P3- Unit 20: Advertising Campaign

 P3: Create a pre-production plan for the media components in the planned advertising campaign

Assessment Criteria for P3:

YOU are required to produce pre-production materials for their planned media components.

These may include: pitch documentation; research into genre and conventions; images and mood boards; production schedule with proposed launch dates; any other relevant material (i.e. sample footage and sounds). 

Evidence could be produced in the form of a formal word-processed document, presentation or hand drafted documentation with supporting notes and digital files.

Genre- Thriller

Advertising campaigns for thriller movies all share very similar codes and conventions in how it reaches its target audience. While the advertising itself may be greatly different, they all use similar conventions which prove to be effective with other successful films.

-As seen here, the promotional material all seem to focus on a person, usually in a close up or extreme close-up shot. This is used very commonly because it gives a feeling of claustrophobia or danger to the viewer, drawing them in and setting expectations for a threatening presence throughout the film.

-Another convention used in thriller promotional material is the use of an item as a form of iconography. Such as the 'It' red balloon or the knife in 'The Shining', these are symbols that hold meaning to its audience and people can recognize/ associate with the film, meaning that fear can be created with subtlety from simply the presence of a single object.

-With all these aspects considered I believe it would be best to include them in my own promotion, following the codes and conventions of separate thriller films while still attempting to remain unique to make the film have its own identity.

Mood Boards

Colour Palette for Promotional Material

-I plan to use a colour scheme of primarily red and black, dark colours that make the audience feel unsettled and afraid, while also remaining mysterious enough to draw people in with intrigue.

-Text on the poster will likely be minimal except for the title, presented in a large font that appears boldly but still fits in nicely with the rest of the design.

-Use of graphics for the sake of showing either people or creating iconography, such as the Hellraiser face, the Saw spiral pattern, Jason Voorhees, etc. making the work instantly recognizable and distinct to average audiences.

Typography for Promotional Material

-The font I plan to use is a very detailed, artistic display font. This would allow for a lot of detail and personality in the title, preparing the audience for a thrilling, fearful film.

-Display font being used for the title also means it is likely to stand out more and stick better in the viewers mind, making the product much more iconic and recognizable.

-The colour of the text is also important when considering typography, as the majority of the example display text logos used red text, which is reminiscent of blood. Creating the atmosphere needed for  a violent thriller, both excited the audience aswell as inciting fear, which is why I will likely choose red text for advertisement designs. 

-White also resembles elements of the supernatural, and encouraging viewers to feel fear of the impossible and unknown. This is used most famously for films like Alien, so I may consider incorporating in my design.

Layouts and Graphics for Promotional Material

-The layout of all of these posters consist of a very close up figure/symbol. The text is kept to a minimum of usually a large title, a small tagline, release date and then an even smaller cast list of the people involved in the creation of the film.

-The figures on the posters are close up or extreme close-up photos of people which are edited to appear more horrific and supernatural. The impossible nature of the image creates fear by itself, discomforting the viewer and showing what they should expect in terms of horror and graphic content, acting as a teaser for what's possible and what the viewer should be scared of.

-The other layouts that feature symbols rather than people also prove quite successful. Such as the 'It' red balloon, these are effective as they create tension without even showing anything explicitly scary, rather the warning of what could happen and creating more fear from simple iconography, and so I will consider how important symbols/items are when creating my promotional material.

-For the designs I will use graphics which involve a religious, cult-like imagery. Ensuring it to be as ominous and threatening as possible using familiar, common iconography that unsettles people and puts them on edge. For example I could make promotion with an extreme close-up on the example mask in the mood board with a bloodstain on it. This application of graphics into the promotion both creates iconography and sets up expectations of horror in a subtle way without being cheesy or overly graphic. 

-The idea of including masks as a part of the graphics is because it takes away the viewers perception of identity for the horror, creating the fear from not just a single person, but a detachable symbol that can better communicate a specific emotion to a target audience, and the use of it on a poster and in advertising will be incredibly effective in getting across this idea.

Risk Assessment

When making a risk assessment, I must account for a large number of different factors that could possibly create issues or cause harm. Such as filming locations, in which I must account for our permission to access the location, transport for cast and crew, safe operation of equipment only by professionals, as well as food or water so the cast and crew aren't hungry or dehydrated.