P3 - pre production documents

Permission to film

Consent forms

Mood Board

Risk assessment form

Assets Table

Social Media Visualisation diagram

My social media posts will be have a unique selling point of being from the characters in the show, taking inspiration from the Blair witch project advertising campaign which added a realistic element to its campaign therefore increasing viewer engagement. This will be further increased due to the relatability of the characters to the target audience making them more likely to share the social media posts. My profile photo will be a re use of the billboard I created as a way to build continuity between the advertising campaigns meaning the viewer recognises that the social media campaign is advertising for the same TV drama as the others.

Story board

Billboard visualisation diagram

 

I chose to have the character in the billboard to be the main focus. Therefore, positioning him in the centre of the screen surrounded by negative space with no other characters draws attention to him. This most notably links to the theme of loneliness, which is present in the plot of the TV show. The outfit of the character will be designed to be relatable to the target audience, wearing stereotypically "normal clothes" such as jeans and a jumper which is common to the target audience of 16-25 year olds from a middle/working class background. The location seen in the billboard will be the woods since this is the main location in the TV drama therefore giving the audience insight into one of the main details of the show. This location is common to stereotypical and famous horror films meaning the genre of the show will be demonstrated in the billboard. The genre and themes will further be demonstrated with the bloody footprints beneath the character. This highlights the genre to be horror since the use of blood connotes themes of death and killing which are present in the show and in the genre. The billboard also will meet the brief due to the advertisement of the BBC 3 brand due to the logo present in the bottom corner. This will also be suitable in showing viewers where to find the TV show as well as showing the BBFC age rating of 15.

Radio trailer script

I plan on recording my radio trailer using highest quality equipment possible such as a microphone in order to create a product that meets industry standards. As well as this, I will record in a quiet environment such as a studio to ensure that the recorded clips are high quality with no background noise.

TV trailer script

TV trailer

To film my TV trailer, i firstly set up the camera depending on the location of filming. I used an automatic white balance for all of my shots, however I changed the iso and used automatic and manual focus depending on the lighting of the location or the type of shot I wanted. For example, darker locations needed a higher iso to add artificial brightness to the shot. There was one particular shot in my TV trailer where I wanted the subject to be out of focus in the background of the shot meaning I had to use manual focus to focus instead on the foreground. For my filming, I switched between the use of a tripod and handheld recording depending on the shot type. My trailer has multiple dolly shots where hand held camera work was needed whereas I needed steady shots for close ups and wide shots meaning the use of a tripod was needed. For the editing of my trailer, I imported all of the recorded footage from filming into a unit 20 rushes folder to organise the raw and sourced footage I used. When creating a new project in Final Cut pro, I used settings of 1080p, 16:9 aspect ratio, 48 kHz audio as well as 25 frames per second in my project to ensure broadcast quality to keep industry standards. I uploaded all the useable footage from my filming days from my rushes folder into final cut as well as the voice recordings and music onto a new timeline. I edited my footage to create an easily watchable trailer that abided to industry standards. The editing of the audio in the trailer such as balancing the volume of clips to the background music and voice overs was essential in making all the necessary information given in voice overs and character dialogue easily heard by the watcher. As well as this, I made sure the audio did not exceed -6 db to avoid any clipping or distortion in the trailers audio. I edited the on screen visuals in order to standardise the footage from different shoot days to create an easily watchable trailer. The colour correction I did in my trailer involved changing the exposure and saturation of my footage as well as adding a "vintage" filter to all the shots. The footage from the 1st filming day needed a change in exposure since it was a brighter day when filming meaning the exposure needed reducing to match the footage from the 2nd filming which was darker. I made choices such as cutting on beat and fade to black in my trailer since this aligned well with my choice of music. I used cuts on beat to emphasise certain shots by using an interesting change that occurred in the music alongside a change to an interesting or important shot in my trailer. Similarly, I used fade to blacks in the beginning of my trailer alongside the long periods of silence that the song I used has in order to create a tense effect at the beginning of my trailer as well as allowing for voice overs to be played where they could be easily heard. I overcame ethical issues when creating my trailer by providing consent forms for the actors as well as making sure that any people in the background when filming were ok being on camera. As well as this, I used a diverse cast to avoid any negative stereotypes that people may be offended by. I overcame legal issues by ensuring that the locations I filmed on were either public property or private property where I had permission to film. Some of the locations I filmed on had specific safety risks meaning I created a risk assessment form to ensure the safety of my staff by providing safety precautions for any hazards on set. The pre sourced footage I found online was from Pixabay.com ,  a royalty and copyright free website meaning there was no issues in using the footage. When exporting my final trailer, I created 2 master files for different purposes. I created a high quality AppleProRes export of higher quality to show the client as well as a lower quality and smaller file size H262 export for social media posting.

