2013 Post 41A- Summary of film magazine review

My group and I read through several of Little White Lies reviews in order to get a feel for the overall tone and conventional techniques we would use for our article.
We realised that key components of the magazine reviews included:

• An introduction and basic summary of the film
• Director and cast member mentions and opinions of them
• Brief look into camerawork of film
• The film's message
• Notable scenes with good and bad aspects
• An end with the reviewer's overall opinion

Below are examples of the different review formats that Little White Lies uses;

The two photo format did not entice us, it seemed too cluttered

The colour scheme matches the photo well, but it takes up too much space of the review

The pink makes the text hard to read, so the photo captures all the attention
 

Witty comments and sophisticated language are used throughout all of the reviews, so they were significant parts of the spread, that my group and I needed to keep in mind as well as we wrote it.

 

 

 

Photo on the left fits within colour scheme, not distracting, and review appears professional and manageable to read; it is not overwhelming with text and is structured appropriately

 

 

In the end, my group and I felt that the Looper review design was the best choice for our short film review, it was smart, concise yet dramatic which we believe perfectly describes our film and is the message that we would like to show to the audience.

2013 Post 41- Film Magazine Review

After looking at the formats of Little White Lies magazine's double page spreads, my group and I decided to use the 'Looper' review structure for our short film review. This is because we believed it was easiest to read for our target audience; film fans interested in Independent films.

Clicking on our magazine image will direct you to a larger copy for reading

It is simple yet effective at enticing the viewer as the photo immediately grabs their attention since it is so large. There is a subtle change in text font and colour to keep the article exciting, and the colour scheme is basic but sophisticated for our readers.

2013 Post 40- Chosen film magazine conventions

Film magazine review pages usually follow a series of conventions in order to advocate films being released, and let the audience know what they think is worth watching. In order to create our own double-page spread review for our short film, I will need to follow these conventions and attract an audience.

Image: Needs to reflect audience, and act as a teaser usually featuring the main protagonist. Often a mid-shot to present a character and their environment to notify the audience of the film’s genre, time period and where it is set. Usually a photograph directly from a scene of the film.

 

Fonts: Minimum of 3 different fonts varying in size, colour and style. This highlights different aspects of the review, such as an editor’s name or credits in bold or italics to stand out. Varied fonts keeps an article exciting.

 

Anchorage text: Usually in the form of a quote that is designed to stand out and inform the reader about the review, providing snippets of information that might interest them.

 

Page number/Magazine date: Usually situated near the bottom of the review page, so that the reader is not distracted from the main review but can refer to where they are in the magazine and what issue it is.

 

Release date: To reassure the date of release to the reader so that they are more likely to remember to go and see the film.

 

Rating system: Ranking  the film out of 10 or 5 stars, it is a concept that is easy for the audience to understand but they must trust the reviewer's decision.

 

Sight and Sound features main character as key image, they are male to reflect target audience.  The film's serious tone is inferred through the business suit and slick and neat style. Black adds a professional and mysterious look.

 The page number and magazine date is in italics at the bottom, designed to be a source of reference and not a key part of the review. This is in a different font style to the rest of the main text, just as the anchorage text is to add some excitement to the otherwise minimally coloured page.

Sight and Sound use left hand text to draw the viewer's eye into the complex articles, these are arranged to follow where the eye normally travels, left and down to the right side. Text written in columns gives a less daunting appearance and a clear structure and organization reflected in their higher-class, sophisticated target audience.

Sight and Sound have a synopsis and opinions are intergrated into the main articles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little White Lies article above features a dark-lit image of the film's main character, also a male to relate to the target audience. It adds suspense and mystery as the face is not visible, but the reader recognizes the film through the well-known superhero costume.

Cover of Little White Lies issue

The article is styled after the cover film which is in black and white, thus the font and page reflects this but the template stays the same.

Little White Lies does not include anchorage text, probably because they expect their target readers would be trusted to read the review without a prompt once they see the title of the film, image or rating. Also, the magazine's reviews are significantly smaller than those in Sight and Sound as the page size is smaller, thus it would take up unnecessary space.

Little White Lies situate the title and release date at the top, which is the first thing a reader may see. Their 5 star rating system is at the bottom on the right; where the reader will end up once they have read the review, thus leaving a lasting impression on them of how good the reviewer thought the film was.

