Photograph for Film Poster

The main part of my film poster is going to be the photograph that is being used, this is obviously going to be the main part as it should show what the film is going to be about so that the audience are able to get a good idea from just looking at the film poster alone, it should be able to attract the audience without them seeing the trailer or just enhance the trailer. Due to this I needed to ensure that I was getting the right picture. I decided to get some photographs of one of the actors that will be in the film trailer, this was because the story line was revolved around her, these were some of the pictures that I took:

As you can see there are only three here but these are not the only photographs that I took, these were just the ones that I liked the most. 

In the first image it shows the one of the main characters - Jody - standing in front of an abandoned house, in the film this is where Jody is kidnapped and held hostage, this shot has good lighting and the camera angles work well in the context of our whole film idea. The only reason that I would turn away from using this photograph for my film poster is because it looks too staged and for the film poster I would rather use a photograph that seems to be more realistic in terms of our film and therefore would give the audience a better outlook on the film.

The second photograph would be a perfect shot for my film poster, the fact that it is in a section of a house that is dark and secluded would show that she really is being held hostage and the positioning of the shot works really well and would give the audience a great view on the film. Although the photo is perfect and the positioning of the shot works brilliantly, the shot cannot be used as the lighting of it just isn't right and if it were to be edited to make the shot more visable it would decrease the quality and realness of the shot and therefore wouldn't be as good for my film poster.

The third photograph is the most recent photograph that I took, I like this photograph the most as everything seems to work on it, the lighting is perfect and can be edited to make it look a little bit darker, the positioning of the shot is very similar to the second photograph but is in a different location, and it works well in the context of our film trailer. I believe that this is the photograph that I am going to use for my film poster as it seems to tick every box that I was after. 

First Draft of Film Poster

After looking into different types of film posters, I have put together a first draft of my film poster, this is only a first draft and will no doubt change when I have gained feedback from peers and teachers.

As you can see I have produced the first draft of my poster in a landscape orientation, this was a decision that was made easy to me as I think that it just looks better in this context. I have also used many different codes and conventions on the poster, this is more than some of the posters I looked at but less than others as I didn't want it to be too packed in order for the image to be able to show power, but then I didn't want it to be too bare that the whole poster was going to be relying solely on the image used.

Now that I have got an idea as to what I want my film poster to look like I am now going to go away and take the photograph that will be used for my poster, this will be completed within the next few days.

Research - Film Posters

As part of my media project I have to create a film magazine front cover and I have to create a film poster, I am going to start with the film poster as this looks the most fun and is something different. I am going to start by doing some research into film poster to see the typical codes and conventions behind them.

'The Expendables 2'

I have started by looking at the film poster for the film ‘The Expendable 2’ this is a big Hollywood blockbuster film that has lots of big name actors appearing in the film, this seems to be one of the main points that the distribution company are trying to get across to the audience as they have the names of each of the actors and pictures of each and every one of them. Having seen the film and not entirely liking the film I can to the assumption that the main idea of the film was to get as many big name actors in the film as they were able to and then just give a basic story line that is typical of an action movie, this theme seems to have been carried across to the poster as the image isn't all that powerful as it is just shots of each of the actors with an explosion in the background, this poster doesn't appeal to me and the only reason that they want the people to go and see the film is because of the actors within it.

  

As you can see it does have to typical codes and conventions that are typical of a film poster, these are: the title, the tagline of the film, main photo – the main focus of the poster, the names of the main actors along the top, the names of the supporting actors at the bottom and the release date of the film. I am going to need to think of these when it comes to producing my own film poster. I also like the fact that this poster is landscape rather than portrait.

'Unknown'

This film poster is entirely different from the first, although it has a very well-known actor and is playing off the fact that this is the actors typical role within films, it is still very powerful. It is because of the actor involved that the poster is able to be very bare, with just the powerful shot of the actor, Liam Neeson. This film poster is not displaying the names of every actor or actress involved in the film because it is mainly focussing on the story rather than just the actors and actresses involved. This film poster is very minimalistic which means that the codes and conventions that are in the poster are relied on entirely to make the poster meaning that they need to be very powerful and I believe that this poster has achieved this.

 After looking at both of the film posters, there are things that I like about both, the first poster is very packed and gets all of the codes and conventions onto the poster meaning that the fact that the image isn't one of much power it is still getting the audience enticed through a different mean, in this case the high profiled actors. The second film poster for the film ‘Unknown’ is different entirely and is very minimalistic, I like the image as it conveys the film very well in the fact that just from that one shot the audience is able to tell the genre of the film.

10 Missed Calls Presentation

Possible Soundtrack for Our Trailer

The soundtrack for our movie trailer is something that we have to carefully think about as the music plays a massive role in capturing our audience, if the music for our trailer is rubbish and doesn't tie in with our story line then it could become laughable and our audience would not be enticed to watch it.

After watching the movie Harry Brown, which is a similar genre to our film with the same sort of audience, we started to get a feel for what music we would like to include in our trailer. We then did some research intro the music used in this film and after looking and listening through the whole soundtrack we has three tracks that we really liked. These are “Killing”, “Calm Estate” and “Subway Surveillance”. 

Film Trailer Update

Below is a link to our trailer on YouTube. As you can see we are quite far down the line of production of our trailer and we are beginning to put together a great sequence of shots from our film. The clips that we have used so far have been edited together to make a great sequence that will relate in the ways in which we want it to, to our audience. We currently only have a couple of pieces of sound on our trailer which is some dialogue, but we are currently in the process of adding in some background music that is going to work to enhance the film trailer. We have made the trailer non-linear as we feel that this is going to give our trailer a different feel to other typical action film trailer while still going along with the classic codes and conventions used in a film trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuhf1kdO7tk

Monthly Diary - December

This month has been a very productive month. As a group we have all worked hard into completed assigned tasks. Sadie has focused on constructing a storyboard and using shots that she has produced to incorporate it into the story board. Brandon has been editing our feedback and editing our title sequences. Frankie has been editing our presentation that was performed to the class. Whereas will has been looking at props and soundtracks and possible locations for our filming.