Ideas for a viral ad

 

I have created an example of a wanted poster that we could use for our viral add campaign.

 

 

Research into Viral Ads

Viral marketing is a method of marketing where it engages the audience and encourages them to share the ad with friends via the internet and other interaction. These tend to reach a widespread demographic as the audience gets excited and so wants to share it with others. This method is commonly used amongst big cinematic films, such as Batman, and they tend to be extremely successful when they reach enough people.
For example, Batman The Dark Knight Rises did viral marketing when releasing their film. They spray painted the iconic Batman symbol in various places around the world. Fans had to find these symbols, take pictures of them and post them in the hashtag on the social media site, Twitter, to unlock frames of the trailer. Once all the pictures were found, it unlocked the entire trailer. This method engaged fans, while creating excitement for them and creating a fun way to release the trailer. In fact, this was so successful that the twitter hashtag trended higher than The Avengers, a competing film.

Viral marketing has been largely helped by the exponential growth in advancement of internet and other technologies. For example, in recent years there has been a large amount proliferation amongst technological devices, such as phones and laptops. Now almost everyone has access to the internet which has enabled viral marketing techniques, such as Batman, to become so successful.
Viral marketing could be a huge benefit in the advertisement of our film as it is often free/low cost. The use of internet doesn't cost anything extra when advertising our film as we already have access to the internet, and so this could be an effective way of advertising an independent film like ours.

Props

Since the main aspect of our film was having our main character write in a diary, we needed a diary for our film. We went out and bought a diary and then stuck a label on the front saying "Chloe's Diary" so we could clearly specify to the audience that the Diary is Chloe's and that the main character is Chloe. However, the audience would assume that Chloe has been writing in the diary prior to when the storyline of the film starts so we had to make it seem realistic. To do this, we wrote in numerous pages in the diary, writing fake events that may of happened to Chloe before our storyline began. It would most likely look suspicious to our audience if Chloe just started writing in a brand new diary just as abnormal events started taking place as it would be expected that she would have been writing in it prior to this.

We also had to make it seem realistic that Chloe and Amy were friends/cousins and had known each other prior to the strange events. To do this, we had our actors, Louise and Leah, take various photos together which we could use in our film to emphasise this to the audience.

Research Into Credits

As a group, we decided to research into credits, as our short film would require credits both at the beginning of the film, and at the end of the film. From looking into the history of credits, we found that traditionally, credits were only shown at the beginning of the film, and the use of closing credits, that now generally list all cast and crew in a film was not established until the 1970s, and so before this, closing credits were rarely used. Films before the 1970s simply used opening credits, which consisted of just major cast and crew.

There are two different types of credits that may be used in a film, and these are opening credits and closing credits. Opening credits may feature in a film or television show, and are shown at the beginning of the media product. The opening credits will list the most important cast and crew, such as main actors, and main crew, such as director and writer. They are likely to be shown in plain text, on a black background, or over the top of action of the show. Closing credits may feature in a film or a television show, and are featured at the end of the media product, and will feature a complete list of cast and crew. Closing credits are generally shown in plain text on a black screen, and sometimes may feature additional film material, such as a final scene or bloopers.

There are a variety of different things that will go into a credit sequence, whether this is for opening or closing credits:

• Title card (opening)
• The names of the main cast (opening) and the names of every cast member (closing)
• The names of the producers and directors (opening) and the names of every crew member (closing)
• Logos and names of the companies involved in the production of the film (can be both)
• Copyright information (closing usually)
• Soundtrack (opening and closing)

Here is an example for opening credits in the BBC television show, Sherlock (2010), which shows how the characteristics of what is included in credits are used. 

Secondly, here is an example of opening credits from the film, Death and the Red Dress (2012), which takes inspiration from 1940s film noir, and therefore this is what opening credits may have looked like in feature films prior to 1970. 

We decided that it would be beneficial to both the production and post production of making our credit sequence to research into what real media examples look like, and so here is our opening credits title sequence so far, to see how it compares to the real media examples above.

It was also beneficial to look at a real media product's credit sequences broken down, into opening and closing credits, and so for this, we looked at the Warner Bros. television show, Gilmore Girls (2000)

It was also useful to look at how big budget feature film or television show opening and closing credits may differ from small budget independent films, so therefore, we also looked for examples from real short films. One example is from the film, called Your Hands, which was a Kickstarter funded film, by the actress, Georgia King. The short film features both opening and closing credits, however they are different to the credits that are seen in big budget media products.

