Publicity design & Still photography

Some might argue that the marketing of the film is almost as important as the film making itself, as without the former, there wouldn't be many viewers, which in turn would defeat the purpose of a movie. The publicity department of the film production is responsible for generating interest in the public and drive them to the theatres. In this blog, we're going to discuss two major aspects of the film promotion, Publicity Design and Still Photography, and how they benefit the film.

The publicity designer of a film is someone who makes sure that your movie is talked about and commented upon even before the release of the film to make the audience curious. They communicate with and convince the audience that their film is a must-watch and that they wouldn't want to miss such an incredible experience. They do this by showing the trailers, sneak peeks among other things. They let out just the right amount of video content for the viewers to get immersed into their universe without giving away too much. These are usually accompanied with a promise of much more entertainment on the big screen.

There are several mediums available for the publicist to achieve the maximum visibility for the film. Some of them include print media, online marketing, publicity stunts and brand partnerships. Apart from these traditional methods, a publicist has to think of something innovative to make the film stand out from the rest. He emphasizes on what's unique about this film and constantly reminds the potential audience why they mustn't miss this.

One of the most successful marketing campaigns is "Why so serious?" for the promotion of The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan. The campaign prompted fans of the Batman franchise all over the world to wear a make-up like that of Joker's and click pictures beside famous landmarks and post them online. The official website even included fake posters for the fake campaign of character in the film, Harvey Dent. Apart from the above, it held several scavenger hunts in several countries to involve the viewers in the movie experience. The stunt proved to be quite successful as The Dark Knight had an all-time record opening at the time, grossing over 158 million in North America, in the first three days of its release.

The whole campaign, helmed by 42 Entertainment, has rolled out in 15 months leading up to the release of the film, which included 11 million participants across 75 countries. The craftiness of the publicity designers of the film has to be applauded as they capitalized on the fan base of the franchise and involved them in the process, which is the best way of ensuring that the they are indeed interested in the film and are eagerly waiting for the latest installment in the franchise.

One other promotional stunt that has grabbed the attention of the audience in the recent times was for the historic action drama series Game of Thrones. The promotional team set up an enormous sculpture of a Dragon head on the Dorset beach, which, understandably surprised a lot of people, but the important lesson to take away from this was that it got people, who haven't necessarily watched the previous seasons, talk about the TV show. This is a good example of a large scale promotional event which caused little or no discomfort to the citizens, unlike the publicity stunt of Mission Impossible 3. They have rigged 4,500 vending boxes with audio players that would go on to play the theme song of the franchise. The poor installation of them caused many to fall out, which resulted in several 911 calls, as they thought that they were bombs.

During the pre-production and the production stages of film making, there's not enough video content to show to the public. That is where the still photographers come into the picture. They take photos of the actors to be used in the promotions. The first look of the film is crucially important as most people value their first impressions. If they are not interested when they see the poster, more often than not, they are not likely to show interest thereafter.

Most of the pictures of the actors you see on the movie posters do not actually appear in the movie at all. They are taken just for promotional purposes in high quality, so that the publicist can use it before the release of the trailer. They usually don't have to be present on the set every day, as the job entails taking only a few pictures of the crew and the set, along with that of actors.

- Open Face Team

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