Film poster research:
For this there are four different types of poster that can be made an:d I've already mentioned the ones that we are making. But here's the four and some examples anyway:
Character Poster:
This is basically a poster that just focuses on the main character of the film and only contains an image of them or the most favoured character in the film.
This hunger games character poster contains Katniss who is the main character in the film. She has been used because she was the character that got most of the reviews made about her and the film so they have used her picture because the film makers have noticed that she is one of the characters that is most rooted for when hunger games is mentioned.
Main Poster:
This contains information on the main stars of the film, the production team and the distributors. IT may also contain a bit that gives something away about the plot. This is not a poster that should be confused with a teaser trailer.
Here is an example from 'Guardians of the Galaxy' it contains all of the main characters on it so that if some one only likes ones specific actor then they are more likely to see the one they like and go and watch the film purely to see them. This is only of course if they aren't grabbed by the big title and layout then they will by the name of their favourite actor.
Teaser:
The teaser is primarily to 'tease' the target audience. These posters normally contain on the date of the release and a well known image from the film.
Photoshop training:
The teaser is primarily to 'tease' the target audience. These posters normally contain on the date of the release and a well known image from the film.
This is a teaser from the hunger games. They have put a well known symbol from the hunger games in so as to attract the correct target audience because only people who know what it is are going to see the film.
DVD Release:
This poster comes out when the film is released. This means that the poster can have reviews from newspapers and magazine articles.
This is an example of the king's speech poster. It has some star ratings and quotes from newspapers that all promote the film and make it sound as amazing as possible. They basically are there to make the film a 'must watch' film.
Photoshop training:
For the training process we used a video off of youtube that described how to use the gradient tool. This tool helped us to blend two images together which was going to be the main focus of our poster.
Construction process of our practice poster:
For this we wanted to practice blending two images together because this was going to be the main thing in the editing process for our film poster. We found two images that we thought would go well together for a romantic film and so we used the gradient tool to blend the two together.
Here are the two images that we found and are now going to edit together.
In this image we have selected the layer that we wish to blend and have added a 'mask' and then the gradient will be added to this mask. We then held down shift and dragged a line down from the top image to the bottom one and it blended the two.
Here is the final image that we created with the gradient tool.
Flat plans and practice posters:
Now that we have practice using the tool we now have to put the practice to use. But first we must plan out how the poster will look so first we must create a flat plan. So firstly we created a flat plan and this is a basic document that has boxes with names in. It allows the poster to be laid out before actually adding any real images. Here's the first flat plan that we created:
We had done a flat plan frist so as to help with the layers of the poster when we put it into Photoshop. This was a rough idea that was thought up in the early hours of the morning but we still thought that it would be a good idea so we went with it and made it on Photoshop. But first we had to take some pictures so we just quickly put the actors (not in costume) in front of a white screen and took some shots. We then used Photoshop and blended them all together and added the tittle, the names of the actors and the credit block. So here is the image that we created on Photoshop:
This was a very quick idea but we thought that it was also very effective. We decided to put the two girls in a stand off pose so as to make it look as though they were fighting over him. We oringially wanted them to be over the male characters shoulders like good and evil angels but when we come to do this in Photoshop it didn't really work. So in stead we moved them down and also made both characters look down but the one on the right is looking down because she is almost afraid off the one on the left. But the one on the right is looking down as if being submissive to the male character but still is slightly higher then the other female character suggesting that she is more confident and possibly more of a promiscuous female character. We placed the title to the left because it looked like it fitted the shadow well. We also had the credit block at the bottom of the page i the center between the two female characters.
We then came up with another idea so as to have some choice between the two, here is the flat plan for it:
For this flat plan we had moved the title to the centre and all of the images up slightly so as to leave room to fit the title in between the two girls and above the credit block.
We then made the idea in Photoshop and here is the poster for it that we created:
This second poster that we created we thought worked better than the other because it had all of the information at the bottom and in the middle. It also allowed for the door in the background to be more visible as well.
Construction evidence for our draft poster:
Now that we have practised on Photoshop we must now create a really product using pictures of the actors in their actual costumes. So firstly we got our actors in, put them in their costumes and stood them in front of a white screen. We positioned them in different ways so as to get the correct lighting and shadow effects.
