Ancillary Task: The Poster

Ancillary Task: The Poster

Our first ancillary task was to produce a poster that compliments the film we made. We decided to look through the images we took at the beach to see if any may be good for our posters. 

One that we really liked was of the two groups running towards each other; this portrayed the rivalry within our film. Moreover, we liked that it was landscape as we could imagine it on a billboard. 

We thought that this image would give us plenty of space for us to add a title, production credits etc so we decided to work on this image.

Iain decided to experiment with the app VSCOcam to create a darker tone to the image so it complimented our genre.

He then used an app called Over to add text to the image. He decided to keep t quite basic as it was just a draft to see what we could do with the image.

When he showed me and Daniel, we thought it looked rather professional for a first draft so we decided to stick with this idea and work on it.

From this draft, we started from scratch on the computer, using this as a base design. We decided to use the software SerifDraw Plus so we began with the unedited image. Since we had used a HD (high definition) camera, we wanted to ensure that the image quality retained the same. 

Firstly, we experimented with the contrast, brightness and colouring of the image. 

We wanted our title to be the main focus as posters are often passed by people driving in cars so it needs to be readable and clear.We wanted the title to be partially transparent to represent that the adults vanished. The fade of the title also portrays the idea that it is disappearing symbolising that the children will vanish at a certain age.For 'in cinemas' and the date, we chose white so it contrasted with the black title. We also added a black glow behind it to help it to stand out.We did not want to overload our poster with reviews so we chose to have two (one on each side). This helped to keep the poster symmetrical so it would please the eye and match the two groups on either side.At this point, we decided that our magazine was going to be called 'BoxOffice' so we wanted to incorporate this into our poster. By using a tricolon ('thrilling, epic and powerful') we thought it addded rythmn to to our poster, which sounds much more pleasing to the demographic. 'Thought provking & relevant' suggests that it is a film of our time and is relatable, which will appeal to the audience.Having a star rating is generic so we gave ourselves a four and five star to promote our film. We felt this would make the audience want to see our film as it has good reviews.

As a poster, it felt very basic so we decided to look back at our influences and soon realised that we had missed out some major conventions.

Since we felt Eden Pictures would be a Hollywood institution, we felt that the newest technology would suit our film. Therefore, we felt it necessary to showcase our film in 3D and IMAX. Since Hollywood films tend to have high-budgets, they have the money to produce their media using stereoscopy. This gives the audience a choice of how they want to see the film, giving them more choice, earning more money for the producers. We added the logos for this technology and decided to choose Dolby for our sound as it is a generic convention of Hollywood films. We thought the logos looked more professional symmetrical as it complimented the image. Therefore, we added our Eden Pictures logo (without the black background) to the left side. To ensure that the demographic knows our age rating, we placed a '12A' certificate under the title.

The BBFC states that for a 12A, 'moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail' unlike a 15 which states, 'violence may be strong'. We felt that out film would not heavily focus on violence although it will have references and implications to it causing us to want our film to be a 12A.

Information is from www.bbfc.co.uk 

We also thought that our film would best target a younger audience between the ages of 12-17 as the cast is at this age. However, with the sci-fi sub genre, we felt it would not be harmful to younger viewers if their parents deemed it suitable. This is why we gave it a 12A rather than a 12 or 15.

Although a tag-line is generic of film posters, we decided to challenge this. We felt that our poster looked compact without it and thought hat it would take the attention away from in cinemas. With a tag-line, we thought the poster would confuse the audience with too much information. Therefore, we decided to use a tag-line on our teaser posters instead (as this is a generic convention.)

We changed the credits slightly by adding the author of the book it was based on; the book is not real but we felt it was generic of our genre to be based off a novel so we created a name/writer. We felt since we had this in our trailer, it would be necessary to present it on our poster for copyright reasons.

Then, we thought the colour looked a little dull sow e added a cooling filter to add blue, creating a refreshing colour without being too vibrant.

Moreover, the media world is advancing in social networking and films are keen to keep up with this. To keep our film current and contemporary, we added a website, Facebook and Twitter page to our poster. We did not have the time or the software to create an actual website, however we created both a Facebook and Twitter page for our film.

