1. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Evaluation 2 Emily Hemmings

2. Promoting our film. To promote our film we have released a short trailer for ‘’lights out’’ highlighting the important clips within the film; to attract the appropriate audience watching. Although my trailer has a dystopia theme it also has some aspects of social realism through out. When releasing our trailer I found appropriate information when releasing independent films. This is what I found: A high number of dystopia films are made on low budgets so they are limited on the marketing and promotional aspects. For dystopia films the majority are created by independent film production companies, examples of independent companies include Scenario Films, Coffee Films, Bargus, Fractured films and many more. Further more a key point about independent film companies is that a large number of them are British which links to our film trailer as we have produced it in Brighton which is a popular British city. They can be distinguished by their style of filming and content, plus the way in which the filmmakers create an artistic approach to visualize. Social realism films linking with dystopia usually only have limited release due to their small budgets instead of wide releases which link more to mainstream films. Marketing schemes such as ‘viral marketing’ involves reviews, interviews and trailers – reviews and online sources. We have also created a poster and magazine front cover to draw more people in to watch our film that we have created. As the target audience is 15-25; placing the posters around colleges and uni’s is appropriate as this is our target audience of students.

3. Film Trailer Film trailers work in a similar way to posters: both are forms of advertising for new film releases. Trailers may be shown on TV, in cinemas or on websites, played on the radio and may be anything between 15 seconds and three minutes long. Trailers usually feature the most interesting, funny or exciting moments from a film. Our Trailer represents the film that we have been creating as it shows important parts of the film with powerful voice overs that makes a storyline for the film. It also shows the fear linking with no light or electricity. We have also featured teenage characters which is linked with the rating of a 15 which is the certificate for our film. The trailer is a very different way of marketing and distributing our film, as it is a video unlike the set pictures which are shown on posters and magazine covers. With a short amount of 2 minutes long it is crucial that the trailer is exciting and thrilling engaging the target audience. This is our trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTeplmmGToQ

4. Film Poster As a group we looked at different posters and we discussed how we should design our poster. This is what we came up with: By converging my group's ideas for the poster for 'Lights out', we have developed a final version of the poster that we shall be using, which while using the same conventions as our magazine front cover, we used additional techniques which add to the professional appearance of the product, while reinforcing aspects of the genre and narrative of the dystopia theme. The most appropriate magazine to use for the promotion of our film would be 'Little White Lies', as it covers a variety of different independent films of different genre’s, while targeting our own target audience. It is contributed to by the British Film Institute additionally, meaning that our film genre of dystopia would be a common feature in this magazine, while the audience would be likely to be intrigued by our film by us utilising this magazine.

5. These Were the different posters that I evaluated to gain greater knowledge when creating my own. d

6. When to release our film When releasing our film I think that either April or June would be the best in reaching our target audience, mainly because our target audience are people between 15-25 year olds. At this time of the year is when people this age are about to finish school, college and university for summer. All the people in education would see our marketing schemes such as out posters and magazines as that’s where we would promote most. Also releasing our trailer onto YouTube will attract an audience at any time of the year as YouTube is a very popular sites during all seasons. As a group we decided to release our film on the 4.4.2014. We are many of few releasing dystopia themed films around this time, so the competition is low. We also thought the uses of 4’s creates a catchy date that will stick in the audiences minds and easy To remember.

7. Previous dystopia film release dates Equilibrium (2002) One Point O (2004) Death Race 2000 (1975) Strange Days (1995) These are the top 50 Dystopia films and their release date: http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian- movies-of-all-time/

8. Influences When planning our trailer and film are main influence was the channel 4 drama ''Black Out'' which was a Drama documentary exploring the effects of a devastating cyber-attack on Britain's national electricity grid, combining fictional scenes with footage recorded during real blackouts; which me and another member of the group had watched. We have taken a few aspects from this drama such as filming techniques, actions and characters although they are very different from one another. ''Black Out'' was also shown to viewers after 9pm where it is suitable for people of the age of 15 and over like our film ''Lights Out.'' We have gone for a more dystopia feeling than the channel 4 drama as we think it will fit into the theme of crime and dystopia if certain people are afraid of what might be in the dark and make the suspense higher.

9. Research into our trailer Before producing our trailer it was vital that we researched other trailers of a dystopia theme which are also set out to impress the same target audience of a 15. This way we could watch the trailers and note down what aspects appealed to us such as eerie music or abandoned settings. We took inspiration from the channel 4 drama of ‘Blackout.’ We liked the theme of the panicking realisation of no electricity which could link to many things such as heating, water or light. When creating our trailer for the film we all decided that we wanted the film ‘’lights out’’ to be suitable for both male and female which creates a bigger audience. The twentieth century itself lent strength and scope to the development of dystopian fiction, as horrific events and movements rendered the utopian ideal increasingly absurd and made it possible for dystopias to posit terrible fictive societies, I think our trailer fits in with the dystopia theme well with an aspect of social realism.