Here are the images that we took and we are now going to use Photoshop to blend them together and make our draft poster product.
After taking the pictures we must now remove the backgrounds so that we can then blend them all together to make the background for the poster. We used the quick selection tool to draw around the image and then remove the background for each image. We used this tool because it is quicker and easier than using the eraser tool. We then used the refine edges tool to smooth out the now rough edge going around the image. This allowed them all to now be ready to be blended together to make the background for the poster.
In this image we have put in the black background that will go over Richards shoulders. We used the gradient tool to blend the image of Richard with the black back drop. We wanted one side of Richards shoulder to be more of a white colour and the other to be a black. So we had to create two layers one which was slightly faded and then blended them together and then blended Richard over the top.
We then used an effect called old style so as to make the image seem more black and white to bring the shadows out more to give the desired spooky look to our film poster.
Here is the final background with all of the images blended. We have also added a door to the background so as to make a connection to the fact that the film is called behind closed doors.
First Draft:
We kept the first draft very close to our original practice designs because we thought that they worked very effectively. But we did add some extra things like the red and white writing because it gave of a danger element to the poster suggesting that dangerous things happen behind closed doors.
We took pictures from a greater distance away so as to help add more depth to the final image and also allowing us more space to edit and blend them together.
We used the old style saturation effect from the practice poster because it got rid of some of the more bold colours and made the whole thing darker and more shadowy and mysterious.
Peer assessment feedback and evaluation
Positives:
- The non verbal communication of our picture tells the story by itself - the biggest piece of non verbal piece of communication was the two girls at the bottom of the poster. We put them far apart from each other say as to emphasise that they hate each other.
- The choice of images and framing compliments the poster in achieving the desired effect - The way that we have posed our actors portray's how the are normally in the film very well. Very flirty and confident Stacey on the left and very nervous Alice on the other side.
- Shadows were a good way of representing the storyline - The shadows enforce the fact that the film is very mysterious and hides the truth from the audience right up until the end. This was the desired effect that we wanted to go for.
- The tagline is presented well and suits the film - The red in dangerous and love an oxymoron because they are opposites and therefore cancel each other out.
Improvements:
- The blotch on Rebecca's head, should it be there? - This was only noticeable from our group though. When we were peer assessed nobody noticed but we are going to address this problem anyway.
- Put the surnames closer to the first names and also make them smaller to make the surnames stand out. - We put the names the same size but then after we had finished we noticed that this was not conventionally correct and so when we were peer assessed the group picked up on it and we are going to address this in the improvements section.
- Possibly move Alex up slightly - This was only because a slight bit of Alex's chin was visible and so didn't really make sense as to why the rest of his face wasn't visible. Also the cross wasn't in the centre between the two females and so didn't look right.
- Make the tagline smaller so as to make the title seem bigger - The tagline and the tittle are currently competing for being the more noticeable were as the tittle should be more visible. So we will have to change this later on in improvements. It is quite a vital improvement that needs to be made.
- Alter fonts of tagline and actor names - The mark scheme wants us to address a wide variety of fonts and so changing these is crucial so this will definitely be covered in the improvements.
Improvement construction evidence:
The first improvement that we made was moving the whole image of Alex up slightly and to the left to allow for the cross to be more easily visible. We chose to do this improvement first because it was the most daunting. As you can see from the image we could not only move just the image of Alex we had to move several other layers as well. This wasn't too hard though because we could just hold down shift and select the necessary layers and simply move them all together.
In this image we are addressing the problem of the web address being slightly too small so we just simply enlarged it slightly.We also moved the glowing door in the back ground because it made dome of the credit block hard to read.
Next we changed the font sizes and styles of the names and the tag line to make them more interesting. we made the surnames bigger so as to make them stand out more.
In this image we are adjusting the tagline. We made the word love more thinner and more innocent, and then we made the dangerous word more bold and pronounced. We also made the tagline smaller as well so that it couldn't get confused with the tittle of the film.
We then also got rid of the door behind the credit block. We put it so that the light glows from the O's in the word doors. We did this so that we still had the effect of the door and plus it looked cool.
Final film deconstruction:
