Questionnaire Results

Below are my questionnaire results which I have gathered from participants answering my questionnaire.

Conclusion

Here I will not be concluding my questionnaire results to determine what my findings are.

Firstly as you can see most of my gender is male, so firstly I will be basing my film trailers and poster towards a male audience rather than female. From my second set of results, most 50% of my target audience is between the 14-20, however another 40% of my results of between the ages of 21-30. So I will be targeting my promotion campaign between the ages of 14-30. My results also state that 60% of my target audiences watch 3-4 films per month, that averages out at 1 movie per week which means my target audience are regular movie viewers. This means that I will have to make my campaign effective and attractable in order to attract my target audience. 60% of my target audience watch a horror film, this is good for me as my film trailer I am creating is horror. So I will have to make my posters and trailer have impact in order to attract this audience, so they will come to watch my film. Further more 60% of the participants feel trailers appeal more to them than poster etc. This will impact me as I will spend more time perfecting my trailer as my results show that a trailer influences my target audience to watch a film rather than other forms of advertising. In addition my results show that 90% of my target audience watch films on DVD, this may influence me to advertise my film on DVD as this will persuade more people to watch my film rather than other methods. My questionnaire then goes on to ask participants, would a trailer influence you to watch a film ?, and would a poster influence you to watch a film ?, the result for the first question was 90% for yes they would be influenced by a trailer. This means that I will have to make my trailer effective, scary, and have impact on the target audience, as this is the main source to gather audiences in to watch my film. The second question received 70% for yes, this again means that my target audience feel that posters and trailers has a influence on them to watch a movie. This will inorder me to create a poster and trailer of high professional quality in order to promote and sell the film as best it can, which could mean teaser posters, and a quality professional trailer which gives a little of the story but enough so that audiences know what it happening. The final three questions of my questionnaire consisted of do you buy music magainzes ?, 60% answered no, and 40% answered yes. This means that most of my target audience do no film magazine therefore may not see my film being promoted or advertised, however 40% said yes, so I will create a film magazine which is effective and attractable and unique as, this would help attract mroe people to buy the edition of a magazine that is headlinig my film. I broke off, the last question, if participants answered yes, they were asked, Which film magazines do you buy ?, in which 60% revealed other, this will enable me to research other music magazines to see what is the best magazine to use when advertising a horror film. The last question was for participants who replied no, the question was, Why dont you buy film magazines ?, the results was 40% replied other, and 30% both replied they have no interest or cost was a factor, this will enable me now to make my film magazine look interesting and attractive in order to appeal to these people, and to maybe neogatiate a price with the film magazine in order to make it cheaper for other audiences, as this may increase sales therefore more people reading the magazine about my film in which it is promoting.

Facebook Screen Shot

Below is a facebook screen shot of my questionnaire, this is in order to gather more responses for this questionnaire in order to help me with my research.

Questionnaire

Please take a few minutes to answer my questionnaire, created to help my research and planning for my A2 Media Studies coursework. 

Click Here to view questionnaire 

Analysis of Campaign in Selected Genre

Paranormal Activity 4 Promotional Campaign

As my genre is horror, I have decided to analysis the Paranormal Activity franchise campaign. I will be analysing the posters, trailers and any other marketing techniques used. This will benefit me when, I am creating my trailers and posters as I may be able to incorporate some techniques used in this campaign to my own. There are 3 films already within the franchise, and a fourth being released only a few weeks away.

Posters

The Paranormal Activity Campaigns posters all follow the same style or theme, as they show ether a tag line or quote at the top of the page in order to express to readers about the content of the film. The style of the posters are very basic, they have a black background and consists of the main image being central to the poster. However the image consists of a CCTV image of a bedroom or a character. This is in order to give audiences a sneak peak of what could in tail within the film, and gives the poster enigma towards audiences which therefore could persuade audiences to go see the film. The title of the movie is placed below the main image, in the typical textual font which stands out towards audiences as they know that this is a paranormal activity film. These posters act as a teaser for audiences as the reveal very little of the film, however it gives the public knowledge about a new paranormal activity film. All poster of the Paranormal Activity campaign all follow the same house style and theme.

As you can see, above are Paranormal Activity 4 and 3 posters above. They both follow the same house style, this keeps the franchise consistent and unique as target audiences and fans know what Paranormal Activity posters look like.

Trailers

As you can see I have displayed paranormal activity trailer 4 and 2, I have done this in order to show, how all the trailers follow the same style in terms of using hand held devices to video most parts of the footage. This has been done in order to create a buzz and a unique atmosphere towards the trailers, as the first film was made for a mere $15,000 this campaign prides itself in simplicity therefore always using hand held camera scenes to make the trailer unique and appeal to audiences. Most scenes are filmed in night vision to create suspense and make it creepy and uncountable for audiences. As many hardcore horror fans will not have seen I hand held camera trailer since the Blair With Project. Each trailer consistently features quick fast actions, and non digectic sound this is in order to make each shot snappy and effective towards audiences which creates enigma. And leaves a stain on audiences mind, making them want more of the film.

