Film Poster

Empire Front Cover

Feedback

R&P = 11
Production = 22
Film poster = 0
Magazine cover = 0
Evaluation = 0

Total = 32 F

Targets:
Storyboard
More audience profiling posts, including what this suggests about your target audience and how you intend to appeal to them
Film poster completed
Magazine cover completed
Evaluation activities completed

There is a lot to do here Josh. Make sure you are working to complete these outstanding pieces of work.

How did you use media technologies in the construction ad research, planning and evaluation stages?

The most immediate program that was used in these stages was blogger.com. This website allowed the creation of a blog in order for the various stages to be written about. This has led to it becoming something that i have become very familiar with over the two years i have used it.

This is the camera that was used for filming the trailer, as well as taking various screenshots for use in our other two projects.  This was a very good camera for our film trailer, as it showed pristine quality video's, which could be made into HD footage. This would allow for less grainy shots, which would improve the overall video quality. Zooming however was an issue that we struggled to rectify, as zooming, especially in low light, did show some amount of grain, which could have decreased the overall video quality.  












Rather than use adobe premier elements, we instead decided to use a program called imovie. This was because there was a mac to hand. Imovie contains many more options for editing type, as well as having the advantage of it being arguably more user friendly. Another thing is that imovie gives lots of ways to add sound effects to projects and we can add your own music from your music library, which is faster and more efficient than various alternatives








Photoshop was very important in regards to the creation of the film poster and the magazine front cover. Whilst, at first, fairly complicated to use, it soon became rather fun to discover the various ways in which you could create and change the posters them selves. I was taught the basics of photo shop by my project partner Connor, who is very good at photo shopping, and with his help, came up with the eventual products featured.



Youtube was used as a tool, not only for uploading the trailer onto the website itself, but was also used to have a look at trailers for the analysis step of the project. While this was to be expected, I also decided to look at the comments sections of the trailers that I was analysing in order to understand how similar films were rated and considered by audiences,and how we could incorporate the feed back from the trailer into our own work.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The various comments recieved from the social networking site Facebook include:
"Some of the sections really made me want to know more about the characters involved, good job"   S Woole
"It was ok, but it could have done with better construction of the interview and the Danny No scenes." A Locke
"Very well made, it's just a shame that I wasnt in it!" G Bonnefoy
"The plot seemed a bit jumpy, which may have worked in its favour actually" O Kent
"I enjoyed it, and wouldn't mind actually watching it" L Walker

General Points
You can tell from the very star what genre the trailer is of, that of a dark action. The genre is also useful in comprehending what the rest of the trailer is like, and the type of conventions it will follow. The trailer showed two characters that would feature heavily in the movie if it was ever made, and also mentioned another important character called Danny. This sets up the characteristics and the various changes that would take place, not only in the trailer, but also in any future production. Lastly the the way in which the interrogation scenes start and finish the piece off ts very similar to other film trailers, and is a quite common convention of the genre

Strengths
The strengths that the audience had identified included the section with the various voices in the main characters head. This added to the fact that it was not a straight forward superhero film, and was slightly more inclined to be akin to a psychological thriller and added an aura of unease around the character, something that made out the character to not be wholly moral. The use of vlogging within the trailer was liked by the audience who noted that it is only a recent trend for that type of shot to be used, which also showed that the characters mental state was changing. The music had been slowly building up to the dramatic finish of the trailer. The audience noted that this was very similar to many other action films, but also akin to several horror films as well.

Weaknesses
The second interrogation scene was noted as being far too long and that the overall volume was too quite, which took the audience away from focusing on the plot of the trailer, leaving them a little disjointed. This was mainly due to the program that was used at the time could not pick up the video footage very well in the final cut.

Weaknesses
2nd interrogation too long and quiet

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I think that my main trailer, magazine cover and poster work well together. The main poster consists of  a hooded figure surrounded by fire and the wreckage of some wooden structure. This is mentioned within the trailer itself with the line "This world will burn". This really brings these two pieces of media together. The Fracture logo is very similar in both pieces of work, except that the one on the poster is dirtier and grittier, to really highlight what the tone of the film is.

