The construction of the poster

I am going to use 'www.picnik.com' in order to upload my photos and manipulate them effectively so that I can create my poster. This website allows me to change the colour, sharpness and size of my images so that I can create the desired effect for each product according to their individual conventions.
This is a screen shot of 'picnik' as I was working on my poster:


For my poster I must ensure that I have a significant amount of darkness connoting mystery and isolation as this fits in with the narrative of my teaser trailer. I must also include traditional conventions of a poster, including the film title and simplicity of the poster to create intrigue as well as a cast/crew list at the bottom of the poster.

For my magazine front cover feature I must include specific conventions such as a lighter image so that the film brand is recognisable (an image of the young lady) and I must also include traditional conventions such as colloquial language, various colours and fonts and different features advertised on the front cover. (USP)
I used the audience feedback for my mock ups to recognise what I must include on each ancillary product.

Whilst constructing them I must keep in mind that I am aiming to create a promotion package so I must create branding across the teaser trailer, poster and magazine front cover feature. I am going to do this by including the young lady within each product, so that the audience recognise the brand as well as establishing that the young lady is a key part of the narrative.

This is the first draft of my film poster that I constructed on www.picnik.com



During the first draft construction I tried to incorporate specific conventions of a teaser poster and for my second draft I have established that I must include a tag line for the film to create mystery surrounding the narrative which will be 'who do you fear?' the use of the verb 'fear' will ensure a particular emotion will be evident when somebody views this poster and the use of the rhetorical question on the poster will ensure audience involvement and create mystery which is what a teaser poster is supposed to do, so simplicity is key, here is my second draft:


I must ensure that I have simple information on my poster 'in cinemas 2011' This is the only form of date advertising I am going to use so that the audience is more interested in the actual poster and what the narrative may be. The darkness is very significant as it draws people in. I have decided to flip the letter 'e' in fear to suggest that what a person may fear may not be the correct thing to fear, it may be something else. This is my third draft:


For my final draft I decided to incorporate the cast and crew list as I did in my first draft, it is a convention of a film poster and I think it makes the overall product look realistic, I have still included all of the typography discussed above and believe that this draft is my most successful.


I decided to make some final changes and decided to change the verb phrase 'who do' to 'who should' because I believe that this verb phrase is more intrusive and will scare the audience as it is suggesting that this film doesn't involve obvious fears but perhaps something that you do not think you will fear. This links in with the typography I have included in my teaser trailer 'what happens when the people you trust become the people you fear.' This creates a sense of branding across the two products as part of my promotion package. I have also decided to place the tag line 'who should you fear' more central across the divide of the 'two' female characters to create an effect that the typography is depicting the narrative and paralleling the image. A sense of two people is created.



I have decided that my poster will be a quad poster. A quad poster is landscape in style and allows more of an image to be seen and more emphasis to be put on the size of image/images or particular typography. These are a few examples of quad posters:




I have decided to make my poster a quad poster so that there is an emphasis on the idea of 'two' people, two different sides to this vulnerable female. The line of the mirror inbetween the girl and her reflection represents the divide between her two different sides and I believe a quad poster would place effective emphasis on the idea of the two sides to this young woman and how she has been negatively affected by 'Flat 39'.

Audience feedback for ancillary product mock ups

In order to construct a successful poster and magazine front cover feature it is important to get audience feedback so that I know what they think is good and what needs improving, I allowed 10 people to see the computerised mock ups I constructed and the actual photographs that I am planning to put on them and I then got them to complete a questionnaire.
I created it on www.surveymonkey.com

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After 10 people had completed it I then translated the results onto microsoft excel and created these pie charts to present the results so that I could use them for my improvements.



These results tell me that the thing that most people expect to find on a magazine front cover feature is a dominant, recognisable image. As it is a promotion package I must make sure that there are obvious trends between my teaser trailer, magazine front cover feature and poster. The second most popular answer was 'all of the above' people expect to see all of the features described so I must ensure that I include all of them when constructing my final ancillary product.