Viral Marketing

This is where Paranormal Activity the franchise was most effective during the whole of the marketing campaign, as this was there sole focus. The first paranormal activity films relied solely on word of mouth, twitter and facebook and other viral sites.

Their main focus was on social networks, like twitter. They encouraged the people who have seen it (during it’s limited release) to “Tweet Their Screams,” basically to write reviews. Almost all of the reviews were good and only 140 characters long, which doesn’t leave room for much criticism, which lead to the larger limited release, mainly focused on college towns.

After Paramount saw the success in those few towns, they knew they had to get this film out on a larger scale. They allowed users to “demand” the film in their town, giving us (the users) the power to decide where this film will play next. In the mean time, Paramount said if they react 1 million “demands” they would release it nationally. Eventually it did. “Paranormal Activity” has been on the trending topics of twitter for a few weeks now, which states how well the viral marketing campaign is doing.

The twitter and facebook campaigns regularly update fans about the latest news and instalments of the franchise. And are used effectively as they are regularly posting up pictures and linking fans to the latest trailers of the film. Which creates an extra buzz and hype about the franchise.

Analysis of the Dark Knight Rises Campaign

In this post I will be discussing the different advertising and marketing techniques Warner Brothers used in order to create awareness of the highly anticipated Batman Film The Dark Knight Rises.

The marketing for the TDKR started May 2011, a full 13 months before the film would be released for cinema viewing. It started with Warner Brothers launching TDKR website in May 2011.

Viral Marketing Campaign

The website consisted of a black screen and no content bar, with some unusual audio chanting. Once the audio file had been decrypted by the user the audio filed revealed #TheFireRises, there was also a twitter account with the same name @TheFireRises which linked to another website, when people shared this website ether through Twitter or Facebook their profile pictures was used as part of a college, gradually revealing the first picture of Bane, who would be one of the new villains in which Bat Man would be facing. Below is the image which was gradually revealed to audiences through the website.

What makes it so good is the fact that it requires participation from the community, people are made to feel like they are responsible for new developments and discoveries. This also plays upon people’s competitive nature as they want to be the one to piece together the clues and find the next lead.

Another technique used by Warner Bros was the release of a “CIA memo” which was posted on Wired and says that the agency is seeking a missing Russian nuclear official who specialises in fuel-cycle technology and reactor design. The person pictured looks a lot like Alon Aboutboul, who was cast back in May. However, Empire received a related transcript of a conversation between the CIA and some type of militia. This technique was again used to raise awareness to the TDKR fans and giving them some bate to feed of for the film, as these mini viral stunts will help fans to piece together what could happen in the new film. Below is the image which was revealed to audiences.

TDKR Campaign took a further twist, when they took to Social Networking sites once again using the account @TheFireRises, the account twitted to fans a document this time about "Operation Early Bird" pointing users towards a website which linked fans to a countdown to a list of coordinates of the nearest IMAX cinemas nearest the users in which the cinemas will be showing the Prologue early. This type of viral marketing was used to keep there fans and audiences guessing to what TDKR famous viral marketing campaign may display, this will ensure a big hype to the release through displaying the nearest IMAX cinemas, as it will make fans even more determined to see the film. As they feel the film campaigns is always in contact with its fans.

Lastly TDKR campaign did not make it easy for eager fans to view the trailer, as this part of the campaign consisted of the official website being updated, as it displayed police documents, users were able to scroll through documents seeking out locations in which users had to go to the location and take a video or phone of them at that specific location in which the website has set., you could tweet or upload the picture to the website and that user would unlock one frame of the trailer. This technique was basically teasing audiences as this was to preview the third trailer of TDKR, so audiences and fans where teased of the film which related to that the film was coming nearer to its release for fans this again created more of a hype as TDKR campaign kept going throughout the year in order not to lose any existing fans and gain more through constantly communicating with them so they feel part of the film which kept them intrigued and on edge about the film to keep that constant excitement about the upcoming release.

Posters

I will be analysing the posters used throughout TDKR, however I have noticed that Warner Bros have kept the consistency within the posters to ensure audiences will notice and be familiar with the posters as they was with TDK. The same styles and low key lighting have been used to keep the dark feel to the film and help promote the darkness in which the film will in tail. The poster carry the same mise en scene which was used within the first set of poster which is darkness, fear and mystery through the use of masks.