10. Editing and Fonts In our trailer we choose to use two fonts. One would be for the titles of the film and characters; whilst the other would be for the quote and captions. We decided on two fonts instead of one throughout as we felt it made the captions really stand out as part of the story. The characters and title are more of trailer ad on (information about the whole film that they would not be able to tell from just the visually, i.e. actors and director.) In this screen shot the titles on the right were are first idea for the captions. We like the font overall and the letter were slightly separated and the letter were very tall and thin. However when we put all our text in and especially our quote we noticed that the 'F' and 'E' were quite hard to read and this meant it could be distracting for the audience. One option was to put a larger more bulker font behind the letters in red to make the font pop more. As you can see we tried it out on the 'A' and it does make it clearer but due to lack out time we felt that it would be a long process to fix this font. We then choose to find a bolder font that would be easy to use and easy to read. After researching fonts on 'Dafont' we came across 'Futura' on the left. The font is thinker then the first one so all the letters are clear plus it has more impact and presence. The last thing we did was make the letters a little spaced out as we like this effect from the first font and overall its a nice, simple effect.

11. Film Festivals We could put our film out to festivals. Film festivals have their own personality and they serve many different functions. Festivals are a market where distributors try to find a product that they can promote and distribute to audiences. Competitions are held during these festivals, films are showcased in front of juries of film critics and audiences. They give out accolades to the best films and these are put on posters. We could premiere our film in places such as Leicester Square, London. However they very expensive and stressful to organise and as a independent company we do not have to funds to do so. Photo opportunities and red carpet interviews will be an effective platform to help publicise ‘Lights Out’ to audiences. The set up and design of the premiere will reflect the narrative and genre of our film to help enable audiences to understand what our film is about.

12. Web 2.0 and film promotion We intend to use social network sites to gain interest from the young audience as well as the older audience with the upcoming interest of technology. By promoting our film on social network sites it is a good place to capture young people’s attention as in the modern day it is very common for people of all ages to own a Facebook or Twitter account. Web 2.0 also includes apps that people use on their phones, this is one of the most used thing in modern day technology. Millions of people use apps on their smart phones to be able to look at things or to entertain themselves.

13. v This is a screenshot from the website and as you can see that 98% of 18-24 year olds are using social networking sites already, linking to our reason of using web 2.0 to promote our film ‘Lights Out’ Facebook is a good site to promote our film as 54% of people use it and you can instantly like, share and comment on something creating word of mouth which yet again can instantly be spread to thousands of more people on Facebook. This proves that using the web 2.0 would be a very successful form of promotion. We have decided to promote our film on both Facebook and Twitter. The website: http://www.statisticbrain.com/social- networking-statistics/

14. Advertisement of 28 days later (Case Study) Trailers are essential to any film marketing as it offers the viewer with questions about the film and hook the viewer if the target audience is met. Posters are not as effective as trailers because they are to be only viewed for a short amount of time, whereas trailers hold audience attention for a few minutes, with action, dialogue, soundtrack and hints towards a narrative. Advertising use various devices and strategies to promote a film a good example being “28 days later (2002)”. From Screen daily website http://www.screendaily.com/marketing-campaign-raises-awareness-of-28-days-later/4011159.article “A savvy marketing campaign came up trumps in the UK this week as 20th Century Fox launched British director Danny Boyle's latest film 28 Days Later. The horror title defeated all comers in the country including Hollywood heavyweights XXX and Lilo & Stitch and fellow wide openers Changing Lanes and Mr Deeds.” “The company began a£600,000 television campaign five weeks ahead of the film's release, placing TV spots mostly in male-skewed programming such as high-profile football games and terrestrial television premieres of films such as The Matrix and A Clockwork Orange. These spots featured audience reaction footage taken by night vision cameras of an invited preview audience to entice audiences in.” This advertising was very effective because it reached its audiences through their other lifestyle interests ( older men and football). This combined with the (then unique) concept of audiences reactions to the film in TV spots added a flare to the film, as it generated a lot of “buzz” and “word of mouth”. As this advertising was interesting the target audience was compelled to go to the cinema.

15. add Finally the company tried ambient advertising launching a fictitious survivalist website in August creating buzz in chartrooms and propagating the idea of what would happen if a virus as depicted in the film actually occurred, only revealing the site's link to the film the day before previews commenced. They also created flyers featuring the films provocative logo, which incorporates the international biohazard symbol, which circulated at all the UK music festivals throughout the summer and street graffiti in Dublin, as well as projecting the logo onto the Dial, the Irish parliament.” These forms of advertising were used before the announcement of the or any previews, this created buzz online in chartrooms where target audiences would have been met. Word of mouth was generated by “stunts” of street graffiti and flyers of the logo. These would have become prevalent when the previews and film were revealed, and general audience would have recognised the symbol and be interested in the film. Both these forms of advertising and promotion wouldn’t have been expensive to do, therefore the distributor could maintain budget for bigger more expensive forms of push advertisement e.g. “placing TV spots in high-profile football games”. This was very effective promotion and marketing as the budget for 28 Days Later (2002) was estimated to be $8,000,000. On opening weekend in UK, 3rd November 2002 about £1,500,079 was generated (318 Screens). Gross world wide was $82,719,885. (information on box office was taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/business ) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/business