Most people said that my poster mock up was effective in looking like a real poster. I will try and follow the conventions of a horror film poster, such as, dark colours, a dominant image/title, simplicity to create intruige and a cast and crew list at the bottom of the poster.




Most people said that the dominant image (girl in the mirror) is the most effective thing on my film poster and the second most popular answer is the dark colours, dark colours are important as I want to portray the genre of my film is the most simple yet effective way.




For this question, the audience felt like trends between magazine front cover feature and poster were the most important feature and as I am constructing a promotion package I agree with this and will ensure that there are obvious trends: colour similarities, the female character. The least popular answer was 'other conventional features of a magazine' I think that this may have been the least popular as the features are so simple and obvious my audience didn't think they were important as they are just there. But I will ensure that even simple things like barcodes, colloquial language are evident to conform to magazine front cover conventions.




For this question my audience were given the chance to voice their opinion on what I needed to specifically improve on my film poster. Interestingly, a few had similar answers and I have generalised their actual text into three answers. The most popular was allowing the title to stand out, I will make sure I do this as this is the point of a film poster, to advertise a new film and the audience need to see clearly what it is called. 'Flat 39' will stand out in an effective manner and the colour red will help it do this.




This question is the same as the one above, yet it is about improvements for the magazine front cover feature. Interestingly, the most popular answer was regarding similar colours on magazine and poster. I think that this is important to my audience as they need continuity to establish that the two products are connected. I will make sure that in my final construction of both products there will be dark colours and red on both.




For effetiveness the most popular answer was 4 and 5 which is encouraging as my audience think that my poster is effective. I now need to make sure that I take the mock up idea and effectively manipulate it on photoshop to create the desired effect.




Finally, for effectiveness regarding the magazine front cover feature, my mock up scored 4/5 which is again, encouraging and I will ensure that I again translate my mock up ideas onto photoshop.

This audience feedback allows me to establish what I need to change for my ancillary products to make them effective and attractive to my audience. I need to make sure that there is a dominant image and title on the poster with strong colours. I need to make sure that there are similar colours on the magazine front cover feature with an effect USP (interview/behind the scenes action)

Computerised Mock-Ups/ Conventions of horror

This is a very basic mock up for the magazine front cover feature that I constructed on a word document so that I could establish where I would place individual typography/graphology. The writing in the white text box simply state what I would have in that area for example, in the middle I would have 'a mid-long shot of the female character looking straight into the camera or down'



This is a computerised mock-up for the poster I will be constructing. The white texts boxes explain what images are going to go where, for example in the middle of the poster there will be a mid shot of the female character looking into the mirror and in the background there will be very slight layers of graphology of the exterior of the flat. On my poster I must ensure that I follow the codes and conventions, for example, I will have at the bottom of the poster in small, undefined font all the members of the cast and crew (the credits)
In researching conventions of a horror movie poster I found that 'darkness' is an important element 'since horror posters inherit a lot of gothic conventions' I also found that 'if someone is shown being menaced it is usually a woman -- the persecuted maiden is often the viewpoint character in those stories.'
And finally 'There is often a picture of the setting of the tale. Not always but often.' I aim to try and incorporate some of these conventions into the construction of my own horror poster for maximum effect.

Production credits

At the beginning of my teaser trailer before it begins I need to ensure that I have suitable production credits to introduce a production company. Here are a few examples that are used in film:




For these production logos I have established a common trend: They all have an establishing shot style landscape with the title placed in the middle or playing a dominant role on the whole image.
For my own production credits at the start of my teaser trailer I will have an image which will be on the screen for 2-3 seconds with a landscape image and the title of my production company.

I plan to use this image as the logo for my media production company. I have decided that in order to indicate to the audience that the teaser trailer they are about to view is of the horror genre I wanted to incorporate dark lighting and a sense of isolation/vulnerablity, a wide open space with nobody around.



