Technical and Aesthetic Properties - D2.

This is about how the advertisements meet the client brief provided at the beginning.

The trailer:

The trailer uses a wide range of videos, this includes clips from the opening scene and interview-like scenes. The aim of the interview scenes was to make it seem like a documentary as there's people who survived in the real thing. But the movie isn't the same characters. I took inspiration of this from American Horror Story with season 6 Roanoke, where the story was told like it was a documentary instead of American Horror Story's traditional seasons. Therefore, the aim of this trailer was to present the movie as a documentary horror movie, as a result, people will see the movie as a real thing that had happened. This intertwines with the Reddit posts which would try to be realistic but have horror elements within them. This therefore, presents the movie not as a typical horror movie as the only big horror movies that have done similar things are: Cloverfield, The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity as they all try to be real but also aren't.

The Spotify Adverts:

The Spotify advert is brief and contains no dialogue. I decided for it to be like this so that it's more ominous than a normal form of advertisement, it has no words, no people. Just screams, footsteps, a door slam and a quick ending saying "Do Not Trespass". The screams and the change with the footsteps gives the idea that desperation is happening within the advert, this means that someone is struggling. This brings in the psychological features of the client brief because the slow footsteps suggest peacefulness, these get fast meaning something is happening, panic. As a result, it brings in the horror features of fear. These Spotify adverts are left with barely any detail or information aurally, and no information visually. This means that viewers must rely on their hearing to understand what is happening. This leaves a more ominous feel to the movie and therefore, leaves the viewers to want to watch the movie to find out what is actually happening.

The Reddit Posts: 

The Reddit posts that have been created would contain what has been witnessed in the Mental Asylum, this allows awareness to be created towards mental health and this has been done from research, over time I have been doing research on Mental Asylums and mental health to see what should be put onto these posts. This gives me a feel of what should be shown in the movie too and therefore, allows the part of the client brief on mental health to be targeted. The first post that has already been done follows the main characters giving updates as he enters the asylum. For most social media platforms, this can be seen as a flaw because the characters is updating the story over time. Although, on Reddit, you can edit posts and therefore, the edits can happen infinitely. This allows a more realistic story to unfold. I believe that uploading this post and updating it for the edits, should also be as time happens in the story. This also adds to the realism and gives a more authentic feel to the story and advertising method.

The Poster:

The poster is intended to give the viewers the idea of what to expect of the movie without spoiling anything. Dark colours were used in the poster that was used to represent a horror movie and give in to the stereotype of horror movies having dark themes and colours. Posters are used to attempt to convey messages. Posters that we use will include characters and items within the movie. This is one of the most frequently used methods of advertising along with trailers. As a result, I believe that this poster should be very simple because posters are overused. This also means that posters shouldn't be heavily used in the advertising because commonly used methods of advertising feels repetitive over time and something different allows the movie to catch the attention of other audiences.

Conclusion:

In conclusion I believe that the advertising methods meets the client brief as horror and psychological themes have been targeted, mental health has also been targeted and due to mental health being common for teenagers and young adults, it therefore, advertises to them perfectly. Due to the advertisements being different to stereotypical movie adverts such as the Spotify advert and the Reddit advert, the advertising method will get more attention and will be able to attract a broader range of audiences. This is good because the more audiences this can reach, the more likely the movie will be noticed and seen by our target audience. Teenagers and young adults are always on social media, so once this is spread by a small group of people, it will spread increasingly in a short period of time.