Research - Analysis of "The Beautiful Life : TBL"'s Advertising Campaign and Others.

With our plot themes finalized and the writing of our plot underway, it is now time for our group to start shifting some focus onto our supporting products; we will be making a poster to advertise our film and a website to complete our promotional package.

Before we start drafting ideas for our poster, I have done some research into posters for other films which also target our female 18-34 demographic and/or are of our genre. As this article on Empire Online highlights, particular genres have particular clichéd conventions in the way that their posters are constructed; hence, I will be looking out for conventions that I can spot within the posters I will be looking at.

The first, and main, advertising campaign that I will be looking at is the one for the television show "The Beautiful Life : TBL", as, despite the show's eventual failings, it was a successful, well targeted campaign for a show which explores similar themes to our own film and was produced for a television network which targets the same demographic as our group.

"The Beautiful Life : TBL" utilized both print and online media for its promotional campaign; as we will be with our poster and website. The show was promoted through the acclaimed cast's Twitter feeds, attaching to each Tweet a TwitPic of one of the show's posters bearing the tagline "What are you looking at?", to reach a mainstream audience, and during New York Fashion Week through New York Magazine, with the event's 4000 well connected attendees receiving an edition of New York Magazine featuring an ad spread for the show, to pique the interest of their more specific target audience.

Above are the four posters that were used for the show's main campaign, featuring nude shots of the four principal cast members, shielded by a banner containing the show's title and tag line.

The first message that these posters convey is that the life of a model is going to be stripped bare; as represented with a literal visual metaphor. I like the way that these posters have conveyed this message, as it is simple, eye-catching, and the message is easy to interpret - even at a glance. As we will be attempting to strip the falsehoods of the modeling industry away with our film/trailer, the message that these posters are attempting to convey and the way that they convey them could be of inspiration to our group.

The second message that these posters convey is more of a statement about the characters; all three of the characters who are established models (top left, Ashley Medekwe as Marissa; bottom right, Sara Paxton as Raina; bottom left, Corbin Bleu as Isaac) are facing the camera in a full body long shot, which, combined with their body language, symbolizes their confidence. The character who is an aspiring model, new to the industry (top right, Ben Hollingsworth as Chris), is facing away from the camera and has a far more timid and unsure body language. As our protagonist is an aspiring model, our group can draw more inspiration from the representation of Ben Hollingsworth's character Chris and "his" poster.

In summary, things that I liked/think our group could draw inspiration from :
The literal metaphor used to convey the "stripped bear" message.
The simplicity of the campaign; it's eye-catching and makes it easier for an audience to consume information at a glance.
The composure of the top right, Ben Hollingsworth as Chris, "aspiring model" poster, and the actor's body language.

Things that I didn't like/don't think our group can draw inspiration from :
The "confidence" of the composure of and body language used in the other three posters; connotes a model with more experience and industry knowledge than our own protagonist.
The "retouched" look of the posters; the aim of our film is to show a less glamorous side to the modeling industry, a more realistic and relatable take, hence we should convey this within our poster.

Some other posters which target our demographic that I have looked at, based on previous research, include:

This poster for ABC family's television series "Beautiful People". Like the posters for "The Beautiful Life: TBL", this poster is very simple and, to a lesser extent, eye-catching. What I like about/can draw inspiration from this poster over the posters for "The Beautiful Life: TBL" is the less retouched look, the less glamorous aesthetic. "Beautiful People" was about a family moving to Manhattan from New Mexico, hence their uncertainty about their new environment is not dissimilar to the uncertainty our character would be feeling, and has been represented in a similar way in this poster to the way that we could in our poster. The less glamorous/less confident approach this poster has taken contrasts with:

This poster for The CW's television series Gossip Girl. Whereas "Beautiful People" was showing the lives of a less glamorous family living in NYC, as we will be showing a less glamorous side to modeling, "Gossip Girl" heightens the glamor in all of its themes; and this is represented with its poster. All of the characters in the "Gossip Girl" poster look confident and comfortable in their environment; aside from Penn Badgely as Dan and Taylor Momsen as Jenny, who's characters are new to the Manhattan high society environment and have this uncertainty represented with a similar turned away/less confident body language to the "The Beautiful Life: TBL" poster with Ben Hollingsworth.

Planning - Plot Ideas.

Having completed a lot of research towards our film's plot, our group now feels at a stage where we can start to piece our plot together. To start, we looked at the themes which have arisen from our research; a development on the basic themes of our genre (for the general aesthetic of our film/trailer) which I mind mapped for us before.
As we did find that mind map so useful for organizing our ideas, I have produced another with these new, plot-centric themes, and included straight line links between each theme to show where we could build story lines. (Made with Photo Layout on the Apple iPad.)

