Promotion of a film prior to release: Orphan

The promotion of a film is one of the most important aspects that take place before the film is released and distributed into cinemas and onto DVD's. When a movie is made, the film crew start promoting it through various means such as advertisements, websites, TV etc. which includes spending lot of money. Since past decade with the advance of digital technology, a lot of money is being spent on movie before it hits the cinema. What I think a movie attracts people through is solely on its content. When the movie is quite good to watch it reaches other people through word of mouth. As technology continues to develop, distribution companies are always finding more ways to distribute a film so that they can persuade the audience to go and see films. It is important that the media product is distributed on a number of different platforms to ensure that it reaches a range of audiences. There are three platforms that a film can be promoted on, these consist of:

•             Print: Teaser poster, main poster.
•             E-Media: website? YouTube channel? Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.
•             Broadcasting: Teaser and Theatrical trailer.

The film that I believe is the most similar to the one that I am going to create is 'Orphan' and therefore I am going to analyse the promotion of this film. Orphan is a psychological horror film and was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Institution companies for the film are as follows; dark castle entertainment and Appian Way Productions. In addition to this, the film was distributed by

Warner Bros.  Pictures. ‘Orphan’ has a wide range target audience, girls and boys between the ages of 15-40. The film was released theatrically in the United States on July 24, 2009. Kate and John are a married couple who have recently been having problems with their marriage. Kate and John already have a son and a daughter; however they decide to adopt a child to overcome problems that they have recently been having in their marriage. They go to St. Marina Orphanage and fall in love with 9 year old Russian girl, Esther, as she was 'different' to all the other girls in the orphanage. Further on throughout the movie, Esther's actions cause Kate to think that there is a problem and she is psychologically disturbed. Her husband refuses to believe what she is saying, but when Kate called up the orphanage to find out more about Esther and her background, Kate discovers that Esther isn't who she thinks she is. Orphan was promoted by a two minute long trailer. This could be seen on both the TV and on websites like UK, which is of mutual benefit for both distribution companies and social networking sites. This was a very helpful stage for the promotion of Orphan because the fact that Orphan was being released to cinemas would have been noticed by lots of people due to the amount of people that watch TV and use websites such as YouTube. There was also a film poster and an official website. The website includes trailers, pictures and the names of characters. This helped to promote because it increased the excitement of the film which could have helped it to go viral. This is important because of the development in new digital media now means that people have access to these websites where ever they are via their smart phones. There is also a Facebook page for orphan which people cud ‘like’ and see new forms of advertisement such as new posters which were being released. There was also an apple app for orphan whom fans of the film would buy; it played sounds from the movie. Orphan also has a premier in Westwood, California on the 21^st July 2009, which would have helped the word of the film go more viral. Isabelle Fuhrman playing Esther was the highlight of most of the critics and if the actors are said to be good, people are more likely to go and see the film. 

Firstly, I am going to analyse the print promotion for 'Orphan'. The distributors of orphan (Warner Bros) released a teaser poster and main poster and I am going to analyse the difference between the two as these were used to promote the film, prior to the film’s release. There were three posters released prior to the release date of Orphan. The first poster was a poster with a red background which was effective because red has connotation of danger, evil and blood. This poster shows picture of Esther positioned in the left of the frame with the title of the film ‘Orphan’, written next to her in white, which attracts attention to this quote. In addition to this, there is a tag line ‘You’ll never guess her secret’ which will make the audience want to see the film to see what her secret is. The first poster also gives the audience of the names and actors who play a role in the film because if they are popular and the audience like them, they are more likely to go and see the film. The second poster shows Esther wearing the same outfit with a green/blue background. However, this poster shows the release date which suggests that this poster was released closer to the release date of the film.

Just from looking at the main image on the poster, you can immediately see that the genre of the film is a psychological horror film as the girl featured in the main image as the girl in the image looks evil. In addition to this, the main image used on the poster is one of the most important aspects as it is used to draw the audience’s attention into the poster and is also one of the biggest conventions of the film poster. Due to the fact that that the girl is the only person in the image on the poster suggests that she is one of the main characters within the film. Direct address is used in the image as Esther is looking directly into the camera which is a vital aspect to use to enable the poster to catch the audience’s attention to look at the poster. Furthermore, the fact that the image takes up the majority of the page is important because it means that unnecessary text isn't just placed on the poster to fill up the space. If the poster was just filled with text, the target audience wouldn't read it. Behind the image is a green background, which represents life and jealousy which could mean that Esther is starting a new life in her new house but she could be jealous of the other two children already within the family and wants to ruin the relationship between everyone within the family as she is jealous because she has had a bad childhood and has had a different upbringing. Low key lighting is used on the poster has been used which makes it look like Esther is hiding something which could be revealed in the film, giving the audience a reason to see the film. Esther is wearing old-fashioned clothing which would differentiate her from the other characters within the film as the rest of the family don't dress like this, which represents as being isolated and different. However, the school uniform like costume and pig tails represent how young she is as she still goes to school, which gives away more information about the film as she could go to school, where other incidents happen within the film. However, Esther's costume in this image is juxtaposed because her pale face makes her come across as innocent but in contrast her dark hair makes her seem dangerous and evil.

