Research into Magazine Cover Text - Katherine

·         ‘ultimate preview’
‘massive preview special’
‘fangtastic exclusive’

·         ‘free posters’

·         ’23 page special’

·         ‘first look at next summer’s movie titans!’

·         ‘Jessica Biel talks dirty’

·         ‘John Cusak goes to hell’

·         ‘the shocking story of Hitler’s favourite director’

·         ‘dream access to THE movie event of 2010’

·         ‘the matrix meets 007 on steroids’

·         ‘massive Oscars special’

·         ‘x-men origins on set world exclusive’

·         ‘review of the year’

·         ‘first look!’

·         ‘Johnny Depp vs. Chrisitan Bale in heat 2’

·         ‘free inside- the UK’s best DVD mag!’

·         ‘the UK’s number 1 mag’

·         ‘Ewan McGregor gets kinky’

·         ’50 sexiest movie moments’

·         ‘new pics, exclusive interviews and on-set reports’

The overall feel of the magazine teaser texts tends to be quite informal. This is due to them using casual language in their text, for example: ‘Eww! J.Lo’s B.O stinks!’, ‘pics’ and ‘fangtastic (a play on words)’.

They use dramatic, exaggerated words like ‘massive’ and ‘ultimate’ to get the reader’s attention. They make sure that the audience knows they are the only magazine with that information by using the word ‘exclusive’ and also let them know they are the first with the inside scoop by using the words ‘preview’ and ‘first look’. They want readers to know that the content they  have is worth reading by using words like ‘dream access’, ‘special’ and ‘of the year.’

They tend to make the actors etc seem like they are involved in the magazine by using texts such as ‘Johnny Depp VS. Christian Bale’ and ‘Johnny Depp talks about’. They also entice them with sexual appeal like ‘Ewan McGregor gets kinky’ ‘Jessica Biel talks dirty’ and ’50 sexiest movie moments’. They sometimes add in free gifts like the Remote Control movie DVD and free posters.

Research into Magazine Cover Text - Oliver

Examples Of Teaser Texts

1.       Exclusive Hayden Panettiere Interview

2.       Do you want to know a secret?

3.       Diet special

4.       The 9 hottest bodies of 09

5.       562 new looks

6.       Budget beauty buys

7.       Exclusive as you’ve never seen before BRUNETTE BOMBSHELL

8.       104 pages of the new seasons HOTTEST LOOKS

9.       TIGHT TUSH TONED THIGHS

10.   Slim without gym

11.   Satisfy your sweet tooth

12.   Wine and sunshine seeing Sonoma and Napa

13.   FLAT ABS and a great BUTT by spring summer

Although these are not taken from a film magazine but a women's magazine, I thought it would be useful to look at general magazine language and compare with film magazine language. The common points I have noticed are:

- extreme language - great, exclusive, hottest etc
- use of alliteration
- snappy style

In fact you could easily replace key words with film terms:

- Exclusive Spielberg interview
- Thriller special
- the 10 hottest stars of 2012
- 27 new films
- exclusive as you've never seen before Megan Fox
- 10 pages of summer's biggest releases etc etc

This shows that magazine language is remarkably consistent across interests.

Possible Outline

Initial Shot and Cast Lists

Each shot in our storyboard is numbered. Here we have identified which shots are filmed in which locations in preparation for creating a proper shot list.  This will establish a filming order for us and enable us to put together a proper filming schedule. Here we are dividing our shots into lcations and working out a rough cast list - we will need to invite these teachers / student sto be part of our piece as there are only two of us in the group and we have a large cast of characters:

Updated Storyboard After More Specific Research and Feedback

After our presentation, we became aware of plot holes, areas of the story that needed refining and sections of the trailer that weren't clear in terms of the main narrative. This was the main issue picked up - our audience weren't entirely clear about the plot, and to be honest,nor were we. We have spent a lot of time talking about this and seeing where we can make changes. We tried to address these issues and have come up with a much longer and more complete storyboard:

We have added in more characters, which should create red herrings so it is not so obvious who the murderer is. Adding in e.g. the caretaker also allows us to make other points clear in a really concise way - for example, him saying 'It's that way' makes it clear she is in a new school and doesn't know where she is going. We have added more scenes with dialogue as we need this to make our plot clear. We had included all the main action scenes in our previous storyboard, but we did not have enough linking scenes. We went back to our evaluation of our trailer practice and reminded ourselves that trailers do need establishing shots as well as shots of the main disruption, but these are shots of relationships and emotions rather than e.g.locations and we did not have enough in our first draft. We have also done some re-ordering to give the trailer a kind of inbternal structure, finding shots that match - for example grouping running shots, shouting shots, shots with similar actions / movement etc.

More Specific Research Into Trailers In The Genre - Oliver

Specific Trailer Research

What Lies Beneath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuYlo-EXrw4

      Fast cuts between shots - we need this for pace.

      Loud music, gets louder and louder as the movie goes on - again would work for us.

      No voice over -  we have dialogue instead.

      Title slides giving away small hints to what the story of the film is - we could include?

      In the first minute of the trailer, they use a fade transition for the happier parts of the trailer and then when the trailer starts to get scary, the shots quick quickly between each other using no transitions - we could adapt?

Insomnia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_mETVsCac

      Voice over – deep male voice, very clearly spoken, adds a scare factor.

      Shots between cuts get faster and faster as the trailer progresses.

      Similar to “What Lies Beneath”, they use the fade transition at the start and then when the film starts to get scary and you see more action, no transitions are used.

      Dramatic changes of colour to show that his thoughts are being messed up and that he is becoming mentally unwell -  we need to adjust the colouring of the dream sequence.

Shutter Island

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iaYLCiq5RM

      POV shots looking at the guards – similar to when Lucy will be looking at the students in her new school.

      Quick shots of prisoners – random (Not Chronological) – we could do this with the dreams. We could show the story and then have random close ups of Lucy in her dream, or extreme close ups of her eyes.

      Loud screams make give a sense of the atmosphere. We could have noises like the screams to get people on edge.

The Lovely Bones

      Sound gets louder and louder as the trailer goes on. We could do this as the trailer progresses and you start to see more and more about the killer.

      Quick cuts the whole way through the trailer.

      Voice over gives away little hints to the story of the film.

      Trailer gives away a large bit of information about who the final killer is. Maybe too much information?

      Are we going to give away that much information about who the killer is? Does it give away the ending to the film?

More Specific Research Into Trailers In The Genre - Katherine

I am refining my research and am now looking at trailers to get specific ideas that we can incorporate into our own.

The Lovely Bones
http://youtu.be/jvWXV-c2hWo

-          Echoey voice, able to tell it’s from the past

-          Shot of the man looking out the window (creepy)

-          POV shots of someone watching Susie- we can use this in our film to get a sense of someone watching Lucy- create that unsettling feeling- audience will want to know who it is

-          Shot of face where a beam of light is only shining on the eyes- we could use this as a way of hinting at who it is without letting the audience know

-          Voiceover from Susie to explain what is happening- this would probably be more suitable in our trailer than a husky man’s voice

The Black Swan
http://youtu.be/5jaI1XOB-bs

-          To cut to next shot they have someone walk past camera, creepy whilst allowing to fade to black

-          Shot of friend laughing with teacher- we become suspicious of them both

-          Shot she is standing in front of the mirror, the reflection behind her is moving and staring at her

-          ‘she’s after me’ ‘nobody’s after you’ ‘please believe me’

-          Cut from girls kissing to her waking up in the bath- shows it could be day dream/hallucination

-          Lots of close ups of her face looking scared, lots of her out of breath

Shutter Island
http://youtu.be/5iaYLCiq5RM

-          Shot of guards staring into camera- look suspicious- this could be used when thinking about how to get across Lucy being paranoid about other students etc.

