Brief

In A2 Media Studies Project I was tasked to create an advanced portfolio, this would be showcased on a blogger.com, which professionally replicates the marketing phases for a low budget independent slasher film. This was carried out in the form of a promotional trailer, poster and magazine cover. This was carried out via research into the subject of slasher genre, planning of production, construction of the products and finally an evaluation stage in which I dwell on what I have learned from this experience, the difficulties encountered, decisions made and the actual methodology of how the task was carried out e.g. how utilisation of all three products aided me in the marketing campaign.

Firstly the Research segment was an extensive area of focus within the project as I had to develop a detailed level of understanding of the Slasher genre and apply those to the Trailer, Poster and Magazine Cover in which I also had to establish a structure of knowledge of regarding the codes & conventions in order for an end result of professional looking products. In a unit/group of 2 more colleagues we had to produce, film and edit the trailer as opposed to the Poster and Magazine Cover which were individually done. This enabled us to use these areas as an outlet for our creativity individually with no third party contribution. The research phase involved gathering Qualitative and Quantitative data through the utilisation of QuestionPro.com which gave me the ability to reach out to my audience and cater to their wants and needs as a target demographic/market. Social Media was also heavily integrated into this procedure as in order to reach out to the demographic an appropriate medium was required to do so (I used Facebook & Twitter in particular). This survey was successful as these sites have a large variety of users which can be targeted as a demographic. The research stage involved me gathering detailed knowledge on existing pieces of media (trailers, posters and magazine covers specifically).

Due to the specification of the project being an Independent film trailer production I considered (Institutionally) that this will restrict me due to budgets and variety of software and effects to utilise.  Therefore the context of an independent film production has limitations however due to the genre being Slasher this allowed me to still produce a successful film trailer, poster and magazine cover as Slashers conventionally require a low budget and yet are still successful with their demographic and are successes as the genre does not demand CGI and other expensive production procedures as much as Action genre for example.

In addition I delved into the history of the Slasher genre and the inspired elements that construct a Slasher film; that being Film Noir and German Expressionism.  Understanding the impact of these cinematic periods helped me understand how to subvert or abide/follow a convention within the genre e.g. Use of dark colours and grim sets to reflect a character’s mental state of mind.

Upon completion of this phase I held auditions for my character roles within the trailer that will feature in the trailer, poster and magazine cover. In order to analyse shooting sets and locations and to be time efficient I took Recce/Reconnaissance shots of the locations to ensure it fit in genre wise in conjunction with the conventions of Slasher. Further time efficiency was achieved through the usage of Risk Assessments and Call Sheets ensuring that no accidents or time wastage occurred.

In the conclusion phases of the task I answered four evaluation questions which expressed what I have learned and the methodology used to accomplish the three tasks.