The task and last years attempt
In this section we've been tasked with creating a poster for our short film and a comprehensive film review. I will first start with the poster research, then move on to drafting and then the finished product, I'll then do the same for the review.
Feature film poster research
To research the posters I've decided to look at some feature length movie posters that are the same genre as mine and then some that are slightly different just so I know the conventions and can make sure that mine doesn't look like the wrong genre. I'll also look at other short film posters as this give me an idea of what people look for in the marketing for short films.
La La Land
The first poster that I decided to look at is La La Land, I chose this film as much like ours there is a romantic aspect although the film wouldn't really be classed as a romance because this isn't the biggest part of the film. The main difference between the two films is that La La Land is technically a musical although after watching it I wouldn't call it that as there's only two musical numbers and then a couple of dancing scenes, but whatever.
So I found three posters that I could use to analyse, the first is the more minimalist design which just has the actors names, the title, the tagline, what the directors known for and a picture hinting at the plot.
The title- The title of the film is perhaps the most noticeable and eye-catching piece of text on the poster due to it's size and slightly off centre position. What also helps it to stand out is the use of Yasashii font which is very stylistic and reminiscent of the text that was used with old style title cards in Hollywood films. This helps to hint at at location of the movie being set in Hollywood and the aspirations of 'Mia' (played by Emma Stone) to be a famous actress. The title "La La Land" also has meaning to the film as it is a popular nickname for Los-Angles which is where Hollywood is, which lets the audience know where the film is set.
The tagline- The tagline of the film is easy to go unnoticed as it's a very small size and tucked away in the top left corner. The tagline reads "Here's to the fools who dream" the placement of this could be in reference to how they both achieved their dreams by the end of the film therefore disputing the fact that they are fools. Alternatively, it could be out of shame as following their dreams ultimately cost them their relationship meaning that they are fools because what they thought they wanted came at the cost of something they actually wanted.
The actors names- The actors names are the second biggest pieces of text in the poster places directly above the title so that your eyes are next drawn there. Both leading actors are two of Hollywood's biggest names right now so they are displayed as a way of gaining interest and selling tickets. People who are fans of either of these actors are more likely to see the film even if they have no interest in the plot or the genre of the film, just because these two are in it.
The director- The director's credit is once again tucked away in small text under the title and the director, Damien Chazelle isn't directly named, instead he is credited for his biggest film prior to this one, 'Whiplash' as he has not yet a household name but 'Whiplash' was critically acclaimed. This is placed just under the title as they still want it to be seen as the director of 'Whiplash' is still a good selling point and will get some people to go to see the film, however, he is nowhere near as big of a draw as Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are so he takes up a much less significant section of the poster.
The images- The picture itself makes up the largest part of the poster and is what people see first when they look at the poster. It clearly shows Ryan and Emma dancing which tells the audience of the musical aspect of the film paying a kind of homage to another musical 'Singing in the Rain' with the lamppost nearby. To show the romantic aspect of the film they show the two actors dancing closely looking into each others eyes in a rather romantic setting. Speaking of the setting, the backdrop if the image is part of Hollywood where the film is obviously set and although there is nothing in the background that makes it easily identifiable as Hollywood, it's still obvious that it is Hollywood due to the title. Instead the creators of the poster decided to choose a still frame from the film as this would capture the essence of the film better.
La La Land 2
This version of the poster is more of what you'd expect to see from a poster advertising a movie as it has most of the same aspects as the one above but it also contains lots of reviews, a release date and the credits at the bottom.
Most of this poster is the same as the one above with similar placement of the actors names above the title and the director below it. However, this poster is a lot more clustered than the other as it's littered with reviews and has the credits at the bottom.
The reviews- The reviews are placed along the top so that they are out of the way of the rest of the poster but the yellow and the stars make them eye-catching so that the audience notice the sheer amount of them which obviously makes the audience want to see the film as it's critically acclaimed. Also the image of the two dancing is pasted on top of the reviews so that it doesn't ruin the aesthetic of the poster. The best reviews are highlighted in yellow text so that people will notice them first and it fits the general feel of the poster as it matches Emma Stones dress.
The credits- The credits at the bottom don't interfere much with the rest of the film as the are a light grey colour and they are also somewhat translucent so that once again it doesn't ruin the overall look of the poster. The grey colour is probably due to the fact that it's against concrete so that it's as un-intrusive as possible to once again not ruin the vibe and feel of the poster.
12 Angry Men
The 12 Angry Men poster diverts the regular poster prototype in the way that they don't use a still frame from the film or even a picture of any of the actors. They instead decided to use cartoon images that still contain the main pieces of the plot such as the 12 men and the knife. Also unlike other posters they went with the unique approach of having two taglines.