-          Lots of characters staring- creates an unsettling feel- close up of his face shows he’s uncomfortable

-          Screams in the background

-          Shots of prisoners walking into darkness- creepy

-          Close ups of black and white photo of girl- could be used when showing the girl that got killed in our trailer, possible newspaper articles

-          We can tell what’s a dream and what’s not as impossible things happen- the wife and daughter standing whilst on fire, pieces of paper falling from the sky- could maybe do something that happens in hallucinations that wouldn’t in real life- they could all have black eyes

Insomnia
http://youtu.be/d1_mETVsCac

-          Gets phone calls at night- keeps him awake

-          Shots of him in bed looking wrecked but eyes wide open

-          Lots of dialogue hinting he can’t sleep- ‘can’t be easy after 3 days and no sleep- are you seeing things’

-          Shot of man thinking he is drowning- this would be quite good in our trailer if we could make it happen as the girl gets drowned at the beginning- Lucy could hallucinate she is drowning/being strangled

-          Another mirror shot is used where he has two personalities- could be used as well to hint at hallucinations

The Machinist
http://youtu.be/H0fuHY4U1UA

-          Post it notes round the room could show she is going insane

-          ‘how do you wake up from a nightmare if you’re not asleep’- title slides will help explain to the audience what is happening

-          He starts to look more thin/ gaunt throughout the trailer. Costume and make up will help indicate to the audience what is happening as well

Presenting Initial Storyboard

In this video, we present our initial film ideas and our storyboard outline to other members of the class and respond to their comments. This is a useful task because when you work closely with someone over a number of lessons, you don't have to explain ideas properly to them because they are on your wavelength and know what you are trying to say. Articulating ideas for others can shpw up where there is a weakness in your plotting that we haven't noticed ourselves. At the same time, it is clear that sometimes we think we are on the same wavelength but are talking about slightly different ideas. Again, presenting the storyboard to others makes this clear and we are able to adjust ideas:

We would have liked more extensive feedback, but appreciate that we maybe didn't explain this clearly enough to give the other class members a chance to say much.

Rough Ideas for Overall Promotional Campaign - Katherine

Promotional Campaign Timetable
First Teaser Poster- 1^st February 2013
This may just include the film’s title with a close up of a pill being dropped into the glass of water. It gives a bit of a clue to what the film may be about and who the main character is. We could also include the film’s tagline so the audience can start to recognise it when they see future advertisements for the film and link it to it. The tagline may be something like ‘The past always comes back to haunt you’.

Teaser Trailer- 16^th February 2013
For the first teaser trailer we don’t want to give too much away- literally just ‘tease’ the audience. Therefore we won’t give away much of the storyline at all- maybe just hint at the genre of the film as we want the audience to want to know more and be intrigued into what it’s all about. It won’t be a very long piece- around 30 seconds- although it may involve some of the characters to get the audience guessing about whom they are and what their story is. It will involve a fair few shots of footage from the film but nothing that gives away too much.

Film’s Social Networking Accounts- 28^th February 2013
It will release more information about the film to keep audience up to date and interested. Such as when the actors will be doing interviews or when the next poster will be released. It may also include competitions to involve the audience.

 Second Teaser Poster- March 26^th 2013
This poster will give away a bit more about the film than the first teaser poster. Again it will include the title and tagline, but this time it the image will be more revealing about the story, such as a still of the girl running from something.

Second Teaser Trailer- April 15^th 2013
This trailer will also be reasonably short but this time a fair bit more will be given away as to what the story is about. The main characters will be introduced as well so the audience can get familiar with them so when they are on the front of magazines or promoting the film- the audience will associate them with the film. The tagline will be included also- audiences should now recognise it from the teaser posters. It will be fast paced to keep the audience anticipated about the film.
Magazine Cover- 5^th May 2013This will stretch out our audience to those who are weekly readers of the magazine. They can also tell their friends about it- getting people to increasingly talk about the film and therefore causing the number of people who know about it to grow.

Interviews from Actors- June 2^nd onwards
This again reaches out to more audiences as anyone watching the programme they are on will be informed about the film.

