Viral Marketing

Viral marketing plays a big part of advertising films in today's age. It can be passed around from person to person and can spread, like a virus. If this is done well, or done excessively, then this may create a real hype for the film in question. Viral marketing does not cost very much either, unlike other sources of advertising (TV, Radio, etc.)

Here is a picture that basically shows how viral marketing and advertising works. One person tells others, they tell others they know and so on until it has spread to thousands of people.

A film that used viral marketing was 'Cloverfield' which came out in 2008. The film was first publicised with a one-and-a-half-minute teaser trailer attached to the film Transformers. Nothing was known about the film before this trailer. The trailer did not advertise the name of the film; only the producer's name, J.J. Abrams and a release date, 18.01.08. An element of viral marketing included pages being created for fictional characters on the social networking site MySpace. The viral marketing also lead to websites being created for fictional companies that were later alluded to in the film.

Another film that used viral marketing to their advantage and gained plenty of advertisement was the 2008 film 'Shifty'. Just before the film was released the website for the film allowed users to send an e-mail with a friend's face attatched to a person in a photo which is meant to be from the police. The photo is two people who appear to be doing a drug deal. The person who receives the e-mail is supposed to be fooled in to thinking that they have been caught dealing drugs by the police. The e-mail also came with the following warning: "If you fail to respond to this e-mail within seven days of receipt please be aware that this will then become an official matter and there will be a strong likelihood of criminal investigation". This fits in well as the film in question is about a drug deal. The image below shows what users could send to their friends or family.

Another form of viral advertising , from 2007, was done by Portuguese football club Sporting Lisbon in an attempt to raise season ticket sales. Before the start of the 07/08 season, a video was integrated into the club's website. Before the video started playing, the user had to enter his name and phone number into the boxes. The video featured then coach Paulo Bento and the players waiting in the changing room while the coach makes a phone call to the user saying that they can't start the season until he buys a season ticket. The synchronisation between video and phone call and the fact that it was a new experience for the user lead to nearly 200,000 page views and phone calls in less than 24 Hours. Here is the link to the video.

Genre Research

Our film is a Romantic Drama. This is a very unique style of film as the love side of the story particularly in our film is very hard hitting and dramatic. as this is very unique to our film i am going to look at drama's as a whole. Drama films are made to put viewers in the spot of the characters so that they feel the pain and suffering of the character like Claire at the end of our film, or the joy of someone as seen with the mexican man realising his daughter is alive as seen in the film i'm going to use as an example of a drama film. Crash is a film about several stories that interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more. this story is a great drama as it is very hard hitting throughout and with the interweaving storyline keeps the audience interested. This is a very good example of a hard hitting drama that interweaves love, pain and happiness. The scene below is with the Hispanic locksmith and the Persian man from the store and shows the daughter of the locksmith being shot but the shocking twist at the end is just like our movies ending with the audience realising Ciaran is dead. As the film is copyrighted i can only link the scene with the web link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9vg4TjX5HI

Poster Analysis

I looked at several poster designs in preparation for designing a poster for our own film. The posters I looked at reflected our own film in some way, shape or form. We have to make sure our poster doesn't give away too much of our film because it's only a short 5 minute film.

The first poster I looked at was for the film 'Adulthood'. The form of the poster is landscape which shows a wider image. This could be saying that there is a wide range of races, sexualites, etc. The poster shows the main characters of the cast set out along an urban background, which is identical to where our film is set. The characters look very intimidating, especially the guy at the front. His head tilted up, hoodie up shows he is quite a rough character. He also looks like the leader with him being at the front of the gang. The girl in the pink tracksuit looks like she is trying to fit in with the rest with the way she is posed, whereas the other two girls are posed in a feminine way. The sky is not an ordinary sky blue colour. The combination of yellow and orange in the sky shows that there could be a lot of chaos throughout the film and that not everything is going to be simple. The title has a lower case 'd' in it. This could be to symbolise that there is an obscurity in the gang and signify that not everyone plays by the rules which would be key to the arguments which entail in the film.

Another film poster which I analysed was the film for the 1997 drama film 'Titanic'. It is a portrait which emphasises the size of the ship on the poster. This also emphasises the size of the terror that the characters will encounter. The poster is set out with two characters at the top of the poster. This gives you the idea that they are the two main characters. It also shows you that the film is a romantic film. You can tell this from the posture of the two characters and how DiCaprio has got his arm round Winslet. Just above each of the character's heads you can see their name. This may draw the audience in if they know who is in the film. Despite the disaster that occurs in the film, the sky is a nice light blue which gives off a positive vibe. This is a good little twist. Another twist, referring back to the two characters, shows them in the sky fading in a dream-like way. Yet in the film, it unravels to be nothing like a dream, but a nightmare. The title is in white and stands out against the black ship. The font is smart and classic which reflects the time period of which it was filmed in.