Magazine References

A lot of short stories/films are posted to youtube so I want to make my article have similar features as a youtube magazine as well as a film magazine. Both of these magazines are quite contrasting so it may be a little difficult to do so but I think I will be able to use bubbles and the layout of a youtube and internet magazine but use a similar colour scheme and house style as a film magazine. A youtube magazine has a fun layout with bubbles, buzz words and bright colours whereas a film magazine seems to be more orderly with darker colours. I am going to mix the conventions of both because it will then appeal to both film watchers and internet browsers. 

Trapped Poster

This is my finished poster for now. If I decide to make changes then I will update my work.

First of all, the title has the exact same appearance as the one featured in my short film. This is because I wanted to keep the house style the same so that the audience can make a connection between the poster and the short film. I have replaced letters in the title with images that I had drawn on the computer. The images represent the word trapped while also looking like the letters they are replacing to make it still be readable. A lot of the poster features the colour blue because I believe this colour symbolises sorrow and sadness which are the feeling you get when you feel trapped. I decided to use this style of art because I am able to add other relatable symbols without it seeming silly. For instance, the horse is only a small funny cameo in the short film which is why it is featured in the poster but if I used real images, it would look like the horse was a major part of the story line. The colour yellow stands out on the colours of blue I have used so I used it to highlight the unique selling points of the film; the actors. I have used a small blocky font for the small print because this is a key convention that is used on all film posters. To fill the plain parts of the background, I used a few patches of brickwork patterns to also represent the trapped feeling of being inside walls. 

Adobe Indesign

Adobe indesign is the desktop publishing software that I used to piece together my review page and my poster. I made the graphics in Adobe illustrator and using the features in Indesign, I was able to change the opacity, add bubbles, text and import other images. Indesign is able to show guidelines for you to follow to make the boxes the same size. It's a lot easier to work in indesign because the layers make it easy to reposition items and overlap features. 

My Poster's Characters

I found shots from the movie that I wanted to draw. 

 I traced over the shots and then added different shades over it to give it more depth.

For leon, I traced somebody else with a similar figure because he wasn't available when I needed a shot of him in that position. 

 I added his faces shape over it however so it still looks like him.

 I didn't want to add faces to the characters because i believe that people could already tell what mood the characters are in by their body language.

I am also not good at drawing facial features so I thought it would be best to leave them without a face.

Poster Design

After looking for other short film posters online, I found a style that I really liked and want to replicate for myself. Rather than using real shots of the actors, these posters had digital drawings of the characters by using only one colour but with different shades. Here are two examples of the posters.

 There are multiple reasons as to why I like these kinds of posters. For starters, the characters are noticeable as the person in the short film. Although it is not them and rather just a drawing. The characters can be seen with a trait the they have in the film also. For example, in strangers in a bed, the man is quite an angry man throughout which is clearly shown in the poster. Because the image is drawn rather than an actual photo, it can be altered a lot easily. For instance, in the tea chronicles, the man is drawn small and inferior to the man with the cup. Drawings can also be mixed and symbolic rather than true to life as shown by the strangers in a bed poster. The symbolism can mean multiple things depending on who looks at it so i will have to choose what patterns, shapes and objects to put into my poster to give the general message of being trapped. (Maybe like a key or something to do with being locked like a padlock)

Posters - Key Conventions

Title- The name of the film. This is the biggest text on the poster to stand out to the audience.

Selling Line - Smaller text somewhere near the title. This sums up the film in a small phrase.

Main Image - The most important image of the poster. It is the biggest and clearest and normally contains the main actor(s) involved.

Secondary Images - Other images used on the poster that may be used to highlight other things in the film that didn't fit in the main image.

Background - The image or colour scheme used in the background. This often conveys the location of the film or the atmosphere.

Actors - The names of the main actors are in a smaller font than the title. These are used as unique selling points.

Director - The director's name is on there also a smaller unique selling point.

Company Logos - The logos of the companies involved with the production are often on the poster to give smaller details about the film.

Billing Blocks - The small print used on the poster to give details about who is involved and what companies are involved.

Change of Plan

After asking the school care taker, I have found out that my school no longer opens on a saturday. I had originally planned to film my shots on saturday but I now have to change my plan to film the main footage of my short story after school when my actors are available. This is a little inconvenient because my schedule revolved around the filming on saturday but I don't think the timing of the production will be delayed any later than 2 days. Because I need to film after school, I now need to make a few signs to put on the doors requesting people to use the other stairway while filming is in progress. I am going to film using a lot of different shots so if someone happens to walk through anyway, it won't disturb the production too much because I will only film small amounts at a time that I can piece together at a later date.