Website- 3^rd July- 2013 This will further involve the audience. It will include games and competitions, a countdown to the film’s release and countdowns to the final trailer and poster. 

Final Trailer- 17^th July 2013This will show the most we have seen so far about the film. It will end on a cliff hanger in a last attempt to encourage audiences to go and see the film.

Final Poster- 25^th July 2013Now the audience are familiar with the upcoming film and the actors in it so it’s more about getting the audience excited for the film than telling them what it is about. It will include the release date and the website address that will be released around the same time.

Film’s premiere- 5^th September 2013

Release date- 12^th September 2013

Rough Ideas for Overall Promotional Campaign - Oliver

Promotional Campaign Timeline

First Teaser Poster - 12^th December 2012

This poster will have a main image of the girl lying in bed sleeping. This lets people know that the film is based around night time and sleeping. The image will be edited in photo shop to make it look darker. The name of the movie will be on the bottom of the poster in bold capital letters. This poster will give an all-round clue to the story and genre of the film.

First Teaser Trailer - 22^nd December 2012

The first teaser trailer will show images of the main characters in bed. It will also show images of her being chased. This will be a very fast paced trailer and will not give away too much information about the film. However, it will draw an audience making them want to find out more about it.

Second Teaser Poster – 12^th January 2013

By the time the second teaser poster is released, the audience would have already realised what the genre of the film is and know that it heavily involves sleeping and is based around dreams.  Therefore, this poster will include a main image of the man who is one of the suspects. The images will not his face therefore making the audience curious and eager to find out who it is. The title of the film will be at the bottom of the poster in the same font as the trailer and the first teaser poster.

Third Teaser Poster - 3^rd February 2013

The third teaser poster will include a main image of the crime that happened at the start of the film. The face of the man doing the crime will be covered up therefore not giving away the ending of the film. This poster will have the title of the film in the same font as previous posters and trailers. In a smaller font underneath the title of the film, will be the release date.

Second Teaser - Trailer 9^th March 2013

This trailer will be fairly short and will simply be made to tease the audience, unlike the first trailer which was made to draw in an audience. The pace of this trailer will be slower than the first as it will give the audience a larger amount of information about the film compared to previous posters and films.

Final Poster - 13^th April 2013

The main image on the final poster will be the main female character. It will also have the name of the film, the release date and the names of the actors. The final poster will also include the website address and logos for Twitter and Facebook in the corner.

Social Networking – 20^th April 2013

Both Facebook and twitter pages will be released for the film. These will help get the movie viral and this will create a wider fan base for the movie itself. They will include posters and links to the trailers and they will both include a countdown clock for the release of the film.

Official Trailer - 15^th May 2013

The official trailer will include quick cuts of scenes from the film. The cuts will build up a dramatic suspense urging the audience to want to see the film. It will be to a similar pace of the first teaser trailer however it will show a lot more information about the plot of the film. It will include dialogue and clear images of the characters however you will not see the faces of the suspects.

Film Release - 2^nd July 2013

The official release of the film.

Further Work on Film Outline

Sleepless

•       Girl sees her neighbour bury / kill his wife when she is little

•       Moves away?

•       New teacher at her school when she is older – her old neighbour. She doesn’t recognise him but he recognises her name and works out who she is

•       Starts to have dreams

•       Each dream gives her a bit more information about what she saw happening

•       She starts to talk about it with friends / maybe a school counsellor?

•       The teacher overhears / finds this out (or is the counsellor himself?) and tries to persuade her and everybody else that she is mentally ill

•       As she continues to dream, the teacher realises that she will eventually realise that it is a memory more than a dream and that she will identify him.

•       He starts trying to keep her awake so that she won’t find out the truth.

Issues / Thoughts

•       What happens at the end of the film? We won’t see it in the trailer but we need to know. Is she rescued? Maybe by another character who might be a suspect too?

•       How does he try to keep her awake? Drugs? Other?

•       There need to be other suspects / characters to confuse things a bit

•       She probably needs a best friend to talk to or a diary or something like that so we can do some easy storytelling

•       What does the teacher do to make her think she is going mad?

