I think we should organize a photo shoot and take separate pictures from the stills from the trailer. The pictures should have the main couple on it, and they should show an intimate, romantic relationship. The colours should be warm, which would be adjusted later and also apply designs and filters using Photoshop to make it look professional. The mood should be romantic and we should try to create some kind of contrast either between positions, colours or anything, like it is done one other art –house film posters, we researched. We may also would want to you drawn designs for background, just to have a quirky effect.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Magazine and Poster ideas
Individual Poster Analysis
I decided to analyse this poster because of the same reason as the magazine cover I choose. It has a two shot on it and the delicate style is appealing to our story as well. It also has good and interesting Photoshop editing on it, which is something we are aiming for too.
Although the film itself is not classified as an art house film the poster has several quirky elements. The film is actually a romantic love story, but it contains foreign elements as he main character goes to Japan several times. So therefore some parts are subtitled and maybe that’s a reason why not many people know about this film, although it has Keira Knightley in it. If Hollywood would be making art house films they would be like this one. There are quite a few secrets that unfold at the end of the movie just like in our story.
The poster as it is, is simple, it is not overcomplicated or too much. This is because the light cream, peach colour of the background. There is a Japanese girl’s delicate face on it edited as it seems like she is looking down on the main couple. It is interesting that the couple is not in the centre of the poster, but because they have higher saturated colours they become the main focus. What stands out the most is the title of the film: Silk, which is because, the red background of it, what I find interesting is that it is written in a different way. It is vertical instead of horizontal, which might suggest the foreign touch of the film as in Japan they write vertically. There are also little writings on the poster quoting a line from the film and telling about the director and his previous film.
It is very good about this poster that it has three different elements to it, all arranged on different part of the poster. The girl’s face, the couple and the title and they all create a big part of the poster, but they still managed to meagre them in together and create a balance within the poster. The elements kind of divide the poster to an upper and lower level, the bottom with the couple and the title and the Japanese girl on the top as a form of illusion or dream.
I think this poster is brilliant and it would be great to achieve something similarly good and quirky, although it has not got elements such as contrast, which we found a very big part of the graphics of art house style.
Individual Magazine Cover Analysis
I choose this magazine cover to analyze among the much more attractive ones, because it has a two shot on it, which we will be probably using on our magazine cover. Therefore analysing it will help create good standard magazine to our film.
The main characters of King Kong are on the centre of the cover. The picture of the couple shows a connection between the characters also they are frightened and that gives an idea about the film and the setting. The man holding the woman in a protective way suggests that he doesn’t want to lose her and he is willing to protect her. Their clothing and the whole pose of them clearly tells that it is an adventure movie set in older times.
The warm clothing and the dark colour background suggests autumn/winter time and the issue on the top justifies that as it is an October issue.
The yellow colours of the huge block capital titles makes them stand out, and also drags the audience’s eyes to wards the central image. The ‘King Kong ‘title is clear it shows the main focus of the content and drags a certain type of audience. The smaller yellow titles contain other attractive aspects such as the title of a well know films and director ‘Lock Stock’, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Tarantino’ and the word ‘sex ’, which is attractive to all age and audiences (even if they don’t admit it J).
The smaller titles with white against dark colour stand out as well, makes them easy to read. They give some hint about the content of the magazine. These hints might be about films that are not as new as the one written with the bigger titles or only apply to a smaller audience e.g.: Domino, Harry Potter and Narnia.
Still the largest the one of the most important titles on the cover is the icon like Total Film Magazine title. It is usually white on all issues. It also has persuasive qualities which make the reader want to buy the magazine, because it acts as an assurance of quality and interesting content.
There are smaller things on the cover such as price, barcode, logo of sponsor, issue number are all such things that we have to pay attention not to miss out when creating out own design.
The main characters of King Kong are on the centre of the cover. The picture of the couple shows a connection between the characters also they are frightened and that gives an idea about the film and the setting. The man holding the woman in a protective way suggests that he doesn’t want to lose her and he is willing to protect her. Their clothing and the whole pose of them clearly tells that it is an adventure movie set in older times.
