CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

HOW MY FILM PROMO PACK REPRESENTS SOCIAL GROUPS AND ISSUES

Our film Silhouette depicts the strenuous lives of the military and tackles the effects of its harsh demands on the mental health of the soldiers who risk their lives daily. We construct stereotypical representations of male soldiers. Outwardly, they appear to be hard-hitting, stone-cold characters, matching the stereotype of soldiers in action films, news bulletins and documentary reports, especially as we dress them in combat gear that makes them seem machine-like in their confident deployment of their duties. For Stuart Hall, stereotypes like these are used by the media to create characterizations by reducing social groups to a few key traits or visual cues depicting a set of behaviours within a social hierarchy. These are constructed through codes that use imagery, language, sound and editing, which play a vital role in shaping how people see the world. Our personnel wear camouflage attire and wield specialist equipment. However, we lift the lid on the stereotype. Taking inspiration partly from Bradley Cooper’s role in American Sniper, we explore the stressful sense of alienation experienced by military personnel torn between their professional roles and their family lives. Their traumatic experiences make many feel ill-at-ease about returning to civilian life. In the trailers, we convey this visually through editing and close-ups creating flashbacks that show how the soldiers reminisce about their “normal” lives at home, but feel that they can’t go back. We depict them as feeling damaged, being desensitised to many aspects of normal life.

 

The issue of men’s mental health is a topical concern: there has been a big national and international push to advocate for mental health and to make metal healthcare more accessible. 75% of suicides are men and it is now recognised by mental health charities that men tend not to seek help. We represent our soldiers as experiencing the profound stress that exposure to combat situations has on the minds and bodies of those involved. The flashbacks aim to establish an emotional connection between the character and the audience, and make the characters more relatable as they had to abandon their loving family. They contribute to an exciting, tense and dramatic narrative that engages both the audience’s sympathy and satisfies their need for escapist entertainment.

HOW THE ELEMENTS OF MY PROMO PACK WORK TOGETHER TO CREATE A SENSE OF BRANDING

My film website has the striking video of the garage door opening, which is one of the opening scenes which appear in my trailer. The Silhouettes of the men in this scene also appear on my social media pages for the film, such as Twitter. The garage door opening signifies the audience being allowed onto the site, and opening into the world of the film. Equally, I have used a consistent font throughout the promotional package: Monument. The website has been built to specifically use the Monument font throughout, including the navigation bar and the text that appears on the website itself. I have also included the logos to our production companies on the film poster and the social media pages, being used as the avatar for the film. The Website and Social media pages are used cohesively in order to provide convergent links to one another. This helps the audience gain more regular exposure to the film and help to build a relationship between the film and the audience. 

Behind the scenes photos are also important to the development of the film, and I have included these in the “Gallery” section of my film website, as well as the social media pages.

Merchandising is also a very important aspect to a promotional pack, and I have generated my own merchandise for my film, using photoshop and taking inspiration from other brands and our they make their clothing. The choice of clothes was made based on the overwhelming male majority audience we discovered our film had.

HOW MY FILM PACK ENGAGES WITH MY AUDIENCE

My film poster creates a sense of the horror/thriller genre through the use of visual codes such as dark colours, and the stylisation of the mysterious creature which features in our film. The centre of the poster holds the three subjects of most interest, the soldiers and the creature. These are established as the main characters as they are the biggest subjects on the poster, and the creature being bigger than the soldiers represents the overwhelming power it has over their existence. The poster is compelling as it shows the power of the being, through subtle usage of embers, provoking a sense of destruction. 

My trailer use’s thriller and horror genre conventions, such as darker colours and hard, fast paced cutting. The soldiers are immediately thrown into the action, and in order to achieve the audience feeling empathy for the soldiers, we incorporated flashbacks and special memorabilia for them to look back on to make them more relatable as characters. Sound is a pivotal part of the trailer, as we utilise sound cues, which indicate when the creature is performing actions and to add a sense of suspense to the scene, an integral part of the horror genre. 

My website similarly follows the visual code of using dark colours to represent the genre, and this is present throughout the website. I have used the same font throughout all three aspects of my promotional pack in order to show convergence and consistency throughout my products. The website also has a professional look to attract audiences.

HOW MY RESEARCH INFORMED MY PRODUCTS AND THE WAY IN WHICH THEY USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS

Our film trailer is a horror / thriller, and I found creating suspense very inspiring. I was able to learn new editing techniques that I used in my trailer to create a sense of paranormal activity and suspense. Using my research I found these areas to be crucial. In order to create this atmosphere we used darker colours in the framing to connote a horror genre. There are similarities in the trailer which also correspond to the website and promotional material i produced, darker colours and the same text font are all consistent.

In my poster I have incorporated a QR code which links to the social media that I have established for the films promotional package. The QR code gives a convergent hub for all of the relevant links needed for the film and the same QR code can be found on other social media. The two soldiers and the silhouette of the creature take up much of the poster and have been framed so the creature is overpowering bigger than the soldiers in order to create a sense of them being vulnerable.

On the website I incorporated hover images so that I could show the information about the person and make the website seem less cluttered. There are hyperlinks on the website which lead to the social media the film has. There are also dedicated pages to the film store and the trailers, where there is a slider which cycles through the trailers. The gallery also has special images.