3. At what stage in the film’s marketing will the three texts (trailer, poster, magazine cover) be used and do the three texts therefore perform different functions in the overall marketing of the film? In this power point presentation I am going to explore the importance of the release order of move posters, trailers and magazine covers. I will be analysing both my own and existing work, drawing comparisons between them.

Movie Posters There are usually many different versions of a movie poster for one film with different sizes and content. It usually consists of an image with text but now many posters only have the name of the film in order to reveal less about it. If there is text on the poster it’s usually things such as the film title in large font, the names of the main actors, a tag line, the name of the director, names of characters and the release date. Film posters are seen inside and outside cinemas, and often on the street or buses. The same images used for the poster are usually used later on, on websites and DVD covers The movie posters on this slide are taken from Alice in Wonderland, the first being a teaser poster, the second and example of a character poster and third a general example.

Analysis of a Movie Poster Prominent film title in a large, easily recognizable font. Iron man uses the same font for all aspects of advertising the film and this means that the audience come to associate this text with this particular film Release date at the bottom of the poster to inform the audience when they will be able to see it, also written in the same font as the title Images of the main characters within the film. The facial expressions of the characters are illustrative of the type of person they are. For example the ‘bad guy’ with the beard is featured with a scowl on his face and dark lighting. The secret identity of the main character, the image which is given the most room on the poster which indicates this character is of the most importance The actor/actress names of the main characters in the film Images which feature action events that happen within the film. Used to make it seem more interesting and more appealing

Analysis of My poster Film title in a separate colour to the rest of the writing, to attract peoples attention. The colour I chose is a cold shade of blue suggesting…something Tag line – the tagline of my trailer is the last line of the text “and sometimes the danger is entirely…” which then leads on to the title in the bottom right…”Unseen”. Image of the main character

Comparison Similarities: both have the film title in a larger font both feature an image of the main character Differences: unseen has no release date Iron man has no tag line Unseen doesn’t feature the name of the actress

Release Time As my poster is more of a teaser poster because it contains very little information, not even a release date, I would choose to release it before the trailer. I would release it around a month before the trailer. This would give possible audiences long enough to see the poster and wonder what it was, but not to long which could result in it being forgotten Function of the Poster The function of the poster in this case is to create an initial interest around the film and because of the minimalist approach to make people want to research it in order to find out more

Teaser Trailer As my research has shown the purpose of a teaser trailer is to provide the audience with an inkling of what the film is about, without revealing to much about the plot line. Here is a link to a teaser trailer for the film Dorian Gray: And here is a link to my trailer: vqIFqvpyY&feature=player_embedded In the next couple of slides I will be analysing what generic aspects of a teaser trailer these two trailers contain and how they are similar or different

Dorian Gray “I have done dreadful things, monstrous things, and there will be a price” – exciting introduction to the movie, suggests action and a sort of darkness within the film. “You had the only two things worth having, looks, and youth” Suggests promiscuity, this may be something that draws in the audience Subtitles suggesting ominous events and also a sense of adventure, beginning with things such as “his face unforgettable” and moving on towards “his curse, unimaginable”. Suggests some kind of underlying distress Use of music – dramatic, picks up in volume and pace Long shots to begin within then as the trailer progresses they become shorter and faster, until a final shot of fire that shoots across the screen “I have seen my soul, and there will be a price” a dramatic final line of dialogue Title seems to disintegrate away, actors names, and finally the release date is shown

Unseen No subtitles, lets the images do the ‘talking’ Initial shot of phone ringing, piece of paper visible with day and time but no indication as to what this means – intriguing Shot of the girl suggests a panicked atmosphere, suggestion of action yet to come which may interest the audience Use of diegetic sound, the girls breathing creates atmosphere Use of non diegetic sound, slow piano tune which sounds disjointed and ominous Length of the shots at the beginning is longer, then the shots become shorter such as the close ups of the eyes and hands Title of the film and the release date fade into the screen, simply says coming soon no indication of a date may make people determined to find out about it Use of a shot after the titles, the girl with a shadow moving across her, ominous, lingers in the audiences mind reminding them of the trailer

Comparison Similarities: use of dramatic music to create atmosphere Long shots at the beginning of the trailer which turn into shorter ones Release date and title shown at the end of the trailer Differences: Dorian Gray uses subtitles whereas my trailer does not Dorian Gray features the actors names at the end Dorian Gray uses key quotes from the film My trailer features a final shot after the release date

Release Time As I have already stated I would release my film poster one month before the trailer, after a month had passed there is the possibility of the film poster having been forgotten or pushed aside, but ideally the release time of the trailer will come just before this happens. Teasers are generally released from between a year to a year and half before the film itself is released. As I wouldn’t envision my film being something with as much hype as say, Alice in Wonderland had, I wouldn’t release the trailer so long before the film would actually be in the cinema. The Alice in wonderland trailer was released about a year before the actual film was, but I would choose to release my teaser half a year before the film itself. I would follow up the teaser with a full length trailer a month or so before the release date

Movie Magazine The main purpose of a movie magazine is to create publicity for new movies, provide sneak peaks into said movies, reviews and enable the audience to know more about the movie to appease the fan base.

Total Film Analysis Magazine name at the top of the cover, large font, partially hidden because the audience knows the name so well Issue number, release date, price Barcode Image of the main actor featured in the magazine Other films, actors, articles that will feature in the magazine Information on the main article in the magazine

My Total Film Bold, large font for the magazine name, partially hidden Barcode Issue number Name of the main movie featured Brief information on the actor featured in the main article Image of the actor featured List of other films, actors, features within the magazine

Comparison Similarities: name of the film in large, clear font Name partially obscured Issue number and barcode Information on the actor featured Differences: My version has no release date Text doesn’t stand out so well My version uses total films tagline ‘Welcome to the Movies’

Release Time As I regularly buy Total film magazine I know that magazines feature articles about upcoming films at a variety of different times. For example the most recent edition I read features an article about a new film called splice, which isn’t being released until June 4 th 2010 They then often do a follow up on the film after it has been released, including a review and information on how well it was received or interviews with main actors. I would ideally have an article written about my film months before it was to be released in order to add to the hype and interest already being created by the newly released movie poster I would then wish for there to be a follow up consisting of an interview with the main character and a movie review

How the three texts work together The three texts, poster, trailer and movie magazine are supposed to work alongside each other in order to slowly generate hype until the day that the film is released It is essential for the media text that is released first, in this case the poster, generates enough interest for people to be waiting to find out more. If the poster doesn’t generate interest then when the next text is released, the trailer, people may not bother to watch it because they thought the poster wasn’t any good. This in turn could result in there not being enough interest around the trailer. However, in a successful case the poster works to create initial interest, which then results in people wondering when the trailer is released, then once it is released and people are waiting to be able to see the film, the movie magazine continues to build the suspense by revealing small amount of information. The three texts work together to in turn generate hype for the text which will be following it