Evaluation - Advanced Portfolio

A2 - Advanced Production

Film Marketing Campaign for the romantic comedy film I’m With Stupid

Evaluation

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

In terms of the representation of social groups, I have focused mostly on the representation of gender (both male and female) as this seemed most appropriate because of my chosen film genre, romantic comedy. Conventionally, films from this genre feature romance blossoming between members off the opposite sex, and I have chosen to follow this convention. Chloe, the female lead seen in the trailers, poster and social media pages advertising my film I’m With Stupid, is represented stereotypically, with her presented as ‘ditsy’ and ‘clumsy’, similar to the representation of female leads in romantic comedies such as Some Like it Hot, Legally Blonde and The House Bunny. However, I have subverted the conventional male stereotype that is typical of rom-coms, such as Isn’t it Romantic, where the male is often the much calmer, and more confident, of the characters. In both of my trailers, I have presented my male protagonist as just as clumsy and ditsy, just as ‘stupid’ as the female lead. These character traits manifest themselves through a number of incidents that feature in my theatrical trailer, and make up the majority of the montage of my TV spot. These incidents include the male lead stating ‘I’m alright with big dogs!” before immediately getting tackled by, and running from, Chloe’s dog, and Chloe accidently putting the male lead’s phone into the washing machine. These, and numerous other, incidents are intended to establish the major character traits of both characters, and therefore create expectations for the audience about how each of them will react in situations later in the narrative. I represented them both like this to encourage the audience to question whether they are incompatible because of their clumsiness, or if they are instead ‘a match made in heaven’ because of their similarities. It is these personality traits that have acted as the barrier or narrative ‘obstacle’ to their respective chances of finding happiness in the past and this representation will create expectations in the audience that they may struggle to find the perfect balance, and therefore, sets up the characters’ narrative challenge.

I have also considered the representation of age in both of my trailers, by presenting the main protagonists as a little disorganised, rushed and ‘stupid’ (for example when Chloe falls over in the montage clips and where her boyfriend swerves the car after realising there is a dog in the back). Some of the mistakes the characters make are certainly a result of their age; Chloe’s naivety and her inexperience, for example. I also felt that making my characters young would appeal to my target demographic, who I want to be able to relate to the characters.

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

My research into film marketing campaigns highlighted that distributors work very hard at creating consistency across the various elements of the advertising for the film, so that audiences are aware of exactly which film is being promoted, and make links between the trailers, posters and social media pages that they see. In a crowded marketplace, consistent branding can be crucial and it is important that the different elements of a film marketing campaign build upon, and reinforce, each other. The elements of each of my productions, the trailers, the poster and the social media pages, work together to create a sense of branding through, for example, using the same font on each of the media products. I chose Futura Heavy, a font commonly associated with films from the romantic comedy genre, and the fact I have used it, in lowercase throughout, in all of my copy from the titles and billing in my trailers, to the copy on my poster, and for each word on my Instagram page, ties all of my media products nicely together. This sense of branding is reinforced by a unified colour scheme across my products, where I have used mint green and a bright pink, softer colours, more commonly associated with rom-coms. There are numerous other elements which tie my products together, from the use of similar images of the film’s stars (in all of my products) to the use of the same tagline – ‘he’s stupid. she’s stupid. a match made in heaven.’ – in my trailers and poster. The names of the cast and crew are consistent across the billing blocks on my poster and in my trailers, as is the release date for the film – February 14th.

How do your products engage with the audience?

It is crucial when marketing films that each element of the campaign resonates with the target demographic. I wanted the audience to care enough about my central characters from seeing them in the trailers, to want to go and see the film and to root for them to succeed in love. Here, the representations I mentioned previously were crucial. In terms of making each of my products engaging, I worked at hard at ensuring they would appeal to my chosen demographic and that they would encourage the audience to see the film. My theatrical trailer uses lots of techniques to engage audiences, from the production company logos at the beginning which indicate that this is big-budget movie from companies with a proven track record in making successful romantic comedies, to the up-tempo pop music that will encourage the audience that this is a feel-good movie and will be fun to watch. The taglines outline the character traits of each character (supported by the images) and I establish the narrative conundrum in the trailer, so that the audience want to see the film to see if the characters can overcome this. The tagline – ‘this valentine’s day’ – indicates to the audience that this is a perfect date movie, and reinforces that the central theme will revolve around the characters finding love. The TV spot is faster-paced, and more of a montage of many of the funny, ‘stupid moments in the film, which would be released in the week before the film’s premiere, to drive audiences to the cinema. It also includes more footage, not previously scene in the theatrical trailer, to tease the audience with more information about the plot and characters in the film. My poster also makes reference to popular and successful romantic comedies – Knocked Up and The 40 Year-Old Virgin – made by the same director. This will encourage audiences familiar with these movies to see the film, almost giving I’m With Stupid a seal of approval. The social media page for the film engages with audiences by including behind-the-scenes reels and drip feeding information about the film’s release. Social media platforms, like Instagram, encourage audience interaction, I would hope that followers would share this information, using the hashtags, with like-minded people.

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

Throughout the planning stage of my project, I logged all of my research onto a blog so that I could quickly and easily refer to my findings when creating my trailers, film poster and social media page. Much of the research I did was related to conventions (of the different media but also of my chosen genre) and I was able to look back at my findings when creating my products so that I could incorporate these conventions into my trailers, poster and social media page. This was incredibly helpful in enabling me to create authentic media products from my genre.

For the trailer research, I found that a common convention (which I have incorporated into my trailers) was the inclusion of production company logos at the beginning of trailers (often accompanied with pop music). I have included logos for Universal, Working Title and Apatow Productions – all production companies with a proven track record of making romantic comedies. Universal has made rom-com farces such as Bridesmaids and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Working Title have made Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually and Apatow Productions have made the romantic comedies This is 40, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up. I also included these production company logos in the billing block of my film poster. To a degree, the font which I used for my trailers, film poster and social media page, went against the usual conventions of fonts used in romantic comedies. My research suggested that conventionally, the fonts used in rom-coms are serif and stereotypically ‘arty’, with flicks and feet, which represent the softer tone of the genre (compared to action films, for example). I have used the sans-serif font, Futura Heavy, which still has a rounded curviness to the letters so as not make it too ‘sharp’, but is a lot more ‘blocky’ than a conventional rom-com font. Whilst many fonts used in romantic comedies are serif, I found some that used a sans-serif font, such as Date Night and Knocked Up, and I found that my chosen font had actually been used in a number of films from the genre, so I felt that I could justify the use of a sans-serif font in my credits and titles. I also noticed that many romantic comedies used lower case fonts for their titles, so I adopted this for mine. In terms of my storyline and the use of film language (fades in the trailers, mise-en-scene typical of the genre, such as casual costumes and props such as flowers), I do not challenge conventions at all in my trailers. I followed the classic narrative structure and patterns of romantic comedies – girl meets boy, they have some friction, they fall in love, there is an obstacle in their way, they overcome this obstacle and they end up together.