The warm clothing and the dark colour background suggests autumn/winter time and the issue on the top justifies that as it is an October issue.
The yellow colours of the huge block capital titles makes them stand out, and also drags the audience’s eyes to wards the central image. The ‘King Kong ‘title is clear it shows the main focus of the content and drags a certain type of audience. The smaller yellow titles contain other attractive aspects such as the title of a well know films and director ‘Lock Stock’, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Tarantino’ and the word ‘sex ’, which is attractive to all age and audiences (even if they don’t admit it J).
The smaller titles with white against dark colour stand out as well, makes them easy to read. They give some hint about the content of the magazine. These hints might be about films that are not as new as the one written with the bigger titles or only apply to a smaller audience e.g.: Domino, Harry Potter and Narnia.
Still the largest the one of the most important titles on the cover is the icon like Total Film Magazine title. It is usually white on all issues. It also has persuasive qualities which make the reader want to buy the magazine, because it acts as an assurance of quality and interesting content.
There are smaller things on the cover such as price, barcode, logo of sponsor, issue number are all such things that we have to pay attention not to miss out when creating out own design.
Script of teaser trailer
We wrote our script (dialogue and voice over) for our trailer before we went out filming; this therefore allowed us to change it if it was necessary. We then translated our script into Spanish, and our actors had to learn it. By using the Spanish language and including English subititles, it made our trailer unique.
In the opening of our trailer, we had our production company (Productio Gonzo) animation, with a soundtrack coming into identify our company.The sound of a jawharp was slected from Soundtrack to match our quiky film. Then the green screen of approval (used in in all trailers), which made our trailer be portrayed by the audience as if a real film coming soon. Followed by the opening shot split screen of a close up of the two main characters feets, contrasting their worlds. Adam as a bussiness man and Iva walking bare foot on grass. Fade into a close up of Iva (main character), this particular shot had a lot of head room, so we could add the subtitles into this particular shot. 'I believe in superstition, but I disagree with the one against black cats. Because whats the diffherence between a black cat and a white cat?'
Followed by the jumping shots from a long shot to a close up to identify the other main character Adam; the contrast between the two characters worked well as we paid close attention to little details for example props,make up and costume. We then faded into a wide handheld shot of a woods to set the scene. Faded into black and faded in an extreme close up of Iva's hand holding her medication, followed by a luminance map into her taking her pills. The lighting was low key, and this helped create a 'dark side' to her character. Another luminance map into an extreme close up of her eye whilst her pupil changed size. This shot was then reversed to give proper illusion of pupil change when mediacation is taken. Fade out to black and fade into a wide shot of the two characters sitting on the beach, the shot seems very peaceful and shows the connection between them. Over this shot, there was a voice over of Iva 'feels like I've known you forever!', which gives a window into the story and again reflects their connection. This is followed by an effect called box slide which continues into a mid shot of Iva on a bench blowing bubbles, we reversed this shot too which makes it quirky and effective shot as it helps to portray her personality. A hard cut then brings in the framed shot of the two characters holding hands and swinging them, this helps shows their happiness. Another luminance map cuts into the birdseye view shot of the couple lying on the beach; we filmed this in Brighton and I hung over the pier with the camera, it was very hard to keep it steady. Originally, we panned off into the sky, but the shot was too unsteady,so we used a freeze frame. We got the idea of this shot from the film Reqieum of a Dream, and they used a crane to do the shot, unfortunately we didn't have a crane, we had a pier and me, but the freeze frame works well. Its a shame that the panning off didn't work as well.
