MAJOR PROJECT: Group Viewing on Big Screen, Grade Day & Final Viewing

BIG SCREEN VIEWING

We were scheduled a viewing on the big screen with the rest of our year group. We had the opportunity to watch everyone's films to give feedback on their progress so far. I felt that this would be beneficial for us to make any last changes to the edit ready for our hand-in next week. 

Feedback from Simon & rest of the group:

- Engine sound when moving

During scene 3, Tim and Luke have already picked up the van and they are on their way to the owl academy. To get the shot to look like they're moving we filmed it while the van was stationary, and then Katie added a light changing effect in the fine cut. The effect changed the light across the frame, making it look like the van was moving with the light travelling across their faces. This worked really well, however, we were fed back that the engine sound didn't quite fit. As the van wasn't actually moving we had the stationary engine sound in the background which would be better than hearing silence as the van is meant to be moving, however, this was the same sound before they hit the dog, during and after when Tim had stopped the van. It was pointed out that the engine sound would be a different pitch when the van was moving to when it had stopped after hitting the dog. This means we need to layer over another engine sound on top of the part when the van is moving or just simply raise the volume level to make it louder. Usually, the engine in a vehicle is loudest when pulling away from a stationary position, however, we need to make the difference between the two engine sounds so making the volume louder when the van is moving should work. 

- Audio in scenes 7 & 9

We were already aware of this point as Katie has been working on it throughout the duration of the fine cut. After trying a couple of different methods, we have decided to keep the audio as it is rather than trying to bring each individual clip down in volume as this was distorting the pitch level. However, Katie will edit the audio clip slightly by bringing the volume down as a whole rather than trying to edit bits of the individual clips to avoid making the audio pitchy. It was beneficial hearing the audio on the big screen for the second time as it sounds completely different to what it sound like in headphones. I was pleasantly surprised about the level of the audio on these scenes, from what I remember in the rough cut it sounded louder, which shows that Katie is improving the audio well.

- Sound effects
We are aware of the fact that we still need to add in a few sound effects - when Luke drops the bag on Sheila's doorstep and the gameboy effects during the night scene. I especially noticed that the bag needed a bigger thud when it hit the floor now that we see a shot of the dog. The audience would be able to get a idea of the weight of the dog after seeing the breed of dog we are using, and as a result of this, I don't think the bag hitting the floor reflects this well. The bag seems very light when it hits the floor, and the dog is a cocker spaniel which is a reasonably sized dog. I imagine it would give a bigger thud than what we have on the edit at the moment.

- Music
Simon suggested music would help bring up the quality of the film. As our inspiration, The Thick Of It, doesn't have any music we are reluctant to use any. However, I do agree that the night scene needs a bit of music and I believe that a heist music would be effective at this point in the story.

- Picture is pretty much there
We agreed that the pictures are pretty much there, with a small bit of refinement left to do. Katie added in a wide shot which reveals the van slogan before our main reveal, which looks slightly out of place. She argued that the original shot of Tim sitting in the van and then turning round to look at the van broke the 180 degree rule, however, we hadn't received any criticism about this in all of our previous viewings so I didn't think it was a problem. Simon seemed to agree so I will recommend changing the shot back to how it was originally, allowing us to reveal the slogan in one shot. 

- Unexpected comedy - cat & owl & pub punch

The group were laughing in appropriate places throughout the film which was a clear sign that the comedy was being shown through the edit. Getting people to watch the film who don't know the premise of it is a helpful technique to see how the comedy is actually working. Having the group big screen viewing was a good opportunity to do this as the majority of the people in the room hadn't seen the progress of the film.

Reflection

Overall, the feedback was really good and constructive. The changes we need to make are achievable which is the main thing. I was concerned that we would be advised to make changes that aren't possible in this late stage. We will be working on the edit for the rest of the week with the aim of completing it a few days before the deadline, giving us time to export the final version. 

GRADE DAY

We had a full two days with colourist, Nathan Caws, helping us to improve the our edits. He sat down with each group individually but he was around for us to ask him questions throughout the two days. We explained the premise of the film and watched it through with Nathan first. 

Feedback:
Scene 1 - Overexposed light behind the window. The room has a good dark look to it, however the light coming through the living room window is very bright and stands out too much from the dark shots. Nathan understood that there wasn't anything we could do about the light coming through the curtains on the day, so although it can't be fixed completely we can dull the window down to match the rest of the dark shot. He showed us an example of making a box around the window and only changing the exposure of this. Then he masked it so when the camera moved the dark box stayed over the window rather than moving with the camera. This worked really well and made the bright window less obvious which was ideal. Katie will attempt this as best as she can in the final edit. 

