Evaluation Question 2

Script in case of video errors
  "Our main product and ancillary tasks consist of a short film, a poster, and a Little White Lies review. We have used the last two in combination to help market and draw attention to our short film. We researched and evaluated the ways in which short films are marketed to their audiences, and decided on the most appropriate methods that we could use to market our film. Short films have much smaller budgets than feature films, so marketing strategies used by short film directors vary from methods used to market big budget films. 

The first focus of this was creating an effective poster that would draw attention to our short film. Posters are used by lots of short films, and are used similarly to feature film posters. We used typical conventions of short films to create a realistic poster, which gives the appropriate information to our audience. We needed to show the meaning of our short film in the poster, so we edited the poster accordingly. Firstly are the tones of colour used. We used an image that had great lighting, showing the expression of the protagonist. In Photoshop, we dulled and desaturated the colours slightly, so that it had a darker and duller appearance. This showed the tone of our film, as it implies sincerity. The image we used also includes lots of appropriate mise en scene. For example, the blanket, and the body language and composition of the character both hint at the fact that she is homeless. This creates a sincere tone, as well as showing the genre to be social realism.

We have also used the poster to market our short film. In the bottom right corner of the poster, there is a website address. We chose to use a facebook page for this website, as due to the small budget of many short films, we saw this as an appropriate platform in which to advertise our film. Many short films will lack the funds needed for their own private domain name, so will rely on other websites to promote their film. The use of social media links in our website address and images next to it, will inform the viewer of the presence of our online marketing campaign.

We have also used relevant short film festival awards to promote our film on the poster. These include the Tribeca and Cambridge film festivals. These act promotionally to show people seeing the poster that our film is thought highly of, and has won awards. People are more likely to watch something they have higher expectations for. As well as this, we have been realistic. These are not particularly hyped short film festivals, like Sundance or Raindance might be, and they seem more fitting for a debut short film, as big film festivals can be very difficult to get your film shown in unless you already have some presence in the industry.

The second focus was our Little White Lies review. Little White Lies is an independent magazine company known for its independent and iconic style. The target audience for little white lies are millennials in the upper and middle class. The review itself would be out of our control, as that would be written by the company’s writers. However, if we had received a negative review, this would have definitely affected the promotion of our film. A negative review would be likely to deter readers from watching our film. Though they might not chose to see it themselves, word of mouth may cause an issue for our promotion, as if many people hear bad things about our film then they would definitely avoid viewing it. As the audience for little white lies is people mostly in their 20’sour target audience taps into that of Little White Lies. As our target audience is 16-25 year olds, this would fit the demographic of millennial.

The reviews tend to be thorough in their analysis, but break it down with humour and a variety of quotes and relevant information. This applies to their audience, who would be mostly in their 20’s, as it is detailed yet varied enough to keep the reader’s attention and interest throughout. The design of the magazine also applies to their target audience. They have a very artistic and modern approach to presenting their work, making it interesting enough to catch and hold the attention of young adults. It gives their magazine a personality, which applies to millennial, what are very likely to be drawn to something unique and that has a social feel to it.

Other ways we could have marketed our film include short film festivals. This is used by both new and experienced short film directors as a way to promote their short film. Festivals show short films in their entirety to an audience. The reason why they are popular promotionally is that film critics and producers, as well as directors will be there. Film festivals can be used to start much larger careers for a lot of short film directors, provided they have the right people view their film"