Radio trailers

.A radio trailer is an advert for a specific film played through the radio and on different radio stations.

.Radio trailers are a good way of advertising films as it hits a mass audience a lot of people have access to a radio. A drawback about radio trailers is the fact that there is no visual images just audio, meaning it is more difficult to have an engaging or appealing trailer.

Conventions of radio trailers:
.The slogan of the film.
.Some sound affects from the film.
.A voice over (sound/speech from the film)
.The aim is to appeal to their fans as well as widening their target audience.
.Information at the end of the trailer e.g cinema/release date and age certification.


The link is an example of a radio trailer-Doctor who

Individual research into viral marketing

Viral marketing is a technique used to spread marketing messages and ads over many different types of social networking sites, it is a promotional method. It is an attempt to spread the marketing message quickly to consumers to raise brand awareness. These messages or ads multiply rapidly and are sent to thousands of people, like virsus'. Examples of these could be: videos, games, E-Books and images. They are online promotional campaigns that spread fast, one minute nobody has heard about it the next everyone has. It depends on a high pass along rate from person to person. If a large percentage of recepiants pass on a message to a large number of friends publicity generate very quickly.

There are different stages within viral marketing which are: 
Buzz Marketing- Creating excitement build up leading to talking in the street. The focus is the talking about promotion. It is an event that generates publicity, excitement and information to the consumer. It is usually something that combines a wacky event or experience that is jaw-dropping e.g tattooing your forehead.
Viral strategies- This is getting your audience to do your marketing for you. The focus is the spreading of your message. this often comes in the form of an email message or a video. 
Word-of mouth- This is the most powerful medium on earth. It is the sharing of oppinion amoungst consumers about a product or service. 

 Some advantages of viral marketing are: they are accessed by millions of people per day, it is a quicker way of reaching potential customers, it saves on advertising costs within the company, you can customize the message to your preference, it can be easily directed to your exact target audience and it can give the company a good reputation. Some disadvantages are: they can be annoying and seen as spam, it only benefits the company if actual sales are made from the advert, they focus on more short term effects, competitors can easily imitate techniques and so steal market from other companies and it can sometimes put negative effect on companies. One of the earliest examples of viral advertising on the internet was Hotmail. When hotmail launched, much of it's early sucess was due to the virality of the sigline which was attatched to every email asking them to join. Another ad was for mentos/coke: These people got famous by making art of the explosions caused by mentos and coke. Mentos handled this well whereas coke did not. Some viral advertising mistakes commonly made are: not making the ad interesting enough to pass it on, failing to provide incentives to encourage people to pass your message along, failing to test and track the results and not recognising it is different from word of mouth marketing. 



This is an example of a sucsessful viral advertising campaign for three. the advert has 9.7m youtube hits to date. This raised publicity through the method of word-of mouth as a large number of people had seen the advert and were talking about this obscure moonwalking pony. 


This is another example of a viral ad promoting pepsi's "Zero calorie cola in disguise". They disguised Jeff Gordon and took a poor unsuspecting car salesman on the test drive of his life. The video has over 43.3 million hits on youtube and there has been various other follow up videos relating to this hilarious video. 

Research into Radio Trailers

Radio trailers are advertisements which are shown/ heard on radio stations. Radio trailers will be shown on different radio stations depending on the subject i.e horror, comedy, thriller ect. Radio trailers have a different effect compared to television adverts as they focus mainly on the atmosphere whereas television advert focus largely on the visual aspects of the film. Radio trailers for horror movies are particularly effective as they create an eery atmosphere for the listeners and so they have to use their imagination to fill in the rest. By advertising films through the radio they are being heard by a wider audience which raises publicity and raising awareness of the film. A large percentage of people listen to the radio daily e.g in the house, at work or in the car so it is a practical method of advertising. Which radio station the film is played on depends on how much of the subject they share in common for example a horror film is likely to be played on Radio one as it has a high statistic of listeners which are more often than not adults, and will be played at a late time e.g 9 o'clock+ as it is likely children will be in bed, unable to hear. 

This is a graph to show the percentage of people what listen to different radio stations. The high numbers prove that the adverts hit a wide audience through the radio. One of the main conventions of radio trailers is Music. For example films such as "Halloween" and "Jaws" have that famous motif so that when people hear the music they know what film is it immediately. When the music is heard without the film, it also makes people remember the parts which they were most scared of, so in a way it is tailored to everyone's individual fears. Another convention of the trailers is sound effects. These are effective as it means the audience have to rely only on what they can hear. Voice overs are another convention commonly used, this usually tells the story of the film and gives the audience an idea of what is happening in the film as it is hard to do this through just sound. This often includes some speech and sounds from the film directly to include some of the most favorable scenes of the film. Other conventions also include information at the end of the advert such as the certificate and viewing details and the slogan of the film.




Here is an example of a radio trailer for a film. At the beginning of the clip we hear voice-over narration to introduce the audience to the film and inform us about what is happening in the film to begin with. The voice of the narrator is over exaggerated and when the music starts playing the listeners get an idea that the film contains humerous features. There also also direct pieces of speech from the actors for example when the man starts singing into the microphone and everyone cheers. These are diagetic sounds taken directly from the film. The music played is also relevant to the film and towards the end of the trailer we are told the names of the actors which can be very iconic raising publicity for the film e.g Richard Gurtis. 

How to make a video look more like a film.

If you are wanting to achieve a more proffesional film look but are intending to keep to a low budget, there are simple steps you are able to take in order to achieve that film look on final cut. The title of these below techniques was "Creating that old film look". 

