Original Brief

We have been set the challenge of producing a promotional campaign to advertise a new film. This promotional campaign must include three pieces of media production; a film poster, a film magazine front cover, along with the main piece, a promotional trailer. In order to uphold professionalism and maximize the success of it all, the three pieces must share a symbiotic link, sharing a common look and feel.

The promotional campaign will advertise a film that is within the horror genre. We have chosen this genre for a number of specific and key reasons. Firstly, the genre is very expansive in terms of what elements are considered to be classified as part of the horror genre, branching off to many sub-genres with different themes and iconography. These sub-genres have so much creativity put into each film placed under one of these categories and interesting conventions that give the genre such vibrancy and uniqueness. Secondly, and more importantly, horror films have the power to give a strong effect and influence their audiences in a way that is considered exciting and somewhat fascinating to witness. We want to experiment with this ourselves in the hopes of achieving this.

We will reach out to appeal to our target audience by producing three pieces that follow the conventions of the horror genre and of their respective forms, whilst also having their own unique touches of innovation and originality. An investigation and study of existing media texts will allow us to be on familiar terms with these conventions and to see the potential for growth and change.

My partner and I are feeling confident in working collectively on this project to produce a frightening, yet professional and effective promotional package. The following individuals will be working in our small team: Joshua Naughton, and Patricia Boamah-Brown.

A History of Horror

Sub-Genres of Horror

Sub-Genres of Horror from JoshNaughton

This presentation showcases a variety of sub-genres of Horror films.

Sub-Genre Selection and Narrative Ideas

Patricia and I have been thinking to choose working with the supernatural sub-genre of horror as it is easy to work with and that it is the most popular sub-genre for today's cinema audiences. We have also decided that we want to incorporate the handheld camera type of filming as this option is also considered to be popular.

We felt that this should also take place in a school, as barely any horror films have it taken place in one before, giving our film the sense of uniqueness from other films of the genre. It is also convenient for us as well, given the fact it would be pretty easy to film in this particular setting. The main character and protagonist should also be female, as this is a standard convention within horror films to have, along with the fact that they will be the 'final girl'.

The ending of this film should be a bad one, as this is quite normal with horror films. The protagonist, thinking that they're able to escape the situation that they are in, are suddenly killed by the supernatural forces just before the film ends.

Description of Target Audience Research

Patricia and I will be carrying out target audience research in order to gain an insight into what they like and prefer when it comes to horror films. We have done this by producing a questionnaire available to participate in online through SurveyMonkey, and also through the creation of a a focus group as well.

Questionnaire

Patricia and I conducted our own questionnaire combing aspects of target audience profiling, horror films, and films in general. This was made and distributed online through the use of the SurveyMonkey website.

Focus Group + Analysis

This is the focus group that was produced in order to paint a better picture about the target audience after the results was taken in from the questionnaire. We chose only girls to participate as this what the most favored gender seems to be when it comes to fans of horror films, as pointed out by the completed questionnaire. They were all around the age of 17 and were currently in full-time education. These were fans of horror films and therefore, this made the selection of them being used appropriate for the focus group.

Analysis of Focus Group
Overall, this focus group has helped to gain a significant insight into want the supposed target audience sees in a horror film and has indeed helped to contribute to the construction of the target audience profile. The audience used for the focus group were easily able to distinguish what kind of imagery should be used within a supernatural film. They were able to select from a range of supernatural horror film posters on which one was the most appealing to them. From this, we were able to gain an insight on what to include for the design and creation of the movie poster as part of our promotional package.