The masthead on the poster "THERES SOMETHING WRONG WITH ESTHER" further represents the genre of the film as it means that something could be psychologically wrong with her. In addition to this, the white bold font ensures that the font stands out from the green background and catches the audience’s attention as soon as they look at the poster. Furthermore, the tag line "can you keep a secret" at the bottom of the page, again gives away some of the storyline as it suggests that Esther is keeping a secret that is revealed in the movie and the audience will want to see the film to find out what this secret is. This links in with the low key lighting used within the poster as this lighting suggests that Esther is hiding something and all will be revealed in the full film. This writing also stands out from the background and represents the horror genre as red has connotations of blood and evil. Also, when the audience are lured in by this poster, they might then want to go and watch the film trailer, to gain a greater perspective of the film. They will then realise that the same tag line is used in the film trailer, this time as a strap. This therefore creates continuity between the two media texts and makes us understand that there is definitely something wrong with Esther and she isn't like any other orphan. Although the film poster does follow most codes and conventions of film posters, it does however challenge some conventions. This is because whereas in most film posters the title of the film would be situated at the top of the screen, on this film poster, it is positioned nearer the bottom of the screen, which you wouldn't normally expect as it should be the first thing that the audience see. Although, there could be a reason for this. The title may be positioned here because it could be the last thing that they want the audience to see so that they can remember it and then go onto watch the trailer so that they can find out more about the film and events that happen within the film, which will then make them want to watch the full film. Also, the font of this makes it look like child's writing as there is a mix of lower and upper case fonts. However, you would not expect an ordinary child's writing to be in this sharp, evil writing, which makes Esther 'different'. It also looks like it has been engraved and suggests that Esther is engraving her evil on other people within the film and destroying other people’s life's. Finally, the date of the film’s release is situated at the bottom of the poster and stands out again in a red font to ensure that people know when they can go and watch the full film. I feel that the orphan film poster successfully appeals to their target audience as it includes all of the details with the main image of the main character within the film. I also feel that because the text used on the poster is "short and snappy" it will further appeal to the target audience because it meant that they can quickly read it and will give the audience a clear understanding of the film without giving too much information away to also allow them to see the film.


Furthermore, closer to the release date of the film, a main movie poster was released. The poster for the film was released prior to the release date for the film. This poster gives the audience a better understanding of the film. Just from looking at the main image on the poster, you can immediately see that the genre of the film is a psychological horror film as the girl featured in the main image as the girl in the image looks evil. In addition to this, the main image used on the poster is one of the most important aspects as it is used to draw the audience’s attention into the poster and is also one of the biggest conventions of the film poster. Due to the fact that that the girl is the only person in the image on the poster suggests that she is one of the main characters within the film. This final film poser gives all of the information for the audience whereas the other two posters only give small snippets of the film. This poster displays the main image, which is of the antagonist in the film. In addition to this, the title of the film is displayed at the bottom of the image in white to draw attention to the text. Furthermore, at the bottom of the film poster, the actors and directors of the film are displayed which further persuades the audience to see the film because they could be popular or actors that they like to see within films. Finally, the release date of the film is displayed which means that the audience are aware of this and can see the film when it is released.  Print is also another important aspect of the promotion of the film. Firstly, a teaser film poster was released, which has a picture of the main character within the film and the title of the film and the date that it will be released on. A second original film poster is then released and it gives people the chance to look at the directors and actors within the film. This could then attract more people who didn't originally like the film to want to see the film because of the actors.

Another way used to promote the film was through E-Media. The film was also promoted on social networking sites. They had an orphan Facebook page to allow them to further promote the film. This is important because the majority of their target audience will use social networking sites which mean that they are successfully reaching their target audience. Furthermore, they set up actors Twitter pages so that they could tweet about the release of the film and people who follow this actor will then see the tweets and will be encouraged to see the film because they like the actor. Furthermore, the development of new digital technology had an important effect on the promotion of the film because it meant that they could release an app that people could download onto their phones and can access this anywhere. This allowed the audience to find out new information about the film as it was about to be released.

