Feature Film Poster Analysis

Written by Emma Taylor

The thriller  feature film 'Identity' directed by James Mangold was released in 2003.

This film poster uses the limited use of colour to its advantage. Even though it's a thriller, and we could expect to see the back ground black (to connote death and destruction) as seen in many other thriller films such as 'Awake', the producers have decided to leave the background blank. This makes the use of the bold hand stand out, but also gives an eerie feel to the poster, we automatically assume that the film is about murder and blood due to the blood on the hand, but the white connotations of 'clean' make us think that the murderer is skilled and 'clean cut', he cleans his murders up well and doesn't get caught for instance. This could have also been done for expense purposes however, as the cost of producing film posters are expensive and are more cost effective with less colour. 

Thriller: 'Awake film poster

The use of black and white aids to the binary oppositions theory by Claude Levi-Strauss. This monochromatic contrast could display the difference between good vs evil, rational vs irrational and innocence vs corruption. The red tint to the bottom of the hand reminds me of the well known phrase 'caught red handed'. This hints at the plot line of the film, as the murderer is on trial and has indeed been 'caught red handed', but the enigma remains as to 'will he get away with murder'? The fact that the hand has been painted can show that it's an interpretation of an event, because an artist interprets what he sees, paints his own version, including how he can relate to and understand the context based on his own thoughts and experiences. There are four figures with their back turned within the fingers on the poster, possibly implying a gang culture, as it is a stereotype that gangs wear hoods and do not wish to be seen. They also look like they could be involved in crime, having their faces covered and dressing in black, commonly associated with evil. With the figure in the palm of his hand screaming, and with the figures walking away, an association is formed between the possible victim and the gang. It does appear that the gang are walking away from the man covered in blood, possibly denoting that they have committed a serious crime against the man. 

With the name of the film being 'Identity', the use of the hand is very fitting, as the use of finger print recognition technology in recent times has been very useful in capturing criminals, and as we all have individual fingerprints, a criminal can be identified at a crime scene, by his hand. 

The colour co-ordination continues into the title of the film shown in the lower third of the poster, applying to the 'rule of thirds' which correlates to good composition of poster design and shots. The black and red colours on the title fade into each other nicely and can symbolise that a person is going from dark and mean (black) to evil and brutal, committing acts of crime and violence (red). 

The short sentences anchoring the media text creates enigmas to the audience using words such as 'secret', 'mystery' and 'killer' and automatically tells the audience that they recognise the story as a thriller, due to the evident plot line of finding out who the murderer is, and is likely to be a 'whodunit' storyline. 

The institutional information featured at the bottom of the poster, is in keeping with the design of the poster, and the producers have gone for a grey colour to add to the cold and dark colours to add to the semiotics of the piece. 

Film Poster

Written and made by Emma Taylor

'Fallen Grace' film poster

Written by Emma Taylor
The Poster - Ancillary Task 1

With the image I had taken at the shoot with Grace at the cellar shoot we designed the Fallen Grace poster. I then replicated this design on Photoshop CS5. I made a new project within Photoshop and made it transparent so that I could could use the 'gradient tool' to add to the bottom of the poster image when I imported it into the new project.    

making a new project in photoshop

The width and height had to be larger than the original, so that when I duplicated the layers, that the gradient would be seen underneath. The first transparent layer would have the black gradient on, and the second layer would hold the image, so that it looks like the image fades into black.

Duplicating a layer so that the gradient can be seen

 

The first transparent layer

The gradient tool icon.

This is the first transparent layer which will have the gradient put onto it, and will be faded to black underneath. I did this so that the principle information of the film eg. the Director, the production companies and social networking sites could be seen. This is seen in professional feature film posters such as 'Shutter Island'.