16. A typical dystopia narrative Technological Innovation is always resisted – Fear of technology in the workplace – Fear of replacement Technology changes behaviour and patterns of behaviour Technology is connected to or evolves into the state, creating a state of "authoritarian information technology" – Basic Assumptions individual obedience to governmental authority – government creation of a rational social order – control is maintained by a technocracy Technology is panoptical Information Overload – Confusion – Quality vs. Quantity As instrumental technology is unable to be mastered people become more "objects" to be "ordered" Humans, as essentially "unordered" or "unpredictable" threaten order Technology becomes about surveillance Technology stiffles freedom and privacy Secrecy is institutionalized Privacy is outlawed What narrative Lights out follow: Fear of replacement Control is marinated by technocracy Confusion - Technology becomes about surveillance Technology stiffles freedom and privacy

17. f Marketing informs the audiences of a films release and provides a build –up that creates interest. Marketing can be Pull or Push advertisement, this solely depends on the target audience as different ages are informed by different means. A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for the marketing of a film. Pull and push is important to a distributor as the helps them obtain there target audience. Example of this would be for the majority of cinema goers are between the ages of 15 and 25, this group are typically internet savvy. So to gain an large interest from this audiences would involve websites, apps and bonus features such as interviews and clips. Where as over 30’s, aren't as internet savvy so the best way to advertise to this audiences would be trailers/teasers on TV and Posters. (Push advertisement). Marketing is very important to distributors as they want an good response from box offices and create a profit from the film they have made in a media conglomerates. Lights out push and pull advertisement Push: Realising sneak peaks of the trailer on YouTube, twitter and Facebook creating a buzz to all people watching. We will also place banners alongside twitter and Facebook of our title in a glowing font which will be linked with our website we have created. Pull: We will be placing posters all around the country for people to view on a daily basis with a tag line that will be linked with our film. We will also be participating in magazine interviews and featuring on the front page grabbing peoples attention.

18. Target Audience When developing the trailer for ‘’lights out’’ we had to think of the general over-view on the film when evaluating the rating and also what our target audience would be. Due to swearing and minimal violence we decided that the rating of 15 would be the most appropriate for our film ‘’lights out’’ which is based on different groups of classes and how they deal with a major power cut; cutting off all technology and water supplies which is also open to elder viewers of 30+ with both genders of male and female. With teenage and elder target audience this helps us market our film through social networking sites where the minimal age to be on things such as Tumblr is 15+. Due to the different characters within the film such as: A family, a young couple and also a man with his dog, this can relate to a much wider range of people as they see themselves in the scenario linked with the other characters. When creating our trailer for the film we all decided that we wanted the film ‘’lights out’’ to be suitable for both male and female which creates a bigger audience. Within this film and trailer we have created a loved up happy couple which attracts the hopeless romantic female audience viewers. To attract the males we have a superior male role model which the male viewers can either relate to or inspire to be as the male character within ‘’Lights Out’’ saves the day and wins the girl. Although this is typical in a film it has a modern twist to the characters involved.

19. o For both genders we are using social networking platforms to attract our audience When creating our trailer for the film we all decided that we wanted the film ‘’lights out’’ to be suitable for both male and female which creates a bigger audience. Within this film and trailer we have created a loved up happy couple which attracts the hopeless romantic female audience viewers. To attract the males we have a superior male role model which the male viewers can either relate to or inspire to be as the male character within ‘’Lights Out’’ saves the day and wins the girl. Although this is typical in a film it has a modern twist to the characters involved. With males we have chosen things such as Xbox, PlayStation and gaming consoles to advertise our film and trailer. Games such as ‘’Call of Duty’’ where a male protagonist is involved relates to our film with the male in our couple trying to save the day; which can then be linked with the game for example. Social networking such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all have many male subscribers where we will put advertisement visible which will attract a broad range of individual males to create a buzz and stigma about the film we have created ‘Lights Out.’ With female viewers we will put advertisement in magazines such as Company, Hello and Ok! Which has a broad variety of female readers across England. Social networking sites such as Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook with advertisement on the sides of the main homepages when the user logs on giving sneak previews of our trailers or placing are film poster of Lights Out in the magazine.

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21. d As a group we have decided to promote our film Lights out in many ways shown above: Web 2.0 such as twitter, Facebook and YouTube. We have also decided to create posters to place around the country and magazine covers that will be featured in many different magazines. We have also looked into the way 28 Days Later was advertised and based our advertisement along the same path with both push and pull advertising.