Marketing and Merchandising

Film Marketing is the practise of promoting a film to increase publicity and anticipation within the public audience.This phase in the production cycle is extremely important because it maximises success for the films general interest within the public, consequently gaining more money from the film.

Trailers are a main stray of film promotion because they are delivered directly to the audience. They generally reveal the genre and storyline of the movie in a highly condensed fashion compressing maximum appeal into two and half minutes.

Another form of advertisement is through Posters, film posters are usually tailored to attract a target audience, and they use tag lines, main actors, the director and many more pieces of information to create a general understanding of the films narrative and genre. This automatically creates appeal and sometimes disses appeal throughout the audience. Film posters are also success full because it can be placed anywhere and are cheap to produce.

The internet also being a widely utilized advertises films through websites where people look for information on the film at will. However I do not believe it is as effective as a poster, because website browsing requires the population to go to the website thus not as popular as a poster which is seen everywhere.

Merchandise is a form of cross-promotion used primarily to generate additional income from that property and promote the visibility of the film. Ti-in film merchandise ranges from releases such as video games to fast food toys.

The Core Q and A

The Core (Jonn Amiel 2003)
How is the fact that this is a disaster film foreshadowed in the opening of the film?
In the beginning scene of the film it shows the Earth's Core automatically publicising the film name, The thrilling sharp music than complements the sequence. This brings up the first grant of information on the films genre. Most of the codes and conventions of a disaster film mostly follow out of the ordinary events which eventually form a climax, films such as 2012, and the day after tomorrow both utilize this. The first insight on the films genre is shown in the first couple of scenes. First it showed a glance of danger when a pigeon was found dead on the floor, this than escalates to a flock of birds committing suicide, busting there heads on shop windows and attacking the public. This scene than follows up with NASA guiding the path of a ship which crew contains, Thomas Parsel and Rebecca Charles.Once entering the atmosphere their navigation controls were momentarily disabled causing them to crash land in the middle of an interstate.

The 8 main characters in the film are:
Joshua Keys
Serge Lawas
Bob Wosen
Thomas Parsel
Conrad Zhinsche
Rebecca Charles
Brass and Finch

In the spaceship landing scene the music creates an emphasised loud tune in the background gaining tension, This gives a sense of unease whilst watching because of the sharp non-diegetic sound. This sequence uses stretched time using editing, this makes the sequence longer which adds to the tension.

The ellipsis is presented by the use of Keys voice which talks over the silence of the scene, he is not witnessed during this scene however you can hear him through the non-diegetic sound playing. A faint tune begins giving it a type of heroic pace, as if they are the only chance of Earths survival.While these play in the background the pace of the film is changed, using editing time is going faster skipping things that do not play a great need in the films interest, however still keeps interest and understanding within a viewers mind

The mise en scen during this sequence uses dramatic tension by harnessing the destruction of landmarks such as the Colosseum as the lightening storms target, this creates an emotional response from the audience for it could be a landmark of personal and specific importance or it could be that it is a national heritage that the audience carry. Cinematography also plays a key role in the scene, the camera zooms then uses an extreme long shot. This is intended to let the audience whiteness the magnitude of the problem at hand.

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HW due Friday 19th November

1. List five key ways in which we identify genre?

Style, Setting, Narrative (Theme), Props/Costume and Character's.

2. Describe the typical setting for either science fiction, action or horror.

In the genre of horror the department of Setting is a key renown attribute. Horror environments are singled out from other genres because of its distinctive aura. The original horror more often then not would be set in the night, accompanied with the urban isolated locations which have made the genre so thrilling. In some films the director might utilize the chance to film in a spooky House giving it the effect of it being haunted.

3. Discuss three ways in which genre is used by an audience.

It is an important factor with film that the audience use genre. Audience analyse film just by watching it. For example the audience use genre to determine weather they would appreciate a film or dislike it. The audience use genre to be able to subconsciously understand and respond to the clues and conventions within the film. They also use genre to determine weather one film would be similar or different from another.

4. Why is genre important to the film-maker?



Genre is extremely important when it comes down to the film-maker for the film maker use genre as a simple and effective way to sell their films to a target audience however this can be a crucial and unedifyingly risky part of creating a film because they must ensure that popularity of the genre stays intact or gets re-invigorated. This is were the genre itself gains interest because every film maker intends to put its own mark on his or her film. Sometimes they like to subvert the genre, suprising the chosen audience by turning the genre inside out or upside down. Genre must contain certain rules and vocabulary with which to organise meaning, they must also add codes and conventions set out for the audience to witness. These attributes are exceedingly important when it comes to clearly viewed genres such as horror.