My completed trailer storyboard

Selected scenes for my film's trailer

1) Flashback shots - possible two to give some background into the main character and her relationship. Also to give binary opposites to the person she becomes. Also to give a setting and equilibrium
2) shot of the alien spaceship arriving - lots of chaos and fear to tell the audience what the disruption is.
3) shot of Ben leaving to go the army, to give drama
4) shot of a very scary, ugly looking alien to present the villains. Possible explosions and gunfire in background to show the a-a genre
5) shot of Talia fighting a lot of aliens. This is to show the odds of human survival, and to again represent the a-a genre. The background could have a destroyed NYC scene to show the audience that the film is apocolypic
6) shots of Talia with her children to fortify the idea of her being a mother and present the USP
7)shots of other helpers and donors - John in a typical army uniform with an american flag and a cigar to create a stereotype.
8) some kind of surpring, scary alien shot to shock the audience and appeal to an older TA who may enjoy the idea of aliens and apolypse in a film.

Audience Profile for 2012

This film targets a fairly wide audience of men and women aged 21-40 due to the disaster sub-genre of the film. The trailer uses many shots of a devestated world, which presents the impressive CGI to attract film fans who are interested in the modern technologies of the film. However not much of the main characters are shown; simply their faces and some basic relationships such as his family. By showing scenes of the family, 2012 can also attract families to view the film, as it seems that the film focuses some of its narrative on relationships and emotions, which may appeal more to the female side of the audience. The audience is entertained by the trailer as it shows the film to be exciting and energetic, which may be desired by a-a film fans. Surveillance and information is also given, as the audience are brought into a futuristic world, which represents the Mayan myth of the end of the world.

storyboard for my film's opening sequence

Shotlist for my film's opening sequence

Marketing Campaign for Avatar

I decided to focus my research on Avatar, as it proved a successful campaign, due to the fact that it was heavilty anticipated and talked about, and A LOT of people went to see it.

The budget for Avatar was approximately £200,000,000, and a fair amount of this went into marketing the film. It grossed $2,782,206,970, which shows that it was a successful campaign as it attracted a large audience. The campaign was indeed on an enourmous scale, and consisted of the three main parts that build any campaign: advertising, promotion and publicity. By juggling all three part, awareness of the film was created quickly, and sustained until the film's release.

Advertising:

Several trailers (and TV spots), and very recognizable posters which expressed the "new technology" USP of the film were released. Many of these posters and trailers were globally released which created an international awareness of the film, that connected the many prospecting audiences from around the world. Online marketing also played a key role in advertising the film. Viral marketing on Facebook and Twitter was a huge help in earning the film its massive revenue (Avatar's Fb page had 1,149,471 fans as of 28th Jan 2010).

Promotion:

Avatar and Panasonic were sponsors of each other. The first preview of the film was also shown in Empire to create an early hype and tease film fans who read empire. The Coca-Cola company also collaborated with 20th Century Fox to launch a worldwide campaign to promote the film. By collaborating with big businesses like Coca Cola and Panasonic, Avatar's awareness was spread to a very wide audience who purchase these products.
Also, various other famous films by James Cameron, like Titanic, Alien and Terminator are used to promte the film in the trailer and posters. By mentioning these films, the fans may be attracted to watching Avatar for a similar cinematic experience.

Publicity :

the premier of the film was heavily waited upon, and the film was released on the same day worldwide to create a huge hype all at once. Various interviews were also done with James Cameron, where he explains his thought behind Avatar (like on CNN). This gives the audience an insight into the making of the film, which may interest many film fans.

Audience Interaction:

On the website, the audience is invited to "make your own Avatar" by using an image of yourself. Photos from Facebook can also be used, which makes this viral method more user friendly and reaches a wiser audience, therefore making it more effective. The audience is also able to get involved with various charitable evets, like saving the rainforests. Not only does this make the institutions behind the film seem better and more generous, it also gives the audience an incentive to go on the website and watch the film, as the are helping for a cause.

An Avatar game is also available for purchase on the AppStore (and on consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3), which i got and think is pretty awesome. This allows the Avatar name to be seen by a wider audience (the many people who own Ipods and use the AppStore),  whoc can interact with the film and feel part of the huge fan base. Downloads are also available, like wallpapers and soundtracks, which can be send to different people and creates yet another form of viral marketing.
Merchendise is available from a variety of sources, including Amazon, and allows fans to buy figures, wear T-Shirts and even buy costumes of their favourite characters.

Overall, I think that Avatar's marketing campaign is very, very, very, very successful. In fact, i think it was too successful. Many people (including me), found Avatar to be a good film, but not up to the expectations made by the campaign. Such an amazing campaign suggested that  the film would be one of the best ever, in terms of breaking boundaries and in terms of its narrative. Nonetheless, Avatar's marketing campaign was clearly successful, seeing as how it made the film as popular as it is today. It targets a huge audience, and reached almost everyone i could think of. It created a brand for the film, and made it one of the most anticipated films of that year, which is why i still think it was an amazing campaign. 

This is my moodboard to present how the male and female sexes are represented in AA films. As you can see, the representation fo men is usually more positive, as they are made to seem powerful, dominant and adventurous. In comparison, females are stereotypically represented as the damsel in distress, often being hopeless and being the "princess" that must be saved. However, in many AA films these stereotypes are broken, and men are represented in a different light, where they are not strong and dominant, but are weak and need saving by women. Also, women are unstereotypically represented as strong and violent (like men), however much more clever and empathetic than men are usually represented. overall, men are more stereotypically represented in a positive light, however in a lot of films, the characteristics of the female characters challenge these stereotypes, for example Kill Bill, Chocolate, Kick Ass and Avatar.

Narrative Techniques

Open Narrative - at the end of my film a sequel will be hinted as all the aliens are not killed and another king is created, which suggests that the narrative will continue.

Binary Opposites - good vs evil - humans vs aliens. Also destruction vs intact surroundings. Earth will be completely destroyed, however the alien base will be intact to symbolise how the human race is almost at ethe point of extinction. Also, i will use reds, greys and blacks on Earth, with lots of white and blues in the alien base. This will show how Earth is destroyed, and could represent how the human race has destroyed Earth with the amount of war which has occured.

Ellipses - the beginning will of the film will show how the aliens came to Earth, and the war they had with the humans. Then it will skip to the present day which the film will be set in, which is left ambigious but is in the future. This will create a tense atmosphere as the audience will be not know exactly where and at what time this film is set, which creates insecurity and suspense.

Alterations to Proposal

The things that i could improve on were my marketing, as i had not really thought about it. Also, i could improve on the choice of actors and actresses, and possibly change who would play Sarah Brown. I would probably choose someone younger in order to widen my target audience out more. Any alterations i have made are in RED.
I was also thinking of changing my film title to something more dramatic, as the plot is fairly dark and emotional, and "uninvited guests" doesnt really suggest that (in my point of view).