Poster Template

I kept to the codes and conventions of a movie poster when constructing my template. I did this by having a main image centered in the frame, a bold, clear title on the page and other information present on the page such as the tagline.

I wanted to have the background either blurred or just one colour in order to ensure the main focus is the main image.

Magazine Review Template

When constructing my magazine review template I kept to the common codes and conventions. I did this by having a main image which dominates the page. I also included a secondary image, a bold, clear title, a tagline and a star rating at the end of the review. From my research I found out that some reviews had extra information about the film such as details about the director, actors, length, plot etc so I thought it was best to include this in my review.

Codes And Conventions Of Short Film Posters

Cashback

This award winning, film follows the antics of the staff at a supermarket during the night shift. It is unequalled for originality, artistic quality and execution.

The film poster has a very basic design and layout. The audience is drawn to the woman who dominates the poster. Her clothes are pulled down but her naked body is covered by the title of the film. This is very effective because it makes the audience wonder why she is in this situation. She has a very plain facial expression which looks as if she is unaware of the fact that her clothes are pulled down.

The background is blurred to draw the audiences attention to the character but the background can still be established as a supermarket which is built further by the character holding a shopping basket. This makes the audience wonder why she is half naked in a supermarket which makes them interested in the film therefore it should encourage them to watch it.

The title is of a dark red colour and stretches across the whole poster. This immediately makes the audience aware of the films name and gives the audience a slight clue as to what the film may be about.



For The Birds

This short film is about a group of snooty birds roosting on a telephone wire who get what they deserve when a happy, larger bird drops in.

The movie has quite an innocent look to it which gives the audience a good idea of the films genre and age group. Vast amounts of blue has been used to give the poster a bright and happy effect to it. At the top of the poster there is the production company's name, this is very clear but does not dominate the page. The title of the film takes up a vast amounts of space and is very clear. This is good because it immediately tells the audience the title of the short film and gives them a good idea of the plot, genre etc. The main image is at the bottom of the poster and is of a number of small birds and one big one. This shows the nature of the film and highlights the characters in it.

Overall the poster gives a clear indication of the genre of the short film and who the short film is aimed at. This is done mostly by the use of images and bright colours.



The Lethal Innocents

This short film is about Rita, a 15 year old girl, who is relentlessly bullied by the queen bees. But when they kill her cat, they go one step too far.

This poster has a main image of the protagonist which dominates the page and is centered in the frame. It shows a girl with an unhappy and menacing look on her face which leads the audience to believe that she is up to something. The background is blurred in order to make the audience focus on the girl. This is a very effective technique which was also used in the 'Cashback' poster.

The title of the short film is positioned towards the bottom of the page and is in quite scruffy, white writing. This leads the audience to believe that the protagonist is of a lower class because of the untidy writing. This supports the stereotype that lower class people are quite untidy. This could be developed further by audiences thinking that violence could be involved. This gives the short film quite a negative image and shows a thriller genre. At the bottom of the page there are more details about the short film which gives audiences more information about the film.

Overall the poster is quite clear about the genre because of the style of writing used and the look of the protagonist.



From my research I believe that I should use appropriate colours in my film poster in order to make the audience aware of the genre and the nature of the film. I also believe that I should use one main image of the protagonist with maybe a blurred background to focus the audiences attention on the character. I believe the name of the short film should be bold and clear and a suitable font should be used to match the genre. I could also include other details about the film such as the main actors name, production company etc.

First Thoughts on Film Poster

I came across two movie posters from the films 'Due Date' and 'The Dark Knight'. I looked at these because they both focused on one character which I think I should do in mine because my short film is mostly made up of one actor/character. The 'Due Date' poster in particular inspired me the most because from the characters facial expressions the audience can see that he is not happy and this is what I want to portray in my poster. Also the taglines in the poster "If there's a hell, I'm already in it" and "Leave your comfort zone" supports the idea that he is not happy which leads me to believe that I should be considering an appropriate tagline for my short film.