Scene 1 - Colour grade that's already been done doesn't quite match in living room. When the light gets turned on it's quite warm (orange, yellow tones), but some shots are cold (blue tones). The colour needs to be consistent throughout the scene so make the cold shots look warmer. Katie had already applied a bit of colour grade to the edit previously, however today was about showing Nathan and seeing what the thinks of the colour she's already put on there and how we can make it even better. We didn't realise that the warm toned shots weren't consistent throughout the first scene, however, now we know we will amend these to match throughout the first scene. 

Scene 2 - Nathan explained that he couldn't read the whole slogan on the van in time before we cut away from it, this then prevented him from understanding the punch line of the reveal. This should have been changed when I had the rough cut, however, this was the first time we had received this feedback. As we know the slogan we may not have had it on the screen long enough for someone who hasn't seen the van before. This was a simple change of making the shot last slightly longer.

Scene 4 - As we filmed the dog shot in slow motion there are slight movements from the dog's fur and the gravel that are noticeable. Due to the fact that there is movement in the scene, it makes the slow motion shot obvious. We only used slow motion because the dog wouldn't lay still for long enough, it doesn't add anything to the story and wasn't meant to be noticed. As a result of this, Nathan suggested freezing the shot because it's not a noticeably windy day so we wouldn't expect anything to move. We will be able to freeze the take and it would just be seen as a static shot.

Scene 4 - Nathan suggested speeding up the cuts during surgery in the van in an Edgar Wright style. This means we can get through quicker to the punch line of the blood splatter. Rather than spending a couple of seconds watching him put on one glove, and then the other and the rest of the takes, we could see a shot which lasts a second of the first glove, and a second of the next glove, and then cut to the flick of the needle. This makes sense and would speed up the sequence leading up to the blood splatter so we will try this out to see how it looks. 

Scene 5 - When Sheila hugs Luke after finding out about Sooty, the exposure on her hand is very bright. This was caused by the light sky outside the house on the shoot day, it may be difficult to lower the exposure without lowering the exposure of the characters and house as these are fine. We will play around with this to see how we can lower it without changing too much.

Scene 7 - Odd cut at "That's so smart Tim!" - this may be because it's a 2 shot cutting to another 2 shot. Hold previous shot or change shot to different angle completely. 

Scene 11 - There is a shot of the owl flapping it's wings and the the next shot is really similar - looks as if it could be the same shot. Either change shot or zoom in or out to change perspective.

Scene 9 - When Tim dangles the pills at the end of scene 9 it and then nods - looks as if we are waiting for something to happen. Nathan suggested seeing Tim's face on that shot because he nods. We explained that the original shot included a pan to Tim's face however, we changed this to focus on the pills. Nathan said that we are sat on the pills shot for long enough so maybe if we could cut before Tim nods. Then we would have shortened the take, and don't expect something to happen after Tim's nod. Or include Tim's nod completely, so his face is in the shot, rather than half off the screen.

Reflection
Having Nathan come in and watch our films was beneficial. He is extremely knowledgable on editing and colour grading, and he gave feedback that we hadn't heard before in previous viewings. However, this came with some disadvantages. Some of his feedback would really improve the edit, but it would take a while to correct, which we may not be able to complete before the deadline next week. Katie is going to try and complete the feedback that Nathan suggested, however, we are unsure if we can do everything before the deadline. 


FINAL EDIT VIEWING 

We had a final viewing with Simon a few days prior to the deadline for some last minute advice. He only had minimal suggestions which was ideal just a few days before the hand in. Simon's feedback included:

- Bigger on title
The text should be bigger across the screen. The reasoning behind the smaller title was because of the anticlimactic idea. However, we did make the text slightly larger as it was quite small.

- Scene 2 - shave time off reveal of drugs 
Simon suggested shaving a bit of time off the drug reveal by refining the action of Tim opening the glove compartment. 

- Use of a squelch sound when Tim cuts into the dog
When Tim slips and stabs the dog with the scalpel, Simon suggested a sound effect of a squelch. We have a quiet sound from the spray bottle that made the blood splatter however, this is really quiet underneath the dialogue from Sheila and atmos. As a result of this, Alex found a squelching sound that seemed appropriate for the spray bottle. This sound is now more defined and sounds believable. 

- Dialogue "as good as him" needs to go up in volume up

- Dialogue "the game is a foot" sounded a bit quiet

- Music to take us from scene 11 to scene 12. From night scene to pub location
Simon suggested having the music from the night scene and playing it into the pub scene so it sounds like it is the pub who are playing the music. I thought this was a really good idea as it will help transition from the scenes, however, we initially only wanted music when Tim thinks he is being a successful vet, i.e. surgery scene and night scene, so if we were to continue the music into the pub, we wouldn't be following our tone throughout the film.