The trailer works well with the magazine front cover as well because of the theme of fire once again being highlighted  If you look at front cover, the character actually has the colour of  fire in his eyes, adding to the connection, not just with the trailer, but also with the film poster itself.The inclusion of fire in each part creates an atmosphere of fear that compliment each others feeling at the time. They each show a different angle of the the primary character as well. The magazine front cover is shown facing the character, so that audiences can see what kind of person will be leading the film, and also to gain a sense of whether they would enjoy watching the character for the whole movie. The poster is taken from behind, leading the audience to believe that he is responsible for mass amounts of chaos and leaves the audience not really sure as to his intentions and whether he is the protagonist or the antagonist, something that is not often done conventionally. Lastly the trailer really only shows the character before the event that drove him to become what he had, which adds the perspective that he is indeed  still the protagonist, but some how his views of the world have become clouded.

Lastly each piece highlights the actors and the settings, and show various clues to the plot with each piece. This is especially true of the film poster as the setting of the destroyed structure showcases both the main character and what seems to be a main focal point of the film. The magazine front cover tries to create hype to showcase actors, locations e.t.c. in order to tie things in, not only for the audience, but also economically as with out any form of publicity or advertising such as this, then a film can only rely on an audience that exclusively only view film posters, and are not interested in other feature films or film related news articles, which this front cover has tried to capatalise on. Each piece of advertising used uses different ways to draw our target audience towards our film and helpfully with the different approaches it would succeed in attracting the audience.    

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In the first shot here we can see my character of the detective as seen from a high angle view. The setting here is that of an interview room to set the stage for the beginning and also the end of the trailer. From what we can see, there is only one person in the room a t this time, but the character is clearly talking to somebody. We did this to temporarily keep the main protagonists appearance secret to add to aura of mystery and unease. This is a fairly common thing to be used in situations such as this, especially in the quieter moments of action and crime based films. The only prop that was used was in fact in this scene, where there is a phone/ intercom present. This was to give the film a minimalistic approach and for the use of props to not be overboard.

The second image is that of the main protagonist playing around with his hair. The shot is done in the mirror so that whilst direct contact with the camera is not made, there is in fact a persistent mid shot of the character. This is to show the audience the transformation that will be taking place later in the trailer. As you can see, there are only a few different locations, with many taking place within the protagonists house or within the interview room, once again keeping everything fairly minimal as to not distract the audience from the transformation taking place.

Picture 3 and 4 have much of the same effect on the audience, but each are taking in a different way. In picture 3 there is a close up shot once again displaying the pre-event character. This is actually filmed from a laptop and is similar in style to a vlog, which the character actually appears to be doing at this point. In picture 4 you can start to see the change slowly develop as the character peers out the window. Here the character looks very similar to his previous shots, yet you can start to see some small amount of worry and paranoia set in.

Picture 5 is where you see the character change set in. It reuses the previous idea of being filmed in the mirror, but this time rather than show a self confident young man, it shows a depressed and mentally unstable one instead. This is an increasingly common convention in action films, and a similar idea was explored within the movie law abiding citizen. In fact the trailer does display several hark backs at that trailer, except obviously on a lower budget and with different shot types. The mise en scene has changed a lot as well, with the character having his hair stuck down, and the atmosphere seems a lot more depressing. This hopefully shows the audience what the character is going through, and hopefully the audience will feel a sort of empathy with the character from the get go.

In shot 6 you see the detective character again, but he seems more forceful and ignorant this time around. The character of the detective was based on the character portrayed by Keith David in the film Smiley. In the trailer at least, he is also a very ignorant and apathetic character, with the added character trait of ridiculing the person he appears to be interviewing. The aim of this was for the audience to feel as if the police force were in a particularly bad light and that the characters involvement was very unnecessary indeed.

In the final two shots containing the main protagonist there are similarities that were intentional and necessary.  Here you can see the character acting stressed out grasping his head in anguish, before donning the hoody as well as other pieces of clothing. The thing to note in this part that we did was that this entire transformation was filmed pretty much from the same angle (mid shot) apart from close ups on the gloves. This type of shot has been used for many years within the action film genre, being seen when a change of clothing takes place. An example of a trailer that has done this in recent years is Kick Ass were a character gets dressed up in his superhero garb/ I think the effect of using this technique is to show the audience an immediate change between the characters appearance.

The title of the film was positioned at the end of the trailer, as was done by many film trailers. The title of the film is Fracture. This is used as the title to demonstrate the fact that the central characters world has been broken, and because of it so has his sense of right and wrong. The title itself is white and bold with a simple black background to make sure that it stands out as much as possible. In total our trailer has shown to follow many conventions of other trailers in this genre, but has shown a few independent moments as well.

Last Empire Front Cover Analysis- Public Enemies Special

The theme of this issue of Empire magazine was that of the upcoming film (at the time) Public Enemies. This issue seems more cluttered than other issues of Empire magazine that I have analysed before, but still fits in with some of the previous conventions. Once again the main review/ preview is focused upon heavily with Johnny Depp being in the center of the cover, to show that the magazine writers want customers to take note and to get excited for a film that features one of the most iconic actors in recent years. There is, unusually, also a large block of pictures and text on the right hand side of the main picture as well. This consists of the various heroes in films that were also coming out, all of which are fairly popular in their own right as shown by the size of their presence and the cliched big red text, which once again tell s the reader to play close attention to what else is in this action packed issue.

Last Film Poster Analysis-Star Trek: Into Darkness

This poster bares some similarities to what we want to achieve with our film poster. The main focus of this poster is the man in the middle of a destroyed building. The hole in the building is in the shape of a Starfleet symbol, which is very important in the Star Trek universe. This shows the audience that It is definitely going to be a continuation of the Star Trek series, and may continue to respect the source material, something that will make the older Star Trek fans quite happy. The man in the centre is fairly ambiguous as there are not that many clear distinctions as to whether he is a hero or a villain. You could assume however, that as he seems relatively unharmed that he is the main villain, and his antics may cause more acts of destruction such as this. The titles are in a silver font, which is fairly uncommon with other titles, which are usually in a red or a white. This may be to draw attention away from the main feature of the poster,as well as to keep with the theme of science fiction. The writing could therefore be seen as futuristic, which suits the subject matter very well.

Fracture- Final Product

Empire Front Cover Analysis- Scott Pilgrim

This front cover displays many similarities with other Empire front covers, including the addition of the feature of a character from the primarily featured review/ preview. Once again the character is obscuring the Empire logo, and the reader gets instantly drawn to the character. Unusually, the background is a vivid red colour, which compared to other front covers, is relatively unheard of. This is to distinguish the fact that it is going to be a lighthearted comic based comedy, rather than a darker genre of film. The font of  Scott Pilgrim vs the World is in a comic style, as to show the actual roots of the film. The front cover draws special attention to this fact and have also chipped in with the fact that it may be a film for the "nerdier" audience, (much like myself) by the fact that there is a quote from Star Wars next to the titular character. The other areas of interest are comparatively smaller, with the adverts for other articles being contained either at the very bottom of the cover or in the circle next to the character.

Empire Front Cover Analysis- The Hobbit.

This front cover contains less than other front covers that I have analysed. The main focus is once again on one of the primary characters featured in the main film review/ preview, in this case Gollum. As in he Tron Legacy front cover there is also the option of collecting other versions as well as to increase hype and demand for the article and the magazine an film itself overall. They have chosen to position Gollum in front of the logo, partially obscuring it. This is because of the large role that he plays not only in this film and its respective article, but in the franchise as a whole. Another hark back to the Lord of the Rings Films, of which Gollum was a main character, is the tagline for the issue as well as an advert. It says "5 covers to rule them all". This will remind fans that the review will also remind fans of The Lord of the Rings, and will also get them excited for it as well. The only other piece of text that is on the front cover is that of the title of the special feature, which is The Hobbit. This is feature in a bold white font, that clearly contrasts with the rest of the dark background, as to draw the consumers attention.