 Overall: Film reviews can greatly vary in length, some can be as short as 300 words. Reviewers working under this constraints have to be skilled self-editors to write the basics of the film and their opinion whilst telling the story. For our short film review, we will be modelling it after the Little White Lies review pages, so the article will not be too long and we will have to be careful how we fit these in. The number one guideline that we will have to follow is to never give away the ending of our film, this has been known to anger film fans and editors the most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013 Post 39- Film Magazine Demographic/Psychographic

My group and I have chosen to write a double-page spread review of our short film. In order to do this, first we need to explore existing film magazines, looking into their demographic and psychographic so that we know what kind of magazine would attract our target audience.
I researched Empire magazine; known as the 'UK's premier movie destination' they provide an 'insight into cinema, both blockbuster and classic' online and in-print. It is a mainstream film magazine and a fairly popular one with young males in the ABC1 social classes. It's readership figures can be found here.

66% are of ABC1 class, 71.8% are Male and 85.3% are aged 15-34.
I also compared Empire to another Film magazine called Total Film, they both share a very similar demographic and feature mainstream blockbuster reviews as well. Their readership figures were found here.

60.9% are of ABC1 higher middle classes, 75.6% are Male and 86.6% are aged 15-34.

I looked at what our target audience thought of these two well-known film magazines, our target audience demographic four our short film would encompass both genders, aged 12-30 who would fall under the E social class of unemployed and in education. From this forum, they appeared to prefer Empire magazine because they had:

• Interesting and varied articles on obscure films as well
• More film reviews to read
• Better links to film industry
• Total film used too much space for pictures than articles
• Overall better written

2013 Post 38A- Additional Film poster Feedback

The preferred version

After following the feedback from my film poster, I created two improved versions with different font styles and colour intensity.

Afterwards I sought more feedback to see which version was more appealing for our target audience and what could be further improved. I asked two teenagers, both aged 17, who had not seen our film. One had a strong interest in film and the other did not but both agreed that the poster on the left was better.

This is because:
1) The writing is easier to read
2) It appears bolder and draws the viewer in




They enjoyed the blurring of the two scenes together and understood that one was affecting the other, as the two characters do in the film. Also, the tagline was mysterious by directly addressing the viewer and allowing them to connect with serious tone.
To improve, they both suggested that the ripped paper sections, which border the top and bottom of the poster, be straightened rather than 'ripped' so that it would appear more professional.

2013 Post 38- Film Poster Feedback

I gained feedback on my film poster from young adults aged 18+, below I have summarised their responses into key areas for me to address:

Likes:

• illustration with reality
• how well the drama is portrayed
• the mysterious effect
• the font style

Dislike:

• unclear what the drawing represents
• the writing is hard to read
• image looked too rough and depressing

To improve:

• smooth title edges to appear clearer and fit better with the image
• make the image darker for more mystery
• change the size of the drawing to fit other character better

2013 Post 37A- Summary of film poster

From my research into Drama film posters, I believe I have followed conventions fairly well and gained tips and inspiration from good film posters.

I made the title bigger and bolder than the other text and in a central position to catch the eye, whilst the colour scheme is muted and toned down, which can be seen in many drama film posters to reflect the solemn tone.

Awarded Best Drama film poster 2012 I gained inspiration to use a creative, bold title font and softer colours toned down

The main image shows our film's main character, he appears lonely and serious in an empty landscape to reveal the genre's serious mood, and the text font is sophisticated and sharp to reflect this.

I used a vast landscape to set the realism and themes of isolation typically seen in Drama films, and my text style is also subdued yet effective to state key information

 The unique selling point of my film poster would be the illustration of one of the characters, it is starkly surreal against the realistic image and the white contrasts against the muted colours to immediately draw the viewer's attention. This un-realistic image is designed to reflect the loss of memories which is a key aspect of our short film, by having it positioned beside the boy, I hope to convey the main character's inner confliction determining what is real and what is not, as well as represent the key scene of the film where everything goes wrong.

2013 Post 37- Final Poster Idea

After gaining feedback on my four rough designs for my film poster, I decided on one to use as a base so that I could develop on it with my illustrations.