•       Does everyone start to believe this? Does the girl?

Early Ideas for Film Outline

This photo shows us in the process of trying to think of an overall idea for the film our trailer will be based on. We are using the board to note down key ideas, but not worrying about having a clear overall idea at this stage. This is a brainstoming session and it is important not to tie yourself down or worry if ideas don't seem to connect. It is totally possible that none of these ideas will make it into the final version but at the same time they are springboards for ideas that are better:

Further Research into Film Promotional Campaigns - Katherine

The Hunger Games and Alice in Wonderland Promotional Campaigns

Posters

Firstly, The Hunger Games released the film’s teaser poster and a motion teaser poster on July 19^th/20^th2011, around 7 months before the film’s release date.  It doesn’t give much away at all, including just an image of the films logo that appeared on the front cover of the book it’s based on. It also included the film's tagline ‘May the odds be ever in your favour’.

The motion poster allows it to be seen on TV or moving billboards, so the poster can be seen by an even wider audience.

Motion Poster- http://www.thehungergamesmovie.com/motionPoster/
At a later date of October 11^th they released further teaser posters, revealing the characters in the film.

Character teaser poster-   http://bumpshack.com/2011/10/29/the-hunger-games-main-character-posters-revealed/

To get the audience more involved in the promotion, Lionsgate decided that for the audience to view the final theatrical poster, the fans would have to hunt down the 100 pieces of the poster and put them together. The process was streamlined through Twitter and Facebook- social networks that are used worldwide.

Final poster-  http://collider.com/hunger-games-poster-puzzle-hunt/132394/
This poster is much more detailed than the teaser posters. In this poster we are told the release dates, the credits and through the picture we are able to tell more about the story. It also has another tagline ‘the world will be watching’.

 

Alice in Wonderland had a series of teaser posters featuring their main characters also. Unlike The Hunger Games, these were Alice and Wonderland’s first set of teaser posters. These posters were released throughout November 2009. Again, not much is shown about the film is about but we can tell what actors play what characters and what style the film has been made in. 

 

 

 

Teaser posters- http://hollywoodvulture.com/new-poster-for-tim-burtons-alice-in-wonderland/
The main theatrical poster was released not long after the teaser posters unlike The Hunger Games’ theatrical poster. However it does give more information about the film as well. It also tells the film’s release date and credits and has much more detail in the background- letting us see what ‘Wonderland’ will look like in the film.

Theatrical poster- http://www.moviefanatic.com/gallery/alice-in-wonderland-mad-hatter-poster/
Although Alice is the main character in the film, The Mad Hatter is used for the main theatrical trailers and this could be because of Johnny Depp being the actor that played him. He is such a big actor that the fact he is in the film could entice people to watch it on its own.

The teaser posters are the first signs of the film’s marketing campaign and so therefore gets people talking about the film and discussing it. The theatrical poster allows people to get excited about the film’s release as they know it can’t be long and lets them in on a bit more of what the story is about.

Trailers

Teaser trailers are also used in the process of promotional campaigns.
The Hunger Games’ teaser trailer doesn’t give a lot away, just like the posters. The main character is introduced again, walking through the woods when things start to catch fire. The only way you would be able to make out what the story is about would be through the dialogue that is played over the trailer as a voice over as it enables you to tell that she may be playing some sort of game.

Teaser Trailer- http://youtu.be/DsVNNHs3RZE We can also tell from this trailer that it’s an action film which allows people to know the genre of the film.

Theatrical Trailer- http://youtu.be/p-5ANq4sAL0 This trailer introduces more of the characters and more importantly- more of a story line. We now know what the film is about- people fighting to their death. This will attract those who didn’t know what the film was about before from the books. It also informs the audience on when the film will be released.

In Alice In Wonderland’s theatrical trailer it’s all about introducing the characters which is very different to The Hunger Games where only one character is introduced. However, although all the characters are revealed and we get a sense of what the film is about, the plot is kept hidden throughout the trailer. This keeps people guessing about the film and wanting to know more.