Empire Magazine Front Cover Analysis- Tron Legacy

This front cover heavily focuses on the themes of the tron franchise, as that is the focus of that issue. Fitting with the Tron idea, the main focus of the front cover is a woman with a light blue, almost electronic glow around her. This definitely proves that the review of the film will try to be based on what was already established by the previous film, as well as the trailer. The font above the Empire log is also in white with the same glowing light blue around the outside of the font, further connecting it to the computerized theme. In the bottom right hand corner of the front cover shows that this particular issue displays one of 3 editions of the front cover. This means that the audience has a choice on which to choose, or whether to collect them all. The actual advert for it is quite small, as to not draw attention away from the main feature, but is in a striking bright yellow colour. The rest of the content is found listed at either side of the main image, therefore allowing the reader to notice what will be inside without too much distraction. One other thing to note is that the listings on the right side of the image are smaller. This may be due to importance or article size within the magazine itself. 

Red dragon Poster Analysis

Red Dragon is a psychological thriller film that focuses on the character of Hannibal Lector. This poster also reveals that there is a horror element to the film,as it seems quite dark and foreboding. The main feature of the poster is the tattooed back. This gives the audience a feeling of unease. The iconography of the tattoo show that the man could be dangerous, as the horns could symbolize a number of evil things such as Satan and as he title shows, a dragon. The tagline of "Before the silence" is reference to the Silence of the Lambs, which also featured Hannibal Lector. This shows the audience that there are going to be some common themes int this film, and that if the audience enjoyed the Silence  then they may well enjoy this film too. The titles them selves are once again bold, capitalized and the colours of red and white. The colour choice, however is more relevant here, as the red of Red Dragon is colour coordinated appropriately. There appears to be a man in the center of the poster surrounded by a glowing light. This could signify that the character is a good guy, or that it symbolizes goodness that counters that of the main antagonist. 

Batman Begins Poster Analysis

Batman Begins' poster shows many conventions of a darker action film. The dark gloomy sky shows that this film is departing from the fairly cheesy conventions of other superhero movies, and the setting of the buildings in the background show that this film will be grounded much more in reality. Batman takes precedence in the film poster here, and the fact he is coated in bats, plus the fact that he is almost completely black in colour draws a distinct contrast to the low sun in the back ground, creating a sort of smoggy city. The titles are fairly simplistic, as to not draw attention away from the dark knight himself. The bold white capitals are once again found here, and this again contrasts with the darker colours seen on the poster. The bat symbol above the title is a throw back from the Tim Burton Batman films, which were fairly similar to Christopher Nolan's films, and he symbol verifies that this is indeed going to be a decent Batman film and that the audience should forget about the two previous Batman films that came before it.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

The film poster here is a step a way from most film posters of this genre. Its main feature is that of Tom Cruise's face. He is hooded maybe to show that he is being incognito, as is fairly common is spy and secret agent type of films. His face is also coated in numbers and lettering. This seems to relate to codes and ciphers that are often portrayed in these kinds of films, with various objectives being created due to hidden messages and the like. There is only a small explosion, which seems to actually be a fuse of sorts. This indicates that there is a time limit to whatever needs to be accomplished, such as a bomb or other device that causes a detonation. The title of the film is fairly small compared to others of this genre, but it does follow the conventions of other posters. This includes the fact that they chose to capitalize everything and chose to use red and white as their font colour. This draws the eye of the viewer, as this stands out well as it is on a background of quite dark colours.

Cast and Crew

Connor Wright- Protagonist, Editor, Music
Joshua Hodges- Camera man, detective and Empire front cover creator.

Bond Through the Ages- Poster Analysis

 The poster for Skyfall is minimalistic in its approach, showing only three main focal points of the film, which are the british car, James Bond and Westminster. This is to not draw attention to the fact that each element of this poster is vital to the plot. James Bond the protagonist, the car possibly representing Britishness and Westminster as the centre of government, as well as being a very British symbol as well.

The colouring is reminiscent of stormy weather, and as such, is often part of a film, with the phrase (A storm is coming) being thrown around a variety of films and t.v. programmes, something that this poster could be trying to replicate without explicitly saying it.