 

Social media posts- P4

When creating my social media posts, I set up a camera in manual focus with settings to capture photos. I took the social media photos without a tripod a purposely did not edit the images to make the posts seem as though they were uploaded from the characters themselves which was my idea for the social media marketing campaign. I abided to legal and ethical standards when making the social media campaign by ensuring the consent of the actors with consent forms as well as using public property as locations that did not need any permission to film in. As well as this, the locations did not have any hazards that could cause risks meaning it was safe for the actors and crew when taking the pictures. The lighting when shooting the pictures was important in creating a good shot. Since I had to make the photographs seem as though they were from the characters, I chose to use natural lighting in the forest and in the car meaning there was no use for a lighting rig. I used a landscape 1:91:1 aspect ratio for my social media posts as well as a 1:1 ratio for my profile photo which is appropriate for the platform I chose of Instagram. I did not use any editing software when creating my social media posts to stick to the unedited, raw look to the posts to further make them seem made by the characters in the TV show. I re purposed my billboard when creating the social media posts by using it as my profile picture. This meant that the target audience can link the social media posts to the TV show which is beneficial due to the nature of the social media posts being ordinary for the platform meaning the profile picture is necessary in ensuring viewer attention

 

M3

 Radio trailer

My radio trailer sticks tot he codes and conventions of a typical radio trailer through my use of sound effects, dialogue, and voiceover to create a successful product. My radio trailer used sound effects to create give the audience a sense of the environment of the TV show. The use of footsteps specifically on leaves as well as bird song gives the listener insight into the setting of the show being in the woods. This applies to the conventions of a radio trailer in demonstrating the setting through sound effects. The dialogue I chose to use in the radio trailer was designed to demonstrate the plot of the show in some way to the audience. The dialogue in my radio trailer presents the concept of a camping trip between friends to the audience in a light hearted manner, this works in tandem with the sound effects of mallet hits and can opening to enforce the light hearted nature. The final line of my radio trailer is emphasised by taking place after a moment of silence as a way to shift this theme by suggesting the notion that one of the characters is missing. The narrating voice over in my radio script is very conventional to pre existing advertising campaigns in explaining the title, time of air and TV channel the drama exists on to the audience. This feature is present in all radio trailers, for example the Doctor Who radio trailer uses dialogue to explain the plot to the audience as well as a final narrating voice over to tell the audience where to find the TV drama. Conversely, my radio trailer lacks the use of music to build tension. I decided against this because i thought the use of music would subtract from the mood created by the sound effects I used which created a light hearted feeling. Instead, I thought a lack of music would allow the audience to pay attention to the dialogue and the demonstration of the environment the characters are in. However, this could have been a missed opportunity to add music on the final line to further emphasise the ending of the radio thus weakening the effectiveness of my radio trailer.

Billboard

My billboard conforms to the codes and conventions of the genre by using a striking image with the focus being the centre of the shot with lots of negative space around it. This is representative of the themes of my TV show by demonstrating the aspect of loneliness present in the show. This demonstrates the fact that the characters will be killed off as the show progressive to an ultimate conclusion with only one left. The font style used in my show is deliberately striking to provide an interesting and unique brand for the advertising campaign to reinforce the themes of the show. The striking nature of the font used highlights the element of my show of being in the horror genre. The BBC3 logo is present in my billboard to abide to codes and conventions since this is common in many BBC billboards and posters. This makes my advertising campaign successful by demonstrating to the viewer where to find the TV show. 

Comparing my billboard to real industry examples, I successfully used the striking central image feature to direct the attention of the audience as well as using central text to focus on the slogan of the show since this is the unique selling point of the campaign. My layout and content showed similarities to this since my billboard uses a central image with lots of negative space surrounding it to direct the attention on a character. Similarly, the location shown in the billboards show the main setting of the respective show, my billboard shows a forest whereas this billboard shows a warehouse. Because of the success of this industry example, I based my decisions on this to replicate a successful product.