- Mark's punch sound effect on black screen
Simon suggested to put a punch sound in between scene 12 and scene 13 to signify the idea of Mark punching Tim. However, we liked the idea of leaving this to the imagination of the audience, and then seeing Tim with a black eye and bloody nose.

- Alex wasn't sure about the final line from Luke - "what does it taste like?" - I liaised with him over this as I agreed that we didn't always quite have the reaction we wanted from the joke in some of our viewings. However, Simon reassured us that it was a good place to end the film, so we kept this in the final edit.

After this tutorial Katie completed the necessary changes we discussed with Simon. There were some points we took forward and some we didn't. She tried to raise the volume on the highlighted clips to bring the sound up with the rest of the edit. She also imported another squelch sound to add to the scalpel slipping into the dog, and she made the text on the titles slightly bigger. Points we didn't take forward were the punch sound after seeing Mark when the screen goes to black. We decided against this because we wanted to leave this more to the imagination of the audience. We also didn't carry the music over from the night scene into the pub, purely because throughout the edit we have been working on the idea of using fast cuts and music to signify when we are in Tim's mind of him being a successful vet. If we were to carry the music over, then we would lose the idea of our use of music. Before we exported the final product, Katie also took out the line  - "we need scalpels and forceps Luke, not dirty needles and hot knives" - towards the end of the film because the audio was a lot quieter than the rest of the film and it was difficult to correct. As a result of this, I was happy for it to be cut out in order to maintain the quality of the film throughout. 

For the submission for the extract, we will pick a section of the film that best represents VET-MAN and showcases important aspects of the film. 

MAJOR PROJECT: Marketing VET-MAN

I previously gained advice from Emily and Oscar on how I should market VET-MAN. I started by taking on Oscar's advice and looking at other social media accounts to see I how they promote and market their films / product with the aim to become inspired for my own marketing. Oscar initially suggested making a marketing schedule which I hadn't considered before speaking with him. As I have been making schedules throughout the making of VET-MAN, I understood that it may help me with my marketing. Oscar advised that I should note down what I want to share and when. This will help me see how balanced my marketing is and what part I may need to improve on. For example, I may only have a couple of posts in pre-production but maybe too many in production. This would show that I haven't really introduced the project to our followers but instead immediately focused on the filming side. From my research in the pre-production package and subsequently from Oscar, I found that it is possible to overshare on social media as the more regularly you post in a day, the less likely the posts will show to followers. This would be a bad move for a marketing strategy as you would want your posts to be shown to followers in order to get their attention. Below is the table I created detailing the different posts I have made throughout the unit on both Facebook and Instagram:




As it can be seen from the table, I posted all of the pre-production information within one month. Although this was spread out throughout the month, ideally, I should have posted more content over the months from September through to December. However, as this content was posted in November 2018, it was before the research I took out in February 2019 when I was advised to create a schedule. As a result of this, I have learnt from the mistake of only posting in the one month and as it can be seen from the table, I had improved this throughout production. I didn't have a lot of content to post in the January as all of the test shoots and work towards the project was completed in the previous unit which ended in December. We filmed in February so inevitably this would have had a number of posts about the shoot days. The longest time amount of time I had to market the film was in the post-production stage. Once I handed over the edit, I was able to focus completely on the social media and other marketing strategies I found through my research. As a result of this, the post-production stage is where the marketing schedule is longer. I also had more content to post at this point during the project because we had shot all of our BTS photos and production stills, and we were working on the poster. Although I spent more time marketing the film during the post-production stage than any of the other stages, this was expected because according to my previous research (blog post - Development of Fine Cut and Poster), the producer may "market...and generate a buzz for the project" (StudioBinder, n/d) during the post-production stage of a film, as well as overseeing the edit.

Introducing the crew

I posted individual photos of the production team consisting of Alex, Katie and myself during the pre-production unit. However, I hadn't considered the idea of introducing the crew to our followers until I developed my research into marketing. As a result of this, I simply updated the posts to explain a little bit more about the production team. 

Alex's crew introduction post

I included a bit of background information about each of us, such as the roles in film that we are passionate about and our experience throughout our 3 years at University. I was inspired to include this information from A Christmas Cracker's social media. As I explained in the research post, their posts are more posed and edited than ours, but I was still able to take inspiration from their captions. 

