PLANNING: TREATMENT

Level Zero is a film about a man suffering the injustices of society,  metaphorically being brought down to level zero. The trailer looks to build suspense at this overall frustration towards life building up, accompanied by an interwoven chase scene, which works synonymously to build tension. Bubbling over, the frustration with his circumstance begins to manifest itself within some of the narrative as you see a twinkle in his eye that suggests rebellion. A rebellion is exercised within the final shot of the trailer in which he literally stands up against what he has been running from; symbolic of an overall rebellion against the bullying he has suffered.

PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

To identify our target audience, we looked to establish who our target audience is and how to reach them. This included age, ethnicity, gender, and what brands they like. 

I started investigating how brands define audiences, which inspires ideas on how we can begin to make the association with our product and our own audience 

Brands we researched included: Bauer media, sky media, NME media. All of them did an extensive audience profile, attaching their brand.

1. Who is my primary target audience?

18 to 35-year-olds, likely skewing towards a majority male primary audience.

2. What kind of films and television are they likely to prefer?

Dramas, Action Thriller. 

3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information about films?

Likely from streaming services or mainstream television programming

4. What brands do they prefer?

Likely mainstream cheap products: walkers crisps, Primark and  Co-op

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?

It utilizes themes of unjust while using the fast-paced action of the blockbuster films to keep the audience engaged

PLANNING: ADVANCED PRODUCTION

1. The name of our film: Level Zero
2. The name of our Production Company and our co-production companies: Ten Pin Productions and PPProductions
3. The name of the director that will appear in our trailers: Preesha P 
4. The name of the 2-3 main actors that will appear in our trailers: Tom B, Preesha P
5. (Optional)  "From the director of..."  Criminal Faces
6. The names of the film festivals where our film will be screened (more festival names here): Edinborough Film Festival and London BFI Film Festival
7. Pull quotes from reviews etc; wording: "GRIPPING"
8. Our location recce - take photos and collate in an attractive way + written explanation
9. Our target audience - Done individually
10. Social groups and issues in our film - Tom
11. Our props list - photos + stereotypes + clothing - Preesha
12. Our social media - Preesha (Instagram), Tom (Twitter)
13. Our music - we researched (this type of music) as the background track... and narrowed down our choice to include...
14. Our call sheets are being written by Preesha (regarding the residential off-site shoot) and Tom (regarding the poker game)
15. Make your storyboard - including shot types and diagrams of the action that will be seen on screen

Planning: Target Audience and Similar Films

       Kezia Williams of Entertainment One UK expressed the importance of a "comp list" in the distribution process of a film within her Teaching Trailers FDA course.

She went into further detail highlighting the importance of knowing your audience. She asks questions like "what drives them to the cinema" and "what interests do they have", all provoking questions to ask about our own audience. To do this, Williams says that it is important to look to other, similar films in order to see what types of audiences were interested in the film.

 KEZIA WILLIAMS: Really important to understand who your audience is and what motivates them and what’s going to interest them and drive them to go to the cinema. So you start, often, by examining similar films that have been released in the past– comparable films is a way in which we refer to them in the industry– and create a set that we can then look back at data so we can look at lots of different data and do research, really, on those comparable films to identify who the audience was on those films. So it might be that we look at demographic data and think about, did it skew more male or more female? What’s the age group that it appeals to?

0:46Skip to 0 minutes and 46 secondsDoes it have multiple different audiences that that can appeal to? And there’s lots and lots of cinema-going trends that you can dig into from that comparable set. We’ll also look at box office data to understand regionality, to look at the cinema-going skew– so did more people go to a certain cinema chain to see these comparable films? Right down to which cinemas performed. So it might be that there’s a cinema in London that had a fantastic box office share, and that’s an important aspect for us to consider. And then once you really understand who the audience on those comparable films were, you can start to talk about the differences and similarities between those films and the film that you’re working on.

FDA information on Gender and Age in relation to preferred genre:  

COMP LIST

Speed (Dir. Jan de Bont) : A young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph. The high intensity, high stakes action that Speed pushes forward through it's visuals and sound is what I'd like to capture in our own production. It similarly takes the format of rooting it's entire plot around one core action sequence, which in this case is them driving the bus at high speeds in a busy city.

Baby Driver (Dir. Edgar Wright) : Baby Drivers protagonist is depicted in the same way as would work brilliantly in our own format. His innocence and good intentions within a world of crime make his character highly endearing and give him a highly engaging character arc which show him progressively standing up for himself and taking charge. 

American Sniper (Dir. Clint Eastwood): American Snipers structure well compliments its action, this is most evident in the trailer, in which while its subject is nothing of importance, its cut-outs into scenes that provide context and enrich the character it makes the action highly engaging.

RESEARCH: When are trailers shown

 The timing of the campaign is important as if brought out to early hype begins to settle for the film and people tend to forget about it meaning that timing is essential. Often films may choose to release their films in relation to the time of the year, for example a feel-good summer film would be wise to release a trailer in early spring for release in summer so that people can feel excited for the season and, in turn, the movie.