Number 1 was the favoured poster, as the character was facing away from the viewer which was mysterious and did not give anything away of the film. The text was clear and creative, the quote was also intriguing and just caught the viewer's attention more than the other designs.
Number 2 was not clear enough to the viewer, and the main image was not effective at capturing their interest as it was described as 'unappealing'. The meaning of the film was not portrayed clearly enough through the visuals, which is also what let design 3 and 4 down.

Thus, using this design as a base I developed it by taking a picture of the scene and editing it on Photoshop, including other elements of my poster drawings for a rough idea. I wanted the title to stand out so I made it 3D, and the other text was created in a hazy-like font to mimic the fading of the written tagline, which reflects the loss of memories in the film. The cast credits were taken from an existing film poster and edited to appear faded and fit with the pale text colour scheme.

I gained additional feedback on this rough design to inform my final product, this included the idea of changing the layout of my poster to portrait, as film posters today usually are portrait so that the main image can be used on the DVD release of the film. This was the first adjustment I made, I think it helps give a sense of order to my poster, I can put the most eye-catching pieces in the centre and frame them with the other information for a balance.
I was not entirely satisfied with the rough design's text style and colours, so I changed these to create a darker tone to the poster that was visually striking for the viewer.

By using part illustration and part Photoshop to create this final poster below, I connote the main theme of our short film, 'memory loss', as the illustration details what is not real and the main photo is of reality. I believe this is very disorientating and strange for the viewer; effects that I want to reflect in our short film, and will thus engage them enough so that they desire to watch our project.

 

 



2013 Post 36- Rough Poster Designs

Following the film poster conventions of a title, tagline, iconic image and additional information,  I came up with four rough designs for our short film's poster.
For each main image I used scenes from the film to immediately draw the viewer in to the action, and a large, bold font style for the title that would easily stand out. I think that the drama genre is fairly clear from my designs, as the character identities are unknown and the situations that they are in present a sense of seriousness or suffering. As well as this the taglines are short but leave an impact on the viewer, placed at the top of the poster as many drama film posters do.

2013 Post 35- Poster annotation

My annotation of 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' film poster

'From Russia With Love' annotated poster I used as a reference

2013 Post 34- What makes a good film poster

Marketing can be just as crucial to a film’s success as the production processes; good marketing through media like film posters may often help a film achieve recognition just by catching the public’s interest which is why they are very important. Below I have created some tips for me to follow in order for my film poster to grab an audience’s attention:

1.       Grab audience’s attention- Don’t design a poster for art, their purpose is to sell tickets so creating a piece of art for decoration will not be effective. Have a large title that immediately conveys to the viewer the genre and overall tone, many indie films have small font that is difficult to read.

 

‘400 Blows’ too much text of varying sizes, the poster appears too complicated

‘X’ 1992, Black and white symbol is very eye-catching, little text to balance out large font size

 

 

 

 

2.       Iconography- Having an image tell the viewer the themes and plot of the film without directly telling them. Image must convey central idea, problem or conflict of film, not necessarily all your actors and locations. Don’t use too many colours, film posters are designed to catch the eye and then create a sense of intrigue, with too many colours it will begin to look like an art-piece.

‘Lincoln’ iconography conveys drama genre, black and white image of famous American President.

‘Sssssss’ The bright colours and font suggest comedy but the image suggests horror, the genre is mostly unclear to the viewer and the sizing of the images in unrealistic.

 

 

 

3.       Incentive- Putting the viewer in the middle of a scene from the film creates tension and an incentive to see film to find out more. It is unwise to feature characters on a poster unless they are film actors, the viewer will not care unless they are recognisable. For well-known stars, directors or producers, often film poster designers don’t need to emphasise their involvement as current fans of them will already know and new fans will not be as interested.

The King’s Speech’ has too many well-known actors in one small space, overcrowded and it is not clear who the focus is supposed to be on so the viewer is put off.

 ‘About Cherry’ An image of an attractive woman, using sex appeal and intrigue by not revealing her face.

 

 

 

 

 

4.       Bold/Unique Style- Having a bold/unique artistic style which is consistent with all film promotional items. Stick to film poster conventions, especially those pertaining to our genre, there is a certain layout that notifies the viewer that it is a film poster and not an advert selling something else.

‘Tooth Fairy’ The tagline completely takes over the whole poster, making it unclear as to the title of the film. The main image is also very small and not clear, making the poster bare, with many empty spaces.

‘The Odd Life Of Timothy Green’ The title itself is unique with a distinctive font style the mirrors the main image. The text and iconography work together to balance out poster and blank space is not noticeable. 

 

 

5.       High resolution- All images should be in high resolution as film posters are large. Generally film poster designs are used for the DVD release cover, meaning that the design can’t be too complicated otherwise it won’t be clear to the viewer. In the past illustrations were more common than the photographs used in today’s age.

‘The Frost Witch’ A made-up film and poster by Nathan Brown, he uses a very clear image of a girl’s face, emphasised through Photoshop that immediately pleases the eye to view all the tiny details.

   ‘Corky Romano’ The face cut-out appears amateur-like, and is lit too brightly in a way that is unflattering for the whole colour scheme, the viewer would rather look away.

 

I found a lot of my information from this website which has helpful tips on making successful film posters: http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/11/how-to-design-a-movie-poster-%E2%80%93-top-ten-tips-to-grab-the-eye-of-a-sales-agent-distributor-or-audience-member.html

And this website was where I found the stunning 'The Frost Witch' poster, and instructions on how to make one similar using Photoshop which I will definitely keep in mind: http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/11/how-to-design-a-movie-poster-%E2%80%93-top-ten-tips-to-grab-the-eye-of-a-sales-agent-distributor-or-audience-member.html

2013 Post 33- Posters specific to my genre

Audiences need to understand the genre of a film through the film poster in order to know whether they would be interested in seeing it or not.  If it is not clear to the audience, the film may lose potential consumers. For example, ‘Nacho Libre’ is clearly a comedy film as the poster is very colourful, the font is loud and the character is posed and appears in a very funny manner.

Below I have analysed some drama film posters to see what conventions and styles of this genre I can incorporate into our short film’s poster.

‘Suicide City: Whos That Knocking At My Door’  and ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ both feature a large image of a man’s expression as a central focus. The audience can assume that they are the main characters, and that the film is serious due to their grim expressions. The Titles and text feature at the bottom of the posters so there is no clutter around the faces, but there are small amounts of text on the characters, such as the tagline on the man’s glasses for ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’.

The audience can identify that ‘Suicide City: Whos That Knocking At My Door’ is a drama film, not only by the sombre expression, but the Title is black and leaves a dramatic impact. There is blood on the character’s body and his glasses are broken, suggesting pain, suffering and violence which are all common themes within drama films.

‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s’ character appears in code which alludes to the espionage theme, this code also crumbles at the edges suggesting that something will go wrong, and there will be an unexpected turn of events conventional of drama films. Additionally there is a target on the blood red chess piece in the title, hinting at potential character deaths or threats to add a sense of drama for the audience.

 

These two drama film posters feature a very similar vertical image to draw in their audience. It is an unusual perspective that immediately adds drama, since the scenes are unbalanced the audience do not feel secure and there are no character faces with which they can identify with to feel reassured.

Both titles and texts are white to stand out from the backgrounds and fit within the colour schemes, although ‘Super 8’s’ font is bold and dramatic whereas ‘The Captain’s is thin and emotionally engaging with the audience.

‘Super 8’s’ poster is dark-toned; there is a thunderous sky and black silhouette of a landscape pertaining to key events in the film’s narrative. These are very ominous and notify the audience of the dramatic genre, although the overall film remains a mystery as the poster only reveals a title, date and the important cast-members, who are well-known and capture the audience’s attention.

Immediately, ‘The Captain’s’ poster lets the audience know that it is of the drama genre as there is a trashed and burning car contrasting with the beautiful blue sky. This is chaos and beauty intertwined; the two key elements to any drama film. The character is dressed in a navy captains uniform therefore the audience realises that they are ‘the Captain’, the main focus of the film, and he is holding his head in his hands and hunched over connoting grief and sadness that are usually seen in the drama genre. The fact that he is sitting atop the wrecked car directly links him to a tragic event, one that disturbs the peace symbolised by the picturesque sky, and so the audience is encouraged to sympathise with them as drama films tend to do.

