Welcome to the online blog for a film publicity campaign for a new slasher horror, Obsessed. This blog is an online diary, which evaluates the process and outcome of our production work, this also shows the process of creating a marketing campaign for the film, from concepts to final products, such as a teaser trailer, film poster and film magazine. This also evaluates our final production and highlights what codes and conventions were used.

Evaluation Question 4

3. How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your research, planning and evaluation stage?

In our film marketing campaign we used new media technologies throughout the research, planning and the evaluation stages. The internet was the main new media technology we used to contstuct our research, as we found out most of the information on our real life story, which we based our movie on. It also helped our planning and evaluation, as we was able to observe exsisting film marketing campaigns, and develop or challenge conventions. For our teaser trailer we used a digital video camera to record our footage, as well as a digital camera to take still images for our film poster and film magazine, and uploaded the footage and the images to an apple mac computer with a firewire. We then edited the the footage using iMovie. Using this programme we was able to delete clips that we didn't want or need, add sound effects and non-copyrighted soundtrack. Our teaser trailer soundtrack was downloaded originally from a free music website called www.freeplaymusic.com.

We also downloaded our sound effects such as, the heartbeat and the typewriter from the same website. Our production details were edited in photoshop, then imported into iMovie. After our teaser trailer had been edited to a standard quality that we was satisfied with, we converted the file into Quicktime and uploaded it onto our blog.

We took still images with the digital camera, whilst we were filming the teaser trailer. These were also edited in photoshop. We made sure that we edited the images so that they corresponded with the teaser trailer. We then decided what image would be suitable to use for the film magazine and film poster. The mast head and straplines font on the film magazine were downloaded from a free website called www.dafont.com , as well as the title of our trailer and teaser film poster.

With all the production work done, we uploaded the teaser trailer and the film poster and magazine onto our online blog. We considered as a group, that all the new media technologies is an advantage to our marketing campaign, as we could upload our directors commentary, audience feedback and teaser trailer on www.youtube.com, where an establishing audience could comment on and give us feedback for our marketing campaign.

To further our audience feedback, we decided to create a facebook for our film, and a twitter account. This would also help attract an establishing audience. With new media technologies, we were able to gain important feedback from our audience, into helping us improve our product.

Evaluation Question 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary task?

Our market campaign is clearly succesful, as we used effective promtional tools such to ensure that our products were nationally and globally promoted, to attract our potential target audience, which are older teenagers, as well as aspiring adults. The aim of our teaser trailer was to spread a viral marketing campaign; as the teaser trailer creates mystery, therefore attracting an audience that wants to further their knowledge in the film. They would do this through various media technologies, such as facebook, youtube or twitter. Hopefully through these media technologies, it will spead through word of mouth, therefore creating an establishing audience for when the theatrical trailer, poster and magazine articles are released.

I feel as if the teaser trailer and the poster compliments eachother greatly, as the poster being released a year before the films release. The teaser trailer is also released before the theatrical trailer. We as a group felt that it was important that the poster and the trailer both created the same sense of enigma, which is to withold the protagonists face. We decided to use this convention as our promotional tool so it became USP. We ensured that this was conveyed through the poster, magazine and teaser trailer.

Evaluation Question 1

1.In what way does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Teaser Trailer

In our teaser trailer, we developed and challenged the forms and convention of existing media products by not using a voice over in our teaser trailer. As a collective group we decided not to use a voice over, as we believed that it would reveal too much of the narrative. This is similar to the teaser trailer 'A nightmare on elm street', this teaser trailer did not use the convention of a  voice over, and we found that it was effective, as it kept the audience in suspense and craving to know more about the narrative. The conventions of a teaser trailer is to tease the audience and also to market the title of the media product via word of mouth or through the internet. In the teaser trailer 'A nightmare on elm street', the tease is not being able to see the protagonists face, which entices the viewer into wanting to see the killers face and what he looks like. As a group we decided to incorporate that convention and not show our protagonist face from the beginning of our trailer. For example, our first shot is the back of our protagonists head, which is consistent until you see the first victim in the trailer.

In further research of teaser trailers, we found that most of the killers were potentially male killers and wore masks or had some kind of deformity, such as, Freddy kruger (a nightmare on elm street) and Jason (Friday the 13th), and we decided to follow this convention and give our protagonist a hidden identity by using a mask. 

Film Magazine Front cover

Our film magazine front cover develops the conventions of existing film magazines by using our protagonist as the main image for our front cover. After researching into exsiting film magazines such as, Emipire and fangoria, these magazines influenced our film magazine front cover greatly. Conventionally, a film magazine would have a mid shot or a close up of the main image, but we decided to use a long shot in order to have the full view of our protagonist; following the convention of the empire magzine.

Film Poster

We also looked into horror coventions of a film poster, and the main convention that captivated my attention was the protagonist in an establishing shot, such as standing outside a creepy looking house or a dark forest, such as, friday the 13th and a nightmare on elm street. This contrasts to our film poster, we decided to challenge this convention by placing our protagonist on a plain black background with blood splattered on the wall; this highlights our movie genre as well as sticking to horror conventions. We also found that the most conventional colours of a film poster is red and black, as it signifies blood and darkness.

Audience Feedback

As a group we decided that it was it was important to gain audience feedback as well as it being a requirement. We created a Facebook account as we thought that it was one of the most successful new media technology that would attract our target audience. The account included pictures from the filming day, to the production work and teaser trailer. Facebook allowed our audiences to become a fan of our movie as well as leaving constructive criticism and positive feedback. These comments would enable us to make changes and improvements to our production work, in order to appeal to our target audience.

From the audience feedback, we gained valuable knowledge. We found out that our teaser trailer incorporates similar conventions of those of an exsisting slasher horror trailer. This allowed us to see that the audience had a clear understanding of the genre. We also found that in an audience feedback interview, we payed attention to the detail of the teaser poster, such as the editing in photoshop. They even compared the grayscale from the film poster to the Blair Witch Project.

-Screen grab facebook profile-

To view facebook account Click Here

From our feedback there were some comments that frequently came up:
- Our USP was obvious as you didn't see the protagonist face in either of the products
- It was clear which target audience we were aiming for.
- It created a sense of enigma.
- Well filmed and edited.
- Good at concealing killers identity.
- Soundtrack creates a scary atmosphere therefore highlighting the genre.

We decided that our facebook account wasn't enough audience feedback to act upon, so we decided to create a youtube account and upload our teaser trailer on to it. We also uploaded video interviews of people in our target audience, filming there response to our teaser trailer.

Click here to view interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ObsessedMovie1
http://charliejoseph.blogspot.com/2009/12/evaluation-question-3.html

From our audience feedback, it was clear that we had created a successful teaser trailer that attracted a target audience that we intended.

Facebook and Twitter Links

In order to promote our marketing campaign, we decided that it was a good idea to start a fan base to get an audience feedback for our slasher horror trailer as well as our ancillary task.

To become a fan, visit our facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000485536746&ref=ts

or

to follow us on twitter:

www.twitter.com/@ObsessedMovie09

Questionnaire

1. Name three things you enjoyed about the teaser trailer.
.

.

.
2. Did you think our killer was convincing?

3. Why?

4. Did you notice any conventional aspects of a slasher horror movie trailer?

5. What were they?

6. Was our victim convincing?

7. Did the length of the trailer have any impact on your viewing?

8. What did you think about the pace of the trailer?

9. Was the narrative clear?

10. Would you want to go and watch this movie in the cinema?