What Attracts Our Audience

     In our film, "The Run", the whole story line is suspenseful. Even right from the intro, people are on the edge of their seats trying to put the pieces together in order to discover who committed the murder. People are normally attracted to any story with suspense because it gives them a rush of excitement and anxiety towards what may happen next. Suspense also helps build the story up to the climax, making the story keep people intrigued the entire time rather than getting bored. As the story continues to build up, the viewer feels more emotionally involved and wouldn't want to turn off their screen once they've become personally fused into the storyline.
     All in all, suspense is really important when it comes to attracting an audience to come view your film. The best way to get the most viewers is to advertise the suspenseful parts of our film. By putting out a trailer with the suspenseful parts of the film, such as a glimpse of him escaping, running through the woods, and some shots of him trying to not get caught later on in the film, people would be attracted to the trailer and would want to go see it when it plays in the movie theaters.

Film distribution and marketing research

     My partner and I were interested in learning how films were distributed since there are so many different ways to distribute, such as the following: theaters, DVD, digital downloads, streaming, and many more. We decided to do some in depth distribution and marketing research on the film " The Purge" because of how murder is a common ground between this film and our film. "The Purge" is about how the government has sanctioned a 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity is legal.

     While researching, I found it surprising that it cost more to market "The Purge" than to actually produce it, costing less than 5 million to produce and around 20 million to market. Before doing any research, I never even thought that a film would have more than one distributor, but I discovered that "The Purge" actually had several distributors, such as Universal Studios, Waylen Group, Veronica, Direc TV, United International Pictures, Solar Entertainment, Synca, and many more. To summarize, "The Purge" was distributed through theaters, DVD, and streaming.
     In general, movies are beginning to be released in different ways now. Companies are deciding whether or not they should shorten the time that their movie is being played in a theater since most movies make 95% of their sales within the first 3 weekends of being out in the theater. Now that people have the option of watching from the comfort of their own home through streaming companies such as Netflix, less people are going to the movie theaters than in the past. This change might also cause a change in the way that movies continue to be distributed in the future.

Marketing Research

     While doing research, I discovered that major movie distribution companies have an internal department devoted to promotion. They're responsible for designing and putting into effect relative advertisements through several different media platforms such as movie trailers, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the Internet and billboards. On the other hand, my partner and I do not have the option of having our own internal department for advertising and have to find ways to get our movie out there on our own.
     Simple ways we could first start out is by first getting known within our own community, which is the Sarasota, FL, community. Entering our film in local film festivals, such as the Sarasota Film Festival, could be the next best thing to being displayed in a movie theater. We could also contact the local newspaper and either pay for an advertisement or see if we could get an editorial coverage on our film. The advertisement would give us the option to specifically choose what goes in the newspaper while an editorial coverage would result in us not having much say towards what goes into the final article. We could definitely advertise on the Internet through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This would be one of the quickest and easiest ways to make our movie widely popular. While there are many other options I've still not discussed, the last simple option I can think of for reaching out to the local community is through a local magazine that deals with the things that are going on in Sarasota. It would most likely be the same process as getting published in a local newspaper.
    As we continue to become widely known throughout the community, we can then try becoming more trending throughout the nation. When you don't already have a famous company name, it takes a little more time and effort to get your film to the status level you desire it to be.

Marketing Techniques

Product: Skittles
Marketing Technique: humor, sense appeal, majority appeal, romance
 more info: The skittles commercial was of a teenage boy throwing skittles through a girl's window in  order to get her attention. The girl was sitting on the floor catching the skittles in her mouth, but then  she moved. Next came her mom, then dad, grandma, burglar, and police officer. This displayed how
 anyone and everyone likes skittles. As they caught the skittles in their mouths, the made "mmm"  noises that communicated to the audience how delicious they were.  
Target Audience: everyone

Product: Intel 360
Marketing Technique: famous person, cute animal, humor
 more info: The commercial for Intel 360 included the famous person Tom Brady. He was doing  every day activities that were made to look epic from the use of Intel 360. It was funny when Tom  Brady was making pancakes, and then one almost fell on the floor. The dog saw this happening and  went to go snatch it, but Tom Brady was able to get and eat it first. Another use of humor was used at  the very end, bathroom jokes. Tom Brady was about to use the restroom, and then he said, "I think  they get it." This was funny because it was almost as if they would of used the Intel 360 on Tom  Brady while he was using the restroom, but they didn't.
Target Audience: 18 to 50's aged males

Product: Turbo Tax
Marketing Technique:  humor, nostalgia, convenience, silly
 more info: The Turbo Tax commercial was of Humpty Dumpty. He was sitting on a wall, using his  phone to do his taxes. He then fell off the wall and broke into pieces; later was rushed off to the  hospital. All over the news, everyone was asking why he was doing his taxes on a wall. At the very  end, Humpty Dumpty said, "Because I can!"
Target Audience: 16 and up

Similar Techniques to Market my Media Product 
The one technique I know that I can't use to advertise my product is humor. My partner and I's film is more of a serious and mysterious film that not many or any people would consider to be funny. Hunter Day, the main actor of the film, is a very popular actor in the theatrical program at Booker High School in Sarasota, FL. By showing that he is starring in the film would catch many people's attention since he is a popular actor in the Sarasota community. One other technique we could use is emotional appeal by advertising the scene where the camera is put in the murder's point of view. This point of view makes the audience feel as if they have also committed the murder... making them emotionally involved.

Completing Revisions

     Sadly, the option of re-filming the solitary confinement scene will not be able to be completed due to the main actor getting a hair cut that is dramatically different from his originally hairstyle. Although that one revision will not be able to be completed, this doesn't mean other revisions can not still be made.
     It took a good hour or so of watching videos and researching instructions on how to do a type writer effect to display the credits to our audience. Finally, I was able to able to figure out how to do it. Not only was I excited to figure it out so that I can finish the revisions, I was also glad to be able to become more familiar with the Adobe After Effects. This knowledge will help me with the knowledge that will be required of me when I go into a cinematography major / career.
     While working on inserting the credits in type writer style throughout the intro, my partner and I struggled with where to place the credits without it getting in the way of the shot. We also had to discuss the color of the font so that it didn't blend into the background. In the end, we went with white words with black outlining. Cameron and I are extremely please with how the credits turned out. Before, they just scrolled up quickly before the intro began which made the film look like a short film. Now, the credits look appropriate for an actual film.

Before

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