I am going to place the name of my production company on the water landscape of the image and make it similar colours to the background so that the genre as well as the company is established effectively. A few names I am considering are 'independent media productions' and 'dynamic media productions' I have to think about the connotations of these words and how they would represent my media company. Dynamic connotes force, energy and spirit. Independent connotes freedom, self governing and self reliance. I have decided that I am going to use 'dynamic media productions' as the title of my production company as the connotations are more interesting and what I would like to associate my production company with.

I constructed my production credits by using Adobe Premiere. I added 'Dymanic Media Productions' as a title over the photograph of the sea landscape and the moon. To make it conform to the horror genre, I then edited the image with the typography on it to darken the water and give my teaser trailer a tense/dark atmousphere from the very beginning through the production credits.

'Total Film' titles

Here are a few examples of diverse 'total film' titles adapting to the genre of the film they are featuring on the cover. When I construct my film magazine cover feature I am going to ensure that my 'Total Film' title or the title of my magazine will effectively portray the horror genre evident in my film.

Inception - Analysis

For my coursework as well as producing a teaser trailer of 1-2 minutes, I must also produce two ancillary products: a magazine cover featuring the film and a poster.
I am going to analyse the magazine cover and poster for Inception to establish common trends and conventions that I will stick to when I construct my ancillary products.



The title of the magazine 'total film' has effectively adapted to the genre of the film it is advertising: thriller. Through the images of the tops of building which appear to look technological, the audience can establish that this film is of the thriller genre and the title of 'total film' suggests that the film is complex.
Leonardo DiCaprio is the dominant image on the cover suggesting that he plays a huge role in the film and that he is the main character. Through his facial expression the audience can establish that his character is a complex one and the audience can also make an intelligent judgement that DiCaprio is the main protagonist in the film.
The title of the film 'inception' is layered across DiCaprio letting the audience know that he has a dominant role in the film and the typography 'inside the ultimate head trip' is the magazines USP as the audience wish to read about this 'ultimate head trip' as the magazine is suggesting that they have information about it. The magazine also has other sections such as 'Tron, everything you need to know' and 'the 27 most mind-blowing movies ever!' This gives the audience another reason to purchase the magazine as the issue contains other attractions. The text 'Mind-blowing' is repeated twice on the cover to reiterate to the audience that Inception is a film revolving around the mind.



There are common features between the magazine cover feature and the poster. Both include the central image of DiCaprio. Both include the title of the film 'Inception' across Dicaprio's character. Both have similar colours, dark blues and blacks and red. These colours indicate to the audience the genre of the film. They connote a psychological thriller with sci-fi elements and the red colour stands out on both products suggesting that the film includes elements of danger. Interestingly, on the poster DiCaprio as the main character appears vulnerable and overpowered by his surroundings, this potrays more of the narrative of the film whereas on the magazine front cover feature DiCaprio appears very much in control and not vulnerable but quite the opposite, this suggests that film magazine features revolve around the main character and the idea of having a recognisable face/person so that the audience can be drawn to it.
In my opinion, this is very effective of ancillary products as the magazine cover feature attracts the audience through the character as the audience have prior knowledge of the film so know that he represents the film whereas posters are more complex and reveal more of the narrative which attracts the audience as the poster effectively 'speaks more' than a film magazine cover feature.

I will be using this idea for my ancillary products by concentrating more on potraying the narrative on the poster and having a recognisable face/image on the magazine front cover to allow the audience to familiarise themselves. I will also use similar colours on both products so that the genre is constantly reinforced. I will also make the title of the magazine cover reflect the genre of the film, perhaps through colour of style of typography of images within the title of the magazine.

Ancillary product research/planning

As well as constructing a teaser trailer for my film, I am also going to be creating a film magazine cover (featuring the film) and a film poster. In order to be able to do this well, I need to ensure that I understand how a promotion package works in advertising a film successfully.
The Dark Knight.


This is a poster promoting the film.


