Question 2

1. Question 2 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

2. Marketing and why it’s important • When a new film is created it has to be advertised like any other product. this let everybody know that it exists and also to encourage them into going to see this film. The marketing is thought of as being the most important part in selling your film, even more than the production stages. Films are very expensive to produce and if the audience do not buy tickets to see your film then huge losses can be made. The distributor is the company in charge of this process. They finance and design how the film will be marketed. They watch the film months before it has been released and plan the campaign in terms of what goes into the different marketing methods, such as trailers, posters and websites. They aim these different methods at the target audience and those who are most likely to see the film. For example, a younger target audience can be easily reached by the use of promotion via social networking sites and also gaming platforms, like Xbox and PS3.

3. Target audience • Our film rating will be a 15 and will be targeted to both British and Americans, who of which are predominantly male and within the age group of 15-30. • Our film will be mainstream so not only a British audience will be attracted, but also others from around the world • Males from around the age of 15-30 will be mainly targeted because of the strong horror and zombie element, which may be both upsetting and disturbing to a younger audience. also because the majority of main characters used in our film will be male and also around the college age group, of which are not yet seen as men, but kids neither. which a male audience of similar age will be able to relate to more than any others. This age group are also heavily involved in social networking and up-to-date technology. This means they can easily be attracted by advertisements, links and can easily find forums to discuss upcoming films and to create a real buzz. • The typical kind of guy interested in this film, would be one of which who has left secondary school, recently left home and has taken up further education in the likes of college or university. These kind of people will be able to relate to the independent journey of our film, people who have recently begun to start caring over themselves and are losing the dependency of the family. This age group are also the most willing to be in to adrenaline packed activities and enjoy watching terrifying movies. This kind of person spends a lot of time with friends and is looking to keep occupied hence the attraction to our movie.

4. Release • We would ideally like to release our film in the summer of 2013. This is the busiest time of year for cinemas around the globe. Most films are released during this period and more ticket sales are sold than any other time during the year. Another big holiday in which ticket demand is high are the Christmas holiday’s. however we feel mainly happy, feel good, comedic films are released during this time to relate with the Christmas spirit. This time of year mainly attracts family’s with young kids and this does not meet our target audience. • The main competition our film would face is from ‘World War Z’. This film is being released in June 2013 and is made in a similar style attracting a similar target audience. ‘World War Z’ is also a post-apocalyptic film involving zombies. The film also stars the highly popular Brad Pitt, who of which sells the movie on his own.

5. Brand Image • Our brand is based on a dark, jumpy zombie styled movie. The colour scheme of our movie is very dark. The trailer involves many scenes set at night-time or dawn. The style is very suspense, most of the movie involves just one character; harry on his own walking across big fields and woodland areas. This makes him seem vulnerable and although anything could jump out at him and attack. Our Trailer font colour is dark black throughout and the font type is that of 28 days later. The already established gory font, immediately connotes the style of film. It is used consistently throughout and will symbolise our movie. The title of our film is ‘Up North’. The only difference between this and our inner titles is that this will be coloured white in order to contrast with black backgrounds. Head North perfectly sums up our film without giving too much away. It gives the impression of the main theme revolving around a journey (as our film revolves around our character heading north in order to find his family and safety) this is similar to ‘the road’.

6. Film magazines • Two of the most popular film magazines are Empire and Total film. We would love our film to be advertised by either. Empire magazine is the worlds largest movie magazine and dominates the worlds film market with over 70% circulation. Empire magazine also has over 57 thousand subscribers, so the fan base is incredible. As we are looking to send our film worldwide this magazine would be a perfect way of advertising our film to a wide range of audiences. Total film is Empire’s largest competitor and too has a very large market share, our film also fits in with the target audience of total film and may also be a cheaper alternative. Total films demographic audience stats are 75 per cent male, average age of 26, men and women 18-35. all of which fit our TA perfectly. Our film is predominantly aimed at men around a similar age of 25. • References- • http://www.theadindex.com/Advert_Displays/Total_Film_Magazine_and_Website_9292.asp?ServicePage=3 • http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/empire

7. Our Film Magazine • Below is my film magazine in which I created using the software Photoshop CS3. It features many conventions of a good film Magazine. The most important part in the making of any magazine is that is has to be eye-catching and able to draw in the viewers eye this is done by combining all my conventions together. The name of my poster is very Bold and clear ‘Empire’ it is also coloured in a strong red which is the main colour empire uses in other magazines. The name of our film itself ‘Up North’ is also very bold and stands out. It is not a font which is commonly seen, it’s very grotty and looks although it’s been ripped apart. This will help to attract our target audience as it immediately connotes the genre of a dark and gruesome film. The ‘N’ is also coloured in a powerful bright red, this connotes blood and death which helps attract the male audience. The background of magazine is a very pale turquoise with gaps and blotches of white. This connotes that the atmosphere within the trailer is going to be very cold and set around winter time. This also helps to set the mood showing elements of a very dramatic/dark film. My magazine has information such as price, barcode and date which is all essential to the target audience who will be prepared to pay a certain price for our magazine and will know at what time they can make the purchase. These key elements are smaller sized in comparison to the rest of the magazine as can also put off the audience as the price is the last thing they’re interested in. I have used subheadings to advertise the main features within my magazine such as release date and also key information surrounding the stars. This will create a ‘buzz’ which helps to get people speaking about your film. The main image of our magazine a photo taken of our main character ‘Harry’. This is very conventional of empire and other magazines as many use a famous icon or an upcoming star. Harrys gas Mask helps advertise to our target audience as it promotes a post-apocalyptic style movie as this kind of mask is used in many other similar films, an example is ‘The Crazies’. Another key convention of empire magazine is that the main image of the star slightly overlaps the text ‘Empire’ which I have done with Harrys hair slight going in front of the ‘M’ and ‘P’.

8. Film Posters and inspiration Here are some posters which I looked at and studied before creating my own film poster. These kind of posters are of a similar genre to my film and will therefore try to make mine similar and use some elements.

9. My film Poster Below is my film poster which I too created using Photoshop CS5. A lot of the conventions for a poster and magazine cover are similar such as the need for it to be eye-catching, large title, strong font and a clear indication of the genre. The main focal point of my poster again the main character of the film Harry. But in this case the type of picture is a lot different. A film magazine involves the main character to be a lot softer and more in the sense posing for the camera. Where as in a poster the main character is meant to give away a clearer sense of emotion rather than just the indication of the character itself. My image is an extreme close up of half Harrys face in a gas mask with only one eye showing. Although only little is showing a clear indication is given. Harry is determined, powerful, angry and also brave. This helps attract a the target audience as it shows element of the genre and also elements of Harrys Character. I have used different effects on the image itself such as different brightness tools, colour shading and also burring some parts of the image. I used inspiration from ‘The Road’ and ‘World War Z’ to create one strong title of the star at the top of the poster. It makes The Actor look very powerful and eye-catching. I have also shown a release date and also a tagline which is very conventional. The tagline ‘how far can you go’ gives away elements of our film to the target audience such as hope, survival and fear. I faded this font to make it seem more like a thought and less like a heading.

10. Web 2.0 • Web 2.0 is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online. We intend to set up movie blogging sites in which people can discuss our movie and create an online buzz. We intent create our very own twitter and Facebook page, in which we will send out backstage- makings of our movie, interviews with stars and general information surrounding the production of our movie.