TOY STORY 4

Sequalization of an extremely viral film franchise immediately establishes a designated audience. With the Disney label, parents expect values and lessons that imprint well on their children and this is reflected within the dialogue such as 'everything will be ok'

Toy Story 4 promises an exciting summer adventure that both has something for adults and children. It's nostalgic Beach Boys music with a campervan driving into the sunset evokes memories of settling down after a long sunny summers day which parents will also be able to reminisce over. Kids will similarly find excitement in the prospect of these bright colours that pop highly engaging 

YESTERDAY

Yesterday offers a festival-like atmosphere that allow people who want to relive the magic of the Beatles to do so. It's summer release date well correlates with the bright, sunny locations and the vibrant music that's shown in the trailer.

Many guests appearances from James Corden and Ed Sheeran allow for the movie to establish itself as a high budget production that takes itself seriously.

THE BRINK

Featuring real-life public figures, The Brink promises a documentary style production that exposes the truth providing a level of insight for audiences interested in politics. Camera men even go as far as to sit in on meetings between figures, a highly invasive position for the audience to sit in on.

Many, including The Guardian, found that the trailer doesn't ask questions and would be put off by the fly-on-the-wall style of documentary. In comparison, films like 'Frost/Nixon' portray a far more invasive style of documentary that pushes Richard Nixon into the spotlight and truly asking questions.

RESEARCH: Where are trailers shown?

According to the FDA film trailer website, Trailers are shown at the Cinema, TV Spots, and most prominently in this digital age: Social Media. 

• Cinema - As played 30 mins before the film, it is likely a paying audience for the film would be interested in films of a similar genre. Therefore, in the midst of comfortable seating and snacks an audience is likely to engage with whatever is presented.

• Social Media - As videos can be embedded, it is easy for audiences to engage with the content that is promoted to them as it plays upon scrolling into view of the trailer. This is preferable as it forces audiences to see your trailer, this means it is essential for the content to appeal to the 7 second rule (the amount of time a viewer will view a product before scrolling). In squeezing the USP of the trailer and other attractive features within these opening moments people who don't go out of their way to view new trailers will possibly engage with your product regardless.

• TV Spots - With these styles of advertising dominating how trailers are distributed for the past decade, TV spots are infamous for their nuisance as it frustratingly interrupts the programme. In adaptation to this, viewers often pre-record the show to be able to skip through the ads or, as of recent, switch to streaming services where there is no advertising. It is because of this that TV spots have lost their effectivity.

On the Film Space website, Dan Skinner discusses the effect of duration and style on trailers and who it will be consequently viewed by.

Teaser Trailer - The first time you get to see the material, the purpose of the teaser trailer is to get a sense of what the film will be about and excite you. Fewer shots, there is less plot and simply a first glimpse into the movie.

Main Trailer - Often Longer, trailers are anything up to 3 minutes long. The Trailer needs to set up the story, specifically what needs to be overcome by the protaganist. It is further important that the Trailer unfolds every piece of content that would be found appealing, revealing who is involved in the film means that audiences can create associations with directors who have made other films they've liked.

TV Spots - Much shorter, they work on the audience having knowledge of the film, reminding audiences of the films release and building excitement. Unlike the Main Trailer when there is no set duration, the TV spot needs to be very creative in fitting into such a finite time period.

RESEARCH: How trailers help cinemas fill

 FDA's 'Teaching Trailers' resource, while implying that film advertising finds success from signalling genre,  FDA further state that they must provide something new to audiences in order to engage them with their plot in particular, as Kermode states, 'Originality is rewarded'. This originality being labelled by the FDA as the USP or unique selling point. 

I identified a USP in three different trailers:

THE LION KING

The remake of the beloved Lion King(1994), Disney looks to recapture this past magic in the capabilities of 2020s animation. A movie loyal to the highly rated original, it's unique selling point is found in the spectacle for adults being able to relive the magic they felt watching this 25 years ago when they were younger and now likely sharing the experience with their own children.

LATE NIGHT

A show likely popular within adults or fans of the late night talk-shows, Late Night portrays a story of a bitter host navigating the world of live television as she attempts to save her show in threats of it being cancelled. The trailer establishes a woman (Molly) looking to prove her worth as more than a girl hired for diversity in the writers room, a story of perseverance in the face of racism in the work place, being a theme not tackled often in Hollywood, Late Night achieves a USP which many will relate. 

SPIES IN DISGUISE

A film which finds a compromise between the suave action in movies like James Bond, meets the fun, innocence of past dreamwork titles which are wildly popular within children as they look to meet the short attention span of children with it's high paced action and easily interpretable animated characters. Spies in Disguise further features Will Smith, a unique selling point in himself as with his name, brings the highly famous humour of his past roles.