Our themes are quite serious, as we are aiming to show the darker side to the modeling industry. We are targeting a mainstream female 18-34 demographic, not just the fashion obsessed niche, hence have chosen themes that are both associated with the fashion/modeling industry and relatable for our audience; such as eating disorders, relationship issues, and feelings of naivety and vulnerability.

With this as our basis to work from, each member of our group is now going to work independently on a plot line that represents all of these themes and works with the connections drawn between them. We will then come together, compare plots, choose one as the "main", and incorporate a few strong ideas from the other two to finalize it.

Research - Analysis of Past and Current News Stories.

As mentioned in my previous research post, about documentary "Picture Me : A Model's Story", it's important for our group to be looking at factual media as well as fictional to ensure that the plot line for our film has a high level of verisimilitude and accuracy. Hence, I have researched the three biggest news stories in fashion from 2010 for our group to use when constructing our film's plot.
I drew these stories from mainstream media sources that would appeal to our target demographic of females 18-34 (magazines such as Grazia and Look, and online magazines/blogs such as Vogue.co.uk, New York Magazine's "The Cut", and Fashionista.com) to ensure that these stories will be familiar as well as accurate. I have summarized them below.

• Lee McQueen (of Alexander McQueen)'s suicide :

Nothing shook the fashion world quite as much during 2010 than the suicide of designer Lee "Alexander" McQueen on February 11th. He was one of the most creative and innovative designers of our time, having had his technical skills honed at the prestigious London fashion school Central St Martins and on Savile Row. His decision to take his own life at the height of his career highlights the pressure the fashion world, with its fast pace and constant scrutiny, places upon those who work within it.

• Terry Richardson's sexual harrassment scandal :

In March, Danish model Rie Ramussen came forward to confront acclaimed fashion photographer Terry Richardson, who once worked with her on a Gucci campaign, at a party in Paris. She accused him of using his clout to sexually harass young women aspiring to be models. "They are too afraid to say no because their agency booked them on the job and are too young to stand up for themselves. I told him, 'What you do is completely degrading to women. I hope you know you only f*ck girls because you have a camera, lots of fashion contacts and get your pictures in Vogue.'"
Days later, another model named Jamie Peck came forward and detailed her two shoots with Terry Richardson. She quoted him as saying (about breaking into modeling), "It's not who you know, it's who you blow. I don't have a hole in my jeans for nothing."
Over the weeks and months that followed, several more models came forward, adding fuel to the fire of rumors that had been circulating about Terry Richardson's lewd behavior, in particular towards young models, within the industry for years.

• London Fashion Week models unionized :

Stories like the Terry Richardson scandal and the release of the "Picture Me" documentary raised awareness of the issues young models face, leading to the first ever fashion week to proceed under a collective agreement between models and designers. (London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011.) The UK model union reached an agreement with the British Fashion Council to govern working hours, break times, minimum rates for fashion shows (most shows used to pay "in trade"; e.g. in clothes), etc. These provisions sound basic, and they are. The modeling industry at present lacks almost any regulations whatsoever, and models, as independent contractors and often minors, are very vulnerable to exploitation.

These stories have enabled our group to pull together more themes which we could represent in our film/trailer. The emphasis of these stories is on the pressures of the fashion/modeling industry and the vulnerability of new models, and the Terry Richardson story in particular brings up the sexual harassment theme that was touched upon in the "Piture Me" documentary.

Planning - Mood Board.

As our group have now settled on our target demographic and the theme for our film/trailer, we have started looking at various sources of media for ideas and inspirational content that will be useful to us during our production. I have looked at examples from three forms; advertising, television, and film, to gain as much information about how our genre should be targeted as possible. As a group, we have been looking at the print media that our demographic would be interested in reading; being a fashion conscious female between the ages of 18-34, these have included the "younger" fashion and lifestyle magazines such as Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Teen Vogue. Whilst we have studied traditional Vogue and other higher brow fashion publications such as Harper's Bazaar and Tatler, this has been more so for detailed insight into the fashion and modeling industry rather than for insight into how to target our audience. The more traditional, high brow print fashion publications tend to target a wealthier, more intellectual, fashion niche, whereas, producing a film for general release, we need to be more open.
Below is the mood board that I have created for us to use, based upon the group's and my own research. Our target demographic being quite social media and fashion conscious, I have been using the internet (fashion blogs in particular) and magazines as my primary source for content. I constructed the mood board using Adobe's Photoshop CS5.

I have attempted to represent the direction that we, as a group, see our film going in. I have used an organized, tiled layout with all of our themes, major and minor, mixed in with each other to be able to glean a clear idea of what sort of image we and our film/trailer will be depicting.

Research - Analysis of "Picture Me : A Model's Diary".