Here are some techniques below:

Not everyone or everything needs high tech technology to create an effective piece of media film, . Some projects look more effective looking old or oddly out of fashion. Another technique on final cut is applying a grainy effect to achieve that professional look. Here is how to do this: 

Colour correction: 

The colour correction of digital video is crucial to approximating the film look. This issue is related to lighting but is so important that it deserves its own section. The hue and tint of a given shot is crucial to its visual impact and emotional effect on the audience; the color can be tweaked to make it look the way you want in the process known as color timing or grading. These terms actually come from the film process but are now freely used in digital filmmaking.

Colour correction is a good way of experimenting with your film and testing different effects in order to make your video look more like a film. You can adjust the colour gradience on the video to fit the mood of your film. 

How to make a video look like a film research.

The first tutorial of how to make your video look like a film on editing software. The editing techniques used are 'colour correcting' and 'letter boxing.'



This film looks at how to change the pigment of colours in the scene.




There are different editing techniques that can be used to make a video recording look like a film.  One of the first steps that can be used is 'Depth of Field.' Many films use this technique, this where one object or person is focused on completely any everything else in the background is blurred. This effect is used in may mainstream films, therefore by using this effect it will make your video footage look similar to a mainstream film. An example below of Depth of Field used in Pulp Fiction.

Another editing technique to make your video look like a film is 'Frame Rate.' There should be at least 24 frames per second. This is to get the look of motion blur, which is ideal in all real films, as it gives it a realistic feel. If you didn't shoot around 24 frames per second and shot less, your footage wouldn't look realistic as it would be too perfect, with no motion blur when characters are moving and speaking. In this instance it's the only time yo don't want a film to look perfect. This is an example of Motion Blur in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Camera Movement is vital when making your footage look professional. This includes a wide range of variety of shots used within the film, and not constantly using the same set of shots. Also using a variety of methods of how the camera is held, such as tripod, handheld. on a dolly, crane shots or just no movement from the camera at all. No certain camera movements make your footage look more professional and 'film like', however just by using a variety of methods of how the camera is used and the shots, this will give the footage a more professional advanced look. Also make sure that the right shots are used for the right scenes, and make sure they fit together. 

Effective colour correction used in editing plays a huge part in making your film look professional. The best method to use when colour correcting is making it look natural. Not a lot of colour correcting will nee to be done, but it will need adjusting to give it the cinematic appearance, whilst also making it look natural and realistic. This includes adjusting your white balance and exposure. by adding warmth or cool down to the scenes, this can give it a more realistic natural appearance. Also consider adjusting contrast, however not too much as this does give the appearance of too much enhancement. 

Framing plays an important part as you don't want to have objects or people in your frame, that have nothing to do with the happenings in that scene. By framing accurately you will create the right effect and mood for the storyline at that point, therefore this doesn't cause confusion for the audience. For example this frame example from The Kings Speech, this frame shows how lonely the person feels and is in the storyline. 

Radio Trailers Research

Radio trailers are played through various radio station, advertising new films. Depending on the genre of the film and also the context of it. For example a gruesome horror film won't be played on a radio station at 12 in the afternoon, when children could possibly be in the car. Or disney films won't be advertised on radio stations such as Classic FM, as Disney films and the radio station Classic FM, have nothing in common. Therefore certain Radio stations are chosen to advertise certain radio trailers for film. This is mainly because all radio trailers have certain audiences and films also have certain audiences, therefore the right radio station needs to be picked when they play radio trailers for films, so that the radio trailer is getting played to the right audience, to attract more people to watching the film. The only type of film that doesn't have radio trailers are short films. This is because short films are usually presented at Short Film Festivals such as Brief Encounters. 

Radio Trailers have a different effect on audiences than what TV adverts have on audiences. This is because the audience of radio trailers cannot see any images, therefore the radio trailer must to it's best to provide images for the audience, when they're listening to the radio trailer. Radio trailers create more of an atmosphere for the audience and the audience can be more imaginative as they can create images of the film, from what they can here.

Conventions of a Radio Trailer are:
1. Voiceovers with hints of the genre of film using sound, music and speech.
2. Information about the film at the end of the radio trailer, such as the certificate or viewing availability. 
3. The slogan to the film
4. Sound effects when appropriate.
5. There needs to be an element of persuasion within the radio trailer, to draw peoples attention to the radio trailer, to gain a larger audience for the viewing of the film. 

Radio Trailers (research)

A radio trailer is an advert for a specific film played through the radio and on different radio stations. This is a good way of advertising as it hits a mass audience as a lot of people either own a radio or own a car with a radio in it. So they don't have to specifically search for the films advert they can just come across it. However a negative point about radio trailers is the fact that there is no visual images just audio, meaning it is more difficult to have an engaging trailer.
The example below is a radio trailer for the new "Doctor Who" and it was played on the radio station BBC radio 4. With the presenter being Paul O'Grady, a recognisable voice for the BBC, this brings about a sense of familiarity for the listeniing audience which means they will be more likely to listen to it as they know who the voiceover is. The trailer acts out a scene from doctor who as the police box appears which is yet another ecognizable thing for the BBC audience which would ensure of them contiuing to listen.

Plan of filming left to do.

How to make a video look like a film

These are some techniques to make your video footage look more cinematic on a very low budget and it shows some simple techniques. The title of the video is "Make your videos look like a Hollywood Film". It just shows three very simple steps that make the video look more aesthetically pleasing. The first is altering the video properties, the second is altering the transform point this gives a cinematic look to the footage and the third alters the colour corrector. These techniques can be transferrable to our film, as they would make our footage look more professional, so it would be an effective technique.
.