Radio Trailer Research

Advertising a film through radio is a good way to hit a mass audience due to its accessibility. A successful radio trailer should engage listeners without visual effects, therefore should include voice overs, sound effects, an interesting slogan and information such as cinema release date, certificate and reviews.
For our own radio trailer, we will incorporate dialogue from our film as well as a voice over. The dialogue will interest the audience as it will be of our actor screaming and yelling 'who is it' 'what do you want' to indicate the genre of a horror/thriller. The voice over will include the distributor, the name of the film, starring actors, dates, genre, certificate, reviews and where the targeted audience will be able to access the film. Non-diagetic sound will also be added from the film to the radio trailer to get the audience familiar with the genre and type of film. Diagetic sounds also include the squeaking of doors and stairs, slamming of doors and footsteps which will also be cut from our film and put into the trailer to create a suspense and tension, building up to the last part of the trailer.
I will be researching horror trailers specifically to find the conventions of radio trailers and to find how they market and interest listeners. Here is an example:

http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01B1EB512_128.mp3

This radio trailer entwines voice overs, dialogue and intense music which builds up creating suspense for the audience. The turn-taking of the voice over and dialogue gives out vital information about the film and the incorporation of varying voices makes it more interesting for the audience to listen to. The sound effects of guns firing can also be heard throughout to show listeners the genre of the film, being an action thriller as stated by the voice over. Here, the voice over has included:

• The background of the storyline 
• Main actors 
• Genre 
• Name of the film 
• Cinema release date 
• Certificate 

In just 20 seconds the radio trailer have included everything the audience has to know to decide whether they would watch the film. The fast pace of the trailer represents the action genre of the film which is very attractive to listeners therefore helping the film to sell. Fast pace music will be used in our trailer when the intruder is seen, however slow paced music will be played for the first part of the trailer, which will gradually build up. We will then end our film with the name of the film to emphasise the title making it more familiar and eye catching to the audience, resulting in them more likely to tell friends about it and more likely to go see it.

Link to results of questionnaire for rough cut

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h2CUkHm0K3F4pXpTvJT3zQN3_xXkgh2B8AEQJEAn3og/edit#gid=650074987

Link to questionnaire for rough cut of film

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xMbeIIFnM7NNNmPD1oFLUGauoTFgZeVkuzC_SJR6Ye8/viewform?usp=send_form

Film Posters

After researching film posters I have seen that dark colours and figures are ubiquitous in horror. Usually, the dark figure is a male with only part of their face showing which adds mystery and tension while intriguing the audience as they want to know more about the person. This is shown on 'Friday The 13th' and highlights the weapon shown in the males hands to tell the audience that it plays a main part in the film. Having not seen the film myself, the imagery of the forest in the background gives a setting to the film, suggesting that this is where the action takes place. I additionally think this is done is order to scare the audience as forests are usually dark lonely and scary places to be.

The contrasting black and red colours connote danger and fear which make the poster stand out and look more visually appealing to the audience. The red shows that violence and blood may be involved and the black is seen as the unknown therefore injects fear into the audience. This is shown in various horror films such as 'Halloween' and 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'.

'A Nightmare On Elm Street' shows a male stood behind a female, both in the darkness to show the mystery of the characters. The stereotype of males being the stronger sex is shown in this poster as the male is stood behind the woman making her look more vulnerable and unsafe, creating sympathy for this character. This is shown in 'The Tall Man' as the feared character is stood closely behind the female who has a worried and distressed look on her face. 

We will use the ideas of a darks figures in our film as the man who is in the woman's house is seen throughout the film in dark lighting to show his mystery. The use of the girl on the poster will also be good to use on our poster, as the girl in our film is seen as vulnerable and innocent.
Slogans are shown on every example here such as 'he knows where you sleep' 'welcome to crystal lake'.  These two slogans have reference to to the film which makes audiences want to watch it to then know its references. The release dates are also very clear, A Nightmare On Elm Street has the simple '04.30.10' which will stick in the audiences mind due to its simplicity.
From my research into the typical horror film poster, I have gathered information which our group will incorporate into our final group poster which are:

• Contrasting light and dark colours 
• Dark figures to add mystery 
• Big bold simple text to attract audience 
• Powerful slogan to indicate the plot summary 
• Date which is simple and bold 
• Starring actors 
• Distributor 

Radio Listeners Statistics.

When looking into radio trailers i then decided it would be a good idea to actually look into how many people actually tune into radio to see how effective a radio trailer would be in advertising a film. I, myself listen to radio on a daily basis and have heard many film trailers over the time i have listened to radio. As i live in the UK i looked into the top ten radio stations in the UK and found out how many people tuned into which ones each week.
It is shown that BBC Radio two is the most popular with 15.5 million listeners each week. This is closely followed by Radio One (10.8m) and Radio Three (10.5m) From looking into these statistics we can tell that radio is something in which many people listen to which i believe makes it a very simple yet effective way of advertising for films.

Radio Trailers.

Radio is another way of advertising a film. The trailers themselves should include things such as music from the film, sounds/ talking from the film, voiceovers exaggerating aspects of the film and giving statistics given by newspapers etc.

I decided to look into different radio trailers and how they're different from each other and to get a better understanding of what is involved in them.  However, when i started to do so i found it quite difficult to actually find radio trailers. Eventually i came across a website which had a database full of film radio trailers.   http://archive.rab.co.uk/radio-ads-2014/advanced-search?sn=trailers

The first radio trailer i found which had some sort of relevance to our own film was named 'The Cold Light Of Day'. I found that this film takes turns in using voiceover and dialogue from the film to demonstrate aspects of the film that are most exciting to entice the audience. All this is coupled with tense music playing within the background to build suspense throughout the trailer making the audience want to go out and see it. The duration of the trailer is only 20 seconds but packs in all it needs to in order to successfully advertise the film.
http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01B1EB512_128.mp3

The second radio trailer i found was for a movie called 'Now You See Me' which again uses the same techniques such as upbeat music for tension. It starts out with dialogue from the film followed by voiceover suggesting what the critics thought of the film. The trailer its self only lasts 20 seconds in order to keep it quite interesting and more intense. However, the 20 seconds allows lots of information to be packed into it.
http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01C31A59D_128.mp3

Radio Trailers

Another great way of advertising films is through radio and more specifically, radio trailers. Many people across the world are constantly listening to the radio whilst commuting from place to place so it is a huge market to aim at.  Below is an example of a typical film radio trailer.
http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01D38E512_128.mp3
The above link mainly consists of a voiceover talking about the reviews in which the film has got. The reviews are from major newspapers and other types of media. They include this as a way of trying to make the film sound good to the audience as people listen to major newspapers as they see them as being reliable sources. It also includes reviews from major newspapers that give an indication to the audience of how good the film is. The radio trailer lasted around 20 seconds and after doing further research I found that nearly all of the radio trailers lasted the same duration. The main actors of the film are also mentioned which may attract a specific audience. this will be the case as if the audience like a certain actor then they may be obliged to see the film. Most of the radio trailers finish with the name of the film and this is something that will be ideal for us to include within our own radio trailer. It is done so that it is the last thing the audience hears and this will mean that the name of the film will be implanted into the audiences mind. Radio trailers only engages with the audio senses which mean we have to include a mixture of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds in our own trailer. The genre of our film has a huge effect on this in the sense that we need to use specific sounds that will scare the audience.