I also came across a second poster from 'The Dark Knight' and a poster from 'Face/Off'. These two inspired me because they both represent two characters but in one poster symbolising a link between them. In 'The Dark Knight' poster the outline of 'Batman' is seen but with the 'Jokers' smile which shows two character in one which is good because it shows a connection and sort of keeps the audience guessing that is going to happen. In the 'Face/Off' poster one of the characters face is on the others face. This also shows a clear connection of the two characters. This is what I want to do in my short film because even though I have the same actor in both the happy and unhappy day they possess different personalities which I will need to portray in my poster.

Codes and Conventions of a Film Magazine Review

Machete Magazine Review

The first magazine review I analysed was 'Machete' by Empire magazine. The main feature of the review was a massive picture dominating the page and taking up most of the A3 spread. This was of the protagonist on a motorcycle with a machine gun. There is also a secondary image showing another character (Lindsay Lohan). The main purpose of both images is to attract the audience and to encourage them to read the article. I think this is quite effective because the two images symbolising women and violence would attract a great deal of people but mostly men. The images also give the audience a greater knowledge of the genre of the film. In this case the audience would assume the film is of a action genre.

The name of the film is in bold and capitals which is good because it clearly shows what the article is about. Beneath this there is the tagline of the film which is meant to give the reader a greater knowledge of what the film is about. The film review also further details of the film such as the release date, certificate, director, cast, running time and plot. This is good because the audience can decide whether they want to continue reading the review just by reading the first few lines. After this there is the main article which has a highlighted quote from it which is inserted to entice readers to actually read the review. The two page article ends with the writers verdict of the film and gives it a star rating.



Let Me In Magazine Review

This film review is also by Empire magazine. It is very similar to the previous review. The only difference was that there was not a secondary image. The primary image informs the audience that the film may be of a horror genre because the girl in the image has blood running down her face.



Up Magazine Review

This magazine review is from Total Film magazine unlike the previous two which were from Empire magazine. It has many of the features that the other reviews had but has a different layout and some of the features are different. The main image still dominates the article but takes up one A4 page unlike the other two which spreads across two A4 pages. This article uses a graph to express a review of all the different stages/chapters of the film which is good because it shows how detailed the review is.



Conclusion
To conclude I believe that my magazine review should include many features including a main image, maybe a secondary image (but not necessary), an overall rating of the film, a clear title, tagline and an overview of the film. My review will have to be quite detailed and take up vast amounts of space on the double page spread in order to attract readers and encourage them to read the review.

Animatic Feedback

After presenting my animatic to the class I had quite a lot of feedback. One comment was that it may be beneficial for me to favour the happy side. This would be good because it would give a more clearer contrast of the two sides. It would also encourage the audience to watch on because more activities are happening on the positive day. I think this will be reflected in my actual film because more sounds will be present on the positive day which means that his would most likely overpower the negative day.

Another comment was that I could have the positive sounds coming out of one side of the speakers/headphones and negative sounds coming out of the other side. This would be very effective but I think it would divide up the two days and not show a very clear contrast of them. It would also sort of make them into two different films which I am not aiming for.

A further comment was that some of my timing were not very effective. I agree with this because in the middle of the day I have not included many shots and it seemed to go by quite quickly in comparison to the rest of the day. I also did not include many shots of the characters traveling. This can be achieved by adding more shots when filming and by many adding a clock but speeded up in order to show the passing of time.

A final comment was that I could include some more shots towards the end of my film in order to tie the two days into one. This could be achieved by merging both screens into one maybe as they are going up the stairs or looking in the mirror.

Split Screen Research

In order to be able to complete my short film effectively I needed to find out how to split the screen in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. I needed to do this because a large majority of my short film is in split screen in order to show the contrast between the two characters.

I researched this on the internet. The source I used is shown below -

http://www.heron-productions.com/4-splitscreen.html