Katie's introduction post

My introduction post - written by Alex

My introduction post was similar to both Alex and Katie's, however, I found out in my research that because we are creating a comedy our posts should reflect this and be light-hearted. As a result of posting it on Valentines day, Alex made up a line linking the post to the day. Silly lines like this are a good way to keep our posts amusing for our followers. This may ultimately reflect the comedy that we are creating.

Introducing the cast

I first considered this idea during my research into different marketing techniques. Similarly to the crew introduction posts, I found cast introduction posts on A Christmas Cracker's social media. Again, I thought this was a good idea to inform our followers as to who is playing the different roles. Relating back to my research into The Laughing Mirror Theatre, I noticed that they try to include their followers in their posts. I also felt that relating the posts to the audience was a good way to write amusing captions for our photos. 

Oscar advised to establish the tone of the film and write captions and statuses in that way. As VET-MAN is a comedy, I wrote an entertaining line for each of the cast members. Becky's was 'Luckily she knows what she's doing with the animals, but can the same be said for the other characters? You decide!'. I tried to keep the caption relevant to the film, by incorporating Becky's character, Mollie. Subsequently, this then linked onto the other characters by asking if our followers think they know what they're doing with the animals. This opens up the following questions for our followers - do they know what they're doing with the animals? Does that mean something bad will happen to the animals? 

Sue's comical line was - 'Wondering why she's making that face? We think you'll all be making that face when you see what we've been working on'. From when I first started to develop my marketing skills I knew I wanted to use this photo of Sue. She creates the best facial expressions, this can be proved by scene 4 in the film when Tim puts his blood stained hand on her shoulder along with this photo. As a result of this, I knew I would be able to link an engaging caption with this expression.

Skevy - 'Tess looks extremely fed up, but can you guess why? (or could she just be feeling a bit chilly?' Being the older sister, I wanted to incorporate this into the caption. This gives our followers to guess why she may be fed up, or what has happened for her to pull that disappointed expression.

For Dan's light-hearted line I re-posted a photo and caption that he had already posted on his social media - '"Luke is 100% cut out for this vet thing. Honest" Yep, looks like it'. I really liked the post Dan created on his own social media, so I wanted to use this again on our platform. The only way to do this was to re-post it, rather than copying it and not giving him any credit towards it.

Finally, for our main character Ed - Tim looks as if he's got into a bit of trouble! Can you guess what? Find out in May!' The photo shows Tim with blood splattered on his mask, this could get our followers thinking about the things he could have done to get blood on his face. I ended it with 'Find out in May!' because we hadn't set a release date when I posted these.

Scheduling posts

Once we had finished shooting I was the rough cut editor, and as a result of this all my time was put into making the edit resemble the final film as much as I could ready for Katie to take over. Due to this, I felt that it was appropriate to use the social media scheduling app I researched into during the pre-production package, Buffer. When I first looked into the app I was sceptical if I would actually use it or not. However, I found it a very helpful tool when I was completely focusing on the rough cut. Using Buffer meant that I was able to schedule future Instagram and Facebook posts to share automatically on the day and time that I set. Once I discovered the idea of posting cast introduction alerts to introduce our followers to our cast members, I scheduled them to share one day after another for 6 days. By doing this, I could concentrate on the edit and passing it over to Katie, while keeping our followers entertained at the same time.

Using Buffer to schedule posts

I initially experimented with buffer for these posts to make sure they went out everyday at the same time. As this worked really well, I will use this technique to schedule the countdown posts as these will be posted after our deadline. The posts scheduled for the 'countdown until film release' are shown below. I have decided to start the countdown 5 days before our release date (Thursday 30th May). I initially thought of posting individual cast photos again like I did for the introductions, however, as I have done this before I decided against it. I was also inspired by the idea of putting up large bold numbers to signify a countdown from my research into A Christmas Cracker. Their numbers leading down until the release of their crowd funder are also designed to match their branding. I felt strongly about our numbers matching our branding as well. I felt that the countdown would make sense to follow the tone of the poster. As a result of this, I placed the countdown numbers over the top of the same background we used for the poster. Keeping with the tone of the poster, I kept the font - 'Avenir Next' in heavy. I didn't feel the need to put the numbers in a shade of red, although this is our main colour because it wouldn't have matched the poster as much. The branding between the poster and the countdown numbers flow better with these colours than if I had changed it to red.

I realise that if these were to post in the order I have scheduled them, it would overtake the social media with numbers. Another point that I took from A Christmas Cracker is that they posted additional photos in between their countdown to spread the numbers out slightly. I will ensure I post an extra photo a day of promo photos, allowing the numbers to be split across the social media platforms evenly.

For the release day post, I have scheduled a promo photo of Dan. I felt this was a light hearted and comedic way of explaining the release of the film, in keeping with the tone of our film as Oscar suggested. 