We also looked at another example of a short film, which features closing credits. In this closing credits sequence, it can be seen that there are only four characters and actors shown, as there may be less characters in a short film, especially if it is low budget and may require friends or family to help act in the film. Another feature of short, independent film credits is that one person may be shown to have multiple roles on the crew part of the credits, such as being both the director and the writer. This could be because not as many crew members will be involved in the creation of a short independent film.

However, we also found that despite a film being a short independent film, this doesn't mean that the credits may not be similar to those of a feature film. Even though they may be similar, there still is a major difference, which is that credits in a short film need to be short, as otherwise the credits may take up a huge amount of the short film, as for example, in feature length films, opening and closing credit sequences can be a number of minutes long. In the short film, The Crossing, which only runs for a total of 7 minutes, around one minute of the total time is for the ending credits.

This was also seen in another short film, called BOY. However this film is much longer than our short film, which only runs for five minutes, this film runs for 16 minutes, with a total of 2 minutes worth of credits. However, looking into this film gave us an insight for credits of short films. The music in these credits conveys the atmosphere created in the film and so we will most likely do this too.

During looking into what may be featured in a credit sequence, we also found that, in particular, opening and closing credits may feature a soundtrack as the credits roll. This is common on blockbuster films, which often add a song as their closing credits play, as this allows to keep the audience talking about the film, especially if they are exiting the cinema, during when the credits are playing. For example, in the blockbuster film, Transformers (2007), the closing credits run for a total of seven minutes, with songs being played through this, which can be used in order to keep the audience engaged. Marvel are also known for doing this, in which they tend to feature a short clip after a long closing credits sequence, which hints at what may happen in the next film.

                                  

From our research we found that credits for all films tend to be somewhat similar with just variations in length and the amount of people in them. Since our film is only a 5 minute film, it is likely our credits will only be around 30 seconds in length. For our closing credits, we therefore decided to keep them simple, by having cast and crew information displayed in white text on a black background. For our opening credits, we decided to include small clips that could provide a hint to the audience what the film may be about, along with the main cast names being displayed on top of the action.

Information presented in this post was taken from multiple individual posts, that we combined into one group post, to make the blog look cleaner. Below are the links to the Prezis from the individual posts:

Radio Trailers Research

Radio Trailers Research
Radio trailers contain certain features which allow them to be effective. The techniques that a radio trailer usually contains are; voice overs, key scenes from the film, music and facts about the movie which include when the film is set to release, age certificate, cast and director. These features together form to create a successful radio trailer, allowing for the potential of attracting of a wider demographic.

Voice Overs 
A voice over in a radio trailer is vital in order to give the neccessary information to the audience. With the voice over details can be given about the film, for instance expressing the age rating of the film or the actors who stared in the film and the director, to create intrest amoungst listeners of the radio.

Music
Music is another key device in making a radio trailer, as it allows for the trailer to be correctly paced. It also engages the listner and music is typically a mian aspect of radio, making the music for the trailer all the more vital.

Vox Pops
Vox pops are a common theme in advertising a film and encourage people to see the film, as vox pops are groups of people who have been asked for there opinion on a product. In film this is common with audience members who have had early access to see the film and give their opinion on it, in a quick snappy manner.

Research into Radio Trailers

Radio trailers enable a producer to advertise their film via the radio, allowing the film to reach a wider demographic. Radio trailers usually last around 25-30 seconds as to keep the audience intregued. A radio trailer generally contains;

• Voice over.
• Sound/speech from the film.
• Slogan to the film.
• Information at the end of the end of the film-release date, certificate, where to view. 

Voice Over 

Radio trailers depend on voice overs as they give the necessary information about the film, and without them, the trailer would be pointless and make no sense. They usually give information such as when the film will be released and where. It's generally the voice of a low-pitched male, this gives the film more dramatic tension.

Music 

Music and sound effects from the featuring film are used to entice the targeted audience. It also engages the audience and urges them to listen to the voice over. The music used on a radio trailer gives an insight of what genre the film is going to be. 

Lines from the Film

Lines lifted from the film feature in the radio trailer to give a basis of the storyline, it also encourages the audience to go out and see the film. 

Idea for Viral Marketing Advert

Following my research into finding out what viral marketing is, and examples of viral marketing from popular films, such as the Dark Knight, I have come up with an idea for a viral marketing advert for our film, Haunted. I have created an article, for a local newspaper, which reports that an unknown female body has been found in a house in Barnsley, which is the location of where Chloe lives. This can contribute to our storyline, as Chloe does not know that she is dead, and none of her friends know at college either, or ask where Chloe is, as it can be assumed she has been missing for a short while. Creating a newspaper article can create intrigue into what our film is about.