketing
• Spending for digital media has increased a huge amount and companies focus on marketing online.

Kezia Williams discusses:

• It is hard to distinguish the difference between digital activity and non digital activity as it crosses over in everything we do (publicity- magazines and newspapers will also live online making almost everything that is non-digital easy to find digitally too. Also, competitions, promotions, social media
• Mobiles and other devices are so universal and found everywhere therefore is most likely the first place an audience will see a trailer rather than in a cinema or anywhere else.
• The power of online is potent because it generates conversation around a piece of content; for example trending hashtags on twitter, tagging people in trailer post - reach is huge. This can be enhances by putting more money into this marketing to push it further