P4 - Advertising Campaign

 P4 - Unit 20

Radio trailer 

For the voice recording set up i used my phone to record the audio on voice notes in a quite classroom, and followed the script that i made on writer duet, i had all my actors in the room at the same time because at some points i needed them to say a piece of script at the same time, i mostly followed the script in order with each actor saying their line after the other and only had to re-record 2 of the voice notes due to background sounds. I sourced the music from youtube and search for copyright free horror theme background music, along with the sound fx being copyright free. 

My radio trailer is around 1 minute 4 seconds long, this is suitable for a radio trailer as it isn't too long and doesn't drag on, but also long enough to catch the audiences attention. I have included various sound effects which builds tension throughout the trailer. My sound effects included...

I have also added background music which is a low and slow piano, it sounds eerie which fits my genre of horror. For my voice over I got my actor Blake, which was recorded in a quiet room where he practised the script before reading it, I also sent him a copy of the script so that he could read it whilst speaking. I lowered my background music to -20db and increased the volume of Blakes voice to +2db. 

I have shortened the the audio clips so that it fits and transfer nicely to the next one and on some audio clips I have made it fade out such as the scream to make it more realistic. I edited things such as the length of the audio clips to cut out additional and unneeded talking from my actors, and also had to sequence the clips in order to make the narrative make sense but also to not give too much of the story away. When the sound effects are played, i cued them so the scary effects would come after a darker line of dialogue of the narrator for example the sound of sinister nuns followed by a scream to imply somethings bad happens, but the audience will not know what that is unless they watch.

I made sure to build tension throughout the trailer, at the start I had my actor Blake say the title and bit about the tv series, I sequences all clips to make it sound like it was a conversation and had to change most of the db of the clips, this is because the clips were either not clear enough and needed turning up in db or down because they were too loud, however the more tension building audio clips I turned up more than the others to make them more dramatic

I used a H.264  to make sure the file was easily compressible and means I can share it to YouTube and other platforms easily. and exported the resolution as 1280x720 which is suitable for BBC3 and still looks good quality, it is also at 60fps which was the minimum requirement from the brief. however since the radio trailer only needs to be posted on the radio I didn't need any visuals, but since I'm also uploading it to YouTube I decided to include my ident in it. It exported as a .mv file for YouTube and an audio, Mp3 file for radio use.

Ident

Poster

Because I didn't have access to a nun, or a nun's costume, I decided to source my images for my poster. These were sourced from royalty/copright free websites such as Pexels and Pixabay and PNG sites that can be seen in my assets table. 

I made this image on affinity photos and used effects and layers to build my final version of the poster, I used a background picture of a graveyard to reinforce the horror genre of my tv series, it also has a church in the background which is also in my series which hints towards the location of some of my scenes. I darkened this image to better suit the aesthetic of my poster. I added a png of a hand holding a spliff to imply that there is some drug use in my drama which might make the audience infer that there is a link between drug use and the seeing of the nuns.

I have added the BBC3 logo to allow the audience to know where they can watch the drama, and iPlayer aswell. This works as my call to action and is conventional of a poster. 

I have also got a 15 age rating picture in the bottom right to show the audience that it may have some explicit content, this is conventional and is also a legal requirement.

I have also added my title of "Look" and added a font called "Deadfall" and have also added a gradient of black to red to make the text look more sinister and look more like a horror film, along with a outer glow to reinforce the supernatural nature of my drama. 

I also had text for the release date of the 26th of may so my audience know when they can watch my drama. And the added the actors names at the top to help promote my drama if the audience have seen them in another other media texts.  The nun in the background of the text portrays that the series will include nuns, which is why I have added a low opacity outline of a scary looking nun in the background. This is an enigma code and hints to the narrative but doesn't give away any of the plot and doesn't explain how my characters and the nun are linked. Again, my audience will need to watch it to find out.

Exports - I exported two versions of my poster, a JPEG and a PDF. The JPEG is the low resolution version which I can use for sharing online. The PDF is the higher resolution version which is better for print advertising and resizing without losing quality. 

Social media posts

Instagram

Tiktok

Twitter 

For my social media posts I used zeeoub to generate the image of my posts that look like they are on the actual platform. I made the images on publisher photos before, I have copied the text from the poster to my social media posts, I took pictures of my friends and then cropped them out on publisher photo, I did this by rasterising and trimming then selected remove at the top then rubbed out the background of the images that I didn't need. I then added a fx to the images of Cuba and Blake, I clicked lighten and added black colour overlay to make them greyed out which I believe worked well. I also used the same text and photo of nun for the twitter post however I changed the size of both to make them suit the post better and differentiate it from the poster. I have used my ident as my profile photo on each platform to keep consistency in order to build a product/brand image and makes the series recognisable. this means when the trailer is released people will be able to search the name look up an find it easily. I have also included hashtags like "#look" to build awareness of the hashtags and also included "#BBC" and "#iPlayer" to show that the series can be watched on these platforms. I have kept consistent throughtout the posts by having an image of a nun on each post, this also makes the series recognisable, as it has use of a nun which hasn't been seen in a horror film before. By putting 2 of my characters in my twitter post I am able to show the star persona and hint towards what happens in the titles, the "#horror" also shows the audience that it is a horror series. My instagram post is the same as my poster, I have done this because instagram will be my most popular platform for my age range of 15-21 year olds, therefore I used the most effective/ aesthetically pleasing post to build the most awareness, for my instagram post I haven't included images of any of the actors apart form the nun, instead I have put the names of each actor within my series. along with the release date to build hype for the trailer, if I build more views and audience for my trailer I am likely to gain more viewers for my actual series as people who are interested in the posts will make sure to watch it the day it releases and if I make my trailer effectively, they will most likely watch the first episode of the series to see if they enjoy it, in my trailer I will be able to build actual tension and hint towards what the series is about and show that it isn't just a horror film, its about a friend group leaning to trust each other and the consequences of using drugs. 

