Analysis of film Posters and Dvd Front Covers

The main image of the Taken poster is fit to fill the most of the page, the main protagonist of the film is the only character on the page, this is to reflect his significance in the film. His costume helps emphasise this due to the fact tht he is in a grey/black suit, if we consider the point that stereotypically a male in a suit is a man of high social status or that of an important character in society, we can see the relevance between the character and the definition, however his top button n his shirt is open. This now portrays a more casual and laid back look, or one of a rushed look, which relates well with the plotline of the film. The background is a grey, blunt and blurred clour, which in one way or another creates perfetic fallacy reflecting the storyline of the film, aswell as the fact that it corresponse well with the main image, as it allows the main image to be the center of attention. The main protagonist is holding a gun, which is in front of the film title, which conveys that this will be an action movie, and that it is a significant part of the movie, additionally it presents the fact that the genre of the movie itself is portrayed by the image therefore the film name is not as important. The film name is big, bold and in the colour white, which contrasts with the darker background, it stands out and makes it easier to read and understand what the movie is about. Withing the writing of the movie title their is an image of his daughter with a ghostly effected merging into the white colour, this compliments the film name that she is taken. Overall the poster is simplistic but with much character, making it eye catching.

The two main characters are obvious as both their faces are big making them in focus, this is an emphasis on their facial expression, we get a some what blank and vague facial expression from both characters, making us wonder what has happened?. The faces merge into the background, thus making the faces slowely fade away into the blackness of the black background giving a ominous mood to the poster, also the fading of the faces into the black may convey this idea of death and them slowly dissapeaing, which is a contrast to the film title of 'Awake'

This is a simplistic yet very effective poster, there is not much on the page yet there is alot of character within the poster. There is only a siollette of the main protagonist, which blends into the plain black background, the main characters face is looking down, possibly at the bat which he is holding, he looks distressed, yet determined, also his facial features are not emphasised on, this is not a realistic image, however it still presents to us the same sort of image a normal photograpgh would. He is outlined, yet we can still see that he is in a suit, which symbolises his authority and importance, but he is holding a bat, which makes him look violent, the bat has the effect of dripping blood and also has a splattered effect, this compliments the film name of 'Death Sentence'. The white contrasts the black background, as they are both significant colours, representing many different things, however our attention is most drawn to the film title 'Death Sentence' which is in the colour red, this anchors the main image and the film name. The colour red can symbolise many different meanings, such as, Anger, Blood, Love, these are all key themes within the actual film which is depicted by the name of the film and colour used. The colour red is also very striking, and shows that the plot evolves around death. The slogan is also in red, which also conveys its significance, 'Protect whats yours', the slogan is very emotional, and realistic, although it is a 3 letter slogan it provides us with an insight too what might be happening and causes a sense of adrenaline as we can predict that it will have alot of action and suspence .

Feedback from Polls

My poll: What attracts you the most during a film trailer?

Music and sound effects were the most appealing function to our target audience, as shown from the poll above, which means that have to make sure our music is exciting, interesting, upbeat, aswell as make sure it fits our thriller genre. Music is a significant part of the trailer as it helps set the mood, and anchors what is happening.

Shanyses poll: What type of promotional poster layout catches your attention?

Hollys poll: Which slogan do you prefer?


Nicks poll: Which film name do you prefer?

19th November-Filming

Our main characters were all free during period 5 so we decided to use this valuable time to record our torture scene, however due to the fact that our other group members Shanyse, Hollie and Nick had a lesson, which meant that they were unable to participate or be present for the filming. We filmed in our editing room, it was small yet it was the perfect place to shoot. Naomi is the character of Deans (Nick Jackman) ‘right-hand man’ well in this case a women. This adds flavour and a twist to the story that Brett (Eugene Mcintyre) is being brutally strangled and beaten up by a woman and her henchmen. We decided to try filming in night vision, so we turned off the lights and filmed in this technique, which was very effective. Eugene was unaware of what was going on considering that it was dark, this conveyed a pragmatic effect because Eugene portrayed his role of being tortured realistically as he was surprised and unaware of how Nomi and her henchman were going to torture him. We then recorded various versions of similar shots, then we tried filming with the lights on which still gave a pretty good outcome, when we presented our shots to the rest of the group they all seemed pretty please and we all agreed that we though it was successful as it was very enthralling and gripping.

Filming Decisions

Considering that our filming did not go the way we expected it to, we had to think of either how we were going to improve filming the same scene again and be more organised or think of how we could portray the same concept but in another location. Thus leading us to the conclusion that the party scene was not working, however I really liked the idea that Alex had suggested before of filming at a pub. I emphasized on this idea and tried to convince my goup that this would be suitable, as a group we agreed to this idea, so we suggested it to Mrs Austin, conversely she put forward the idea that the diegetic sound in the background would interfer. Which led us back to stage 1. Me, Holly and Alex did a bit of experimental work, we decided to visit the pub were Alex works and see if the location and atmosphere was suitable. We immediately connected with the set and came up with various ways to film and various areas we could film the shots. Also the idea of it being at a pub gives off a mature atmosphere within the film and seems like the concept of their love and the idea of marriage is serious and romantic. Considering tha Alex works in the pub we were able to get permission to film, we decided it would be best to film during the morning as it would be less busy allowing us to film the way we want to. As we walked out of the pub i suggested that we use the pubs car park as the scene were Brett gets captured. It made more sense to do so.