This is an Empire magazine cover featturing the film.


This is a Total Film magazine cover advertising the film.

A sense of branding is established through the two magazine cover features and the poster. The joker is the main element within all three attracting the audience and making them feel farmiliar with the film advertisements. I aim to achieve a sense of branding when i construct my trailer, magazine cover feature and poster, for example, particular images or phrares evident in the trailer will be evident on the magazine cover feature and poster. 'The joker' is a common trend evident in all three products here, this is to establish that the joker is very important to the narrative of 'the dark knight'. For my ancillary products the common trend will be an image of the flat accompnied with a close up of the female character's face to show the connection and to portray that the flat itself is very important within the narrative of my trailer.


This is the teaser trailer for the dark knight

Similar to the poster and the two magazine cover features, the joker is a very important element within the teaser trailer also. The teaser trailer begins with the voice of the batman but then accompnied with the batman symbol being demolished, the joker's voice takes over followed by a quick CU of a joker playing card. This allows the audience to establish that the joker is one of the main characters and the main antagonist within the film. Overall branding is established through the recognition of the joker as the antagonist.
In my promotion package I aim to achieve a sense of branding through including certain images in the teaser trailer, the poster and the magazine cover feature. This will allow my target audience to become familiar with the narrative and be intruiged to see more.

Target audience research

I am going to construct a teaser trailer of the thriller genre, sub genre horror. I must ensure that I have a target audience in mind so that I know how to entertain that particular age range during the teaser trailer. An understanding of target audience will ultimately mean more money is made as the type of narrative, themes and shots will link to a specific target audience.
I am going to use the website http://www.bbfc.co.uk in order to establish what are the common trends in films of different certificates.
I have researched the certificate '15' and the common adjective used is 'strong' regarding language, violence and 'threat and menace'.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2
This part of the website allows me to research what is acceptable in different aspects of a film such as language, horror and discrimination regarding a certificate 15 film.
When constructing my horror trailer I must have the synopsis of my film in mind as well as the guidlines for a film of certificate 15. As I plan to include the notion of a mysterious murder in my film followed by a disturbing haunting. I think a film of the 15 certificate would be suitable as films of certificate 12 have 'infrequent' threat and I plan for my trailer/film to have more than just infrequent threat/language/horror.
Having researched into horror audiences I can establish that the target audience for most contemporary horror films is roughly aged 15 -18.
I construced a questionnaire on www.surveymonkey.com and allowed my peers and others to complete it so that I could establish the common trends and take these results into condiseration when constructing my teaser trailer.

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This is the questionnaire that I constructed and allowed people to complete so that I could then analyze the results. 10 people completed my questionnaire and the results are as follows:



The majority of people who completed my questionnaire were 14>19 years old which is a positive thing as I aim to target my teaser trailer towards 15 year olds,so their information regarding what makes a good horror film/trailer is useful.



I researched the certificates for each of the films listed above The forth kind, Paranormal activity, The last exorcism, Case 39 and Shutter Island are all horror films of certificate 15 which allows me to be confident in targeting my teaser trailer to 15 year olds. Having researched briefly the content of each film (which most of them were supernatural) this gives me another idea, that in order to attract my audience of 15 year olds,I should include elements of supernatural activity.



These results link to my results from the question earlier. The majority of the people who completed the questionnaire stated that they enjoy horror films with a supernatural element, none enjoyed violence in a horror film and a fair amount enjoyed psychological. I can now plan to include supernatural elements to plot synopsis in order to successfully attract my target audience.



The majority of the people who completed the questionnaire stated that a small amount of the narrative is to be revealed in order to intruige and grasp the audience's attention. Nobody thought that a lot of the narrative should be revealed, so when I construct my teaser trailer I will include enough narrative to evoke intruige but not too much so that the plot is given away. This links to conventions of a teaser trailer.