Keeping the social media up to date

Apart from the tactical posts which add to marketing VET-MAN such as the crew and cast introduction posts, I had to constantly post photos and statuses to keep our followers generally up-to-date and interested in our project. When I was giving feedback on the poster, I didn't think the comic strip was suitable as it was difficult to see the photos behind the characters. It also look the focus off the characters which was not what we wanted for a promotional poster. Nevertheless, I came up with the idea of using the comic strip photos for a spoiler without context post. These posts give off spoilers but without any context so the viewers don't understand them until they've seen the film. This works well with this photo collage because if you don't know the story of VET-MAN then it would be difficult to understand what an owl, Tim with drugs, Tim with a mask and hoodie, the vet van, Tess and Sheila all mean. Once the viewers see the film, the individual photos will start to make sense.

My priority with the social media was to keep the posts light-hearted to reflect the tone of the film, this can be shown by the captions I chose in the two screenshots above. I kept all the photos on the social media accounts as natural as I could to fit in with the tone of the film. We shot the film with natural light and I wanted to bring across the naturalness in the social media. It wouldn't be appropriate to post a lot of graphics as they wouldn't represent the tone of the film well. The content above is scheduled to post on both Instagram and Facebook in order to gain two different audiences. As I found in my previous research from pre-production, I will target the younger half of our target age range on Instagram, while targeting the older half of our target age range on Facebook. As a result of this, I felt it was necessary to post on both social media accounts. 

I have decided to use Twitter mainly for research, for example, I found The Laughing Mirror Theatre on the platform, however, I have been continuing with Tim's personal Twitter account that I created in the pre-production stage. I wasn't confident that this marketing method would be effective until Oscar suggested creating an account in a character's perspective and I explained that I had already started it. I struggled with Tim's Twitter account in the previous unit as we didn't have a lot of content that I was able to use on the platform. However, now we have captured our footage and gained promo photos, I have been able to personalise the Twitter to him. This is essential if I want the account to look like his personal page. I started by changing the profile picture to one of him with an owl. This adds to the authenticity of him being a vet, I also changed the cover photo to the van as if it is his pride and joy. 

Tim's Twitter page

I tweeted, re-tweeted and followed accounts to try and make the page as believable as I could. I kept it all relevant to animals, apart from the odd tweet about football. I thought it would be amusing to hear about his animal experiences and then a random football tweet appears. My aim for the Twitter page is to keep it as comedic and light-hearted as I can in order to help bring the tone across of our film. I enjoyed writing these because of the light-heartedness, it was amusing to think of odd things to write about. 

Tim's Twitter page

Screen grabs of VET-MAN's Instagram page:

Screen grabs of VET-MAN's Facebook page:

Poster

VET-MAN poster

I have previously described the stages the poster went through before getting to the final one. However, sharing the poster with our followers is another marketing technique. I wanted to find out how posters can be an effective marketing tool and I found out that we need to get peoples attention with the poster as this will bring in new viewers / followers, it is essential to "ensure that your designs are alluring, but simple. Don't use too many fonts or colours in one design" (PrintPlace, n/d). Alex did a good job with this as I believe the colours and positioning of the characters are alluring / interesting, he also didn't use too many fonts as the main text is the title, and the secondary text is the movie credits at the bottom of the poster. I also found out to make sure that the "company's colours and logo are captured within your poster design, but don't overdo it. Too much could take away from the company's message" (PrintPlace, n/d). There are a couple of colours in the poster but not too many, the main colours being red, grey, white and dark blue. I believe these colours all complement each other and bring across our branding well. The previous poster example with the blood splatter across the background may have been too much and taken the focus off the characters as I explained on the development of the poster, and therefore, it may have taken away from the message of the film. 

While Alex created the poster, I had the chance to give advice and feedback to make sure the poster was bright and bold and matched the rest of our social media pages. It was inevitable that the colour red was going to be involved somewhere in the poster as this is our main colour throughout the project. However, we knew the colour shouldn't cover too much of the poster and make it overbearing for our followers. Throughout the project, we have only featured a small amount of the colour and combined it with whites, greys and black, keeping it subtle. I also made sure that the poster was created with our social media platforms in mind to keep it matching the rest of our content. The poster has a natural feel to it with the photos of Tim and Luke, instead of making it as one large graphic. The natural feel relates to our filming style and promo photos, and therefore, the look of the social media pages.