Teaser Trailer- http://youtu.be/1VHRz1S_kYI

Theatrical Trailer- http://youtu.be/1VHRz1S_kYI In the theatrical trailer a lot more is revealed about the storyline of the film. It involves the audience more so they want to know what happens next.

The main difference between the teaser trailers and theatrical trailers are the amount that is revealed about the storyline. The teaser trailer seems to be to let people know about the film whereas the theatrical trailer is making them want to go and see it.

Magazine Covers

Entertainment weekly did a magazine cover on The Hunger Games with Jennifer Lawrence as the main image on the cover. Jennifer Lawrence covered a number of other magazines, promoting the film. This gets audiences buying the magazines to find out more about the film from the inside content.  It gets people more familiar with the actors and associating them with the film. Also, when they read about the film they may find themselves wanting to know more and therefore researching the film.

Hunger Games People Magazine Cover

http://www.thehob.org/2012/03/people-magazine-cover-secrets-of-the-hunger-games.html

Alice in Wonderland also appeared on a number of Magazine Covers including Total Film and Entertainment weekly. Promotion on the front cover of magazines gives the film a lot of status and it means the film is read about by the regular readers.

Online

http://www.thehungergames.co.uk/

The Hunger Games website includes a countdown to its release date, the theatrical trailer, the motion poster, the DVD release date and more. It offers games and downloads- allowing the audience to involve themselves more in the film. They may also tell their friends about it and therefore be promoting the film.

The film also had constant use of Facebook and Twitter, a YouTube channel, a Tumblr blog, iPhone games and live Yahoo streaming from the premiere. This is an easy way to access the audience as majority of people have an account on one of these websites. They also hold contests on Facebook and hunts on Twitter which got more and more people talking and wanting to get involved.

http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/aliceinwonderland/

Alice in Wonderland also has its own website. Just like the Hunger Games it also has the trailer, games and downloads. It also allows you to find out more about the characters in the film and view a gallery of pictures from the film.

 

A Facebook campaign was also created for the film where each of the main characters were given fan pages and the one with the most fans would be the first to see the trailer. Alice in Wonderland also had a Twitter account created for the film. These again create excitement and anticipation for the film whilst making fans feel involved and become dedicated.

What I've Learned

Promotional campaigns are elaborately constructed and carefully thought out. You can see by comparing these campaigns that they ran on similar lines, releasing simialr products at similar stages of the campaign, suggesting that there is an acknowledged structure that we can identify and follow when we map out our campaign.

I have particularly noted the appeal of character posters. Our film would not generate these as we do  not have an ensemble cast all playing familar roles. However, there is a collecting element to a promotional campaign and we need to think about how we would make our products collectible and therefore talked about.

I've also been reminded about how vital an online presence is for a film campaign now. All of our products needs to work both in their intended context but also online, and there needs to be a social networking element to our campaign.

Further Research Into Film Magazine Covers - Katherine

Key Points for Our Work

Lots of play on words - we need to start thinking of synonyms for sleepless / word play around it
Not all covers have subsidiary images
Cover text usually uses three colours, two fonts and can be a mix of capitals and lower case
Flashes e.g. circle work well on crowded covers
Amount of teaser text really varies
Layout is really flexible - no real rules

Further Research Into Film Posters - Katherine

Here I have annotated film posters and taken screenshots of the finished work.

These posters are in different genres. I chose the romantic posters because even though our film is a psychological thriller, I really want our poster to be all about emotion and not action. This is because we are appealing to a wide target audience and I want the female audience in particular to be clear that this film has emotional drama as well as being packed with thrills. Obviously our film is not about romance but I was wondering if we could adapt the romantic poses to more chilling ones.

I picked This Is England because it is a really unusual poster where the title of the film is almost more important than the image. The large cast, ensuring no one character really stands out, adds to this - it makes it seem that this film is about a wide social group rather than individuals. I think the title of our film, Sleepless, is really effective in setting up questions and conveying our genre, and I am wondering if it should have a more prominent place in the poster than you might expect.