Promoting our Film

1. Evaluation Question 1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. Promoting our Film To promote out film for ‘Lights Out’ we have created: A ‘trailer’ to give the audience a sneak preview of the plot and some of the characters, a ‘film poster’ that tells the audience about the film and where/ when they can see it, and lastly a ‘film magazine cover’ to entice film fans and a wide audience of reader to watch the film. Our Film is a postmodern style film as it challenges the conventions of a Dystopia film. Unlike main stream films they are strong main characters that must rise up to overcome the problem/ threat; our film and trailer shows how we have not focused on one main group but choose to show how different groups and families have to cope. Through the trailer they is shots of different types of people who are going through the power cut and this ‘wider perspective’ gives the film an interesting edge, and it’s USP (unique selling point). As you can see from the images below we have used multiple characters that interact with the camera in a very personal way. This style also allows the characters to talk directly to the audience through out the film and drew them into their personal journey through the film. All of our promotional products highlight where are film has challenged it genre but using a very basic and very day occurrence and turning it into a life or death situation.

3. Film Trailer Camerawork & Editing. In our film we have used a lot of handheld camera work as we wanted to create a realistic feeling of actually being there in the story instead of wide shots over the scenes and actions. The handheld and amateur cinematography makes the film feel more personal as the action is following the characters and what they do so the audience can be feed the information as the characters discovery it. An example of this is in the trailer (second image) they is a couple filming each other in their home. The camerawork is very shaky and amateur as they are just making a fun little video between the two of them. We found influence to use extreme close up and shaky camerawork from ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘Blackout’ as these films keep all their shots as first person angles making the action seem very real and we only find out more about  the story as they characters explore and located the problem/ threat. The editing we used was very simple with the character but use fast editing and effects to hint at action and possible reactions. Towards the end of the trailer we used shorter clips and moved the audio around to create a fast paced, climatic ending. We found a short Channel 4 film called ‘Blackout’ that used similar themes and found small clips of riot scenes and police fights the heighten the trailer. This gave us the idea to use archive footage in small parts to show how people were reacting and reveal fast it was escalating; an example is the Brighton march footage in the last image. As well as this we also used strong captions and a quote that all related to the film and asked the audience how they would react and was a way of engaging them from the start. 

4. Film Trailer Mise en scene. In our trailer and film we used different location around ‘Brighton’ as we wanted to show how the whole city is affected and how serious the disaster is. When we went out shooting we choose to go around in the evening when the majorities of the lights were off. This then allowed us to shoot in Brighton and show a power cut as the pier also turns off in the evening; so we could use it as a icon fro Brighton. The characters clothes were very basic and causal to create the idea that the power cut is very sudden and the characters were just doing their normal activities before. Genre Conventions & Narrative. The genre of our film is ‘Dystopia’ as there is a threat that the human race must over come and work towards a better world. We challenge convection this genre by creating is a modern day problem and the film then shows how people can cope without, even though many people had to a few decades ago. Sound & Titles. In out trailer we used lots of different audio, non-diegetic and diegetic to create drive and a tempo to the visuals. We used lots of different heighten diegetic sounds like dialogue and also buzzing from lights that complement but didn’t originate from the shots. The soundtrack to the trailer was made up of multiple songs collected from ‘incompetech’ and a cover on YouTube. We choose to use different and contrasting soundtrack as it create more drive then one song would.

5. Film Poster and Magazine. The film poster and film magazine will be supporting promotion for are trailers. These two ancillary products will help draw in wide audience and start to create a buzz and interest to the film. The poster will be mainly a way of catching the publics eye and giving them a very brief idea of the film with the images and poster style. On the other hand the film magazine will give a more detailed picture of the film and what's its about. The magazine cover will allows film fans to other similar films, to see what out film is going to be about and how it differs and stands out. We have picked out key images and the slogan ‘the blackout is coming’ that immediately create questions and ideas to the audience; as to most people a blackout is very common but for this film people are struggling and society is falling apart. Overall the film poster and film magazine cover will be extra promotion to support the trailer and create an audience to come and what the film when it is released.