11th November Filming

On this day we had decided to film our Party scene and Petrol station scene as well as the torture scene at Cold Christmas, however nothing went according to plan. This was due to most of the group being unable to attend to the filming, and also because, although some of our main characters were present, we had not organised our extras properly, thus leading us to have to pick at random some of our extras, which did not work very well. Mrs Austin had told us from before that to film a party scene was very complicated due to the fact that it is very complicated to convey a realistic party atmosphere, and i think we had witnessed this when we attempted to do it. We decided to film during period three, however we had starting setting our set in the drama studio during period one and two, this also meant that we was able to experiment around with the lighting and sound. Considering that i was apart of this scene me and Stephanie (Mia) had decided to try a mock act of the scene that we would be perfoming during the actual shoot at period 3, this went well and looked very professional. Unfortunately this meant that i was unable to help with the actual shooting or lighting, although i did try and help with the compostion of were all the characters should be. Unfortunately 2 of our group memebers had to leave before period 3, which meant that only me Alex and nick would be present to film this scene. Bad luck kept haunting us, as we had found out at the begining of period 3 that our main male lead had a lesson therefore was unable to perform. Consequently we were unable to produce any decent footage hence all the misfortunate events that took place.

Alex was our only group member that was able to attempt to film the Cold Christmas scene, due to the fact that all the group including me was unable to attend, therefore this meant that he had to do it alone. Him and the two actors Eugene and Naomi headed to Cold Christmas, but unfortunately Holly was our only member that knew how to get there, which evidently meant that Alex was unable to find Cold Christmas. Alex had experienced alot of complications which meant that he was unable to film, however me and the rest of the group appericate his attempt. As a group we concluded that we would not use Cold Chrismas to film our establishing shot as well as our torture scene inside the abandoned Chruch. Nick proposed that we film the outside of his Church. I wasnt too sure about this idea, and i suggested that we take an establishing shot of a isolated, mysterious looking house, that we had all noticed on the way to the petrol station a while back.

10th November Filming-London

These are some of the areas of London we covered whilst filming today:

Today was an experimental and extremely tiring day. We (the group) as well as our main female protagonist, met up at Cuffley train station at 9am to take a train to London. We arrived at our destination and decided to film in the streets of London as well as take establishing shots of famous landmarks. As we were filming we came up with different methods of shots, different shot angles and different ideas of acting, which when combined during the filming produced something we were all satisfied with. In various back roads of industrial areas in London we filmed Stephanie (female actor) running through streets, which is meant to convey the fact that she is in search of her fiancé. The fact that it is set in the back streets of a busy location compliments the conventions in thriller movies, considering the fact that they are mostly set in famous and busy locations. We also filmed a scene underneath a bridge which looked very mysterious and intense, in which, the scene is of Mia’s best friend Elena, who is caught handing over a book to a shady, outlined character, we decided to create this scene because we thought it would be an interesting twist to the story, although it is still undecided whether we want to use this in our final outcome.

Dates of Filming

These are the days we plan to film our shots: 

Tuesday 10th of october

Establishing shot of london- Tower Bridge area

                                                 - London Eye

                                                 - Big Ben

                                                 - Millennium Bridge

                                                 - St Paul

                                                 - Tate

                                                 - Any others   

Scenes of chase/dead ends

Wednesday 11th of october

Shots at the party scene

Shots at petrol station

Shots at cold christmas

6th Of November-Media Lesson

Publicity is a key element in selling a film in the media industry, they use clever techniques to do this. The Distributor will find a USP for the film, from here on a release date is set, and the target audience will be decided. Thus leading the next step to creating a marketing campaign, which will emphasize the USP and make the film noticable. However word of mouth is the most effective device to advertising a film and lurring audiences to take up an interest in the film. The theatrical trailer is also a signifcant part of the media campaign as it is advertised in various places and forms such as TV spots, cinema adverts, billboards.

A film trailer usually contains: Name, Actors name and the release date.

Teaser trailer - Early stage of production...way before the film is made.

Theatrical trailer - Shown in cinemas before the film is released.

Shortened version of trailer - Shown in cinema after film is released.

A film poster is the next most important part of a marketing campaign. A film company will spend on average £12000 on film posters, they are essential in conveying genre and vita information such as release dates etc.

Whilst distributing film a USP is created to stand out, so the audience want to see their film rather than any other. The trailer is the most important element of selling the film. Other elements include posters, magazines and websites. During my coursework our group get to create a film trailer along with a promotional poster and magazine cover. These are all part of a synergistic campaign, if done effectively it creates word-of-mouth. A theme must be added to link all of the elements together (usually a font), so the audience recognise it. The start of the campaign is a poster; this is used to illustrate the genre and to make awareness of the film. The font used can be an icon of the film and used in other aspects of the campaign such as the website, trailer and the film itself. Add shells can be used along with the other elements to broad the audience. However the campaign differs depending on whether it is being internationally or not. The film trailer my group is producing has a large audience and will be distributed internationally as it follows conventions of Hollywood blockbuster such as taken.

