'The Invite' - Evaluation

Evaluation

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

In terms of the representation of social groups, I have focused mostly on the representations of wealth as this seemed most appropriate because of my chosen genre, which commonly uses the theme of opposites attract. Wealth is represented in my opening sequence, with the female protagonist’s ‘big’ house and the male protagonist's ‘smaller’ house. Much of the segment of Alice getting ready in the TV spots revolves around her put together’ personality, such as her brushing her teeth and doing her makeup, whereas the male protagonist is more careless when he grabs clothes from the floor and loses his invite and has to find it. These incidents are intended to establish the differences between my protagonists and therefore create expectations for the audience regarding the plot. I wanted to make it clear that the characters are different and it is their differences which form the potential barrier against them getting together. I stick to gender stereotypes throughout my TV spots, something I found was common in lots of the romantic comedies I watched as part of my planning, as I feel that this is one of the biggest appeals of the genre with audiences.

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

My research into film marketing campaigns highlighted that distributors work very hard at creating consistency across the various elements of the advertising for the film, so that audiences are aware of exactly which film is being promoted, and make links between the trailers, posters and social media pages that they see. In a crowded marketplace, consistent branding can be crucial and it is important that the different elements of a film marketing campaign build upon, and reinforce, each other. The elements of each of my productions, the TV spots, the poster and the social media pages, work together to create a sense of branding through, for example, using the same font on each of the media products. I chose Seasons Script, a font commonly associated with films from the romantic comedy genre, and the fact I have used it, in lowercase throughout, in all of my copy from the titles and billing in my TV spots, to the copy on my poster, and for each word on my Instagram page, ties all of my media products nicely together. This sense of branding is reinforced by a unified colour scheme across my products, where I have used softer colours, more commonly associated with rom-coms. There are numerous other elements which tie my products together, from the use of similar images of the film’s stars (in all of my products) to the use of the same tagline – ‘She’s black tie. He’s casual. Can they find the middle ground?.’ – in my TV spots and poster. The names of the cast and crew are consistent across the billing blocks on my poster and in my TV spots, as is the release date for the film – July 12th.

How do your products engage with the audience?

It is crucial when marketing films that each element of the campaign resonates with the target demographic. I wanted the audience to care enough about my central characters from seeing them in the TV spots, to want to go and see the film and to root for them to succeed in love. Here, the representations I mentioned previously were crucial. In terms of making each of my products engaging, I worked hard at ensuring they would appeal to my chosen demographic and that they would encourage the audience to see the film. My TV spots use lots of techniques to engage audiences, from the production company logos at the beginning which indicate that this is big-budget movie from companies with a proven track record in making successful romantic comedies, to the up-tempo pop music that will encourage the audience that this is a feel-good movie and will be fun to watch. The taglines outline the character traits of each character (supported by the images) and I establish the narrative conundrum in the TV spots, so that the audience want to see the film to see if the characters can overcome this. The tagline – ‘July 12th’ – indicates to the audience that this is a perfect summer movie, and reinforces that the central theme will revolve around the characters finding love, because it is typical of rom-coms to come out in the summer. These would be released in the week before the film’s premiere, to drive audiences to the cinema. They also tease the audience with more information about the plot and characters in the film. My poster also makes reference to a popular and successful romantic comedy – 'A Ticket to Paradise' – made by the same director. This will encourage audiences familiar with this movie to see the film, almost giving 'The Invite' a seal of approval. The social media page for the film engages with audiences by including behind-the-scenes reels and drip feeding information about the film’s release. Social media platforms, like Instagram, encourage audience interaction, I would hope that followers would share this information, using the hashtags, with like-minded people.

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

Throughout the planning stage of my project, I logged all of my research onto a blog so that I could quickly and easily refer to my findings when creating my TV spots, film poster and social media page. Much of the research I did was related to conventions (of the different media but also of my chosen genre) and I was able to look back at my findings when creating my products so that I could incorporate these conventions into my TV spots, poster and social media page. This was incredibly helpful in enabling me to create authentic media products from my genre.

For the trailer research, I found that a common convention (which I have incorporated into my trailers) was the inclusion of production company logos at the beginning of trailers (often accompanied with pop music). I have included logos for Universal, Working Title and Red Om Films – all production companies with a proven track record of making romantic comedies. Universal has made rom-com farces such as 'Bridesmaids' and 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', Working Title have made 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', 'Notting Hill' and 'Love Actually' and Red Om Films have made the romantic comedies 'About Time' and 'A Ticket to Paradise'. I also included these production company logos in the billing block of my film poster. The font which I used for my TV spots, film poster and social media page, followed the usual conventions of fonts used in romantic comedies. My research suggested that conventionally, the fonts used in rom-coms are serif and stereotypically ‘arty’, with flicks and feet, which represent the softer tone of the genre (compared to action films, for example). I have used the Seasons Script font. I also noticed that many romantic comedies used lower case fonts for their titles, so I adopted this for mine. In terms of my storyline and the use of film language (fades in the TV spots, mise-en-scene typical of the genre, such as casual costumes and props such as flowers), I do not challenge conventions at all in my TV spots. I followed the classic narrative structure and patterns of romantic comedies – girl meets boy, they have some friction, they fall in love, there is an obstacle in their way, they overcome this obstacle and they end up together.