Evaluation Question 2

A film distributer is in charge of releasing a film both theatrically or via home viewing. It varies between distributer and the film itself but some distributers may release films directly themselves or via theatrical exhibitions. It is also the distributer’s responsibility to promote the film and also to exhibit it. The process to promoting the film will depend on their budget but usually this is done via various advertising campaigns such as via magazines, the internet, television or through posters. They are also tasked with the fairly stressful job of distributing the film to all of its exhibitions; they need to ensure that there are enough reels of film for every expedition, that the film reels make it to their location, ensure that they the cinemas they are shown in are filling their seats and finally make sure that the reels return safely to their storage. The way a film is marketed will vary depending on the target audience, for example a film intended for children would likely be advertised on television during children’s programing where as a horror film would be advertised late at night after the watershed. When considering film distribution among audiences they will often hold test screening of the film itself as well as any of its marketing fronts. They then ask the audience what the thought of it and will change it depending on what they said. Doing this can be of great help the distributer as it can allow them to have a stronger film campaign and allow them to generate more revenue. With recent advances in technology many films are advertised virally through websites, these can be anything from a banner advert on a web page or as a TV advert played on YouTube, often films are also given their own website to promote its launch. This is a very effective means of advertising to a large demographic as so many people use the internet and advertising online can cost considerably less than on television or through magazines.
Our film was classified as 15, we felt by doping this we opened up the film to a larger audience, not simply due to more people legally being able to see it but having a horror film with a certificate of 18 has a certain stigmata about it and (in my opinion) would likely deter people from seeing it whether or not they are old enough. When making our posters after creating our trailer we decided that the key element to feature in both would be darkness as well as mystery. The poster I made does this by creating a very dark and blurred image of the films antagonist and shares the same insanity feeling that my character from Voices feels, it is similar to a poster for “The Thing” I found only without the blue sepia tone.

We left the text and colour of our posters fairly plain; I felt that this was a necessary decision as being a horror movie it shouldn’t involve too much bright or attractive imagery as this may create the wrong impression to our intended audience. When creating my magazine cover I wanted to go in a different direction of which I had went with my trailer and poster, I wanted my cover to be more about the actor in the film rather than the character he plays. I got the idea for this from a copy of empire magazine with Chris Pine on the cover, as he is featuring himself and not a character he plays.