Half of the people established that the most important thing for them in a teaser trailer is suspense/apprehension/adrenaline, the second most popular was a sense of the characters. In my teaser trailer I aim to please my target audience by including alot of suspense/apprehension/adrenaline which will contibute well to the supernatural aspect my teaser trailer will have. Nobody stated that the most important thing for them was a lot of the plot to be revealed which will allow me to create more intruige through different camera shots/editing/pace and make them question, 'What's going on? Who is that and what are they doing?'



The most important thing regarding a horror film, according to my audience research is a gripping plot. Nobody preferred famous film stars, and only a few stated that an intruiging poster would be of importance to them regarding advertising. In my film I aim to portray a gripping plot through varying pace, diverse camera shots and low key lighting.



Effective music to set the tone and minimal lighting to enhance mystery and fright were of equal importance to my audience regarding a horror film/trailer. A very small amount stated that effective pace was important. In my teaser trailer I will aim to please my audience by using effective low key lighting to create fright and mystery and I will particularly focus on music to set the tone.


I will use all of my primary and secondary target audience research effectively to construct a successful teaser trailer that will attract my target audience of 15 year olds.

Trailers

These are the four trailers that I am going to analyse. I am going to analyse trailers so that I can establish how the genre is portrayed in each trailer so that I can apply these techniques to my teaser trailer.'The Strangers' and 'The last exorcism' are trailers of the horror genre and 'Shutter Island' is a psychological thriller.
I am going to do an analysis of each trailer for camerawork, sound, editing and mise en scene. I am also going to analyse how each trailer uses graphics (typography, logos) and how each trailer established genre through lighting, colours and the pace of the trailer. I am also going to be looking out for any representations evident, for example of gender. This links to binary oppositions (a narrative theory). I am going to look out for any of these, for example, good vs evil, man vs woman to see how conflict and plot originate.

Researching genres

For my teaser trailer I am going to research the two genres, action thriller and horror.
2 definitions of 'action thriller' are:

'Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains'
'In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain large amounts of guns, explosions, and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place'

An example of a trailer of this genre that I will be researching is 'Shutter Island'

2 definitions of 'horror' are:

'Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain'
'In Horror plots, evil forces, events, or characters—oftentimes of supernatural origin—intrude into the everyday world'

Some examples of trailers of this genre that i will be researching are 'Paranormal activity', 'The Strangers', 'The last exorcism'

A2 Course outline and Teaser Trailer information.

For my A2 Media Studies coursework I am going to be creating a promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer (1-2 minutes) as well as two of the following three options: a website homepage for the film, a film magazine front cover, featuring the film or a poster for the film.
When I have completed these tasks I will then be creating an evaluation via powerpoint. In this powerpoint I will be explaining:
1. In what ways does my media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
2. How effective the combination of my main product and ancillary texts are
3. What I have learned from my audience feedback
4. How I used media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.
I am going to be producing a teaser trailer along with a film magazine front cover featuring the film and a poster for the film.

What is a teaser trailer?
The wikipedia definition is 'a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series'
There are conventions of a teaser trailer and some of them include:
- they are short in length
- they evoke intruige and excitement
- they establish some form of narrative
- they are released a long time in advance of the actual film
- the pace is usually fast or is slow and then picks up



This is the teaser trailer for 'Inception', this teaser trailer was released a long time in advance of the actual film. The teaser trailer is used to evoke intruige, touch upon the narrative by using effective text 'Your mind is the scene of the crime' and use music effectively to set a mysterious tone. I am going to use similar techniques in my teaser trailer, but I am also going to use techniques used in trailers which I will be analysing, such as: pace, use of edits, mise en scene (low key lighting) use of music building up in volume and pace and text to evoke excitement and intruige. A teaser trailer is different to a trailer firstly, because they are shorter in length and have less camera shots used, this contributes to the mystery potrayed and it makes people want to go and see the film to find out more about it. A teaser trailer is a taster for the film, only giving the audience a slight bit of information so that they are grasped and excited by it.