Our complete promotional package for a new film included a teaser trailer, film poster and two film magazine covers featuring the film. This promotional package was created for a mainstream audience; I feel that mainstream films are targeted for all cultures and audiences, with the dominating culture and audience being the primary marketing focus. Our target audience is mainly ageing 18-25, but because the crime and gangster genre is very well known and popular, we made another film magazine targeting the older age group (30-40). This means that our target audience will expand and make our package more of a success as it is allowing other audiences to watch. Not only is creating a gangster film which the mainstream audience have a large interest in, the main reason as to why we decided as a group to create this type of film was because we gained inspiration from films such as Reservoir Dogs, Snatch, This is England, etc. I am pleased that we decided on this genre as we were able to use other genre elements into the crime and gangster category as you can have a hybrid of comedy and gangster in a film, or a hybrid of romance and gangsters in a film, as long as you include something similar to the stereotypical storyline of a crime and gangster film, e.g. gangsters on a mission, they kill, get wealthy, then get killed for their sins.
For the trailer, we made our own studio and production label. We did not use existing ones as we did not want to conform to their conventions, therefore by creating our own; we were able to have full control and freedom to what we wanted to show. This also shows our originality and capability. Because our genre is crime and gangster, we had to make sure that all of our promotional products linked well with each other. By having no limits with what we can or cannot do, we decided to stick to our colour scheme which is black and white to show consistency and to link all of the products effectively. We came up with ‘Woodstock Productions’ and ‘Willow Tree Studios’ because we wanted to think of something that also referred back to our film title Grow Your Own and it created a strong link between all of the products we made. Although we came to the decision to have black and white for the font (except film title), we still had to choose which font would look the best. We decided to do some research on gangster films and see what type of font they used; this is so we could also use a typical convention of a gangster film making our genre more clear to the audience. We found that the fonts were big, bold and simple making their statements strong and direct. We decided to conform to this convention as we wanted to ensure that all of the elements within our product reflected the genre, so it would confirm our target audience’s expectations. To find an eye catching font, we used a website called Dafont. Dafont is an archive of freely downloadable fonts. Fonts are categorized by theme, and can also be sorted by name, date and even popularity. This made our working progress faster as the texts were all categorized making the choices reduce. We had to make sure we chose the right font as we did not want to make our product look misleading, e.g. fancy italic writing gives an impression that it is trying to portray a romantic message. We knew the font has to be big and bold, making it legible for the audience. We also put the font in capital letters, making them stand out even more. Black and white was clearly our choice as the consistency of colour was important to us, as it helped link all of our products well. Overall, I thought our decisions were outstanding. It reflected our genre well and linked all products together which is one of the most vital factors.
Moving on from the trailer, our next focus was on producing two magazine covers. From our research, we noticed that not just the gangster magazine covers, but most of all magazine covers, only one person is used, which is the main character. Because of this, we decided as a group to lend our work to the generic conventions of magazine covers. On both magazines, we used our main actor. By using just one person for the cover, it allows the audience to immediately identify with the character and remember him/her. It also creates a deeper interaction between the character and the consumer compared to using a number of characters. The magazine which is produced for the younger target audience has a picture of the actor which was print screened out of a scene in the film trailer. We chose to do this as we wanted the audience to notice the character and his characteristics. We chose to use this particular shot as it would appeal more to the younger generation i.e. blood, action, violence etc. I think using blood and the colour red was a big selling point as it reflects our genre once again. For the other magazine cover which targets the older age group, we chose to move away from the violence and used a picture of the actor wearing a neat suit making him look refined and respected. If I had a chance to change this magazine cover, I would show the ground that he is standing on instead of making him look as if he is floating in the air. I would also experiment with what he is wearing, I think if he unbuttoned his top button and loosened his tie slightly, and it would make him look rebellious to the society making his gangster personality stand out. However I think the big selling point in the magazine cover was the shovel used. I think that it reflects well with the meaning of the title which also makes it misleading as the title itself has two meanings, allowing the audience to interpret it for themselves. We did not use the same camera techniques for both magazine covers as both magazines targeted different audiences which mean different expectations. For the younger audience’s magazine, we used a mid-shot, this was a decision intended to force the audience to notice the blood which has strong connotations of death and violence, making their interest in the film widen. For the other magazine, we used a long shot. This was because we did not want to include violence and gore, making the product disinteresting for the audience. We chose to use a long shot as it allows the audience to look at the character and judge. One thing about the actor that is seen throughout both magazines is the direct gaze. This allows the consumer and the character to have immediate interaction, making the consumer engaged. By creating two covers instead of one, it showed our variation in skills and our knowledge on how to make a film successful.
Finally, we moved on to the poster. This time we decided to use all of the characters rather than just the main character. We gained this inspiration from film posters such as This is England, Kidulthood etc. By using a number of characters, it gives the audience a rough idea as to how much violence there will be, e.g. the more people there are, the more violence there will be (however that is not always the case). We also kept to our colour scheme of red, white and black. Red because it has strong connotations of death, and black and white because not only do the colours contrast well with each other, black and white is also used in film noirs, making the genre more obvious. The font was also kept simple and plain making it easier to read. The font is in red to link with the title in the trailer. One of the successful elements in the poster was the choice of background. We used a famous British landmark to make it clear to the audience that the film is British as the bridge is recognisable. If I was to improve on it, I would not know what to change as I think all of the elements/factors in that poster is effective; links well with the other products and reflects the genre efficiently.
Overall, I am very pleased with all of the products as I feel that a lot of time and effort was put into it. I am proud of what I have done and what others have done as well. I think we have all worked well as a team to complete this, though there were times when teamwork was not shown. I am not embarrassed to say that I think our complete package looks successful and definitely shows that it is an A2 level piece of work. I have enjoyed working with my group and I have enjoyed knowing that we have the ability to show a variation of angles and shots. I am confident that every single product links well with one another and that each of them also reflect our genre and film title.
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