Ancillary Tasks

Right.. with filming coming to an end and our final product receiving its final touches I now need to get to work with my ancillary tasks!

A colour key throughout this page:

Key Words

Link to our film

28/12/17

Firstly, starting with...

Film Posters!

A film poster is one of the many conventions that is used to advertise a film. A film may have multiple versions of this for one film, with variations regarding the content, size, colours etc. The main conventions of a film poster consist of an image with text - consisting of the title, actors, tag lines, director, release date and so on. 

They are usually displayed in and outside cinemas, in main streets and shops - all according to the target audience that the movie is being directed towards. For example, a new kids disney film will be displayed in similar platforms like kids tv channels, toy shops etc. 

Furthermore, the same images that appear on these posters will appear in a film exhibitors press book and used on websites, DVD's, packaging for merchandise, flyers and even adverts!

Film posters are probably one of the most old fashioned of all advertisement platforms out there today, they were used in the earliest public exhibitions of films, where they began being shown outside placards listing the shorts films to be shown in that specific hall. They then developed further to be used as adverts around the surrounding areas and now have come a long way due to the use of technology! 

A few great examples!

1. The most iconic poster of all time: "Jaws" 

The terrifying image of a great white shark rising to devour its unwitting victim is a simple yet inspired piece of visual marketing. From the ridiculously oversized beast to its gaping jaw filled with rows of jagged teeth. Its terrifying image that struck fear into the hearts of swimmers and put people of beaches for a whole generation. 

This iconic poster withheld the key conventions of a poster, the main title in bold writing with colour that evokes a sense of what the film may encounter; blood. A main image that draws the audiences attentions immediately, the directors etc as well as a catch line across the top to dd to the suspense that the poster causes prior to the film. 

2. One of the best films of all time!

The image in the centre top of this poster is an apt reflection of the films religious allegory and n indelible image for movie fans. It was replaced by Amblin's flying nike image in later posters but this is the first effort and still now remains the most effective. I believe this as it has a key scene on the front of the poster which grabs with audience most attention throughout as well as pulling act their heart strings at the same time. 

3. Lastly, another effective poster: The silence of the lambs. 

This poster was also available in red/hannibal, this blanched Jodie Foster image however is the more famous and powerful of the two. The deaths head moth takes the central focus of the poster whilst the skull on its back made up nude female forms is a more subtle attention seeker within the poster. You can draw all kinds of symbolism from the colours to the moths placement but beyond any that, its chilling image. 

Now after taking part in research I wanted to do some more specific research into similar products of our final product: Deceit. 

Going back to my research and planning a film I looked into of similar products was "touch of evil" a 1958 thriller movie that took everyone by surprise of that era. 

By looking into an old thriller movie poster I can compare to the advancements over the years. The title is the first thing that personally grabbed my attention, the colours and fonts automating my brain to think thriller. The image is the second thing, showing the patriarchal society from the 1950's as well as a catch line across the centre top of the poster. The illustrations and images look drawn and old fashioned. 

The next poster I looked at was for shutter island, a 2010 movie which would have been technologically made. However, this movie had 2 posters for it, both consisting of the main actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. However, one followed the colour scene of dark colours whereas the other enforced a more red toned image. Both of the posters were extremely effective, my personal favourite being the dark toned one as it is more central and the eyes showing an image was a huge attraction for me. 

I did some more in depth detail on a 007 poster:

15.01.2018

Independent Film Posters:

Now having looked at mainstream Hollywood movies I wanted to compare these to how independent movie companies compose short film posters. As we have produced a short film I thought this research would be more relevant to me. 

Stutterer was the first film I looked in to: a short drama film using the internet. From looking at the poster of this film I could tell that there was a much smaller budget for this; for example the simple picture taken with a camera of one of the main actors and the title ombre'd across the whole of the poster with little detail and only the needed text is on the poster. 

However, Stutterer was a very recent film and I therefore wanted to research into older short films one of them being: Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB.

The short drama is the protagonist escaping his community; however they used no dialogue at all.

First impressions of this film poster is how old fashioned it is; the quality of the image being the first thing, the old fonts and the wonkiness of the text. 

