Selected Scenes for My Film's Trailer

1. The shooting of the president in the opening sequence with the ensuing chaos. This will function as the sign of the disruption to the equilibrium that stood before.
2. The POV shot from the President's view when dying, creating an emotional response and sense of severe loss in the audience.
3. The computer screen shot of all the rogue agents and their rank/role which establishes the villains in the trailer, crating binary opposites to the heroes and a clear discrimination barrier in the mind of the audience of who is to be supported and who should not be revered.
4. The titles with text early on in the trailer which are used to show a change in the tone of the trailer and in the plot where some form of help appears. The epic nature of the connotations also enthral the audience and create enigma as to what may happen following the previous events.
5. The group shot showing all the heroes in a slow-mo shot in an epic march away from battle shows their strength, skill and power as a team and is taken from the end of the movie, showing the eventual success.
6. The individual shots of each agent in their pursuits of the rogue agents and their ensuing fights maintains a high action presence in the trailer creating a high-octane atmosphere.
7. The use of the nuclear weapon and the quickly counting down timer adds suspense and adrenaline to the trailer, keeping the audience on edge and enticing them to engage more and calculate the possibilities.
8. The cackling laughter scene from the master villain however, right at the end adds a complete twist to the perceived storyline up until that point and maintains an enigmatic feel to the trailer as well as enticing the audience to watch the movie to find out.

My Completed Trailer Storyboard

Storyboard for my Film's Opening Sequence

Shotlist for my Film's Opening Sequence

Opening Sequence Shot List

Homework: Film Marketing Research Task

Strategies

Strategies include:

• Panasonic LED TV Adverts around release date
• Pre-release AVTR.com campaign joint with Coca-Cola and their Coke Zero brand
• Official Avatar Website
• A post-release multi-platform video game
• McDonald's Happy Meal Toys in a number of countries
• Post-release Mattel Toys action figures
• Actor John David Moore appearing on TV series "Bones" to promote film
• Pre-release exclusive images released in October Issue of Empire Magazine
• Pre-release screening of 3 1/2 minute trailer in Dallas Cowboys' Stadium
• Teaser Trailer online
• Various other trailers including official Theatrical Trailer screened and also shown online
• Various Posters
• Various Books related to the story to further background knowledge
• Visits by james Cameron and Sigourney Weaver to panels to promote the film

Trailers:

The trailers for Avatar were some of the most important, valuable and effective strategies utilized in the movies marketing campaign. This is because they displayed the visual spectacle upon which Avatar was based and sold the main draw-in to the audience. The online teaser trailer, is the all time most viewed teaser trailer on apple.com with 4 million views. Added to this, the broadcast of the 3 1/2 minute trailer in a dallas Cowboys American football Game in their home stadium became the largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history as it was broadcast live on Fox TV. The Teaser Trailer utilized the enigma factor using very little speech to get the audience to deduce themselves with implausible imagery etc.

 

Posters

These Posters again futhered the sensory touch with the visual graphic bombardment in one and a much simpler yet spectacular image in the other. These also both provide synergy by showing links to the webpage as well as establishing a branding point with 'blue people' and imagery becoming a recognisable feature for Avatar.

Promotion

The promotion of the film in one of the most popular magazines in the world created a huge amount of publicity for the film and also gave a sneak peak at the future motion picture. Again the branding with 'blue people' is present and the lack of oher detail again utilizes engima.

Audience Interaction

The audience is presented with plenty of oppurtunities to interact with the marketing campaign and the movie. The online experience is huge with fans able to scan codes from Coke Zero products or Mattel Toys action figures to access online character profiles and added online content. The regular adverts on the TV reinstated a connection between the audience and the film as it was constantly on their screens due to the huge hype around the film. The collaboration with popular brands to provide products or endorsements was a great move to associate themselves with other popular brands thus enticing the audience to not only dea with these brands but watch the movie, e.g. Coca-Cola, Panasonic, McDonalds, Empire etc.

Effectiveness of the Campaign

Overall I believe that the marketing campaign was a resounding success. The synergy displayed between the different mediums and the cross-media marketing campaign worked brilliantly to entive the audience and gain recognition worldwide, leading to the movie becoming the all time highest grossing film at cinemas. I can also recall a distinct hype during the time where it was almost considered a taboo if someone had not seen the movie, showing the effect the marketing campaign had clearly had on the audience.

Homework: Men and Women in Action Adventure Movies Moodboards

Men are presented as strong, charismatic, skilled, dominant roles throughout with some defining features when the hero, e.g. knowledge, martial art skills, good looks, witty humour etc. Only recently have we started to have some changes to the stereotypical macho man image such as Silvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzeneger characters and super skilled killing machine characters like Tom Cruise, Matt Damon etc with geekier, wimpier yet more knowledgeable characters like Shia Labouef and Johnny Depp. Weaponry still remains the main iconography with male and masculine characters in action adventure movies.

Women have been subverting the traditional weak image ever since Sigourney Weaver played Ripley in the Alien series, with sex symbols the main attraction with characters such as Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson and Angelina Jolie although some still conform with the dependent images portrayed by Lois Lanae and Mary Jane from Superman and Spiderman. Women are presented much more as agile characters rather than gun-slinging ones, with Lara Croft and other Angelina Jolie characters fitting both in a much more feminine way than presented with male characters.