A different approach to marketing 

After establishing the channel that VET-MAN suits the most, I decided to look into their adverts to see how they market their television shows, with the hope of some inspiration of different ways to promote VET-MAN to our audience. I first looked into Channel 4 adverts to see their layout, I already imagined that the logo would be a prominent part of the advert, which it is looking at the two adverts below. I have also noticed along with the logo, the only thing that is written on the advert is the television show name, genre, time and date. Another thing that stood out were the colours. The colours match between the writing and logo. The orange in the advert below stands out more than the blue. Although the blue writing and logo don't stand out as much, another colour may not have suited the advert. I will aim to make mine stand out in a similar way as the first advert, however, I will make sure I pick a colour that represents the film.

Channel 4 advertising examples 

After looking into the advertising examples above, I decided to create my own. I picked a shoot photo which we took with the aim of it becoming a promo photo. I picked the larger photo below out from the other's below as it was positioned nicely. There is an even amount of background and characters / van, whereas the first photo below had too much background. I believe that the positions the characters are standing in give off their personalities well. Tim looks authoritative and like someone you'd look up to, and Luke's smile looks quite innocent, as if he's excited and doesn't realise whats about to come. Similarly to the poster, this suits the characters and the tone of the film.

Other potential promo photos

I previously pointed out the colours that the television adverts used. They matched between the writing on the advert and the Channel 4 logo. Again, I replicated this and created red box with the white writing inside saying 'VET-MAN. Brand New Sitcom - Starts Thurs 30 May 10pm'. I put that specific date because that's the day Alex wants to release the film - one week after the screening. In addition to this, as VET-MAN is a dark comedy it needs to be on after the watershed at 9pm, and looking at the Channel 4 TV guide, this is the time in which some of their comedies air. To go with the writing I created a red coloured Channel 4 logo. I positioned the logo and writing at the bottom of the photo because if it was at the top it simply wouldn't fit, it would cover the characters faces. I also purposely covered the VET-MAN writing on the van because I didn't want a repeat of the word on the advert as it's featured in the advert writing.

I tried to position the red 4 logo in different places around the photo but it looked best in the bottom left hand corner. When it was on the right side against the side of the van, there was too much going on and the red colour didn't stand out as well. It stands out nicely in front of the dark background. Ultimately the white logo looked the best, however, to comply with Channel 4's advertising I had to make the logo match the writing. I chose red as it has been the main colour throughout our branding, from initial presentations, through to the final poster. However, the red we have been using is a brighter shade but to match the writing on the advert I had to change the red slightly to a softer shade. Nevertheless, the red is still significant in the progression of VET-MAN. 

Our main colour shown throughout the project

Below is the final Channel 4 advert I created for VET-MAN. I researched into the Channel 4 font and as it is bespoke I couldn't find a template anywhere. As a result of this, I had to find a font that was similar to it - 'veranda'. I believe that my Channel 4 advert looks quite effective and it looks like something that could be on the channel. I have followed the guidelines of the other Channel 4 adverts and I think that the bold colour match helps the advert stand out. Ideally, the shade of red in the 'VM' on the van would match the logo and writing so the shades matched throughout the advert. However, the photo made the red 'V' have a lighter shade to what it was in person. I didn't think this shade represented the film well. As it can be seen above the red we have been using throughout the project is darker and bolder than this. Instead, I matched the writing and the logo and didn't match the 'V'. Nevertheless, as shown in the above adverts, the main feature of the advert is that the logo and writing match which is what I made priority when creating the VET-MAN advert.

VET-MAN Channel 4 advert

I watched Channel 4 live online to get a better understanding of their adverts and how they promote their television shows. Although the new shows coming out now aren't the same genre as VET-MAN, their adverts will be the same. The sitcoms I previously researched into such as Peep Show, Frasier and Everyone Loves Raymond are older sitcoms that shown on the channel, so as a result of this, I based my marketing on the programmes that are coming out now on Channel 4. On the other hand, this is reasonable as VET-MAN hypothetically is a new show coming to the channel, so it makes sense to replicate their advertising on a brand new show. 

The first one I saw was advertising for Location, Location, Location. This was a new series starting soon on Channel 4. Throughout my research into Channel 4's marketing, their branding all follows a pattern. Their branding is made up of blocks with straight lines. The red 4 logo above is their current logo and that is made up of red and transparent blocks and lines. Again with the red and white writing, I noticed that the advert writing is usually in a box with straight lines. Thinking back to the Location, Location, Location advert, the time, date and name of the show is written in the white blocks. I replicated this for VET-MAN as shown below. I kept to the branding of Channel 4 while changing the time, date and name. I also changed 'New Series' to 'New Show' as we aren't creating a series, only the one episode. I thought this looked really effective and as if it could be on Channel 4. This method with the while blocks would appear at the end of the trailer or extract of the film. 