TDKR

As you can see here are is TDKR teaser poster which will released in order to create a buzz surrounding the film reminding fans that the last Batman film is near. The three poster which are displayed above are pictures of the three main characters within the film giving fans some a sneaky insight to who and what the film is about. Each poster displays a medium shot of each of the three character directly facing the audiences eye with Batman and Bane standing tall and puffy, while Cat woman in a slender pose a more feminist pose than the two other main characters. Low key lighting has been used on each of the three poster to keep the darkness of the film portrayed to audiences. No release date is mentioned on the trailer other than "Comming Soon" therefore teasing audiences again of the awareness of the movie creating more of a spectacle about the climax of the movie. Each of the threes posters consists of the same background which is a dark grey cloud and black rain upon the characters, this again connotes to audiences evil and possibly this may be the darkest of the Batman franchises yet.
TDK

Above is TDK teaser posters, I feel that TDK and the TDKR posters both have familiar similarities as Warner Bros advertising campaign have followed the same suit in terms of posters to possibly the consistency of the franchise since these posters was such a success. The low key lighting and the use one main image has been used in both posters, and the display of "Comming Soon" has also been used within both posters. However the difference between the posters of the images used as TDKR posters have no props included in there posters however TDK poster do, this maybe in order to keep the mystery of the film sealed until the film is released for fans to view, also TDKR poster campaign and TDK doesn't want to give anything away with there campaign other than raise awareness of the film through reminding fans that the film is closer and closer. Through using various posters such as different characters in the film it creates a jigsaw for fans as they want to find out who these characters are, and what role to they play in the film, which again the posters interact with audiences. The use of the faded face just showing the main head connotes mystery and suspense to fans.

In conclusion TDKR and the TDK poster campaign are highly successful through keeping the consistency throughout the posters. And including effects and featuers such as creating different posters for different characters which creates enigma and tease for audiences and fans. As each new poster acts as a constant reminder to audiences.

Magazine Covers

Here I will be looking at two magazine front covers for TDKR, this feature to exclusive front covers from Empire Magazine, one including a picture of Bat Man and the other featuring Car Woman.

As you can see above here of the two Magazine front covers, I feel these two magazine front covers both magazine front cover attract male and females audiences. However the two characters are posed in two different ways portraying two very different images. As firstly Bat man is shown face on in his classic Bat Man suit portraying a image of himself as being masculine, and buff due to his posture and his stance as his chest is puffed out and he is looking directly into the camera. This will attract male audiences due to the fact he is Bat Man, and he is seen to look fierce and scary, however this might attract females audiences due to the fact Bat Man is Christian Bale an he is seen here looking muscly and manly.

However the magazine featuring Cat Women, I feel doesn't follow the same portrayal as Batman, because of the pose and stance. As Batman is seen puffed out shoulders out, a manly and masucaline portrayal as Batman should be however Cat woman is not stance's facing the audiences however she is posing side on with here lower back showing to audiences wearing a leather suit, here head is also turned facing into the camera. This I feel relates to the Male Gaze as she is posed seductively automatically attracting the male eye which is making the film eye catching for them as Cat women is seen posed like this. She could also attract female attention too as she is the first woman super hero to appear on Batman which again would attract females audiences due to the fact she is a female.

Both magazine follow the same consistent housestlye with the Bat emblem used at the top of the Masthead, the Masthead is big and bold with a white outer glow signifying the magazine brand towards audiences. As This magazine has no Acnhorage text or headlines it creates the main focus of the magazine on the main image therefore making it this making an World Exclusive cover for fans to buy as it is covering TDKR.

Trailer

Although many trailers where released for TDKR, I will be analysing the teaser trailer which was used for the TDKR advertising campaign.



This trailer was used in order to tease fans about TDKR, as you can see the trailer lasts for 1 minute and 36 seconds suggesting that this doesn't give away too much of the film. The trailer uses non digectic sound through the beginning of the trailer, the voice used is slow and creep suggesting to audiences the darkness of the film. While the non digectic sound is in place slow scenes are used which relate to the commentry in order to potray that this is the end. Later a man in a hospital bed is shown talking slowly as he is struggling to talk this voice over Carry's on while shots related to the voice over are shown while the non digectic sound starts slow and progressively getting faster and faster. This connates to audiences the suspense of the film. The last 10 seconds of the trailer shows a shot of gothan city form a low angle shot looking like it is falling apart with the Batman emblem shown clearly near the top. This again connates to audiences that Gothem City could possibly be comming to the end.

In conclusion this trailer creates alot of engima and doesnt reveal to much to audiences, as it only includes snipes of what TDKR will intail therefore creating more hype and excitment towards the film which the whole marketing campaign of TDKR has done very successfully.