Followed by a canted mid shot of Adam,'I remember this' holding a childhood memorabilia of a teddy bear, and this gives an insight to the story line of a possible relation between the two. Another luminance map into the over the shoulder shot of the couple laughing together, which reflects their happiness. We found some graffiti in Brighton and filmed two shots there, a mid shot of Iva blowing bubbles and a long/wide shot of the two kissing. The colours in the mise en scene works really well and would work well for a poster or magazine cover. A hard cut into the over the shoulder reflects the jult in their relationship realising that something is wrong. 'Don't you understand that you're my sister?!' followed by the reaction over the should shot 'No I'm not!' We placed the subtitles in different places on the screen to help adapt to our genre of quirky Arthouse. Another hard cut to a long shot of Adam smashing a mirror to show his anger at the truth; he found a true connection with Iva, could it all be destroyed? We faded into the close up shot of the ground with the smashed pieces on the floor 'seven years bad luck' was also a voice over to show Iva's belief in superstition. Followed by a hard cut into a canted long shot of Iva being upset; and the final shot a close up of tears rolling down her cheek leaves a cliffhanger on the story. The titles 'Desire' and 'Coming soon' at the end writen using the font we chose before and downloaded.
Magazine Cover Research
Few of the world's leading movie magazines are Empire and Total Film, their style of cover layout is the leading model and inspiration for other film magazines. In the following I will be discussing an overall view of their style.
The first two things that catch the eyes of the audience is the title, which is always big and bold, and most of the time it is the same, so it creates a logo for the magazine, these features make it stand out even if the title is behind the main image. The second element is the large, main image; this is always a newly released film’s main character(s). This trend went through changes over the history of film magazines, as before they used to have lots of images, like a collage, whereas now it’s always one main image possible some smaller ones on the side. Other titles are on the side too, not interrupting the main image, usually they are arranged around it, and these techniques further emphasize the central picture. The middle image has an important role, it has to be able to communicate from a distance so people would pick the magazine up and have a look at it, only after this the reader reads the smaller writing that suggest the content. These little hints should be interesting or funny so the audience would want to read the magazine. These little titles often include names of famous actors or movie makers to create an attractive view of the content.
The picture, the colours the titles and everything on the cover always suggests the mood and genre of the film; sometimes for this the title is modified, but only a bit. The images are always very strong this usually comes from the photo itself, could be the angle, the position of the character on it, or the colours. Some examples are shown below to prove myself.
This one has has more than one characters but still there is a big image. It has smaler pictures as well, but again on the side. Th title are slightly changed a bit of blur applied to make it misty and fit with the story of the film.
On this cover they used a very strong image shot from a lower angle, to give power to the character. The gun comes out a bit towards the edge to give a 3D illusion. The picture even covers the title, the smaller title's font is modified to adjust to the action style.
This one shows cold, icy colours that suggest the mood of the film. Narnia covered in snow for an everlasting winter.
I find this one different from the other because the title for one is front of the picture, but thats because the picture is a close up shot. Note how the black and white image creates a contrast with the block red titles.
On this one the whole colour of the title is changed to give it a silver tint suggesting that this character is changing the look of the magazine, but what is important that it still stands out.
This image is a perfect example how to combine photography of main charcters and colour to create and increadibly strong image.
On this the main title of the magzine is slighly modified to create a hot feeling to match the character and the genre of the film.
Pose of model makes the image intersting and eye catching to all audiances.
This is an example of the title wraping around the main character, that is emphasized. Also that if there are other pictures on the cover they are small and on the side.
These are the main ponts, we should try and achieve on our magazine cover. These are big effective central picture, maybe changed main title. Carefully selected fonts and colours to show the mood of the film and suggest the genre. Other smaller intersting titles and maybe gifts that come with the magazine.
The first two things that catch the eyes of the audience is the title, which is always big and bold, and most of the time it is the same, so it creates a logo for the magazine, these features make it stand out even if the title is behind the main image. The second element is the large, main image; this is always a newly released film’s main character(s). This trend went through changes over the history of film magazines, as before they used to have lots of images, like a collage, whereas now it’s always one main image possible some smaller ones on the side. Other titles are on the side too, not interrupting the main image, usually they are arranged around it, and these techniques further emphasize the central picture. The middle image has an important role, it has to be able to communicate from a distance so people would pick the magazine up and have a look at it, only after this the reader reads the smaller writing that suggest the content. These little hints should be interesting or funny so the audience would want to read the magazine. These little titles often include names of famous actors or movie makers to create an attractive view of the content.
The picture, the colours the titles and everything on the cover always suggests the mood and genre of the film; sometimes for this the title is modified, but only a bit. The images are always very strong this usually comes from the photo itself, could be the angle, the position of the character on it, or the colours. Some examples are shown below to prove myself.