Next, I saw another couple of adverts that were more focused on the colour of the advert. They didn't have a clip or still of the film underneath the advertisement, just a coloured background. Both adverts below had an animation to them but the animation became still once the text came onto the screen. Again, these are advertising brand new shows starting on Channel 4 so I felt it was necessary to replicate their branding and marketing technique for VET-MAN.

I started by creating a variety of 3D rectangles of different sizes, some with a pointed edge and some with a flat edge and scattered them accordingly to the advert for D-Day (below). I tried to match them as best as I could to make a suitable replica. Once I had set the look of the advert similar to Channel 4, I had to personalise it to VET-MAN. I decided to change the coloured blocks to the same shade of red that I used for the first advert I created (matching the shade of red from the writing to the logo). By doing this I am keeping our colour scheme throughout VET-MAN's marketing. In the original advert, the show was sponsored by a make of car. I replicated this by having the sponsored section but put the UCA logo to show that we are sponsored by the University. I think this looked effective and authentic as if it could be shown on Channel 4. Again, I promoted the show to start at 10.00pm so it is after the watershed. However, the advert for it would be clean so this could be shown at any point throughout the day.

The next few adverts I saw were similar to the D-Day one above, but the animation just finished in a different position on the screen. I also noticed how Channel 4 uses their colours. The advert for First Dates had a pop of colour to reflect the tone of the show. Using the teal and pink colours together made me think of fun, excitement and adventure which is what First Dates is about. The synopsis for the show on IMDb is described as a 'dating show with a twist that takes advantage of modern forms of dating'. The colours they have used in the advert for First Dates would usually clash, so it can be said that they've taken a twist on standard colour rules and emphasised the modernness of the show. The next advert I saw was for Chimerica which is a completely different genre to First Dates. Although it is obvious that these are completely different shows, the tone of the show can be seen from the colour choices alone. Chimerica is a drama with the IMDb synopsis describing the show with the word 'mysterious'. As I said previously, the different tone of these two brand new shows are represented by the colour palette in their adverts. I described First Dates colour palette as fun, exciting and adventurous, however, I could describe Chimerica's black and grey coloured palette as dark and mysterious. From this I have learnt that the audience can learn a lot from just the colour palette of an advert. 

I wanted to replicate the tone of VET-MAN into my advert for Channel 4. After looking at the adverts above, I have learnt how important the colour palette is. VET-MAN is essentially a dark comedy so I could go two ways in the colour palette of the advert. I could either go bright and cheerful to represent the comedy aspect to the film, similarly to the way I've been posting on the social media, or I could bring out the darkness of the film by using a darker colour palette. 

I decided to create both. I started with brighter colours that usually wouldn't be put together, inspired by First Dates. I decided to go for a bright blue and a slightly duller shade of red. Similarly to the previous advert, I created red blocks but I put these on a light blue background. I think they represent the comedic tone of VET-MAN well. To me, the red and the blue signify superhero colours. As we wanted to give off a superhero look to the poster, I think these colours are suitable for the VET-MAN advert. I kept to the same day and time for the film to be shown - Thursday 10.00pm, as we are releasing the film on a Thursday (30th May). Hypothetically, this advert would appear on the week leading up to the release date (week commencing Monday 27th). 

Subsequently, I created another advert but with a slightly darker colour palette. I wanted to include the colour red as this is the main colour in our branding throughout the whole project, but this time I made the background red rather than the blocks. I brought the brightness of the red down compared with the red on the blue advert to keep with the dark tone. I then made the blocks into a shade of grey as this colour is also quite prominent in our colour palette as shown in our poster. The colour of the text was next. The black in the blue advert suited well, however, the black text on the red advert looked a bit too dark as it wasn't clear to see. As a result of this, I decided to use white so the text was clear. However, I didn't use a bright white as we want a dark tone to the advert, I used a darker shade of white / light shade of grey so it didn't look too different to the general look of the poster. I was inspired by this from Chimerica's advert as they also use white text, but it's not a bright white, it's more of an off white in keeping with the general dark tone of the advert. I believe that both adverts look effective and authentic. I think they both also give off the different tones that the film could be perceived by - comedic and dark.

As well as advertising on television, Channel 4 have their own catch up service online. I decided to try our advert on there as this required the promo photo to be in a different format. These adverts are still landscape, however, a lot smaller in size as they are advertising more programmes than just the one on the computer screen. Throughout my advertising examples I have kept the same photo of both Tim and Luke in front of the van. This is because the adverts I have been manipulating are the same layout, just different sizes. If I came across a marketing technique on the channel that required a portrait photo, I would change the promo photo to a close up of one of the characters. However, I have not needed to do this. 