Poll-What attracts you the most in a film trailer?

In class we all decided to make an individual poll on our blogs as part of our research, the response we are provided with will help us to deterimine what our target audiences expect to see and what will capture their attention. I decided to make a poll based on what attracts our audiences attention during a film trailer. I thought this is of high significance as this is vital information of us to outline and structure the backbone for our trailer.

Brainstorming

Today in lesson we decided to elaborate on what we've come up with so far, therefore this meant starting to write up a script, and diplicting on the camera angles, sounds and any other effect. During this lesson we made many decisions, many debates and many that consequently moved us further in our work. With the information and knowledge we have gained through our research on Thriller trailers and movies we were able to decided on what camera angles and shots to use, different types of transactions and the time duration of certain shots. Alex came up with the script although we all participated out thoughts into it and all decided on certain parts of the dialog used, we all interspersed our own ideas, we had to consider that the dialog shouldnt take over the actuall of the trailer and that less dialog meant more suspense. We all gave our opinions and suggested different idea's, Alex suggested that Mia should say during the phone call 'when i find you i'm going to make you feel so much pain', i put myself in Mia's position and thought that i possibly might have reacted in a similar way but most my group didnt agree that it was realistic, and obviously everyone treats situations differently, so instead we thought it would be more senisible to keep it simple and to keep it in a way that we sympathise with Mia, so Shanyse came up with the idea that to create dramatic suspence and realisim, that Mia should drop the phone after recieving a phone call from her exboyfriend confirming that he is the kiddnapper, we all agreed that this is a good idea due to the fact that it is a normal reaction to a situation such as this, and that many people would be able to sympathize with her. In my opinion this phone conversation between the two main protagonist is an important part of the trailer as it shows the tention and mystery within the actual plot, and portrays the thriller genre, therefore i thought that maybe a more interesting dialog was necessary, however shanyse reminded us that this may only be a teaser trailer which meant that most the information was not included in order to interest the viewer.

Mise En Scene

The trailers that I have analysed for my research has helped me acknowledged that in thriller films the misfortunate events that occur happen unexpectedly usually during their everyday routine, therefore the characters clothing is typically, casual everyday wear, which represents their characteristic and there way of life. However the Villain is always dressed in black, hence the idea that the colour black reflects malevolence and mystery, also they are usually either in a black suit or in some sort of ‘gangster’ clothing which includes clothing such as leather jackets, ‘hoodies’, jeans etc...We have decided for our main female protagonist to wear something casual, due to the fact that she is in search of her fiancé thus making her look distressed and unable to put effort into her clothing.

Meet the Cast

Mia: Stephanie Ashley (Heorin)
We decided to use Stephanie as our main female protagonist, she is a stereotypical female student, with a good character. She is able to express her emotions explicitly, through her body language and the emotion in her hypnotising, effective eyes. We decided to use a female as the heroin as this breaks convention, allowing us to attract a wide audience, therefore becoming our USP.


Brett: Eugene Mcintyre (Damsel in Distress)

I was very impressed by Eugenes acting skills, i had a mock acting session with Eugene and he conveyed himself to take this role very seriously, therefore i had with much passion suggested him as our Damsel in Distress. He is additionally a very stereotypical male student, and is able to convey his role effortless.

Dean: Nicholas Jackman (Villian)

Nick had proven to be an acceptional actor, which is conveyed through past experiences of the preliminay chase scene, as well as the fact that he most definately fits the definitioon of a stereotypical Villian. He has a sharp and sophisticated look, intertwined with one of a gangster appearence, which is a good combination, as he is a character with a sly, mysterious and authoritive personality.

Naomi Osunde (Feme Fatil)

Script

StoryBoard

This is the storyboard that Alex has produced, he has made it combining the different idea's that we had all suggested, this will help guide us with the different shots we can use, and what order they should be in. The amount of shots used have been decided upon according to how long we believe they will take, this is due to the fact that it is conventional for a theatrical trailer to be at least 2 mintues long, which is the time limit we aim to produce at.
Through our research we know that it is typical for a thriller trailer to start with dialogue, for us to be able to some extent gain knowledge of the situation, however as the plot becmes clearer the dialogue will die out and the theme music will dramatically become upbeat, suspensive and change speed, the music has an impact on the viewers impression of what is going on.

Target Audience

If you consider that a thriller movie is exhilarating, mysterious and has a lot of suspension and combine it with some of our research, as well as the fact that I personally enjoy Thriller films we can see that thriller movies are generally aimed at people aged 16-30, although Thrillers are aimed at males, I enjoy watching them as I love the adrenaline with in. Nevertheless our film will be appealing to women as well, hence the fact that it is an epic love story, as well as the fact that our main protagonist is a strong female figure. Thus making our films target audience both males and females aged 15-30. This will evidently mean that our film is only suitable for 15 year olds and over. This means that no one younger than 15 can watch, rent or purchase this film since it is considered unsuitable for them to watch.