TV trailer

I abided to the codes and conventions of a TV trailer by using music, voice overs and dialogue. The dialogue I used in my TV trailer gave insight into the plot and themes of the show such as hinting to a camping trip. The music I used in my trailer abided to the codes and conventions of a trailer since there was a link between video and audio, the opening of the song links to the trailer since the long periods of silence were used when I faded to black and the upbeat nature of the song after it starts worked well with the fun nature of the rest of the trailer. The voice over narration was in line with codes and conventions since it accurately informed the viewer of the necessary information such as where to find the TV show as well as providing insight into the plot and themes of the show similarly to the dialogue. This technique is seen in many BBC 3 TV trailers such as the killing eve trailer which uses dialogue from scenes in the series to display the themes of the show. 

Similarly to trailers such as the killing eve trailer, my trailer uses fast cuts and fades to black to create tension and back up the horror theme in my show. This made my TV trailer successful in informing the audience of the themes and plot of the show as well as being entertaining to make the audience excited to watch the show. My trailer was also successful in providing information about how to find the show. 

Social media

My social media campaign abided to the codes and conventions by using an engaging profile picture. The profile picture I chose was a re use of the billboard to give the audience a link between the advertising campaigns to reinforce the idea of the show to the audience. My social media campaign was designed to stand out from other pre existing campaigns since it was designed to be done from the characters of the TV show. This has been seen before in advertising campaigns such as the Blair witch project however is unconventional to the genre. Despite this, it provides an interesting and unique selling point to my advertising campaign which will make it more likely to be effective due to its memorable nature. 

Symbolic codes

The mise en scene of my advertising campaign remains constant throughout the different visual mediums I used. Mainly , the use of colours and setting are the same in the billboard and TV trailer where I used colour correction to create a darkened image that shows the genre of horror. The natural tones that were emphasised in the editing were further seen in the character costumes that remained constant throughout the campaigns in colour and style. Similarly, the setting of the campaign remained constant throughout visual and audio mediums such as the social media, billboard and TV trailer as well as the radio trailer, the setting of the forest was seen in the visual elements on screen while being shown in the radio trailer through sound effects such as footsteps on leaves to maintain consistency of setting throughout the campaign. I used symbolic codes in my billboard by not showing the facial expression of the subject, this conforms to the genre of horror by adding mystery which abides to enigma codes. I then stuck to this theme in the campaign by adding many shots in the TV trailer with the characters walking away to create a POV like shot from the perspective of the killer. This was also used in the social media campaign to some extent however from a different POV being from the protagonist instead of the villain. This created a consistency across the campaign that abided to codes. The costumes I used in the campaign were chosen to relate to the target audience as well as abide to the genre. The protagonists in the campaign are often dressed in stereotypical youth clothes so the target audience of 16-21 year olds relate to the protagonists, therefore encouraging them to watch the show due to the connection formed. As well as this, the villain is dressed in very different attire to the protagonists, while the protagonists wear brighter coloured costumes to connote positivity, the villain is dressed in darker colours to emphasise evil. Furthermore, the characters face is covered up almost entirely, with only the characters eyes shown. This adds an element of mystery to the character, while also dehumanising him to make the character more scary and abide to horror genre conventions.

Technical codes

My advertising campaign abided to technical codes through the traditional camera work that is often seen in trailers and billboards which I recreated. The use of shot types abides to codes and conventions when i created my billboard. The use of a wide shot is often seen in the industry since it allows for a wider picture therefore many elements can be shown such as setting, characters and costumes which otherwise would not be shown in a close up, which I avoided using in the billboard. The camerawork I used was also consistent across the campaign in using shot types and movement that are typical to conventional shots used in industry examples. I abided to technical codes by using music in my TV trailer which is typical to industry standards as well as using audio technical codes in my radio trailer by using sound effects to abide to conventions which are often seen in real world examples. I used lighting in my visual elements by lowering exposure in my billboard and TV trailer to abide to codes of the horror genre. I used editing techniques in the campaign such as colour correction to add consistency to the shots in the TV trailer and billboard. This involved adding filters to each shot to ensure that all shots stuck to the house style of natural colours seen in woodland. As well as this the exposure correction to make the shots seem darker abides to conventions of the horror genre. While the social media campaign was consistent in its mise en scene, the colour correction editing was not used in order to maintain the realistic theme of the particular campaign. The sound effects I used in the radio trailer created a consistency between that and the other campaigns by conveying the location of the woods through audio means. This was seen in the footsteps on leaves sound effects which tells the audience the main location of the show without showing it. This was important to my campaign since the consistency ensured that there was connection between campaigns so that the focus was the same to avoid audience confusion therefore making my advertising campaign more effective.

