In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products? - film poster

I looked at a variety of different film posters from different genres of films. Film posters were very simple with either loads of text or not a lot as the film is empathised enough through the image and mise en scene of the poster. I knew I needed to research which style I wanted to do.

I looked at different types of films and genres, all of which I took ideas and conventions from them to create my own style. The poster is used to promote your film. A colourful, busy cover will appear to tacky for some audiences however too plain and the film might seem boring and due to the audience not knowing enough about the film then they might choose not to waste money watching it at the cinema. Also due to the genre of your trailer also depends on the style of poster which I am aiming for. It needs to appeal to the correct audience.

I created my cover on Photoshop. Photoshop has allowed me to work more professionally with what the software has to offer. It allowed me to work in more depth with layers and editing the background image.

This seems to be the style of film posters. A simple layout which is where the main conventions are.

TITLEcredits

MAIN IMAGE

Social network

TITLEMy trailer is based around the ‘end of the world’ 21st December 2012. So I needed a title that is catchy yet relates to the story line of the trailer. I also wanted a short title, maybe only one word when written. I chose to decide on numbers. I thought they are short and catchy. I wanted to incorporate the date to. I came up with three options which I put into a list and created a poll on Wordpress, below are the results. 21 12 was most popular, which I al also a fan off most.

FONTI began looking at different types of font on www.dafont.com. I didn’t feel that Photoshop had enough options which is why I looked on da-font. I needed a font that was bold, and caught peoples attention when looking at my poster. My genre is also horror and I needed a font that related to that, none of any did I didn’t feel. Da-font.com made it easier to find the style of font I wanted and I went for a plain bold font which I needed to choose a correct colour to make it eye catching. I didn’t want a 3D styled font as I didn’t think it related back to the genre of my trailer. To the right are the three fonts I narrowed it down to. All of which are bold and eye catching when I edit them to the correct colours that link to the image and rest of the trailer. I chose to use the top image.

FONTS…The idea for the three styles I really liked came from my research. The above film posters all use simple font that is bold and eye catching, I too wanted to do this. Super 8, Inception and Chloe are all effective and suit the style of film. The rest of the covers use the same font as well as another which I am going to represent as well. Hopefully it will appeal to my audience.

PHOTOSHOOTI used the same shoot for the poster as I did for the magazine shoot. I wanted a close up image like CHLOE poster I looked at for research. The few I took where they are an extreme close up are my favourite. They are sharp and empathise scared and horror through his face as how close up it is. I asked Adam to look into the camera. I feel this expresses the terror in his eyes. He is pulling a straight face, however acting like he isn’t scared and doesn’t want to act like a coward. Using an extreme close up photograph makes it easier to create the poster and text around it.

EDITING THE IMAGEI chose the above image to edit. I made it black and white and brightened the image. This made the image sharper and stand out a lot more. I wanted to also get rid of the shadow too. I edited the picture on Photoshop and used the ____ tool to erase the shadow. The skin looks smoother this makes the image look more professional and as though time has been spent on the picture which it has.

TEXT I needed to also include text on the cover such as actors, production companies, tag line, website etc. the left image below is my first draft. I created names from scratch as I didn’t want to include famous actors. After finishing it I thought I needed to make the text of the actors smaller and the title larger. The red stands out on the cover. I chose red from research looking at Inception in particular as it is a strong colour. I have also added a ‘#2112# this is popular within the modern day world for promoting. Twitter is a social network site that is popular and used a lot during the day by millions of users world wide. It will create more advertising. The bottom image I have edited the picture slightly. I chose to re-edit it back as the image is much sharper when bright, his face is also smoother looking more professional.

TEXT Relating my cover back to research I chose to adapt it even more. I changed the font and layout slightly for the text. I also added credits at the bottom. Credits are usually un readable unless you go up close to the cover. Looking at my cover now, you can’t tell what they say. I have also added. I have included Producer, Staring, Casting By, Editor etc. I chose to do this as it is important for film critics. It can also boost the films reputation. I have added my Production companies logo TIME ZONE. I print screened this from the ident I produced. It stands out for reviewer's to judge and know. I created this all on Photoshop, I made sure I had folders for the text so it didn’t get confusing.

TAG LINEMany film posters also included a tag line. I chose to create one as well, I wanted to to relate more the film and give them an idea of what happens and the basic narrative. Such as the cover to the left is down below the title. I too have included my slogan there: HE CAN RUN BUT CAN HE HIDE? It has come from the catch phrase ‘you can run but can you hide?’. It related to my trailer as he is running away from something which isn’t expressed. However in stead of in capitals I put the text in italics and small case. I duplicated the layers in Photoshop. This makes the text stronger and brighter. When you look at the poster the text isn't clear. I didn’t want this as firstly, it would overlap onto his white forehead and it makes the audience want to come closer to the poser and be intrigued as to what it says.

HASHTAGDue to the increase of popularity with social networking sites, I wanted to also include that theme on my poster. It is a great use of advertising. I have chosen to include a ‘hash tag’ on my poster. Hash tags are used on twitter, for users to tweet a tweet about something and hash tag it in for other users to see. Such as hash tagging ‘#2112’ means everyone's results will show when you click on that link. Audiences who see the hash tag can read reviews or what film critics have to say about the film by using Twitter.

WEBSITE

I have also added a website. This will be used for the films popularity and have more information on it. Research on posters are showing that websites are included.

DATE OF RELEASE

I have added a date of release, this will be when the film is in cinemas. I chose end of august as it means the film will be in cinemas for 2 months and then released before 21st December 2012.

Main image of the main charactor

Title of film

Sub title/ TAG LINE My

production company

Release date

Hash tag for Twitter

Website

Credits

Main actors for promotion

In conclusion, I based my poster around CHLOE. I really liked the image style and wanted to represent that in my own way and editing the image differently. The whole layout of that cover stood out to me. It was so simple yet worked really well. I used SUPER 8’s cover, by keeping the same font throughout the cover. The font I chose is also used on the trailer, it is a simple font which isn’t too boring and gives a stamp on the film as it hasn’t been used for a trailer before. I put the image in black and white, I did this as I wanted the image to catch peoples eyes and as Adam is looking into the camera with sharp contrasted eyes I think it will do the job I intended for it to do. I chose to add in my own aspects, such as the hash tag which is sued for popular social networking site TWITTER. I haven't seen this on many films however it will become a lot more popular as it is good cheap advertising as long as the film gets good reviews. I included all my own conventions on the trailer, such as my own production logo, own character names, title ideas and ideas to the final cover.