This one has has more than one characters but still there is a big image. It has smaler pictures as well, but again on the side. Th title are slightly changed a bit of blur applied to make it misty and fit with the story of the film.
On this cover they used a very strong image shot from a lower angle, to give power to the character. The gun comes out a bit towards the edge to give a 3D illusion. The picture even covers the title, the smaller title's font is modified to adjust to the action style.
This one shows cold, icy colours that suggest the mood of the film. Narnia covered in snow for an everlasting winter.
I find this one different from the other because the title for one is front of the picture, but thats because the picture is a close up shot. Note how the black and white image creates a contrast with the block red titles.
On this one the whole colour of the title is changed to give it a silver tint suggesting that this character is changing the look of the magazine, but what is important that it still stands out.
This image is a perfect example how to combine photography of main charcters and colour to create and increadibly strong image.
On this the main title of the magzine is slighly modified to create a hot feeling to match the character and the genre of the film.
Pose of model makes the image intersting and eye catching to all audiances.
This is an example of the title wraping around the main character, that is emphasized. Also that if there are other pictures on the cover they are small and on the side.
These are the main ponts, we should try and achieve on our magazine cover. These are big effective central picture, maybe changed main title. Carefully selected fonts and colours to show the mood of the film and suggest the genre. Other smaller intersting titles and maybe gifts that come with the magazine.
Feedback from roughcut
After our class looking at our rough cut trailer, we recieved, overall good feedback. It was clear that our trailer was an 'Arthouse film' due to the subtitles. Yet there was a possible danger of the trailer being a music video, as the order was laid out wrong; after receiving feedback, we have changed our the order of our trailer to create suspense and leave a cliffhanger to make people want to see our film.
Most groups thought our editing was excellent, as we used alot of effects and colour change/balance to adapt to our genre. Our shots were imaginative and fitted well with our genre Arthouse.
Also, our use of mise en scene received good feedback, and the overall camera work averaged out as good. Although, our soundtrack didn't necessarily fit with all of our images used, overall, now that it is complete, works well. By doing our film in Spanish and having subtitles made it unique. On the other hand, some people thought the subtitles were hard to read, and so we have made the font bold to make it easier to read. We also struggled with reducing certain background noise on a particular opening scene, we can rude it, yet we wouldn't be able to hear the actual diaglogue. Overall the feedback was positive, yet our continuity of a particular scene (smashing glass and then the pieces being together) didn't work as well, yet the image is effective. Some people thought our titles were hard to read, so we are going to change the font to another to make it bold and stand out.
Since receiving feedback, we have added a voice over and the final titles. Also, we have changed the order of the trailer to make it seem an actual teaser instead of a music video.
Most groups thought our editing was excellent, as we used alot of effects and colour change/balance to adapt to our genre. Our shots were imaginative and fitted well with our genre Arthouse.
Also, our use of mise en scene received good feedback, and the overall camera work averaged out as good. Although, our soundtrack didn't necessarily fit with all of our images used, overall, now that it is complete, works well. By doing our film in Spanish and having subtitles made it unique. On the other hand, some people thought the subtitles were hard to read, and so we have made the font bold to make it easier to read. We also struggled with reducing certain background noise on a particular opening scene, we can rude it, yet we wouldn't be able to hear the actual diaglogue. Overall the feedback was positive, yet our continuity of a particular scene (smashing glass and then the pieces being together) didn't work as well, yet the image is effective. Some people thought our titles were hard to read, so we are going to change the font to another to make it bold and stand out.
Since receiving feedback, we have added a voice over and the final titles. Also, we have changed the order of the trailer to make it seem an actual teaser instead of a music video.
Graphics Research
Art house films have serious content and therefore usually strong massages to get across to the audience. Most of this is to raise awareness of an untouchable subjects, a topic that’s a taboo e.g.: homosexuality, rape, drug abuse etc. Sometimes this is put in an entertaining context; which shows big difference within the subject of the film. For this reason is why most art house films are not belonging to one genre. Of course there are exceptions like Amelie, and Little Miss Sunshine, the subject of these are not that ‘heavy’ but the graphics of the posters contain similar elements. These graphic elements of the campaigns, has to be shown all throughout the images of the film. This is often achieved by big, outstanding differences on the pictures, or the strong, complementary colours.