Overall, the independent films are more on a strict budget, like us, and only have the basic software to produce. In our case I will be using photoshop.

25.01.2018

Research into poster elements:

Tag Line

When looking at the tagline's on posters I tend to find them following no set structure however they all contain the same contents. In all occasions the tagline is smaller than the actual title so it does not take away the focus from the title but is still a major factor to the poster. Therefore, we wanted to come out with one that was extremely effective yet subtle links to the narrative of our film.

For a film poster a good tag line is crucial, it gives the audience an insight into the film but without revealing too much.

I therefore made a mind map of some ideas that I came up with individually and with my group:

The one we have gone with is: "Secrets never stay silent"

I deem this to be the more effective one as it rolls of the tongue whilst having a lot of meaning behind it also linking greatly to our films narrative. 

Font:

Another major element is the font, this is a huge factor that appeals to the target audience and has to also compliment what else is going on in the poster, the image for example. I have looked into pictures from thriller movies and I found that the titles were the most attracting thing on them. I found them to be either bold, unique fonts to stand out to match the genre, expecting the unexpected. Therefore, when doing my poster this is something I will take into consideration. I will try out different fonts on the way to see which works the best.

26.01.18

Drafts: Call me Da Vinchi..

As time is now approaching to start making our posters, after a lot of research into codes and conventions I wanted to make some drafts of the poster I want to produce.

The first draft is of our opening scene including the taxi and the main actor: Joe Flynn. I like this as it gives the audience an insight into what is actually in our short film. I like the font as it matches the title that we put at the beginning of our film, I liked the simpleness as the it keeps the focus onto the image.

The second draft that I have produced is a lot simpler than the first one and does not actually entail anything from our original film but only a lamppost. This lamppost signifies a lot throughout our film as it is all filmed outside and the light signifying the light turning on and revealing the truth (in frank in our film)

I have entered the title this time as I believe that it entails a lot of detail and should be a main focus as well as actually identifying what everyone in our group done this time. 

I added the tagline along the bottom as it is the last thing the audience will see and leaving them on a cliffhanger before watching the film. 

The last draft that I have produced is a more detailed poster and it entails a lot of our movie, it my be giving too much way however. It sets the scene of Isaac's mothers murder, the christmas setting of the christmas tree. Frank standing over Isaac's mother whilst (young) Isaac is standing in the doorway watching what has just happened. I have also put in the title at the top with everyone roles on the poster with the tag line in line with Franks hands as his actions have caused all of the problems in our short film.

29.01.2018

Target Audience:

So how do all of these posters appeal to target audience? This is a huge factor that has to be taken into consideration, because if we do not attract the right audience initianally then we will not make any profits (mainly Hollywood movies, not so much for us!). 

All the posters that I have researched are quite simplistic, this therefore helps attract an audience to the genre as they want to get straight to the thrill of the film. I believe that an image of the key characters is essential as it enables the audience to build a relationship prior to watching the movie. All of the colourings are quite dull, I deem this to be because they want to create suspense behind the narrative of the movie and this dull atmosphere does start to create this. 

So how am I going to make my poster appeal to our target audience? I will make sure I address all of my research into posters, I will then play around with a few different still shots from the movie to see which is most effective. I will then entice the audience that I want to attract and see what they think before finalising my idea!

Wish me luck...

31.01.2018

Drafting..

First of all, I had never had any experience using photoshop until now and I therefore needed to watch some tutorials on youtube to grasp the basics before I actually went in and used it! 

After watching this tutorial, I went straight in with blending two images together, one of the opening scene of Joe and the cab approaching and another image of Dylan (young Joe). These two concepts give the audience an insight into the storyline. However, I think I could do better as they do not link together as much as I would like them too.

Secondly, I put two pictures together from the murder scene flashbacks as I believe it provides the audience with a good amount of background knowledge as to why Isaac Wright does what he does in the film. However, I didn't think it was a good idea to put the main antagonist in the poster as it gives too much away. As during the opening scene we long out seeing the antagonist to give a sense of mystery and urgency to carry on watching.

