The purpose of my first ancillary task (a poster) will help advertise my film and entice my target audience. It will reveal a small amount of my film and the genre will be fully identifiable. It will carry an aesthetically pleasing theme which will entice my target audience effectively.
RESEARCH
Conventions of a film poster
Research task 1 - Poster Research
Conclusion
Overall 'American Beauty' has conistently stuck to the general conventions of a film poster. It appeals to its target audience and entices them with a sense of mystery (by not even showing characters faces). The promotion of the film is used to emphasize the romance/drama genre - using iconography such as a rose which connotes romance. This helps to exaggerate the genre as well as making the poster eye catching as it includes a stand out feature which would be instantly appealing. The poster has a feminine approach, looking delicate with simple font choice as well as the slender body features displayed in the background. However, the idea this poster includes naked skins gives a sense of desire, luring in a secondary male audience.
Conclusion
The poster for 'Defintely, Maybe' is a product with a more obvious meaning rather than hidden messages. It has the main protagonist as the most eye catching feature, centering the poster and dominating it with size. This makes it obvious to the audience who the main character is - as well as attracting females towards his steretypical good looks. It features conventional taglines which give the audience an idea to the storyline, allowing them to make a judgment as to whether they would be compelled to watch it. Gratifications which are promised include comparisons to recent successful films of a similar genre, giving the audience hope for a great film. Colours used are lighthearted - a deep red font is used to connote the romance, and the white and husky blue is used to connote the masculinity of the character, representing him as a possible 'stud' character who would have attention from the female characters. This is reinforced with the individual pictures of each female character.
Research task 2 - Poster Genre Research
For this task I had to research different posters for the same genre as my own (romance/tragedy) and go on to compare them for their content, style, layout and style. After analysing the my chosen posters I will be able to generalise certain elements to the genre, carrying these features through to my own print product.
Content -
The content of each poster sharing the same genre centre around the main couple in the narrative. A lot of the posters I observed, pictured the couple in a romantic light portraying their happiness together. However there are a few exceptions. For example in the poster for 'The Last Song' an image is included portraying their romantic involvment, but isn't the main feature of the poster. A larger image showing the protagonist looking worried is a more prominant feature of this poster - representing the possible problems which arise between the couple. If the film features some well known and attractive actors they tend to feature on the film poster quite prominantly in order to attract previous fans. E.g. the actors in the film 'Never Let Me Go' are less recognised actors therefore the need to include their faces on the poster was not needed as they would not have generated a lot of interest from simply the stars. This contrast the poster from 'Dear John' which included a main image of well known stars Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfield, attracting both a male and female audience.
Each of the backgrounds show either a romantic setting - exaggerating the romance, or are simple e.g. a white background. Each approach for a background in this genre is effective as a romantic setting gives a sense of a personal relationship between the characters but the simple backgrounds gives a sense of simplicity between the couple - portraying them as the importance in their lives is only each other.
Style -
Many of the posters tend to be soft colours. This is done in order to create a sense of warmness to the poster - enticing the main female target audience. Each film poster differs in colour. For example half of the film posters are warm colours - connoting the happiness and contentness of the couple. However films such as 'Never Let Me Go' and 'One Day' have a cold tint to the images, representing the darker and less pleasant side of the film.
The font of each of these posters tend to be narrative and era dependent. For example a more modern and simple approach is used to appeal to a recent/youthful audience. 'Charlie St.Cloud' is a film which uses a modern font in order to attract a youthful audience. This contrasts the font for 'The Notebook', having a more dated feel to the poster and appealing to an older audience. However most fonts in this genre seem to be thing fonts showing a degree of eligence.
Language -
Thought-provoking taglines are included in the majority of tragic romantic fillms. This is done to create a sense of mystery for the audience as the tag lines tend to exaggerate the strong feelings each of the characters have for each other, implying that the narrative will not run entirely smoothly. For example in 'Dear John' a thought provoking rhetorical question is displayed 'What would you do with a letter that could change everything?', this helps to entice the audience to watch the film as it provokes other questions to do with the narraitve e.g. what is the letter about and what it could change etc. Declarative sentances used as tag lines such as 'Live in the moment' from 'Remember Me' trigger emotions, telling the audience the way in which they should live their lives.
Layout -
The layout of each poster often centre around the couple in the narrative. They tend to be the only image in the poster, exaggerating their importance in driving the films narrative. The credit block seems to be conventionally at the bottom of the film posters (excluding the film 'Remember Me' where the credit block is in the top left of the poster, fitting in with the titles. The second main feature of the poster is the titles, which are usually complements the image somehow and works around the images of the poster. The tagline seems to feature around the title. The name of the stars are often abolve the name title in a small font. However I did notice that the more recongnisable and crediable the star, the larger the titles tend to be e.g. Zac Efron (a well known actor which appeals to a youthful audience).
