RESEARCH : Trailer Analysis, Attack on Titan Season 4 (Final Season)

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RESEARCH : Why Is A Trailer Made?

A Trailer is commonly made to inform a public audience of the existence, premise and USP's of your film or show. It is commonly stylised to appeal to the audience that the film would be trying to reach, for example a trailer for a horror film would likely follow conventions of dark shadows looming over the monster.

A trailer must :
- inform the viewers of your premise
- show enough information to get your viewers invested in the film or show.
- withhold enough information to make your viewers want to watch the film/show ( it is common for it to be a question that will be answered in the film for example, who is the murderer, will the hero accomplish his/her goal, etc).

alongside the above trailers are often used to inform people of three main things :
-The genre of the story
-The hooks of the story
-The characters in the story.

RESEARCH : Where Would A Film Be Released?

When releasing their films into cinemas a distributor must consider multiple things, firstly they must consider if they want their film to get a saturated or a selected release.

A saturated release would mean that their film would be released in multiple cinemas, and multiple screenings a day. It is common for big films distributed by big companies such as Disney, paramount, etc to receive this kind of release, with examples being the harry potter films, the live action classics owned by Disney (e.g. Aladdin, the lion king, etc). This is because Disney and paramount have the money to give their films such wide and long cinematic releases, therefore they would keep their  films in cinema for a long time to help maximise profits, and sales.

A selected release is more common for films produced by smaller companies and smaller directors. These kind of releases are often short and limited to a few cinemas, often only screening in places their film would be most likely to be successful. For example I, Daniel Blake received very limited screenings 

RESEARCH : When Do Trailers Appear?

Trailers are commonly released during a window that would best maximise sales for that film, for example a seasonal film such as a Christmas film would be released during the Christmas season, leading to more sales as people are looking for that kind of film during that period.

Distributors would keep track of their competitors film's release scheduled to make sure that they don't release films during the same window as them, this is done to maximise sales and make profits as large as they possibly can. Therefore that would mean that their trailers would be posted during a time where there is limited competition to gain public knowledge and interest before their competitors have a chance to do the same.

                           

They look for when the best weekend would be to start screening, this is because films earn most of their money throughout their theatrical run during their opening weekend, so if it failed then they would have to withdraw the film.

Distributors must also consider holding the film back and not have multiple screenings in one day this is primarily done to sell out their screenings and will allow the distributor to argue that the film deserves more screenings as the demand for the film has increased and be able to convince cinemas to keep it playing as long as possible.

RESEARCH : What Is A Film's Selling Points?

A film distributor would need to look at the film and decide what aspects of the film place it apart from the rest. The hooks of a film are what is generally used to grab potential audiences attention. It is common for a distributor to try to capitalise on big name stars that worked on the film or they will talk about previous films that stars have worked on; this gets potential audiences attention.

Chris Besseling stated that a when you put any product into a marketplace, including films, you have to immediately identify two things: the target audience and the unique selling points that sets it apart from other films. This helps the marketers to find a set of people to market their film towards and will help them realise what their film needs to be marketed as to best grab the attention of their target audience.

He tells us to identify the key strengths that you can exploit and use over the course of the film's campaign to help increase the revenue the film will get. It is common that the strengths are a well known actor or a well known director. He then tells us to put them at the forefront of the campaign. Another key strength would be to identify if it's already able to cash in on a pre-existing audience as they could get more revenue if the audience is already aware of the story, for example successive films such as the Star Wars films.

Kezia Williams stated that at any moment during the film campaign distributors will look for key themes, unique selling points and hooks. She also said that emotional aspects of the film can be used to grab the audiences attention and be used as the USP for the film. This means that it is the distributors job to identify these grips and use them to promote and advertise the film/show.

RESEARCH : How The Campaign Works?

There are two primary types of costs : above the line and below the line. Above the line costs are the necessary costs to create an online presence for the film, primarily through posters, social media, trailers, etc. Below the line costs is more engaged in that the actors will do interviews, there will be a premiere, etc. It is common for these events to be opened to the press and to the audience to attend and interact with the actors, directors and all the other people that are involved with the film.

The amount spent on promotion is usually calculated by how much they assume they will earn throughout the film's run and then they will calculate how much they have to spend based on how much profit they predict to earn. They are able to do this as the distributors will look within the same genre's at similar film's earnings and see how profitable they were. Then they will calculate how well they think the film will do and use that value to calculate how much they have to spend on promotion.

The campaign works because the distributor will identify the target market and find a way to advertise and promote their film to best appeal to the audience they are trying to target.

Distributors spent around £350 million in advertisement for their films in 2014, with £160 million of that being spent on trailers, publicity events such as premieres and interviews, and production and the actual delivery to the cinemas and home screens.

One of the most influential parts of advertisement is the poster. It needs to show what the film is about, who is involved with the production of the film, and need to be engaging and catch the eye of the by-passers. Also if the poster is a sequel to another film it has to show that somewhere, usually with colouring, style and actors, and example of a series of posters that exist within a franchise is shown below with the Star Wars posters.

  

Trailers can be classified in four main ways:

Teaser – The teaser is usually shorter, with the Mr Holmes teaser lasting only fifty one seconds, it is usually only contains the most impactful, memorable lines and only showcases one or two major characters. The short runtime means that it is common for it to be designed for and to be posted on social media. It’s main purpose is to grab the audience’s attention and to

Main trailer – this kind of trailer showcases more elements of the story and cast, the main trailer is usually longer with the sherlock trailer lasting one minute fifty four seconds. It contains more information about the story and the characters. It is common for the main trailer to feature more scenes and to hold more information regarding the story.

TV spot – an advert which contains the actors, messages and aims to promote the film/show by showing a scene or a quick montage to promote the film and get people to watch it.

RESEARCH : Who Is A Film Marketed Towards?

On the FDA website, Kezia Williams (Entertainment One Uk) explains the importance of targeting the correct audience and ensuring that you are aware of their likes and dislikes as well as what, in turn, will ensure that they will view your film and leave positive reviews.

Marketability - This is the ability for a film to be sold or marketed. To be able to convince a stranger to watch a film after hearing about it or seeing snippets of the film via a trailer is vital for it to be a success and in turn for it to make a profit and hit targets.

Playablitity - This is about the quality of the film. How well the target audience will respond to the film once they start their viewing. Will they buy the DVD or stream it when it's released? Will they talk about it and spread awareness? A positive reaction is vital for the success of the film. If a film is marketed correctly and is of high quality it should be replayed more and will have a longer life span than of something of a lesser quality.

Above I have completed a selection of tasks to help me in my understanding of who a film can be marketed towards by looking at the interests of people and how to possibly market a film towards a specific audience. I looked at how professionals completed this task and will use what I have learnt to help me with my future project. In doing this I have gained a better understanding of how to correctly market a film to get the highest number of views and sales.