TV trailer

For my TV trailer I made a storyboard as a guide for me to follow, I also made a script however I did change a lot of the dialogue and kept it to visual story telling instead of audio, this is good as a horror film will normally have short clips of action such as in my film and builds up an event for a shock. I had 4 actors for my series trailer, Blake, Kuba, Xander and Sam. The only props I had to use in my tv trailer was the mask which I made by printing a picture of a nuns face and sticking it down on a piece of cardboard, and string. for other costumes I asked my actors to wear their own clothes but make sure they wore tracksuit bottoms or joggers and bring a big puffer coat to make them look like stereotypical teen boys and also didn't have to spend extra money on costumes and props. 

I have filmed in 3 different locations in order to suit the genre more, for example I started on the moors near white wells and found a build which looked good for my trailer, however when I changed locations and went to Ilkley graveyard,  I found that that church looked way better and looks similar to the one in my storyboard and on my poster. The audience will be able to tell that it is a horror film due to the low angle shot of the nun that I used makes them look powerful and supernatural. 

The school which is where my nun is filmed in dark classrooms in a small window where it has eerie lighting, this wasn't my ideal location but I couldn't get permission to film in the church so I had to film here instead. I told my actors to act like they were smoking and talking to each other which they did by using vapes and talking to each other, and for other clips I told my actors to walk in a straight line towards the church, I also asked one of my actors to lie on the floor and act like he was possessed which he did well. 

Overall i have met all the codes and conventions of a standard horror film and have also used many video effects on some of the clips shown in my tv series, this added a darker look to the trailer and worked well with my clips, i have also used sound effects sourced from a copyright free website, which has allowed me to build tension and match visual to audio throughout my trailer which I found on YouTube by searching for horror themed music that is copyright free, along with my sound effects I made sure they weren't copyright. 

In my tv trailer I made sure the camera was stable for most clips by using a tripod, however some such as when the nun appears on the screen I have added a slight bit of movement to the camera by shaking my hand whilst recording, but I do think this added to the eerie aesthetic as they are more POV shots and the shakey cam makes them feel more realistic.

I tried recording in the night as often as possible, however for the clips filmed throughout the day I used video effects over them to darken the scenes and make it look more like the night. To do this I put a darker colour filter over the scenes and this helped to make them look like they were shot at night time.Such as this clip where I put cold steel over the video to make it look more sinister and adds a dark theme 

Some of my clips had to be trimmed because my extras were in shot e.g. the shot of my actors running up the stairs was zoomed in, trimmed and sped up because Sam, who was supposed to be dead by this point, was in shot and also the actors ran up the stairs too slowly. For the shot of Sam being dead/possessed i used the Ken Burns setting on FCPX, this allowed me to track points in the shot to zoom in on and cut out part of my actor (Blake) because he is smiling in the shot and needed to be distressed. 

Throughout my trailer I included typical gothic style music to make sure my audience would recognise the genre before there was even any speech. I started my video with my indent and then went straight into my actors smoking and one of them seeing nun. I had to re-record my dialogue for this because my original dialogue was muffled but this then gave me the opportunity record soundbites for over my establising shots e.g. the first shot of the church.

I included screen titles in my trailer to help the audience understand the narrative but without giving too much of the story away. I didn't include a narrator so I think the screen titles were a good replacement

I first sequenced on my clips together and reused them to create a fast paced montage that went in time with the music. This was to make the audience feel the chaos and panic that my characters would have been feeling the drama. I sequenced all my clips to make sure the fit my storyboard or similar, which I ended up changing, in between each clip I have a different shot of the nun to jump scare the audience. I had to change all the decibels of each clip, apart from a few like when the friend group are speaking to each other. and when same on the floor so the audience knows he's mean to be passed out / possessed. other than that I turned the volume all the way down on most of my clips. I added the copyright background music and turned it up to 3db to make sure it was suitable volume. and the sound effects were kept the original 0db as they were already pretty loud. 

I also included my ident at the start of the trailer to make sure it was recognisable and the audience knew it was on BBC3 and iPlayer. 

The it's part of my trailer is the BBC 3 logo and iPlayer logo - this worked as my call to action and its a standard code and convention of a tv trailer. My audience will know where they can watch my drama. I layered a soundbite of one of my actors saying 'we all need to quite this shit' which is a clue to part of my narrative and hopefully will leave my audience with questions that they can only have answered if they watch the show. 

I used a H.264 codec  to make sure the file was easily compressible and means I can share it to YouTube and other platforms easily. and exported the resolution as 1280x720 which is suitable for BBC3 and still looks good quality, it is also at 60fps which was the minimum requirement from the brief. The file type exported was a .mov file and it was compressed to 176mb which means it is suitable for sharing on socials, Youtube and with BBC to go on their platforms. 

Asset table