Film Distribution

28 Days Later (2002)


Teaser Poster

Teaser Trailer
 

Main Poster

Main Trailer




The Danny Boyle-directed film was distributed by 20th Century Fox in the UK and Fox Searchlight Pictures in the USA.  The film was shown in just over 50 different countries and was shown on about 2052 screens on its opening weekend.

Moodboard

I created a moodboard of images that I feel relate to my ideas for the trailer.

Production Planning

Story Boards

How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?

The role of a film distributor is to make sure that the marketing for the movie is chosen correctly and targets the right people.  They have to make sure that the ways in which the movie is marketed are worth the money and time.  A lot of research has to go towards all of this.  The film distributor has to make sure that film is also shown at the right cinemas.  Research will show what kinds of locations that the movie should be shown in.  Whether the film is quite niche and will only need to be shown in limited cinemas or whether it is a massive mainstream movie that’s demand will be very high and will need to be shown in nearly every cinema. 

Different advertising techniques would be used for different target audiences.  Techniques commonly used for films are TV and cinema adverts, radio adverts, billboards, web adverts and newspaper adverts.  Using specific TV channels, radio channels, websites and newspapers is very important for targeting the right audience.  Viewers of National Geographic are usually very different to those of TLC.  Advertising on the right channel will allow you to target the right audience.  The same with newspapers, readers of The Guardian are very different to readers of the Daily Star and therefore different films will be advertised in these different newspapers to target the right audience.  Populist newspapers like The Sun would advertise mainstream movies whilst The Independent might advertise something a bit more intelligent and obscure.  

Billboards are a good way to advertise movies.
They are used to advertise mainstream films like Monsters University.

























Popular and mainstream movie directed by well known director Tim Burton was on the front cover of popular newspaper, LA Times.





















The Independent had the trailer for The Drop on the film section of their website.  Websites like this will advertise lesser known films like this one




















The Woman in Black used an interesting way to promote their movie which was people submitting their ghost stories in order to win prizes that related to the movie.  This technique would appeal to a younger audience.  The fact that Daniel Radcliffe is associated with the prizes would also attract Harry Potter fans. 

Audience research is incredibly important for determining who the target audience is.  Audience research is usually carried out with surveys, questionnaires, online forums and focus groups.  These all allow the researchers to gather opinions from different types of people and to gather an idea of the best way to make the movie.

Below is my annotated YouTube video (please watch in full screen):

Cantata Final Trailer

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Cantata First Draft

Photos for magazine and poster

Finished Magazine Cover

Original photos for the magazine cover

 Original photo taken in a dark studio using just a flash for lighting.

The edited photo.  I added a gradient around the edge of the figure.  I also added more daisies around the edge of the figure.  The brightness was lowered and the contrast was heightened.

Finished poster

Original photos for the poster.

 Original photo taken in a dark studio using only a flash for lighting.

The edited photo.  I added a black gradient around the figure, added some more daisies around the bottom of the photo, lowered the brightness and heightened the contrast slightly.

How research has impacted our ideas

Audience Research: Questionnaire results

What is your name, age and gender ?

What is your relationship status ?

Single

In a relationship

Married

Other

Are you a student, employed or unemployed ?

Student

Employed

Unemployed

Do you enjoy horror films ?

Yes

No

Sometimes

Depends on the film

What’s your favourite type of horror film ?

Supernatural

Gore

Slasher

Thriller

Comedy

Other

Who do you go to the cinema with ?

Family

Friends

On your own

Partner

Other

How often do you visit the cinema ?

Never

Occasionally

Monthly

Weekly

More than once a week

What is your favourite element of supernatural’s ?

Ghosts/spirits

Curses

Zombies

Possession

Demons

Witches and Wizards

What film endings do you prefer ?

Sad

Happy

Open ended

Mystery

Cliff-hanger

What attracted you to see a film ?

Actors

Director

Plot

Advertising/marketing

Recommendations

Trailer Analyses: Key Conventions

Final Destination

• The non-diegetic sounds which created a tense feeling
• Blank black slides with messages to hint what will happen, giving away little clues
• Cliff hangers before the deaths
• Showing the previous films, encouraging new audiences for people who have not seen the previous films. Voice over of female main character
• Not a lot of gore, however you could tell it was a horror due to the predicted deaths and also showing the Todorov narrative theory, The equilibrium, the disequilibrium, but leaving the new equilibrium out to persuade people to go and see the film.

The Omen

• The evil child
• Losts of jump shots and fast pace
• No music to begin with then progressively got louder and faster.
• The music and screen shots worked together
• The typical nuclear family At the end the main theme of ‘666’ is shown.
• Release date and production company

The Orphan

• The pace was slow but still creepy and tense
• Didn't give anything away except from the hint that ‘there’s something wrong with Ester’.
• Close ups of little features.
• Ending of diegetic music of ester singing a typical nursery rhyme
• Lots of crying and screaming. The nuclear family Release date and production company
• Jump scare at the end.

Audiences and institutions: The Woman in Black

Research and Planning: Individual Ideas

Supernatural and body horror.


Characters –

Leader – The volunteer leader of the kingdom. Female. Middle aged. Red hair.

Assistant 1 – volunteer assistant to the leader. Female.

Assistant 2 – volunteer assistant to the leader. Female.

Assistant 3 – volunteer assistant to the leader. Female.


Setting –

Set in a fantasy world led by women who refer to themselves as ‘volunteers’ to appear as a fairly led society. These four women actually got to this position by creating a secret ‘government’ that actually runs this ‘anarchist’ society. They convinced the small population that they would be able to run the society without being controlling.


Synopsis –

Film starts by introducing the leader and her assistants. The people of the society appear to worship them as though they are some sort of monarchy. This is because of the secret powers that they have over the people. They want to turn the leaderless society into a controlled government-led country. The volunteers then start to capture more and more other women to become part of their ‘government’ by using magic on them and sometimes violence. The growing ‘government’ of woman are then ordered by the volunteers to do horrific things towards men using their newly gained magic and strength.

Research and Planning: Initial Group Meeting

The Representation of Women in Horror in Relation to 'The Cabin in the Woods'

Part 1

   

Part 2

   

Part 3

Preliminary Task

This is a trailer made at the start of the A2 year in preparation for the main coursework task.

Horror movie magazine covers' analyses'

Click on each magazine cover to see my analysis on Flickr

 

Horror movie poster analyses

Click on each poster to see my 

analysis on Flickr

Conventions in Horror Movies

Narrative Theory in Relation to Halloween and The Crazies

Narrative theory in halloween (1978) from Emma Rose

History of Horror