The title- The title is directly in the centre of the screen as this is obviously one of the more important things on the poster. I can't find what the font is but it doesn't seem to have that much relevance to the film. The only reasoning that I could think of behind it is that it looks slightly wooden which could be because the whole film is spent with the 12 men sitting all around a wooden table. But other than that there doesn't seem to be much purpose behind it. The knife coming through the top is obviously important but I'll talk more about that in the images section.
The tagline- As mentioned above there are two taglines which is pretty unique as most films only have one on the poster sometimes they don't even have that. But anyway the first one is written in red at the top of the poster making it arguably the most noticeable thing there. This first tagline really captures the essence of the film and the way that the text divides the text perfectly captures the conflict and division caused by the knife and the case itself. Then we get to the second tagline which to be honest I'd rather not talk about it as it is literally the worst thing that I've ever laid my eyes on. And that is why I assume that it's off to the side so that no one can really see it.
The actors names- The biggest actor is the only one named on the poster as Henry Fonda is the only real big name actor and much like La La Land his name is directly above the title as this is one of the main draws of the film.
The director- The director isn't named on the main part of the poster, his name is only in the credits as this was his first big hit as a director.
The images- The image at the top is of the 11 other men once again divided by the knife much like how they are in the film. Henry Fonda is alone at the bottom with the table of the men behind him showing how he leads the men and controls the situation. He is the main character highlighted as he is the protagonist of whole film. The knife is a key piece of evidence used to prove the boys innocence. The knife is also stabbed into the title which is designed to look like a table making reference to the moment when the knife is... well stabbed into the table.
The reviews- There are no reviews on this poster whatsoever, probably because it wasn't a big hit when it first came out but maybe it's just because they didn't want the reviews getting in the way. However, the former is the more likely of the two.
The credits- The credits are at the bottom of the screen as expected to keep them out of the way however, the placement is a little more jarring as they are against a white background instead of continuing the yellow background. The white background of my blog makes it seem a little less out of place but that doesn't fit well with the rest of the poster at all.
Titanic
I chose this poster because the beginning of the Titanic is primarily about the relationship between Rose and Jack but the actual plot if the film is the ship crashing (much like how Gary's whole life crashes around him... am I right?) I chose this one because it's a drama with a romantic sub-plot although it's not really a sub-plot, more of a main-plot but the point still stands.
The title- The title much like the others is one of the more eye-catching parts of the poster as it's in big sharp letters and in a colour that contrasts the dark backdrop of the rest of the poster. The placement is centred in the lower part of the screen as to draw the audiences eye.
The tagline- The tagline is in the same colour and font as the title however, it's much smaller and tucked under the title. They probably did this because the tagline is a bit... well crap to be honest. It's nothing about the film and it's not really clever or anything. It's not as bad as the second tagline for 12 angry men but it's by no means good.
The actors names- Once again the actors names are just above the title as they are big names that audiences will want to see. They use the same font and colour as the rest of the poster to make it look consistent with the rest of the poster.
The director- James Cameron isn't named on the poster which is pretty strange considering that he's a big name director. But instead they list some of his more popular and well known films which is also fairly common. Once again uses the same font and colour as the rest of the poster to keep the same look and it's slightly out of the way right at the top probably because he wasn't really know for romantic films.
The images- The image is a still shot from the movie which perfectly captures the relationship between the two somewhat faded into the background above the boat which is also called the Titanic, isn't that crazy? Like the other two the poster heavily hints at the story without giving too much away however, in this case it doesn't really matter as you can't really spoil history.
The reviews- There are on review on this.
The credits- The credits, much like every other poster are at the bottom of the poster and they are in a gold/bronze coloured font. This colour is the same as the accent colour on the Titanic as to not standout or intrude on the rest of the poster too much.
Short film poster research
For this section I've just looked at some different short films to gain the general gist for the layout and see the stylistic decision that they made.
HOME
The title- Much the same as the feature length films the poster is the most eye-catching part of the poster barring the image. The title is also in a fairly standard font possibly Arial possibly something else, although some might say this looks plain, I personally think that it looks really aesthetically pleasing in it's simplicity. It tells the audience that the film is to do with a family that has possibly lost their 'home'. But this is all just a guess as I've never seen it but I might give it a try if I can find it.
The tagline- There's no tagline which is pretty disappointing because they're normally the best bit.
The actors names- The standard seems to be that the actors names are above the title and the poster certainly fits the mold. The actor's names are not as bold or anywhere near as big as the title most likely because they are relatively unknown actors.
The director- The director is named just under the title in very small text similar to the way that La LA Land did it. This director is also fairly unknown and hasn't directed much else which is why they haven't put some variation of "from the director of..."
