Film Advertising Essay

When advertising and marketing a film there are many things you have to look at in order to market your film across correctly. For example film posters can be created to look completely different to what the film may be about just by using certain images from the film and choosing certain fonts. This can generate negative views towards a film as people could misinterpret the movie.The poster on the right is one I made for the horror movie Insidious. The poster looks like a family movie just by using a particular font and family images from the film. This shows how easy  it is to misinterpret the film to possibly generate a bigger audience.

By looking at posters made for ‘The Hunger Games’ they are very basic showing the main characters and a badge for the movie. But they never misinterpret what the movie is about as most images show them with fire backgrounds and weapons, which keeps in key with it being an action movie. They also tell the audience that their is a female lead role and her look tells the audience a lot about her just from the one image. She is holding a bow and arrow and has a fierce look in her which tells the audience she is the hero.

Film company's will market their films differently to aim towards certain cultures, as ‘The Hunger Games’ will already have a fan base through its books.  Another way the marketing campaigners will market to its target audience is through conventions. ‘The Hunger Games” was first shown by ‘Lionsgate’ to its fans at one of the biggest conventions called ‘ComicCon’ all that was shown was the mocking jay logo on fire which its fans would recognize what’s being revealed and then underneath was the title ‘The Hunger Games’ which became the films main poster.

A massive way to get a film marketed is through trailers. Trailers are seen everywhere through the cinema, the Internet and on the Television. The official trailer for ‘The Hunger Games’ is perfect for interesting a wider audience the trailer focus's on the female lead an builds her up to be special within the film by using certain dialogues from the film talking about her to show her importance. The trailer also promotes the film through its books by telling its audience the film is based on a best seller, which again can attract an audience as the film has already been successful in its books. The trailer tells everything the audience might need to know but ends just as the games are about to begin, this is done as it leaves the audience wanting more and will intrigue them to see the film to see what will happen. A trailer shouldn’t misinterpret what the film may be about because if a film does this it can lose its audience as they will expect something different and therefore it can lead to bad word of mouth.

Before a film is released Producers have a test screening of the film to a small audience of the ‘unfinished’ film to get some feedback so that they may change the movie if there is a lot of negative feedback. But nowadays if a film does have a negative response at a test screen it can ruin its campaign due to word of mouth spreading so easily due to the amount of use over the web with blogs and social networks. But this is crucial for a producer to make drastic changes to a film for it to successful.

Interactive marketing is very important for a film and has become a great importance in getting a movie known. ‘The Hunger Games’ had a very good campaign for its fans. They released a website which would then link to your ‘Facebook’ or ‘Twitter’ page and then you would be assigned to a district from the movie. From then the site released messages from the president know as President Snow from the film itself to get people to run for mayor of their district through the website and released what their duties would be for example ‘public appearances’ this was a great way to market the movie as it gets people involved with the culture of the film. The marketing campaign still runs this website and updating it with updates of fake clothing lines and perfumes to buy from a company that is based in the film, as the film as a very strange look in clothing its a great way to show the fans and an audience what to expect. ‘The Hunger Games’ UK and US premiere was promoted on Yahoo Movies as it was streamed from the red carpet to fans were able to see the stars of the film arrive and see them being interviewed before the film so fans could get a live look at the stars opinions and thoughts of the film. This is another great way to get fans involved and closer to the film.

Nowadays films make millions from merchandising, not only is it a great way to let the world know about your film through other peoples merchandise but it’s a great way for the producers to make more money through their film. For example with ‘The Hunger Games’ the main character Katniss uses a Bow and arrow throughout the film and people are able to purchase film replicas. Merchandising started with Disney and Mickey Mouse in 1928 but didn’t really become popular until 1977’s movie Star Wars with the action figures and movie replicas.  Another popular merchandise is clothing whether it is costumes or just a simple t-shirt with the logo on it. I made a t-shirt for ‘The Hunger Games’ and used the popular “KEEP CALM” phrase on it and then referenced the movie on the t shirt and added the logo of the movie.

Distributing a film is what gets it to the audience. A movie used to be played at a cinema then never seen again till it was re released at a cinema, today films are brought out at a cinema and then within months are brought to its audience through DVD and Blu-ray sales. 'The Hunger Games' had a big cinema release making a profit of over 600 million dollars. It was first released with a premier in Los Angeles USA on March 12^th 2012 but was officially released alongside the UK on the 23rd of March 2012.  From when a film is at a cinema to its DVD release is called a theatrical window, which gets shorter and shorter due to the Internet streaming these movies illegally with cameras in cinemas and DVD-rips. So Producers have to make this window smaller and smaller. ‘The Hunger Games’ Theatrical window was only 4 months long.

The marketing campaign was similar in the idea of making a website but they made it their own in how they made people feel they were apart of the movie by putting them into districts from the movie and giving them a chance to browse what’s on offer in ‘The Hunger Games’ world and compete to be a mayor of their district. They also have made good representation of the movie and the logo and they can tie that in with the use of the bow and arrow for its new and old audience to market the films future movies. I think the campaign for ‘The Hunger Games’ was successful, well thought out and had a lot of attention on it to grab a new and old audience and keep them.