I therefore scrapped this idea and asked people what they thought would be a good image to put on, I showed them some screenshots from the film and we all came to a decision that showing young and older Isaac Wright was a good idea as it contradicts each other. Therefore as I advanced in my knowledge of photoshop I adjusted the young Isaac image more to the right and then entered a picture of older Isaac next too each other. 

After finalising my idea on the images I went ahead and added credits. These took a while as every new text box I needed to add a new layer incase I messed up and the whole thing would go wrong. Therefore, this was the longest process. I then needed to do some research into reviews on posters and I researched into some independent movie reviewers and not mainstream ones like "the sun" or "the guardian". I then inserted star ratings and good catchy reviews. I finalised my font once all of the text was on the poster as I wanted to see which suited the genre and flowed with the poster the best. After all of this I added the final touches of the production logo and the certificate rating. 

WE FOUND A SPELLING MISTAKE OF "MASTERPIECE" SAYING "MASTERPIECE" 

02.02.2018

My Final Poster:

So finally, my poster is done!! I ended up changing my ideas as soon as I went onto photoshop due to the multiple things that I could play around with on there! I changed the arrangements of pictures and also the credits for them to make more sense on the poster. To blend the two images together I used the opacity setting and decreased the situation level to make it darker symbolising the great twist within the film. 

I am extremely proud with my poster, due to never using photoshop until now I think I did a pretty good job!

05.02.2018

Film Review Stress

So now the stress of the poster has come to an end, a new journey with film reviews begin! Before I look into writing a review I need to research howe they look and what to include. First impressions I didn't actually realise how different reviews are on different platforms - from magazines to the internet for example. 

The first internet film review that I looked at was "Nerve" a 2016 thriller movie. A review from Mick LaSalle. I first started to look at the basics such as the structure of how it was firstly layed out. I found that the title, date and image was the thing that I was first focused on. 

 I then looked into the way the texts structured in an internet review and I could see that it didn't contain much cinematography that followed the movie but was full of ads from the website. It also used quotation marks to signify the movie. However, I found that they can go into a lot more detail as they're not limited to one page in a magazine.

I then looked into a magazine article to see if it followed a similar structure. Even though there was some similarities I found that this review was much more to the point as they were limited to an amount of words. They used quotes from the film early on and stated facts and statistics at the bottom of the page and didn't elaborate on them due to the limit. 

06.02.2018

What makes a good review?

The purpose of a film review is to:

Inform: It needs to tell people who is in the film, who it is by, where and when the audience can view the film.

To describe: The review should describe the story, character and some actions but without spoilers and giving too much away!

To analyse: It should give an opinion on whether the film is good or not and why this is.

To advise: The review should tell the audience whether or not to go and see the film - if it worth the time and money!

The Structure

It should start with and introducion providing an overview of who is in the film and what it is about. It should also sum up the reviewers conclusion about the film.

Paragraph two should describe the pot and the action while informing the reader which actor plays which role in the movie.

Paragraph 3: Here they should analyse the film, discussing the director and then the acres, looking at good things as well as bad. 

Conclusion: Informing the reader when the film is out and maybe where it can be seen. For example, a tv channel or cinema. 

Throughout the review the writing will change. The bold writing is normally used to highlight key places in the film for example the location or what the reviewer finds important and is vital to explain. 

The italic is either the year the film was released, production company, director or key people and information that is not to do with the storyline.

Conventions of a review: 

A tagline

Screenshot from the film

References to other films

Question the reader

Number of views / statistics

Information of the film

Review

Evaluation:

Re-looking over my ancillary task section of this coursework I have decided that I became very lazy when it got to the last section. I lack a lot research and therefore it has rubbed off onto my review. I can see looking at my review that it is extremely basic and therefore I have evaluated:

After evaluating my review I have noticed a lot of improvements that need to take place to reach the marks that I will be satisfied and proud of. 

Final Review:

I have now improved on my ancillary tasks after looking over my evaluation. I re-read the first draft and look at what I needed to add. I therefore gave a deeper look into the plot of the film but without giving too much away. I also added some more photos of what I felt was needed - however I have not once shown the antagonist as I do not want the review to be a spoiler. I am therefore much more pleased with my review.