The images- The image does the same as what La La Land and Titanic and most other posters for that matter do and use a still shot from the film that captures the essence of the film as best they can. This image clearly captures how a young family are in danger or are running from or to something. Also the stormy sky tells the potential audience that the film will have a serious tone and it also provides a nice backdrop to place the reviews over.
The reviews- The reviews have the same fell of the rest of the poster meaning that they are very bare-bones and minimalist. There are no star ratings whatsoever which is not what you'd expect on a short film poster, instead they are just the important comments made written in the same style as the rest of the text.
The credits- The credits are as faded and translucent as possible while still being legible to take as little away from the poster as possible.
Borrowed time
The title- The title looks similar to something used in an old western movie as seen below:
This hints at a possible setting of the time and location of the film, this in combination with the title itself hint at possible time travel story perhaps. The placement is fairly typical as it's centred in the lower half of the screen.
The tagline- No tagline.
The actors names- Not named.
The director- Only listed in the credits
The images- The image is a very artistic cartoon of a man walking to the edge of a cliff through a stopwatch face. There is also the fossilised bones of a dinosaur and a old sailers wheel showing possibly the travel through time aspect.
The reviews- No reviews
The credits- The credits are the same as always at the very bottom of the poster in a translucent font as to not get in the way. The difference in this one seems to be that it's in a similar font to the title.
The Landing
The title- The title is in a fairly thick but pretty standard font that matches the colour of the sunset behind it. The poster itself is landscape but the positioning of the title is still the same being centred in the bottom.
The tagline- Finally one has a tagline and it's actually pretty decent. There's a bit of a pun saying "unearthed" because that don't come from earth get it. But the placement is also above the circle looking like a planet type thing. The tagline is in a font that would be more associated with aliens than the other font as it generally just looks like something I'd associate more with Sci-Fi.
The actors names- Not named.
The director- Not named.
The images- The location of the image is a field which is immediately associated with crop circles and all the stories with abductions. The boy is then approaching a blacked out circular object that I can only assume to be the spaceship or something similar but it also looks kinda like a planet but considering sizing I doubt it's that. But while were on the subject of the size if it is a space shuttle the must only be one alien or an army of midget aliens maybe? Or maybe there aren't any aliens which would be a major let down. But anyway theres also the boy showing him discovering the object and something such as a comet or maybe aliens falling from space heading towards the farm.
The reviews- The reviews or in this case film festival entries and such are organised in a nice patterned way that doesn't interfere with the poster too much, they're out of the way of the comet.
The credits- The credits on this poster are at the bottom to the right to try and stay out of the way but this is more intrusive than the others probably because of the coloured logos above it making it a bit more jarring.
Poster first draft
I didn't really put too much effort into drawing this draft because I know that it'll probably change a lot so there's no point really wasting time trying to draw well, seeing as it wouldn't be much better anyway. I'm basically just going to talk through my decisions, what I think worked well and what didn't work so well.
My decisions
The first thing I did was choose a picture that attempts to capture the feel of the whole film, for this picture choice I decided to focus on the romance aspect of the film by picking the scene where the two are sitting together on the sofa watching TV. I did this so that I could put a bunch of other pictures around the two that hint at the bigger plot. Some of the things I thought to include around the two is some of the pills that Gary has to constantly take, the CCTV footage and the observers.
To fit all of this in I decided to make my poster landscape which is not very traditional but some short films are known to do this so it isn't completely unconventional. Also because the poster is now landscape I decided to fit all four of our names at the top of the poster as we all act in the movie but I made sure to put the two main actors (Leo and Maddy) at either end as they are the most significant ans things at the start and end are remembered more than that in the middle. Because I wanted the pictures centred I decided to have the title at the bottom which is fairly common now but in older movies it was common practice to have the title at the top as it should be the first thing to be noticed. With the title being at the bottom I could then put the tagline just above the title so that it follows into the title somewhat preparing the audience for what is to come.
The credits, certification and the production all go at the bottom and I don't expect this to change as this is the standard so putting this anywhere else would've seemed out of place and make the poster look bad.
What went well
- I like the idea of the poster being landscape as it is a little different but still acceptable.
- The names at the top and the title closer to the bottom looked good and once again made it a little more interesting.
- Having the observers in the poster is what I'm going to stick with as they are a key part of the film.
- Also the two main characters in the centre is a must.
What went not so well
- The gap between the picture and the title looks bad.