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/timemovieuk

We update our Facebook page quite regularly with behind the scenes, still from our film and teaser posters and images. We have gained almost 100 likes from people we both do and do not know. We even had a Photographer praise our page and offer us use of his studio; this was a friend of one of our actresses. Moreover, we had an inbox/email from someone who believed that the film was real, we explained that we are A level students but thanked her for her interest. This encouraged us to keep our posters, page and statuses as professional as possible.

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/timemovieuk

We set up our Twitter page and also update it regularly. However, we use this page for exclusive content that you cannot get on our Facebook page. We felt this would give our Twitter page a USP to promote it as something extra to our Facebook page.

Although a tag-line is generic of film posters, we decided to challenge this. We felt that our poster looked compact without it and thought hat it would take the attention away from in cinemas. With a tag-line, we thought the poster would confuse the audience with too much information. Therefore, we decided to use a tag-line on our teaser posters instead (as this is a generic convention.)

The Teaser Posters:


Although we had a main poster, we really wanted to have two teaser posters to go with it. Just like our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 influence, we wanted to have two characters facing one another.
This was to portray the two groups, using the main characters. The binary opposition of 'good' and 'evil' was what we wanted to portray through our composition, colour and characters.

However, we did not like this photo as Clare was too tall, creating a sense of superiority which we did not like. Therefore we decided to take the photo again.

 We then took photos under the pier. Although me and Clare were roughly on the same level, Clare was partially out of shot, her hair was covering her eye and the background is un-interesting. Therefore, we thought we would retake the shots another time and at a a different location.

 Next, it was Daniel and Iain's turn to get their photo taken. We found difficulty with both shots as someone always began to laugh. The photos look like the characters are quite far away but in real life, we were almost nose to nose. We knew that the Harry Potter poster had either used a green screen or Photoshop to add the background, however, we thought that the lighting and background would look much more natural if we could get it as an image, with the characters, rather than separately. 

 We were extremely happy with this shot as the pier added depth and composition to the poster. I took the shot as Daniel and Iain stood face to face. The wind was heavy this day so Iain's hair was a little wind-swept but we did not find this an issue as we knew we could crop the image. I really liked the sky in this shot as it is dark and grey representing the mood of the film. The beach is also an iconic and significant place within our film (it is where the battle takes place) so we thought it worked well in our teaser poster.

The day we had taken the photos, Iain used an app called Snapseed to experiment with colour. I personally felt that the colour was a little washed out but it was great to begin to try different techniques to see what our poster could look like.
















He then began experimenting with taglines and a title. He chose a very generic/dramatic line that states, 'The end is just the start'. We also came up with other potential tag-line such as 'the final hour, the last grain, the end'.

I thought the composition of the copy looked great as the reader's eye could follow it withe ease. The title also stands out, at the bottom, rather than making ti smaller to fit between the characters.

 When we had chance, we decided to retake the Eve and Selene photo. Since out trailer sues a range of locations, we wanted to vary them within our posters. Therefore, we used a small wilderness area near college.

 Although  the lighting was a contrast to our Michael and Haden poster, we did not worry as we knew we could edit this later. The images facing the sunlight, were too bright so we changed to face the other way. Iain took these photos and it took many attempts as we kept laughing. Although the final image looked a little strange, we cropped it and it looked much more natural.

Thanks to Iain's mini experiments, we knew how we wanted the layout of our teaser posters to look. Therefore, it was just a matter of editing the images and then adding copy. Instead of using drastic colour changes, we did this quite subtly to make it look real and natural. We changed the tag-line by using a line from our trailer: 'with the adults gone... everything was different'.This was to tie our posters and trailer together to help them compliment one another.

As for a release date, we debated between 'summer', 'this summer', 'summer 2014', 'July 2014' and 'coming soon'. Since they are teaser posters, we wanted to give as little away as possible. Therefore, we went with 'coming soon' as it does not indicate a season or date, teasing the audience. We also added the actors/actresses names above the characters. We felt this was a generic convention and it helped to fill the space within the poster.

 For both teaser posters, we added a gradient to the tag-line so that 'gone' was fading. This was to represent the adults disappearing and the time scale that the children have left. We used the same font for 'Time' as our main poster so they corresponded, however it appeared to look thicker on these posters.

 Overall, I was very pleased with how our posters turned out. They seemed professional and followed Hollywood codes and conventions.