Marketing our film…

1. What media sources could my group use to advertise our thriller film? Marketing our film…

2. Target Audience • We decided to make our target audience between the ages of 14-20 years of age. • The characters of our thriller opening are students which is shown through dialogue, clothes/make-up and location. This would then help us to reach our target audience as the film is about people around the same age as themselves who may go through the same routine that the characters go through. Giving them a similar situation to be able to relate to. • We aimed our film at this age of people because of the location of our thriller which was in a school. The previous point also links in wit the fact that our thriller opening was situated in a statutory secondary school/ sixthform. This helps us to attract part of our target audience as between the ages of 14 and 18 years, this is where people usually are in terms of education. • In terms of socio-economic groups, I think our film is aimed at people from a lower social class. This because the props and location of this film and minimal and simple. It is also in a statutory school which is funded by the government. This then helps to relate to people from a low socio economic background as we didn’t have the funds to provide the film with fancy computer generated images or impressive locations. The locations would also be places in which the target audience are around on a daily basis.

3. Posters • Where you place posters can have a big impact upon the audience you attract. It is then important to think about your target audience when making the posters and deciding where to put them. • To reach our specific target group, I would aim at putting posters at such places as bus stops and in train stations. This is because the age in which are aiming our film at, people will either only just be beginning how to drive or won’t be driving at all. This will make them more likely to be using public transport such as buses and trains which will in turn make it more likely for our target audience to see the poster. • To show an example of a possible design for the Repercussion opening, I have created one using Microsoft Publisher. This poster is simple but also encodes meaning as the villain is covering his face and is wearing black gloves. Hopefully, the audience would then decode the poster and assume that the film would be suspenseful and scary, just as a thriller should be.

4. Television Spots • To reach our target audience we would have to carefully devise the time in which we believe a large part of this audience is likely to be watching Television. As a group, we came to a decision of what time we would advertise our film on air if we had the funding. • The best time to advertise films would be what are known as peak times. This is a set time where people are more likely to be watching TV as they have finished from school or work. Although this would be the best time to try and reach our target audience, it would also be very money consuming as the time where everyone finishes work and school and is at home is known as peak time. • If we could not raise the funds to air a television advert at this time, we would alternatively advertise our film around 1pm/2pm. This is because many teenagers/young adults sometimes get to finish college, university or work early depending upon their timetable. This would then hopefully gain the attention of a small group of our target audience who could then advertise our film by word of mouth. • Advertising on television can be very expensive and cost around £5000 in the UK for a simple 30 second advert. This can vary on the network and the business which is advertising it.

5. Radio Stations • Adolescents and young adults tend to listen to a lot of music and therefore tend to listen to the radio. • Popular radio stations for music for my target audience include: • Capital Fm • Heart • Choice Fm • Kiss • Magic • We would then create a short trailer and simply use the snippets of audio to create a quick form of advertisement for these radio stations. This would be cheaper than advertising on television and would encourage listeners to use their imagination more when trying to think of what the film may be about. • Although radio stations aren’t used as much as they were due to the development of technology e.g. television and smartphones, there are now many ways to access these stations. Many of these radio stations have websites, twitter and Facebook pages to increase their audience. In many cases, these radio stations can also be downloaded as apps which can be downloaded onto androids and smartphones.

6. Internet Advertising • This form of advertisement is cheap and effective. • To simply make a web page for the film and to download clips or trailers of the film will help to distribute information about the film to a wide audience . This can be done through tagging key words which will be typed into search engines such as Google. This could also be done by creating banners which will be shown on different websites which would then at a click of a button, link the person straight to our website or to the trailer of our film. • This is also known as a form viral campaigning. This helps to market films and increases the viewers of the websites due to the link. The link of the web address can be passed around very easily and can be made into a hyperlink which people could then simply click on to be directed straight to the distribution website. • For our thriller opening, if we were to use internet advertising in this way, I think it would be best to advertise it on websites such as music advertisement websites e.g. www.artistsdirect.com. This is because the people from our target group are likely to research the newest songs and would want to be up to date with any new films.

7. Social Networking • The three most popular forms of social media at the moment according to www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites are: • Facebook • Twitter • Linkedin • To show an example of how social networking sites can help to advertise and market our film, I have created a quick page on Facebook which will be shown in the next slide. These pages on Facebook can be ‘liked’ which will then be visible on their account for others to see. This would then encourage others to view the page. • Social networking sites would be a good way to reach our target audience. This is because teenagers and young adults combined make up the largest proportion of people who use social networking sites. These sites can now be accessed on the go in different ways. For example, people can now download applications to their androids and smart phones which can be accessed when they can’t access a computer how you normally would. • This page can also be linked to other social networking websitessuch as twitter and can be advertised by other companies for a small fee. This may be a good idea as there are thousands of people who use these social networking sites everyday which would help to attract a mass audience.

8. Facebook Page This Facebook page can be linked to other pages and can be emailed to selected people. It also allows you to upload pictures, text and videos. This could then be used to show our audience the process of the creation of our film which some people may find interesting.