For a film distributor, it is important that they can compete with other film

distributors when releasing a film either in the cinema or on DVD because they need their film to the best out there. To do make sure that their film is promoted

effectively, they use different advertising methods and promotions such as billboards, trailers and teaser trailers, radio and television adverts, internet websites

and merchandise.

When thinking about the promotion side of a film, the film distributors have to work out who the target audience for the film is and from there they can decide

the best ways to advertise. For example, older audiences are less likely to

appreciate the methods of internet websites and merchandise and instead will prefer the methods of radio and television trailers as well as billboard posters;

because these are the types of advertising they are more likely to come across. However the younger audiences are more likely to see adverts on social

networking sites and on the internet in general, for example Facebook. But social

networking sites such as Twitter allow the audience to interact with cast from the film and so will help promotion of a film. Along with this, a lot of younger

audiences buy magazines, where they could see adverts for a film as well as seeing

the trailer on television. I think the biggest contributor to promoting a film is ‘word of mouth’ because if a lot of people show interest in a film, it intrigues others and

makes them want to find out more about the film, therefore making it more popular.

A major contributor to the promotion of a film is merchandise and this is

something that is more likely to attract children and young teenagers because it is something that they can collect and make them feel as though they are a part of the

film. Many film distributors will use another company that is popular with the

same age range to advertise the film because they know the advertising will be seen by the right audience. These companies are often very happy for this help in

promotion, because it means they will also gain money from the audiences buying

their products for example McDonald's often promote children’s films via their Happy Meal boxes. For young teenagers, an example of this merchandising

strategy is The Hunger Games films that allowed the audiences to buy merchandise such as t-shirts, jewellery, stationary and accessories. Through the audiences using

these items, it widens the whole audience as more people will want to know what

the film is about. Not only this but the companies can monitor the sales for the merchandise and this will help them know how well the film has been promoted

leading up to the release and even after.

Posters for films are shown on billboards, in bus shelters, and they can often be bought by the audience of the film as well. This is an important way to try and

advertise a film because the audience are drawn in by the photograph on the poster as this is what can be seen from a distance. After this, they can then decide whether

they want to read the text on the poster that will allow them to find out the title of

the film as well as facts such as the release date and who is starring in the film. These posters all try and cover the codes and conventions of a film poster which

includes a mise-en-scene that gives the audience a small idea as to what the film is

about and usually the poster will have a tag line or a slogan as this is something that will make the film unforgettable when compared with others.

To find out the most effective ways of advertising a film to a certain audience, audience research can be carried out to find the best way into promotion.

Techniques such as questionnaires and the reviewing of films can help the film

distributor find out what opinions the audience have on films from a similar genre. This feedback then helps the distributor become aware of what the audience is

expecting from things such as posters and merchandise, therefore helping them

successfully target the correct audience. Before finalising a film idea, in the pre-planning section we created a

questionnaire that asked the audience the types of things they found scary in a horror film, and also what made a horror film successful and with this it allowed us

to create a stronger idea that included all the feedback that we had gathered.

When two films are different genres, it can be clearly seen where the film distributors have taken different approaches to the advertising and I analysed a few

horror film posters along with a romance film poster to show how different audiences are attracted.

Both of these posters show something very different from the film that they

are promoting, this can be seen by the way the poster for Dear John shows the audience exactly what the film is going to be about. It can be seen that the film is a

romance and this can be connoted from the two people positioned in the poster. The background of the poster also suggests that the movie will be a romance

because it’s a clear scene with no signs of anything bad coming along. All the

conventions of this film poster lead to suggest that the film distributor is targeting the film at a female audience. In opposite the poster for Sinister shows a

conflicting genre and it can be connoted from the blood and the face that the film is

of the horror genre. And due to the content of the poster, it is more likely to appeal to a wider audience including both men and women who are either in their late

teens and older.

Many films have a unified identity and this can become important in making

a film or series of films recognisable to its audience. A unified identity allows the audience to make connections with logos and themes that are found within posters,

merchandise and the trailer itself. It is usually colours or certain things within a theme that help an audience to associate it with the film. An example of this

is Harry Potter, where the logo shows the ‘P’ with a lightning bolt on it. This

would then be associated with Harry’s scar on his head which holds the same shape, and throughout the film series, this same shape crops up a lot and is

something that has become recognisable in the Harry Potter series. For both of my ancillary texts, I tried to use the same colours along with the

same fonts as this would help to try and create a unique selling point for the film as

well as giving the film its own unified identity, which would not only help promote the film, but allows people to become aware of the film and certain audiences can

identify things such as fonts with the film straight away. I think by using things

such as colour and fonts and even shots from the trailer or film as well having a familiar figure from the film in the ancillary text makes them more recognisable

for being a part of the same film but also makes them more effective in the sense that people can see similarities between the different ways of advertisement.

By creating two ancillary texts it gave me the opportunity to link the two

texts in various ways to the trailer itself as well as each other. The one main aspect that is featured in both of texts as this will become something that the audience

recognise from the film, therefore linking it to both of these texts is the Ouija board. I also decided on having the Ouija board as my main unique selling point

for the films and its advertising as it is the one thing in the trailer that ignites all the

negative events that take place and it is also the main horror element and this is because a lot of people are afraid to use Ouija boards in the fear of something bad

happening. Something I tried to keep the same with both of these ancillary texts

was the colours that I used and this was because colour can be something that

audiences associate with certain films and so by keeping my colours the same, it

gives the film a unique colour range that the audience would expect it to keep to. Something that is also recognised in this way by the audience is font and whether

the same font have been used, and so for my texts I decided that it would be best to use the same fonts as it could also be something that the audience would link to the

movie title. However because the fonts and colours aren’t the same in the trailer,

this would be the downfall of having a certain font and colour range within all the products.

On the magazine cover I created, I used a photograph that includes a picture

of the main character in the movie, and I think this is an effective way to advertise both the films and the character/actor itself because not only will audiences

recognise the actor from previous films, they can then associate seeing the character in a new trailer which would effectively by the trailer for the movie being

advertised. For the poster I wanted to create a slogan for the film and I decided on

using a quote that appears in the trailer, as this will then be something that the audience recognise once they’ve watched the trailer and then see the poster or vice

versa, and by having a slogan it is something that can be carried down through a

series of movies and is something that becomes popular with an audience as a way of remembering the movie.

The billing block that features on my poster shows the names of people who appear in the film and also details such as director and producer, this is a good way

of combing all the texts because if our movie were to have famous people in it,

audiences would recognise the names and it is was someone who was known for making high end movies or someone who is a award winning actor or actress, it

entices the audience into watching the movie. The way this advertises the movie is because the audience will be able to take down the name of the movie from the

poster and search for various things that relate to it and through this they will then

find the trailer which would then make them decide whether they want to see the movie or not.