Timeline

This will show most of my theory work learnt in lessons and in school.

9th September 2011

Film Industries

There are three sections in the film industries, they are divided into sections so everything becomes simple and they make good business by following step by step.

• Production
• Distribution
• Exhibition

There are nine points every director, producer or writer should always follow if they want the film to succeed and in some cases make a big profit.

Points into making a film (Timeline):

1. The film will always need an idea. Before they start to even write the script they will need a solid idea, in most cases directors/writers/producers get their ideas by inspiration, past experience, etc.
2. Money - Development Finance. They will need a budget, if they want to make a big profit they will need a bigger budget, if they want a smaller profit it's obvious they will need a smaller budget. For example; horror film '28 Days Later' had a budget of $8,000,000 and made $82,719,885 and another horror film 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' had a budget of $9,200,000 and made $107,017,655. You can see that the bigger budget makes more money at the end.
3. Script development. Every director will have to employ a writer to write up the script and at the end they would need to do a 'Sales Treatment', this means a conclusion of the whole script, it usually is two pages long.
4. Packaging. Directors should always make a package for their film. Inside the package it must include various things that would get people's attention. It should include: Sales treatment, first draught of the script, genre of the film, target audience, the cast, director, budget, when the film will be released and mention when will everyone get their money back.
5. Finance. They should always have investors. They should do pre sells, meaning selling the film before it's released and they do make money by doing this. They should have insurance for the film, just incase they film doesn't finished and it fails so some people could get their money back.
6. Pre Preduction, this includes all the equipment, special effects, storyboard and cast.
7. The Shoot, this is when it arrives to actually shooting the scenes from the film and managing time well when shooting.
8. Post Production (editing), this includes sound, digital effects, rough cuts of the scenes and then all final cuts.
9. Distribution

19th September 2011

Codes and Conventions

In every trailer they will have codes and conventions such as:

• Film Title
• Captions and Reviews from newspapers and magazines
• Star Rating
• Music (diegetic sounds and non diegetic sounds)
• Production Companies
• Introduce famous actors
• Director's previous work
• Genre
• Montage. For example: for an action film the change of scene would be quick, build more tension throughout the trailer
• Non linear
• Voice Over

3rd October 2011

Trailers: The Theory

25% of the budget from a film will go into marketing.

A producer will usually employ a sells agent and that sells agent will have to sell the film to a distributor; the distributor is basically the one that helps the film to get recognised with marketing and advertisement.

Marketing companies will do test screenings of the film before they make up a trailer. They are two types of advertising; there is, above the line adverstising, basically this means this type of advertising has to be payed for whereas the other type is called below the line advertising which basically means the opposite, you wont usually have to pay for this type of advertising.

Above the line advertising: Magazines, billboards, newspapers, TV, radio, bus banners, phone booth, etc.

Below the line advertising: Facebook likes, premiers, film reviews; all of these give free media coverage for the film.

The marketing campaign is one of the main reasons why films are so popular now a days, they inform the audience about a film and encouraging them to see the film at the cinema.

Why is the trailer important?

The trailer is very important in order to have a successful film. It's more visual than magazines or billboards advertisement. They show actual scenes and key scenes from the film making it more interesting and they do set expectations from the audience.

Why is it important for a trailer to show us the genre and how is this established?

Genre is what people first think about when watching a trailer so it makes it very important for the film marketing because their decision about what to see will partly depend upon whether they enjoyed other similar films.

How does the trailer show that the film is worth going to see?

The marketing campaign use genre to gain the audience interest, however, the trailer must show why is the film different from others from the same genre by showing key scenes and key lines from the original film and this is known as the USP (unique selling point).

Distributing a Trailer

When is the trailer produced?

Most trailers in the film industry are produced at the same time as the film is being edited to become the final version that will be released in the cinema.

Global Releasing

Sometimes trailers are shown in a range of countries so it may have a range of release dates, meaning that the trailer must show the correct release date for each country so the audience is aware when the film is released. Trailers may be re-cut for different countries, maybe with different voice overs and also they might be different cuts from the film just to aim the interests of different audience groups.

Features of a Trailer

What are the features of a trailer?

Trailers are designed to capture the audience's attention and hold it until the film is released. They create anticipation for the audience of what is to come withing the film.

What types of trailer are there?

They are three types of trailers.

1. Full theatrical trailer: this type of trailer generally runs for two or three minutes in the cinema.
2. TV Spot: this one usually lasts no more than thirty seconds.
3. Teaser Trailer: this type of trailer is as short as ten seconds, it teases the audience so they can wait for the full theatrical trailer.