Perry McCarthy Ident

This is my ident for the original Stig played by Perry McCarthy when Top Gear first broadcast.

Film Advertising ESSAY

Test Screening is a brilliant way to get the publics opinion on a film a few months before the release of the film, many production companies before the internet came out used test screenings to get the publics opinion and also used them so the public would spread the word that it was a good film.

Production companies like the Warner Bros, Universal, 20th Century Fox and Metro Goldwyn Mayer all use test screenings to promote their film through word of mouth whether it was good or not. Usually in a test screening the organisers will give out little questionnaires, the questionnaires determine whether the film should be released publicly or not. However some companies like Warner Bros don't really care a lot if their film is liked or not for instance, the film has to score a 70% feedback otherwise they will cancel the film or change the film in little ways, just like George Lucas's first Star Wars film after many test screenings was changed, his script was scrapped several times and the title three times, the first title was called the adventures of Luke Star killer, it was then renamed the adventures of Luke Skywalker and then later the name as we know it now Star Wars. Originally the famous scene of the Greedo and Han Solo shootout in the cantina bar had Han shoot first which made Han look like a cold killer, they then edited the scene so that Greedo has his weapon on Han but still made Han look like a murderer so they then re shot the scene with Greedo shooting first. When the special anniversary edition of star wars was released in 1997 of the trilogy the scene was edited so that when Greedo shoots Hans head moves to doge the laser which is clearly done in some sort of visual effects software like adobe aftereffects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xezn-0xottw

 Christopher Nolan's last Batman film The Dark Knight Rises was recut after they received the feedback from the fans who attended the test screening saying that the main villains (Bane) voice was to distorted and couldn't make out the majority of his dialogue, therefore the production team took the feedback into consideration and had to have Tom Hardy go in and dub his voice over the top to make his voice sound cleaner and more understandable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZW5qyc2g6U

Films are not always as we expect them to be, in fact there are many films bought out every year which are misinterpreted by the audience, we can see this in the poster for the film Mans Best Friend as clearly indicated on the poster the dog is a cyborg? A genetically mutated dog is accidentally released from the lab of Dr. Jarret and ends up at the home of news reporter/animal rights advocate Lori Tanner. The dog, Max, indulged with intelligence and other special abilities, is at first lovable, but also proves to be a killer. Misrepresentation can have devastating effects on films, a well-known director like Sam Raimi could promote his film by distributing posters with cute little bunnies with reviews of five stars saying it was “sensational”, “breath taking” when really it’s a slasher horror film about killer rabbits running chaos in New York, this sort of representation could have a negative effect on Sam Raimi's reputation where he's known for a gritty looking horror film and not a children’s film maker. This type of representation can have the same effect on actors as actors that have worked for their reputation in a certain style or genre will lose their reputation over them being misrepresented through promoting the film. When we see films that are not like the films that we’ve seen advertised its not because their stupid its generally because they are trying to grab a wider audience

More and more contemporary films are beginning to promote their films through interactive media such as websites, mobile apps, allowing fans to download wallpapers and trailers for free and Internet games. Some companies like the Warner Bros have taken a different and more creative approach to promote their films, for instance in the film The Dark knight, Warner Bros decided to really grab the fans attention and spread the word by getting the fans to submit their contact details which would reveal a pixel of an image which gradually revealed the face of the joker, this was the first publicly introduced image of the joker, (Christopher Nolan even told the actors the film ending in person to reduce the chance of plot leaks). http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/dvdsite/

Fan culture plays a big part in Films, as there are many adapted graphic novels and books, which sometimes fall flat on their face, take the Daredevil as an example; fans eagerly awaited the release of the film, which then fell face first as fans attacked the film with hate as most things in the film were inaccurate, Daredevil beat Kingpin in their first fight which is impossible for a blind guy to beat a huge incredibly strong hulk of a man in their first fight, Daredevil met Elektra which is inaccurate as Daredevil doesn’t meet Elektra until at least four volumes into the comic series. It used to be that nerds would shy away in their rooms reading comics to their hearts content but now there are huge expos, meet ups, panels and conventions. One of the biggest conventions in the world is ComiCon with over 130,000 nerds attend at a general price of £10 an adult and £6 for a child. ComiCon started on 21st    
March 1970 at the U.S Grand Hotel with an attendance of only 145 nerds this event was a fund raiser to host another gathering in august, ComiCon is so widely known now that most film directors and other companies with a fan base are itching to show their fans the new and exciting things that they are bringing out, even actors who play the fans favourite heroes attend to promote their films and products further and some come as their character just like Tom Hiddleston did at this years ComiCon, acts like this make films very popular and the avengers was a massively popular film. You can measure the popularity of a film just by looking at reviews of the film on websites like imdb, rotten tomatoes even your local cinema will have forums and film reviews, films popularity can also be measured by the amount of views channels can get on YouTube, vimeo, twitch TV and more specific to a certain film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toPstPIcGnI

Ideas for Film Studies Essay

my first film I'm thinking of researching in depth is the Batman vs Superman film (a.k.a Man of Steel 2) . this is because many "nerds" are anticipating the release of the film and more information. I feel that the way they are going to release this film will be much like the release of the Dark Knight, which had a very successful advertising technique, the way they announced the film was amazing as they really pinched the audience by giving a quote from the comic "I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in all your most private moments, I want you to remember my hand at your throat,”.