As you can see above, orphan released teaser trailer and an original movie trailer. The teaser trailer gives the audience short snippets of the film at a fast pace so that they do not give away a full storyline. This will build up tension and excite the audience as they will then want to see the full movie trailer. The full movie trailer gives the audience more of an idea of the storylines within the film and the main characters. The pace also isn't as fast to allow the audience to take in the information that they are seeing on screen. This trailer successfully follows the codes and conventions of all film trailers. Another convention of horror trailers is when the trailer opens with an establishing shot of the house, which gives the audience a clearer understanding of where the film is going to be set. The mise-en-scene used throughout the trailer gives a clear understanding of what each characters role is. Esther’s dark, old-fashioned costume and the shape of her hat and her dark eye make-up, give her a witch-like and scary, evil appearance that immediately leads us to see her as evil and not the innocent child that everyone thinks she is, which leads on from the fact that the girls in her new school made a comment about her clothing. Whereas, the two other younger children wear normal clothes to represent the clear difference between the orphan and the opted other children who have been brought up in a happy family. This gives the audience a god understanding of the film before actually seeing the film and they will want to see what happens next and excites them to see the film.  This trailer successfully follows the codes and conventions of all film trailers. As with all horror film trailers, the trailer opens with an establishing shot of the house, which gives the audience a clearer understanding of where the film is going to be set. The trailer opens by explaining the story as the family are happy as they are about to adopt a child. They go to the orphanage and decide to adopt 'Esther'. When they bring her home, there are shots with her bonding with the other two children within the family. However from then on, everything starts to change as it starts to become obvious that there is something wrong with Esther, which means hat that the audience are presented with an Enigma as soon as Esther is seen kicking the toilet door and being violent. In addition to this, when the enigma is presented, the writing appears in black to represent dark and danger and make her seem evil. This also started to show the sub-genre in the trailer as something is 'psychologically wrong' with her. In terms of setting; the main setting of the film is in the house or either in a park. However, the white snow makes Esther look more innocent and come across as an innocent girl, when in actual fact the mother is the main victim in the situation. There is lots of contrapuntal sound used throughout the trailer, such as when 'Esther' screams as the end which could attract the target audience as it gives them a clear idea of the sub-genre and whether or not they are interested and this also catches their attention right at the end of the film. Furthermore, many conversations take place throughout the trailer, many of them are discussing Esther. For example, when the nun and the mother are discussing her behaviours and how she thinks that there is something wrong with her, it is in a linear sequence to give the audience a clearer understanding of the film and what to expect from the real film, without giving too much away so that they wouldn't have to see the whole film.

The mise-en-scene used throughout the trailer gives a clear understanding of what each characters role is. Esther’s dark, old-fashioned costume and the shape of her hat and her dark eye make-up, give her a witch-like and scary, evil appearance that immediately leads us to see her as evil and not the innocent child that everyone thinks she is, which leads on from the fact that the girls in her new school made a comment about her clothing. Whereas, the two other younger children wear normal clothes to represent the clear difference between the orphan and the opted other children who have been brought up in a happy family. However, her pale skin could make her come across as innocent but as an audience, we know that her dark hair has a massive impact on this as it can make her seem dangerous and evil. The lighting at the beginning is a lot brighter and more colourful as the family are happy about adopting another child. However, there is a complete contrast between the lighting seen at the beginning of the trailer from the lighting at the end of the trailer, signifying that the events that take place within the trailer have an impact in the lighting that should be used. When Esther starts to become more violent and angry, the ambient lighting becomes a lot darker, such as when she was in the toilet kicking the doors as this is the first time the audience start to see the 'psychological' sub-genre appear in the trailer.  In addition to this, the props used, such as knives and bricks are not probs that you would expect an ordinary child to use to hurt others around them. Also, lightning is used when 'Esther' is standin over her sisters bed when she sleeps, the Lightning allows the audience to see Esther, creating a sense of evil, however we never see why she is standing next to her sister? This makes the audience want to see the film to see what does happen.

The fact the orphanage was shown right at the beginning of the trailer has a massive effect on everything else you see throughout the trailer and makes everything easier to understand. As she was adopted from an orphanage, suggests that she may have had a very bad upbringing, which could be one of the main problems with her behaviour and suggests why she is so different to all the other children which are the main representation of the film. Furthermore, another conventional aspect of the trailer is the editing that is used, The scenes start out slowly as the family are happy, however, as the trailer goes on, the editing and speed of the trailer starts to get faster as Esther becomes more violent and angry throughout the trailer and the mother starts to panic about the way she is behaving. Although, this does build up tension and excitement for the audience as the faster it gets, the more they are waiting to see what happens next. There is a clear difference between the representation of the 2 children within the family and 'Esther', making them binary opposites. Especially the difference in their behaviour. Overall, the film follows the codes and conventions of all film trailers and appeals to the target audience because they are always waiting for something to happen, which would excite them, especially with the enigma that they are presented with at the beginning of the film.

The closing of the film trailer would also make the audience want to see it because although the trailer shows that there are many problems with Esther, it doesn't give the actual problem which would mean that if the audience want to know the answer, they have to see the film, which is the whole point of building up the tension. In addition to this, they released an interview with the main character Isabelle Fuhrman (Esther) to allow the audience to see the movie from her point of view as the main actor; this could persuade the audience to see the film after seeing this interview. This is a successful way of targeting their target audience because it means that people who use social media such as YouTube will be able to see the trailer. The trailer was released on the 22nd March 2009, giving people enough time to see the trailer before the actual movie is released for people to see.


This promotion of orphan was extremely successful, despite only being released in a few countries. In its opening weekend in the UK, Orphan made £570,146. It was released to cinema on the 24th July 2009, which is not typically a month associated with horror movies as they are normally released around the time of Halloween. However, the DVD was released on the 27th October 2009, just before Halloween. At this point, people will be looking for scary films to watch.