 

 

Taken from this website

The majority of these drama film posters include a central character, one that the audience is encouraged to identify with through their expression, which also reveals the tone of the film. Most of the posters contain sombre colours like black and white to reflect the genre mood, and the titles are innovative and eye-catching. This is similar to film posters of the past, such as ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ 1959 and ‘Raging Bull’ 1980, although the colours of these appear dated, drama film posters do not appear to have evolved significantly as key conventions have been maintained with the rapid growth of digital technology.

 

 

 

 

 

2013 Post 32- Film Posters

Film posters have the commercial purpose of promoting a film to their target audience, thus they can be analysed to see how well they fulfil this role. Conventionally, film posters include a Title, Tagline and Credits to crew-members, the Tagline however would be suited for each film individually depending on its genre and tone but is generally intended to draw the audience in.

Conventions can also include the key visual image being centred as this is where the eye naturally tends to focus, an eye-catching design that is simply yet effective, large and bold typography and an engaging style with colours to draw in the audience.

Types of film posters

X-Men Origins: Wolverine teaser poster

Teaser poster: One that doesn’t reveal too much about the film, but enough to entice the audience. Often featuring the stars and release date.

 Theatrical Poster: The main poster for a film, containing information on the production members, distributors, stars and title.

Video/DVD Poster: Released when the film is released on Video/DVD, containing all the information of a theatrical poster and short reviews from film publications.

Character Poster: Featuring the main character/s as the central focus, often to promote the star.

 

Film Poster’s attract their target audience through a variety of techniques:

Narrative: What impressions the audience can gain about the film’s genre, characters and events. These can be formed through an actor’s facial expression, body language and costume to given an idea of the character’s personality, and stills from the film of significant moments.

Image: Visuals of key settings and main characters an audience can identify. Including the graphics of the title, mise-en-scene, stars and key images.

The text here really stands out

Colour: The colours used in the poster. Usually relevant to the film’s genre, e.g darker colours for horror and dark-toned films, whereas lighter shades are used for romance and comedy to set the mood for the audience.

Text: Written text on the poster. The font can tell the audience about the genre and tone of the film as well as whom the film is targeted at, it includes the cast list and any given information such as a certificate and a website.

Layout: How the images and text are laid out for the audience to view. Posters can either be portrait or landscape, and the position of images and text can allude to the genre and themes of a film.

USP: The Unique Selling Point which differs for each film poster. This is where a poster will be different to others, drawing their audience either through stars, setting, theme, plot or characters.

 

2013 Post 31- Second Film Draft Feedback

Our short film's second draft:




We gained feedback for the second draft of our short film:


Our focus group consisted of males, as we believed they would be able to relate more with our film's main protagonist 'Thomas'. This audience ranged widely in age, from 15-30+ which is our target demographic, as well as in interests as some were film fanatics whereas others knew less about productions.



The questions I asked and the answers:


This focus group was very helpful at providing useful feedback for my group and I to consider in order to make changes to our short film. Their range in psychographic allowed for varied responses and perspectives on our film, highlighting areas we would have been unaware of which needed addressing.

It was great to see that they were able to guess the film genre and target audience correctly, and were not confused by the concept of 'Catalyst' which shows that we have made excellent progress in getting our project's message across.

The main area which we needed to improve on was making transitions between music and clips smoother, as well as highlighting the enigma of our short film; why people are forgetting their memories. This can be done by reinforcing moments of memory theft and editing the transitions.

2013 Post 30A- Film rough cut

The rough cut for our short film with feedback


We created a questionnaire to gain feedback on our short film's rough-cut. Our audience consisted of teenagers aged 16-18 who have some interest in films.

 

 

Our genre and target audience were correctly interpreted from our viewers, and they liked our film's idea and characters. However, the storyline as it is right now is not believed to be dramatic enough without musical elements and it is confusing. We can improve on this by adding sound effects and background music, as well as making our shots flow better for easier understanding.



2013 Post 30- Post-Production

The screenshots show our editor Laura working on different aspects of editing for our short film on Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition software.

Our imported sequences were kept to the side for easy access, at this point music was about to be added

This shows the editing of a section of audio on Adobe Audition, this technique was learnt from tutorials on Lynda.com

Another example of sound editing on Adobe Audition, this time the noise reduction could be edited to bring forth dialogue