Evaluation for My Marketing Campaign for 'The Walls Can Talk'

I have finished my evaluation for my A2 Marketing Campaign for the film 'The Walls Can Talk', answering the following 4 questions:

Question 1: How do your products represent social groups or issues?

Question 2: How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

Question 3: How do your products engage with the audience?

Question 4: How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

I have made reference to my research and planning blog where relevant, and added some images and videos to highlight some of my points.

Question 1: How do your products represent social groups or issues?

Representations of social groups within my film were something I had to consider carefully. I wanted to portray mental illness, particularly psychosis, in a way that fit within the BBFC 15 certificate while also supporting the narrative of my film.

My aim was to raise awareness of the disorder without presenting it in an overly heavy or distressing manner, as is often the case in films which portray this such as 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' or 'Girl, Interrupted'. 

As a result, the representation of my protagonist was carefully constructed to be both understandable and emotionally complex.

Within my film’s promotional package, I explored representations of different social groups through themes of mental illness and gender. The main narrative focuses on mental health issues and the collapse of the psyche, which I tried to reflect through decisions I took regarding film language, such as the use of direct-to-camera addresses, canted framing, unusual low angles, discontinuity editing and jump cuts, and the manipulation of sound. 

In both trailers, I chose to represent the setting in a traditional way (though even some of the angles and the composition of the shots of the location hint that something may not be quite right), while presenting mental health in a non-stereotypical manner. 

My teaser trailer consists entirely of close-up shots of Mr Carmichael’s mouth, the main character, while the theatrical trailer delivers a little more plot, and features the protagonist shot from multiple angles and distances (including the extreme close up of his mouth) whilst he delivers his monologue/address to the class. 

I decided to utilise this consistent representation of psychosis and mental decline through my trailers to keep the surrealist vibe of my film to further help audiences connect to the film through the marketing campaign.

Sound Used in My Trailers

Furthermore, the representations I have chosen to portray through narratives and dialogues in my trailers help to further connect the themes chosen. Throughout my theatrical trailer, aspects of dialogue and sound are used to further portray the psychosis that Mr. Carmichael is experiencing within the trailers and the film in whole.

Question 2: How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

It was highly important to me that I ensure that the audience can tell that all the marketing materials published are for the same film, so I made sure that all the marketing materials and advertisements were made consistent in relation to the film. 

I made a variety of choices to keep the branding consistent, for example, my Instagram page features still images of my main character of Mr. Carmichael and my trailers feature various different shots of Mr. Carmichael, as well as various shots of the college building, mirroring those seen in the opening sequence. 

These help have helped me to create a sense of continuity and consistency within my marketing materials. Furthermore, my poster houses a key photo from my teaser trailer, further tying the film, posters, and trailers together, these shots are also featured on my instagram page. 

Another key aspect of my branding is the consistent use of the font ‘Angel’ on DaFont, which is featured on all of my title cards across the film poster and trailers. 

This was used throughout other consistent elements of branding such as my tagline, hashtags, release date, references to other films made by the director and reviews which featured on my poster and in my trailers, and also on my Instagram page.

I also make various references to my production companies, with A24 and Universal pictures appearing throughout my film and trailers as title cards, on my poster’s billing block and my Instagram page’s biography.

Question 3: How do your products engage with the audience?

The target audience for my film is likely to be people in their late teenage years to early twenties, as my film is going to be released under a ‘15’ certificate. 

My film is aimed at the psychological thriller and drama genres enjoyers, and they will appreciate the subtle intertextual references to other films within the genre, such as ‘Split’. 

Within my trailers, I used a wide variety of media language to help captivate the audience, drawing them into my narrative and to create deeper meaning for them. In my teaser trailer, it features an extreme close up shots of Mr. Carmichael’s mouth, which further ties into the surrealist movement in film and the media and should appeal widely to the fans of the surrealist movement. 

As my film is a psychological thriller film, that will be targeting a mainstream audience with a full cinematic release, it will be sent out to cinemas around August 31st. 

Furthermore, it will be further released onto streaming platforms, such as Amazon Prime and Apple TV as a rent or buy film, an additional charge to their base subscription prices. This will give audiences more choice regarding how, when and where they watch the film. My marketing campaign consists of posters, trailers, and a social media page, all of these typical for a film’s marketing campaign and all of which are intended to engage the audience prior to the film's release so that they come to see the film. My social media page will serve as a primary marketing tool to engage audiences, as viral marketing is cost effective and easy to spread the word with, as the consumers become the prosumers, helping distribute the marketing material alongside us. Finally, I have used positive reviews across my marketing campaign which will help the film appeal to a wide range of audiences beyond just the psychological thriller or drama lovers.

Question 4: How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

Before my film was a concept, I conducted numerous research projects into existing marketing campaigns to help me graft a list of common conventions used within trailers, posters and social media platforms used to help market films, but also to help me collect a sense of purpose to each component to a marketing campaign. 

Once I had decided my genre, I then looked at marketing campaigns specifically for films from that genre, to see if I could find any ways genre was referenced. 

I looked at purpose built campaigns across different genres, and the different messages they conveyed. This not only aided me when it came to a clear-cut list of conventions I wanted to use, and the ones I didn't want to include, but also to gauge where conventions were the same across the genres. This helped give me an insight into the wide range of genres available. 

I also noticed that trailers and posters more often than not featured characters and key iconography that carry and convey the psychological genre. I further noticed that genre is incredibly key to the products as they have to carry the genre to the audience, and although mine blends a mixture of psychological drama and thriller, I mainly focused my efforts onto marketing using psychological thriller conventions. 

For the poster for ‘The Walls Can Talk’ I chose to follow the same conventions I found for all posters irrespective of the genre. So within, I included a billing block, some reviews, actor names and the film name. This helped me inform the audience that it is a standard film, whilst the image I used for my poster is a distorted and warped still from my opening sequence to conform to the distorted and unsettled conventions most common within the psychological drama genre.