During the process of the task, I made three products in
order to advertise my independent slasher film; a trailer, a poster and a main
feature in a magazine. Each of the products aim to advertise and promote each
other in a collaboration type way. However, the ancillary tasks, the magazine
and poster, are created in order to aid my main product, the trailer, get a
wider recognition. In order for my audience to identify the three as promoting
the same product, a brand identity had to be apparent in each.
The title’s typography and colour is apparent in two of the
ancillary tasks. It has been left out of the magazine cover, as it isn’t a
feature of Little White Lies to have the films logo, instead, it takes a
simplistic approach to suit a niche audience. However, it is apparent on the
film poster and at the closure of the climax within the trailer. Within the
logo for the film, the text’s font we used can be associated with the horror
genre. The font has serif’s, which is a feature of carving words in stone; our
experiences in today’s age of carving words in stone are apparent with grave
stones which symbolise death. Therefore, the font is associated with a horror
genre. Instead of using the letter ‘A’, we instead used the shape of the gas
mask, which is of a similar shape. The mask therefore has merged a brand
identity based around the mask. Each letter in the actual logo has blood
dripping from it, apart from the mask. The word ‘MASKED’ has six letters, and
there are six main characters within the narrative. The ‘A’ is the killer, and
the other five targets represent the five victims within the killer’s eye.
The black, red and grey colour schemes are also another
feature which is apparent throughout the three ancillary tasks. The black and
grey have been influenced by both German Expressionism in film and Film Noir,
which some can argue was the pivotal point for the horror genre today. The
black represents the dark nature of the genre along with death, whilst the grey
represents the good vs. evil, as grey is a mixture of white (which represents
the purity of the final girl) and black. The red is within the colour scheme as
it represents blood – it is also a convention of a slasher film.
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| My magazine |
Throughout each of the three ancillary tasks, it was vital
that I had a constant mode of address and brand identity. As I spoke about
before, a consistent typography was needed, and the poster had to match the
trailer tonally. Throughout each task, it was important that I conveyed similar
elements of the narrative in the trailer and the poster. Within genre films, an
advantage is that when looking at the poster of the film, an audience can
instantly relate it to a genre – and with slasher for example, everyone knows
the basic narrative structure. Therefore, the narrative can be told through
recognising that my film falls into the slasher genre. The magazine on the
other hand has its own brand identity. As the producer of the film, I would
have no say over how my film is featured and presented within the magazine, the
editor of the magazine I used; Little White Lies would present it in the way
they want. By having a feature in a magazine, it is an example of synergy; both
my film and the magazine itself will be benefitting from having the film
featured.
As a marketing campaign for the film, our ancillary tasks
were three examples of old media texts. In order for our film to reach our
desired target audience, a multi-platform approach with new media was
essential. As this is a low budget independent film, it doesn’t have the
benefits of horizontal and vertical integration. Vertical integration is the
process in which several stages within the production and distribution of a
product are controlled by a single company in order to increase that company’s
power within the market place. Horizontal integration however, is a strategy to
increase market share by taking over a similar company, for example Youtube
being taken over by Google. It was crucial that we took a many to many approach
to the marketing of our film. Word of mouth would have to play a key part to
getting our film the publicity it required. The target audience for our film is
a niche audience, so just a trailer, magazine and poster wouldn’t cut it. It is
also important that we target specific locations when advertising our trailer,
for example before another independent film within a cinema or before another
film within the same genre, as it is likely the people who would therefore see
the trailer would be within the same target audience bracket as ours. By using
a 360 degree marketing approach, we could interact directly with our target
audience. Forums dedicated to the horror genre would be crucial to advertise
on, as the people who use these websites are usually the opinion leaders (two
step flow). If we were to grasp the attention of these opinion leaders, they
could therefore create a buzz about our film, and it could have the possibility
of breaking into the mainstream. Facebook and Twitter pages are also essential,
as it is a free form of advertising on a platform that the majority of people
use. On these pages we could interact with potential audience members and fans,
and also encourage exchange. A successful website has proven to be the turning
point in horror films marketing in the past, for example The Blair Witch Project,
as it disguised itself as pure fact rather than fiction. The hope of marketing
on new media platforms is that we’ll have some form of viral success, which in
turn will then result in people going to watch our film.
In conclusion, I think that the combination of my three
ancillary task products, with a brand identity evident throughout was successfully
done.
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