The title is fairly small as well to not distract the audience away from the focal points of the poster. However, the 007 embelem is the only coloured part of the poster, symbolising that the 007 logo is a stand out part of the franchise, and that its effect is greater on the industry than other franchises.

The poster for Goldeneye is a fairly busy looking one. James Bond is in the foreground with a pistol, emphasising his importance and once again playing on the tagline of "Licence to kill" that has been established across the entire James Bond franchise. The two women behind him are the trademarked "Bond Girls" and the stern looks whilst infront of what appear to be electronic maps of various countries, show that they may be not only instrumental to the plot, but may also play some kind of femme fatale role.

The explosion with various military vehicles behind the smaller figure of Sean Beans character (whose name I have forgotten) indicates that, whilst not being the primary character in the story, show him as being important none the less, and that the story may be based around him and the destruction as shown by the explosion. The explosion also partially consumes the 007 embelem, once again heralding back to the licence to kill line once more, and therefore reminding the  audience that the character has not changed, and remains popular due to him being a likeable, if static character.

The title is in gold and all capitalised, but still plays less of a role than the007. It is still fairly noticeable, but the effect on the audience would be that they would notice it just enough for them to make a correlation between the title and the tagline which is no limits, no fear, no substitute, which refers to the danger as presented by the explosion, with the fearlessness of the title character.

 

 

 

Font Research

The fonts I have chosen as possible types of font for the trailer are all form action films. This suits the overall tone of the trailer, as it too has several action heavy segements throughout, but it also shares some similarities with crime thrillers which was why I chose the third one down as a possible font to represent this. Overall I believe that the one that suits the trailer the best is the top one. This comes from the Tim Burton set of Batman films, which shares several similarities with the ideas that are in the trailer that I have chosen to make.

Magazine front cover analysis 1

The magazine front cover of Empire magazine tends to showcase one major film of the year. In this case The Dark Knight was being either previewed or reviewed as The Joker is the central point of the cover. The text next to him is in a variety of fonts, in order to purvey the attitude of the character, which is very chaotic and the white text below stands out due to the colour, and the fact that it looks as if it had been scratched in by somebody. It also features other film previews and reviews at the side, so not to take the attention away from the headline article, whilst also ensuring that a potential buyer knows what else is being reviewed, previewed and the like.

Film Poster Research 1

The film poster of Law Abiding Citizen shows certain aspects of the action genre, and also contains some thriller elements as well. Next to Gerard Butlers face you can see pieces of shrapnel littering the place, implicating that there will be explosions, or with the thriller element, an explosive form of plot development such as a shocking truth or a suprising plot twist. The tagline of they killed his family now justice is his vengeance in capital, bold, red lettering shows indications of blood, and it also contrasts with the black, grey and dark blue of the majority of the poster. The title itself has imagery of a city with small amounts of debris in the air above and to the side of Jamie Foxx's character, possibly indicating that he is out to stop Gerards character. 

Animatic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmDUSK6mxbs&feature=youtu.be

Camera Angle Ideas, Keith Davids part in Smiley

A I have already shown in a previous post that the detective scene in smiley is an influence in our trailer, especially with the character that I am playing. Smiley however, is a horror film, and so I would need to create a transition from the horror genre to the action/ thriller genre. The way in which this would be accomplished would be by creating a similar scene with various intercutting scenes as well. Except instead of the intercutting scenes being of the murderer, they could be that of fist fights, and various pursuits. The music would have to change as well, but because the genre of thriller and horror can blur, the music might be fairly similar, but with more action oriented sections in it when the pace of the film begins to pick up.

Indoor Location Ideas

This is an example of a police interrogation room which looks as if it would fit well in our film. The cleanliness of the room contrasts heavily with our films other settings, and even contrasts with the characters personalities. Where the main character is dark and his personality becomes increasingly negative as he decends into madness, this room really shows how the light colours means that your eyes focus in on the dark clothed, moody person waiting for his fate via the most apathetic police officer in the force. This room would be fairly easy to replicate in real life, as the furniture is very easy to aquire as well as to set out. In fact there is a room at school that looks similar to the location featured above.