Conclusion
I can generalise a few conventions which I will bring follow in my own media pint product. The colour of my poster will be colour graded to look icy and cold - portraying a sense of isolation between the couple as the disruption to the narrative begins. As my target audience as a secondary audience of males this will also help it appeal to them. if my poster included he typical romance colours in many posters which connote warmness, males would be less likely to want to watch my film, as it would be too 'soppy' or 'lovey dovey'. Secondly, I will include the couple as a main image in my film poster. I have not yet decided whether this will be a picture of themselves in a romantic pose of distrupted pose. I will also definitely include a modern and simple font - which will be thin, and delicate (sticking to the conventional font for romance films), appealing to my youthful target audience.
Research task 3 - Target Audience Research
In order to create a successful film poster I need to know what my target audience finds appealing in a print product. I need to make sure I consider the needs of both males and females which could potentially create problems if the gender conflicts with what appeals to each of them. Below are two posters which have inspired with my own product. I conducted one focus group, and went on to ask them what they find appealing and what they don't find appealing about them.
In conclusion this research has helped me to shape my own poster ideas. For example
Research task 4 - Composition
For this task I had to conduct secondary research in order to find out about conventional poster compositions. After the research I will be able to conclude which techniques I might use in order to construct my own poster. I will explore the Z layout, rule of thirds, vanishing points and circular layouts.
References to sources:
PLANNING
Planning Task 1 - Mind map
Planning Task 2 - Development of house style
Planning Task 3 - Photo shoot
Below is evidence of the photographs I took during the photoshoot. I then went and carefully selected my favourite images which I then manipulated on Photoshop and uploaded to InDesign in order to add my conventional text.
Below is evidence of the photographs I took during the photoshoot. I then went and carefully selected my favourite images which I then manipulated on Photoshop and uploaded to InDesign in order to add my conventional text.
Planning Task 4 - Draft written content
After researching the conventions of a magazine cover, I have decided to include the key text aspects of a poster design.
- I will include the actors names 'Libby Shambrook' and 'George McGivern'
- I will include the name of the film 'Distance'
- I will include the a quote from a film magazine review which entices and audience and gives the film credabilty 'The most emotional and thought-provoking romance for years'
- I will include a credit block at the bottom of the poster which includes directors, music, costume designer etc
- After finishing my first draft I decided to add to the conventions of a film poster and to make it look professional I should add a rating on my poster. This meant I could add a line of stars to give the audience an idea as to how good the film is going to be. After the stars were added a well known magazine/newspaper was added to accompany the rating, to give the rating a sense of trust as the audience woud be familiar with these companies.
After my photoshoot I needed to manipulate the image to achieve the right professional finish before adding it to InDesign and adding conventional text of the film poster. Firstly I uploaded the picture into photoshop and cropped it to ensure that my two main characters were in the centre - a convention of film poster. Firstly I wanted to exaggerate the dark colours in my photo to make sure they stood out from the dull background of the image.
After a new layer was added I chose the option 'soft light' for my brush tool and changed the size of the brush to make it easier for me to cover the parts of the photo I wanted.
This screenshot shows the difference in using the brush tool to exaggerte the dark colours, compared to the normal photo. I will do this to highlight Jasmine's dress and shoes along with Nathan's dark trousers.
Although I wanted to to darken my photo I still wanted the characters in the image to be clear therefore I increased the exposure in order for the picture to remain clear, exaggerating other colours such as red. I wanted to highlight the juxtapososition of the colours (red and back), so the red contrasted the dark colours and stood out effectively - making it become eye catching.
After adjusting the above elements I wanted to put a blue tone over the image. This is so the photo is manipulated to look cold. I found evidence that this was an effective type of manipulation in my planning tasks where most images had a change of tone to achieve a certain style. The tone that inspired me was the tone put over the film poster for 'One Day' where a cold tone was put over the top to create a sense of desperation and cold mystery.
To make the rose stand out of the image I used the quick select tool and then adjusted the rose head to appear brighter, contrasting the dark ground. I again used the quick select tool to make the same adhustments to Nathan's red t-shirt, in order for the match and his clothing to match in brightness and tone.
After adding a tone I decided by adding too much of a blue tint made the photo look unprofessional. I then needed to balance the tone to make the image look more natural. To do this I lowered the blue tint. I also cropped the image so the two characters were larger and filled up more of the poster. My research also suggested that the main feature of romance posters were the two romantic characters and were often centered and large, therefore I wanted to reinforce this convention in my own piece.
After completing this I saved my image and placed it into an InDesign file where I went on to add the conventional text such as the title, quote, credit block and actor names.
The first thing I placed on my image using InDesign was the credit block. This is the small print giving the details of other important involvment during the production/post-production of the film. The release date was also included in the small print to make sure my audience are aware of when they can view the film. This needed to be fairly small as it includes the least important information for the audience but ensures credit is given to others behind the scenes. Conventionally the text is small and tight which makes sure it doesn't take up a large amound on the page.
I then placed the main text elements onto my poster, integrating them appropriately. I changed the size and colour of the text a lot until I felt my poster looked very professional. The actors name needed to stand out from the dark backgroud therefore the text was coloured red. This also ensured that it stood out as it matched the other red elements of the post (colour of costume, head of the rose) - this made sure that the poster followed my planned housestyle and added to the connotations of romance/passion. The fonts were consistent (exlcuding the credit block). This made my poster and my teaser trailer consistant.
Now the poster is completed it can be viewed on my 'Final Products' section of my blog.
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