You work for a film promotions company that markets and advertises films. They are in the process of negotiating a deal to exclusively market the sequel to a film that has previously achieved high box office success.
In order to secure this deal, you are to demonstrate your understanding of how the original film has created meaning and communicated to a specific audience through the language of film.
Once this understanding has been successfully demonstrated, you will be required to redevelop promotional materials for the film’s re-release in a different production context and that will appeal to an entirely new demographic, showing that you have identified the needs, wants and likes of this specific audience and how they differ from the needs, wants and likes of the film’s original target demographic.
01
commentary:
A SINGLE MAN
02
research
03
unsuccessful trailer
final trailer
My target audience are gays who are in their mid-20s to late-30s. I wanted to target gays who were part of the independent scene and were interested in arthouse films.
The reason I wished to do this was due to the controversy created by the original Weintein trailers. The issue many people had with the original trailer was that it was trying to market a film to a wider audience as well as trying to garner an Oscar nomination for Julianne Moore. However, that meant that Julianne Moore had to appear for longer on the screen and by doing that it took away a lot of screen-time for other characters like Jim (Matthew Goode) and Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), and in turn gay elements within the film. In fact, they went so far as to make the film look like it was based around a love story between George and Charley. They also featured Julianne Moore’s character on the poster in favour of the other characters. So this time I want to create the image for the film targeted towards a more niche market. Beyond making it include the gay aspects of the film, I made it more explicit, resulting in a smaller but more specific audience pool. I tried to do what Weinstein did but on the opposite pole of the spectrum.
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My first attempt at a trailer was not very successful. Although it was attempting to illustrate the plot of the film, including Julianne Moore in my trailer posed the possibility of the audience being confused. Therefore, I eliminated that possibility by removing her from the trailers. I also changed a few things up in order to fit the conventions of a trailer better, such as the ratings in the beginning of the video and adding more text. Additionally, I added dialogue as the first trailer felt a bit dry, and wouldn’t be able to hook the audience. The text that appeared was also catered towards the audience, instead of featuring Volpi Cup for Best Actor for Colin Firth, I chose the Queer Lion Award from the Venice International Film Festival, which is awarded to the “Best Movie with LGBT Themes & Queer Culture”. I also decided to add “A Film By Tom Ford” rather than including a quote from a critical review like the original trailer. This was because I believe that many of my audience would be able to recognise his name and be familiar with his work and it could act as star appeal.
posters
The poster was created as a nod to the postcard featured in the actual film. The reference and the mainly black and white colour palette added a nostalgic and slightly romantic air that would appeal to the target audience. I also recoloured some of the posters in reference to vintage film posters from the 60s. I also purposely picked scenes that were more suggestive in terms of “gay themes” within the film. I chose to include posters of the supporting characters Carlos and Kenny. That way it would create more curiosity around the plot and it would kind of follow more of the romance convention where the audience would often encounter (ie. Bridget Jones).
POSTCARDS
I chose to create postcards as merchandise for the film. The reason I chose to do this was due to the fact that it was relevant for the time the film was set and because it went hand in hand with the poster. This paraphernalia could also act as a collector’s edition in special edition DVDs like those of the Criterion Collection. The images on these were chosen as they were less explicit than a few scenes on the trailer and could therefore either be displayed or sent between aficionados. Despite the PG-ness of it all there is a sensuality in all these shots.
FILM STUDIES
UNIT 26
SCENARIO