Written codes

My advertising campaign used written codes across multiple mediums, seen in the use of on screen text throughout my billboard and TV trailer. This code saw the use of written codes in the on screen text demonstrating to the audience key information about the show such as the title, slogan and key themes of the show such as the TV trailer which used on screen text and voice overs to tell the audience that the genre of the show was horror. The TV trailer uses enigma codes when displaying text by not explicitly telling the viewer what is going to happen. For example, the slogan "and then there were none" tells the audience that the show involves characters being killed off without explicitly saying how or why, instead inferring it therefore creating excitement and appeal to watch the show. The written codes in the social media campaign are used in attempts to create a campaign that is realistic and comes directly from the protagonists. Therefore, the text such as "So ready for this camping trip!" shows the excitement of the characters, therefore allowing the audience to connect with the heroes easily. When displaying the title of my show "THE HUNT", I often capitalised it to convey urgency to the audience, thus providing a call to action to watch the show.

M2

Using a TV trailer in my advertising campaign will be beneficial in promoting my TV show to an audience due to the widespread showing that a TV trailer provides. TV out of the chosen platforms has the largest audience due to the popularity, therefore distributing the trailer to as many people as possible. My target audience use this chosen platform for entertainment purposes and escapism. This means that the TV trailer must similarly be entertaining to the target audience to be effective in advertising my show. However, the use of a TV trailer will be not as effective in promoting my show since TV is not entirely popular for my target audience of 15-21s.The TV trailer will be beneficial in advertising to those outside of my target audience such as older people who are more likely to engage in a TV trailer. Despite this, A TV trailer is still likely to hit my target audience due to the ease of distribution it has; a TV trailer can also easily be shown on video websites such as YouTube or in cinema where my Target audience are more likely to see it.  The BBC have used TV many times in pre existing advertising campaigns for TV shows as well as having channels on British TV where the trailers can be played. 

The killing eve trailer advertising for the BBC3 show is an example of this platform being used effectively since the trailer gained viewership towards the show.

Similarly, a radio trailer will likely not be perfectly directed at my target audience of 15-21 year olds due to the lack of radio usage modern day.  Radio listeners typically use the platform for informative purposes as well as some escapism.

 Radio is usually used when driving, therefore my radio trailer should not have too much dialogue or information in it since a driver will not be able to concentrate on it fully. Because of this, my trailer will need to demonstrate the show using sound effects and short dialogue. As well as this, the trailer must tell the listener when and where to find the show due to the lack of visual cues in a voice over. Similarly to the TV trailer, a radio trailer is easily convertible to other platforms. Having a radio trailer on music streaming platforms such as Spotify or amazon music will direct the trailer more so at my target audience due to the young audience those apps have. This will make my radio trailer very beneficial to the advertising of my show. The BBC use radio extensively with some of the most popular radio stations where the trailer can be played. The use of advertising on the BBCs own radio stations will be more effective by reducing costs and extending the audience due to the popularity of radio stations such as BBC radio 1.

A billboard will aid in the success of my advertising campaign due to the very widespread showing it provides due to the ease of access there is to seeing a billboard. This will be very useful in advertising to not only my target audience but also those outside the chosen target audience since the billboard is non excludable with anyone being able to see it. However, studies show that billboards cannot be used on their own due to the recent lack of attention that people in the UK give to them. This means that billboards must be used alongside other mediums as a subsidiary campaign despite being somewhat suitable.

Despite this, many existing TV shows use billboards in their advertising campaigns such as Breaking bad and the Boys.

I took inspiration from these billboard and I will use similar techniques such as central imagery. These billboards were effective in demonstrating the themes and genre of the shows they are advertising for.

Social media will be very beneficial in my advertising as it is most closely directed at my target audience since they use it for general escapism as well as information and personal contacts. The act of sharing social media posts makes this platform especially beneficial to use since, unlike the other platforms, viral marketing is possible where the target audience share my advertising campaign on their own accord. Social media will be effective since the target audience is most similar to my own of 15-21 year olds. As well as this, social media also extends to a wider audience of older people which could further extend the advertising campaigns reach. The BBC often use social media to advertise their TV shows meaning my campaign will not be out of place. The BBC being pre established on numerous social media platforms makes my posts to have a greater reach due to the large following they have making social media an effective method of advertising.

One example of a TV show using these mediums effectively would be "Narcos" on Netflix. This used shockvertising on social media such as its atypical posting of interesting statistics about cocaine to generate large amounts of audience feedback and sharing due to its unique nature. This campaign similarly to me, used TV trailers that dramatized the TV show and were posted on social media platforms. One example of a TV show that used radio/audio trailers is the Dr Who TV show that had radio trailers on BBC radio stations as well as posted on Spotify to target a younger audience.

Unit 20 M1