What is a marketing campaign and why is it needed?
Filmmaking can be very expensive business, with feature films needing healthy takings at the box office in order to cover the costs of production, pay the investors and make enough money for the next release at the cinema it only has a short space of time in which to become a ‘box office hit’, with the purpose of encouraging people to see the film at the cinema. The companies who own the film and loan it to cinemas to show for a period of time are called distributors.
Distributors are keen for their films to be as successful as possible so they create a marketing campaign to raise awareness of the film and arouse interest. In this way those who invested in the film stand the best chance of making a profit on it
Why is it important for a trailer to show us the genre and how is this established?
A trailer aims to give the audience information about the film, such as what the story is about, who the stars are and what genre or type of film it will be. Genre is important in film marketing because our decision about what to see will partly depend upon weather we enjoyed other similar films. When we view a trailer e are automatically ‘decoding’ what we see and hear to establish the film’s genre. For instance, dark shadowy figures might indicate a horror film, animated images and bright colours will usually indicate a film for children, a rapid beat to music means suspense, and so on. We call these recognisable sounds and images conventions of the genre occasionally, a film will be a hybrid of more than one genre and then it may take more time for us to decide what it is. This adds to our enjoyment, as our expectations are taken first in one direction then in another.
How does the trailer show that a film is worth going to see?
Whilst the marketing campaign uses genre to gain our interest, It must also show us how this new film is different to others in the same genre: his is known as the USP (unique selling point) of the film. The USP is what separates one film title from another released at a similar time or within the same genre. The USP could be many thing: it could be a genre which presents a unusual mix- say, a musical horror; it might be something distinct, like the innovative use of special effects; it could even be a star playing ‘against type’ - for example, an actor/ actress known for action movies taking on a serious emotional role. The USP is important for marketing the film as it sets each release apart from its rivals, and so it is often strongly emphasised in the marketing campaign
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