To create the two adverts below for the catch up service, I inserted our promo photo and found a font most similar to the Channel 4 font already on the screen. As I said previously, the font is bespoke and therefore, not available for me to download. As a result of this, I found the font 'Trebuchet' which looked the most authentic for something on the Channel 4 catch up website. This was a simple advert to make and I believe it the look of the chosen promo photo looks really effective on the screen, it has a realistic feel to it due to our natural shooting techniques during filming. I believe this looks authentic next to the Hollyoaks advert as this show also has a natural aesthetic to it.

VET-MAN advert on Channel 4's catch up service - 4oD

Street marketing

I was advised by Emily to advertise VET-MAN with street marketing, for example, printing images / illustrations onto lamp posts or coffee cups, hiring out a room and projecting bits of the film on the wall. These were all well thought through and creative ideas but unfortunately due to our small budget, I wouldn't have been able to do the projections or hiring any spaces for exhibitions. As a result of this, I decided to try the more cost-effective marketing method that she suggested, such as printing an illustration onto a sticker and sticking it in locations that are popular with our target audience. Emily offered to create some illustrations for us so I set her up with that. She suggested getting some adhesive paper to print the illustrations out on so I can easily create the stickers to help advertise VET-MAN in other ways than social media. She explained that she was going to put our main hashtag on the illustrations and then ideally, the public will go to our hashtag and then find our Instagram account. Once they find this, it'll be easy to find the Facebook account and keep up-to-date with our film. After a few weeks she had created a couple of illustrations for me to print out. I can also post these on social media if I wanted. Below are the illustrations she made. I advised her on a couple of things but apart from that I let her create what she wanted. I sent her the story synopsis so she had an idea of what happens in the film, I sent over the poster so she could see our colour scheme and I explained that our main colour was red. As she suggested, she included the #vetman so if any members of public were to look up the hashtag they should come across our Instagram, and subsequently the rest of our social media posts and platforms. 

When I received these illustrations back from her, I was impressed. I thought they looked really effective and the shade of red gives a good pop of colour. The red and black can also represent the dark comedy side to the film. I went back to Emily with this and asked if she thought I should put some more information with them for people to read, but she said the idea of these is so they just have the hashtag and then people will find out more information about the film once they find the hashtag on social media. Emily next suggested finding different locations in which to place the stickers, she advised something metal such as a lamp post but she said to be as creative as I can. I started thinking of places that are popular for 16-30 year olds to visit. I placed these stickers in a variety of different places, such as my local high street, a shopping centre and on some clothing recycling bins. I felt that anywhere to do with fashion would be popular with younger people, especially at the weekend. I also placed some stickers on bins at the beach, as we had a spout of good weather at the time I was looking for creative locations. I also placed them outside my local cinema and down one of the main high streets where younger people like to go in the evenings. I found a couple of lamp posts and bins that already had some stickers on them so I added mine to it. Some of my locations are shown in the photos below:

Recycling bin & high street

I posted a variety down the high street, at the promenade along the beach and at the shopping centre, rather than just one or two. I feel that these will appeal to more people if they see them scattered in the area. They may ignore the first one or two but may become interested in what the sticker is about after realising they're scattered everywhere. I wasn't sure whether this would work or not but some time after I distributed the stickers we had additional followers on our Instagram page. In the end we had a total of 164 followers when before this we had about 30. Subsequently, we had more comments and more people found the Facebook page. This has proved that this marketing technique works, the stickers are small but effective. 

Shopping centre & high street

Reflection
- The marketing schedule helped me see where I was stronger in posting on the social media and where I was weaker. I believe I was able to make up for lost time on the social media because during the post-production stage I was able to put all my focus on marketing VET-MAN. My posts were spread out over the course of the whole project which helped gain followers, as I was posting every now and then rather than over indulging on the pages and annoying followers.

- I believe I brought the tone of the film across well in my social media posts. I wanted to keep the posts light hearted to reflect the comedy aspect of the film. This was initially suggested by Oscar and something that I hadn't thought of prior to contacting him.

- Surprisingly, the stickers worked and we gained many new followers on our social media page. I have learnt about the impact other methods of marketing have on our target audience, rather than just relying on social media alone. 

References:

- StudioBinder. (2019). What Does a Producer Do: The Various Types of Producers in Film & TV. Available: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-does-a-producer-do/. Last accessed 24th April 2019.

- PrintPlace. (n/d). Market with posters to reach potential customers in many different locations.. Available: https://www.printplace.com/articles/a-successful-poster-marketing-campaign. Last accessed 25th April 2019.