Last week, on a school trip to New York we took a private tour around the NBC studio. The Tour at NBC Studios, which is one of the oldest and most popular television studio tours, has recently reopened after an 18-month hiatus. The 82-year-old tour, which went on hold last year during renovations at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, offered a firsthand glimpse of the production process behind shows including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers and NBC Nightly News. As a media student, this offered invaluable insight regarding various camera work and an overall experience on a live media studio.
My favourite experience of the tour was when the tour culminated at the "Tour Studio," and we had the unique chance to produce our own late-night talk show segment. With a provided script (some ad libbing was required), cameras, a control room with built-in laugh track, and volunteers willing to fill in as the house band, every person on the tour walked away having had an hands-on experience learning what it takes to create a show.
An important distribution technique that many Hollywood films use is creating a trailer. A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema.
I have researched this method and firstly began using it in order to intrigue and interest my audience. I began to do this by uploading very short 15-second videos of small footage of the film onto our Instagram page. Instead of trailers I have been calling them "Spoilers". I have noticed, that spoilers are very popular in regards to the media industry- especially for music videos and songs. A spoiler is an element of a summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot elements which possibly can give away important details concerning the turn of events of a dramatic episode, they can create a buzz and also interest other audiences.
Madison Beer, a young female singer, uploaded a spoiler onto her Twitter account of her new single which was being released untitled "Something Sweet". The short 4- second video gave a very brief visual of the music video and song. Madison used the hashtag "#SomethingSweet2days" alongside this which also helped to create the buzz and allow followers to get involved. This extremely short clip gained 6,864 retweets, allowing followers to share there excitement and show other peers. Followers replied to this clip with comments such as "IM SO EXCITED NOW!", "Everyone tweet #SomethingSweet2days to get it trending!" and "such a good tease, all my friends must see this!". This spoiler shared on twitter, a free media platform, defiantly created a buzz and widened Madison's initial audience.
A trailer of a similar genre of my film I have been researching has been Wild Child. The trailer is fast moving, and gives a brief outline of the storyline and plot. The music and general feel of the trailer is similar to the film itself, with an upbeat rhythm. In the background, there is a voice- over with catchy one liners which help to similarly intrigue the audience. For my short film, Dreaming Daisy I have also created a small trailer. I will upload this link to my twitter and Facebook profile and also create a QR code that I will upload to Instagram, linking the audience to the trailer.
Here is my trailer-
In order to create synergy, I have created the trailer in a scrap-book like formation and also used small images which link with various dreams Daisy wishes to complete.
I have also created a QR code which will link to my trailer. I have Instagrammed the QR code so it is easily accessible for my audience. I have created the hashtag "#dreamingdaisysoon" to also help create a buzz alongside the release of the trailer.
I have recently been spending a lot of time creating my film poster. It still isn't quite finished, but the more editing I do of it, the more I learn what successful film posters qualities I need to include. Below, I have inserted an image of me working on my poster in todays lesson and my progress so far.
One important quality I have discovered is a QR code; a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone. QR codes allow consumers/audiences to be able to scan their iPhone or smart phone camera on top of the personalised QR code quickly, efficiently and easily using the app that is either downloadable or permanently on their phone.
I found this clever idea on the "Insidious" poster when I was researching various film posters. Though "Insidious" is of horror genre, I still fill this feature is relevant for my genre too, and through all my previous research of film posters realised that using a QR code is modern and a new idea for the film industry. Having this easily accessible convention on my poster will attract and address not only my target audience but a wide, variety of people who may not be able to access my films social media platforms.
Once I have finished making my short film (final product), I will link the final film to my QR code that I will personally customise. I have also decided to create another QR code linking teasers on my social media posts, to a trailer I have created. HERE is the link to my trailer. This will help create a buzz prior to the release of my film, and also attract apprehensive audience members.
I have also seen this method being used in other Hollywood films, promoting the trailer through use of the QR code to help create attention to the actual release of the film. I have linked an example below where it reads "SCAN QR CODE TO SEE MOVIE TRAILER".
Finally, while editing my poster I have had to leave space for my QR code. When doing this I was interested to whether there was normally a given, routined space. I was really intrigued and interested that in the "Iron Man" poster the QR code was part of the main photography and interlinked within the main design. I found that this was very clever and eye-catching.