"Picture Me : A Mode's Diary" is a documentary made by (now) former model Sara Ziff and director Ole Schell, which charts Ziff's rise to acclaim and discusses well and lesser known controversies associated with the modeling industry. It was released to audiences in late 2010, and won several prestigious awards, including "Best Fashion Film" at the Milan International Film Festival.

US Release Poster for "Picture Me".

As the poster above suggests, the movie looks behind the scenes at the lives of the models featured in the glamorous advertisements we come into contact with every day, exposing both the highs of the career (representing and walking for some of the world's top fashion houses, the Fashion Week after parties, and a six figure salary) and the lows (maintaining an abnormal shape to suit the industry's unrealistic demands, the degradation, the exhaustion, and the more common low salary - making it hard to cover even the rent alone in one of the world's fashion capitals).

It's interesting for our group to look at, as it touches on and gives examples of the themes we will be representing in our fictional film/trailer, but in a non-fictional context. It is essential that we look at documentaries like this to find factual inspiration, as we would like our film/trailer to have as high a level of realism and verisimilitude as possible.

Themes from the film that we are discussing showing in our own include:

• Differences between the lives of the few top models and an aspiring model.
• Issues with image.
• Sexual harassment.

We have also looked at the film's trailer, to learn from its construction and the editing of those scenes which present similar/the same themes as those that we will be exploring.

(Trailer analysis.)

Research - Analysis of "The Beautiful Life : TBL".

"The Beautiful Life : TBL" was a television drama centered around models living and working together in New York City, which was produced for and aired on The CW network in the US during September 2009 and was due to be aired on Channel 4 in the UK, as announced prior to the show's cancellation.

("The Beautiful Life : TBL"'s show title card.)

As "The Beautiful Life : TBL", overall, is an example of a media product of our genre which wasn't a success, there's little from its actual production that we have been looking at with the intention to imitate or draw inspiration from (though we have looked at a few episodes to attempt to pinpoint where they went wrong and learn from their mistakes); however, certain aspects are proving useful to us to look at and draw inspiration from.

For example, the show's advertising campaign. Somewhat surprising considering the show's almost immediate cancellation, the advertising campaign was considered a success. The campaign generated a buzz about the show, to the extent that (ironically) after the Pilot was presented, The CW ordered a full season of episodes for the show, and several iconic figures were confirmed as guest stars; including coveted designers Zac Posen (New York-based), Erin Fetherston (New York-based), and Matthew Williamson (London-based), who's transatlantic bases (and Channel 4's picking the show up before it's airing) suggests that anticipation for the show managed to spread from the US to the UK.

I believe the show's marketing's one downfall was that it was too well targeted, creating a niche audience that resulted in the show's low viewer numbers. For The CW network, this would seldom be an issue - the entire network is targeted towards females 18-34 (the same demographic to which we are targeting our film), with each show fitting certain niches. 

For example, The CW's current "big hit", "Gossip Girl", still fails to pull in viewer numbers greater than "The Beautiful Life : TBL" did each week, supporting itself through the buzz it receives from its cult following - the fashion crowd and their impressive media - and, somewhat therefore, product placement.
However, "The Beautiful Life : TBL" was launched during an inevitable cut causing recession, and, as it was targeted towards the fashionable audience that "Gossip Girl" had already attracted, The CW may have made the decision to cut a new show without offering it a chance rather than to cut one of their established shows.

As our group will be working on promotional ancillary tasks to compliment our film trailer, we will be looking at "The Beautiful Life : TBL" and its advertising campaign, having been a success with our target audience despite the show being a failure on its network, in greater detail in the near future.

Research - Analysis of Dove's "Evolution" Campaign.

"Evolution" is a campaign that was launched as part of the "Dove Campaign for Real Beauty", to promote the "Dove Self-Esteem Fund" and raise awareness of the extreme changes that models undergo in the fashion industry which makes their appearance in media unattainable.

The commercial starts with a plain, but not unattractive, female sitting in a studio. The lights are turned on and the pace is edited to speed through the process of dramatic make up application and digital retouching (including the lengthening of her neck, the widening of her eyes, and the thickening of her hair), transforming her into a glamorous billboard model; almost unrecognizable as the girl she started as. The campaign was met with acclaim from consumers and critics alike for its confidence-boosting honesty about the enhancements a model undergoes before her pictures are revealed to the public.

Our group will be making a trailer a fashion/modeling centric film, and we are now starting to think about basing the film's plot around showing what happens behind the scenes within the fashion/modeling industry, similar to this trailer. Basing the film around a model's life rather than her work will allow us to open up a number of more general plots that complement our main theme (e.g. relationships, issues with body image, etc), which prevents us from targeting a wider audience; the entire 18-34 females market, rather than 18-34 females interested in fashion niche.
Also, the positive reaction the campaign received suggests that young female audiences, whilst enjoying "glossy" themes, like seeing "real women" that they can relate to.