- The pictures around the main picture is a good concept but difficult to make look good/ professional
- The middle picture is way too boring
- All four names at the top is unnecessary
- Need to put the directors on there somewhere
Draft 2
My decisions
As much as I liked the general direction of the other poster I decided to go the complete opposite way just so I can test how it would look. I made the observers a more prominent part of the poster as they are a key part of the film. I also decided to remove Maddy to see if it would appeal more to the mainstream audience which prefer male lead productions. I also the moved the title to the top as that the least important part of the picture meaning it doesn't matter if it gets covered.the tagline is now under the title which I don't think is that much different than when it is on top of it. To remove some clutter I decided to take out mine and Jordan's name from the top allowing the primary focus to be on the biggest stars. I then also decided on the release date of March 3rd 2018 which is placed just above the credits.
What went well
- Once again the observers and Gary do a good job at drawing attention and attracting the audience.
- Two actors names are far better than four
- The actors names above the title looks very good.
What went not so well
- Not a big fan of the more traditional portrait poster
- The release date looks better under the credits than over it
- Title looks better at the bottom
- Lacking reviews
- Lacking directors names
- Need to consider colour
Draft 3
My decisions
I went back to landscape as I thought it looked much more appealing, placing the title near the bottom across the back and shoulders of the observers. The tagline is back above the title because it looked nicer than below, with the directors names under the title. I've coloured all of the text in red as it makes it stand out more against the dark background. The reviews I've added however are white as they need to be differentiated from the rest of the text.
What went well
- The title at the bottom is much better
- The directors names below the title look great and neat
- The quotes don't much interfere with the rest of the poster
- The red text stands out well
What went not so well
- The names look better above the title
- The release date belongs under the credits
- Still haven't found a good location for the tagline
Final Poster
Whats changed
The names are back above the title where I think they belong, meaning that the tagline had to move. I moved the tagline to be in line with one of the blinds. Which brings me to my next point. the pictures different! When I actually started making the poster I decided to mess around with layering pictures by putting the observers over different shots in the film. I them stumbled on the beauty you see above. It features all the main characters and hints at the most pivotal scene in the whole film. Also I actually wrote out the credits this time just listing what everyone did and just below the release date makes it's return.
Review research
To get a wide range of reviews I've decided to look at a range of different reviews to gain an idea of what and what not to do. I'll look at both positive and negative reviews.
Avatar
Key features
- Four images taking up majority of the space on the page
- Bubbles of short amounts of texts
- Has release date and certification
- Some facts about the movie
- Mentions previous work by the directors and cast
- No star rating given
- Brief plot synopsis
- Lots of colour
Kick-ass 2
Key features
- Has the tagline
- star rating at the top
- Has predicted interest curve to differentiate it
- Important quotes bigger and centred
- Has a verdict at the bottom
- Talking point section
- Three section layout
Step Brothers
- Star review at the top
- "In short" summary section
- All information including director and certification
- Important text in bold
- Eye-catching picture that captures the essence of the film
- Three section layout
The vault
Key features
- Star rating at the top
- Iconic picture taking up large portion
- Three section layout
- All the information
- Final verdict at the end
Step by step guide to write a film review. (using WikiHow)
Drafting the review
- Start with a compelling fact or opinion on the movie.
The first sentence needs to capture and hook your audience and give almost a brief version of your review so they can get a feel for the general tone. Alternatively you can provide background information on the film, cast or director however, as none of us have any previous work to mention I probably won't do this. - Give a clear opinion early on
This can be done by a rating at the start whether it's using stars, thumbs up/down or even a score out of 10/100. You do this to not leave the reader guessing and so that you can spend the rest of the review proving your point. - Write the review (Gee what helpful advice, thanks WikiHow)
Basically what this step is trying to say is this is where you convert all of your notes on the film into actual sentences and paragraphs. To do this step you obviously need to watch the film multiple times before hand and make notes on all the sections you want to talk about. - Look beyond the plot
People care about things other than the plot so it's important to not solely focus on that alone, talk about some of the other things like cinematography, editing, character arcs, the acting and the general tone of the film. - Provide closure
Bring the review full circle by ending in the same place you finished. The ending section is normally what will make people decide if they are going to watch the film or not so it's important to reiterate your earlier opinions.
Things I'll include
After doing my research I have finally decided the layout of the review, and it goes as follows:
Two pictures and two pictures only, the main focus of a review should be on the written words above everything else. I'll use a picture from the start and one from the end and have them side by side to show the contrast from the start to the finish of the film. next to that I'll have the plot written out in full detail even detailing the ending (which is fine because there's a spoiler warning). Under the picture I'll then have the title the rating and other general information below it so that the picture catches your eye and then you find out all the details. Then taking up the majority of the page will be the review itself as this is the most important, this will probably be in columns because that looks better than massive paragraphs. Then at the very bottom there will be a verdict which will justify the star rating that I have given it in a shorter summary.
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