These two, is the poster and a picture from the film; Requiem for a dream. This poster has an extreme close up picture and a long shot on it, this is creates an interesting contrast within the poster, it grabs attention and suggests something being stretched beyond its limit in the film. The image from the film has a big colour contrast between the black and the white.
Almodovar’s Volver is about a heavy rape subject, put into a comical context. The most obvious element on the poster is the happy, very strong colours; everything on this poster is a bit over the usual. Still the colours are happy; the face expression of the main character is quite dark and serious, this is crating the contrast. The other picture I chose because it shows the clothing in the film, every piece that Penelope’s wearing is quirky and unusual.
Almodovar’s Bad Education is also about a heavy subject in comical context, but this one is about child abuse and homosexuality. I find the posters both interesting, because they both different for others and from one another. One is a black and whit picture of the child that has been abuse with a red circle in the background, to emphasize him and in a way make him a target. The colours have strong meaning but are not that contrasting. The other poster is the same person shown as a man and dressed up as a woman, which is a huge difference between the actual meanings of the picture.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fantastic film Amelie, has a surprisingly simple poster, it is the main character, Audrey Tautou with a quirky look on her face. The ‘rule’ is still followed by the complementary colours of red and green. The other picture is from the film, similar kind of look and the red umbrella give an interesting and different image. I like this because Amelie id different from the others as it has an entertaining purpose. The feature that gives the film away to be an arthouse film is the warm colour filters on the whole film and of course the quirky story.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s other amazing film Delicatessen, which made him famous has a simple poster too. It just has a gold pig hanging and a red background, which is quite quirky itself. The colours are highly saturated. The other picture is a scene from the film, it is very weird as the characters playing music on the roof, and on of them is using a saw for that. The colours are very warm and have a sepia effect as the colour balance is more to the red and brown colours and also it is highly contrasted as well. Because of these colours the films looks old and that it was set in the past, but little hints of the film tell that it is set way away in the future.
Little Miss Sunshine is a bit more known arthouse style film than the others, probably because it is in English. Maybe that’s why that the poster is a bit more ‘Hollywoody’. Although the family bus and the block yellow background suggests a bit of weirdness, but not that strongly. With this film are the story and the odd characters that make it weird and quirky. There is also a shot from the film that shows a similar kind of contrast than the other arthouse films. On this shot there is the contrast between the two different characters the happy little sister and the miserable, ant-social older brother, and that they are very close to the camera while the rest of the family is far in the background. Lastly there is a high contrast between blacks and whites again.
Ethernal Sunshine of the spotless mind is an incredibly clever and weird film, packed with
.
Donnie Darko has a whole different atmosphere present on its poster, that’s because it was marketed wrong. It was classified as a thriller, but most certainly it I not, these is another proof that these film are not really fitting into one genre. Donnie Darko’s poster and editing still show elements of the posters previously looked at. It has high contrast and strong colours the only problem that it is too dark, so it suggests a horror movie.
Quentin Tarantino’s best movie, Pulp Fiction can not be categorized into one genre, due to the complex, overlapping stories. This is why there are not all the important characters on the posters, only the strongest ones. The first poster is a legendary poster with Uma Thurman; it has not got any special features like all the others. The only unusual thing about it is the posture of the actress on it. They all suggest violence with the guns. The other one is an image from the film that became a poster; it has high contrast and also a contrast between the black and the white character.
Analyzing all these poster and different types within the same genre, our team should aim to pick up on some of the main elements of these posters and transform it into our marketing campaign. This involves using strong, contrasting colours, scene that hint a bit of the genre and the story of the film. Maybe some romantic elements and some contrast between comical and serious. I also think we should create a series of posters product designs. We should also pay attention of what our characters are wearing, so the colour of the clothes should contrast and outstand or be unusual.
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