The gradient tool used in the promotional poster of 'Shutter Island'

The gradient tool added onto the poster

Here you can see the gradient tool has been used on the principal layer which fades to black so that the crucial institutional information can be seen clearly and is effective in displaying this.

adding the image

Here I have imported my image into the second transparent layer and have altered the gradient tool so the fit is clean, and I have enough room for the institutional information. I have then 'locked' off this background layer (as seen in the image below) so that it cannot be altered or moved. I have then added to further layers to alter the colour (selective colour layer) and another layer for contrast (brightness and contrast layer). This then means that I can alter the colours within the poster to make them more 'thriller like'. I increased the blue hue saturation to intensify the coldness of the image to give a thriller like tint, I also contrasted the image to give a more intensified image. 

Making new layers

After this, I started to add text to the poster.

The icon used to add text

The large array of fonts to use

I used an array of fonts, colours and pts in my text. The title of 'Fallen Grace' evidently had to stand out and be the largest and boldest text on the poster, so I made it black and pt 60 to help this stand out. Black was an apropiate colour as its connotations are of death and destruction; definitely something to be expected in our film, this also contrasts nicely against the eerie blue grade. I added the actress' name of our main character on the top of our poster, and as she has won awards for acting before, this could potentially help sell the film. The style of this was inspired by the font of the 'SALT' poster which I liked due to it's contrast, and also displayed the character to be 'pure' due to the connotations of the colour white.  

adding the title pt

Name of the actress style inspired by the SALT poster

Adding the names of the actors

Our main actress is Clare, so her name had to be a focal attention, with our two other supporting actors being Samuel Newsham and Sophie Wooding whos names also make an appearance on the poster underneath the name of the film in the same font, so it looked neat for continuity. The monochrome contrast follows the theory of binary oppositions, creating conflict and tension which replicates what is seen in the film. It also makes the poster stand out, which is needed in order to raise attention of the film, to sell the product and make money for the production companies. 

adding the key principal film makers

In all film posters, the names of the film makers, actors and production companies are placed on the poster, usually at the bottom of the poster. This was time consuming to replicate, as there are no templates for it, so I had to do the best I could with text fonts and pts. Each individual section is made individually so that words can be placed over each other, such as 'production designer'. I did this so that the film poster could be as close to a professional one as I could make it. In film posters, the role of the film maker is designed to be on two levels in a smaller pt, and the name of the film maker is in a larger font, filling more space. Eg. 

PRODUCTION     SAQIB YOUNIS
      DESIGNER 

The problem with making this all in one text is that the name is only on one level, so I had to use separate text boxes in order to make it look professional. 

Adding images into my poster

Too add images that are not my own into the poster (such as production company logos, film certificate, Twitter and Facebook logos) I saved the picture onto my desktop and then used FILE: PLACE in Photoshop to add the image. It was difficult to find images that were transparent to add onto my poster, so the rating certificate has a black background and is placed at the bottom on the black background so nobody can tell.

adding the film rating certificate of 15

adding more logos

Here I've added more logos, the production company logos and the Facebook and Twitter promotion logos so that fans of the film can find more details about the film.

Above is the finished poster for 'Fallen Grace'. 

The 4th Shoot

Thank You - Fallen Grace House Party Rushes from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

I edited a short compilation clip of the house party scenes and put them into the clip shown above. I then showed this to the actors who helped us make this film, as they have been working on this with us for months and haven't seen any result of their work yet. So this was a thank you clip to them, and also shows the scenes we shot at the house party. --

Written by Emma Taylor

This was our last 'big' shoot for the production of our trailer, due to the amount of actors needed to make the scene lively. As it was a house party, we needed food, drinks, a large amount of people and a place to film, luckily Abi let us use her flat for the night. Whilst we needed the flat, we also needed a location outside for the kidnapping of Grace to take place. Whilst this could have taken place in another location and cheat the shot to make it look like outside the building, there underground parking bays underneath the flats which were both convenient and cinematic to shoot in. In total we had our 3 main characters, the kidnapper (teacher) and 15 extras who kindly helped us out with the shoot, to make the party look busy. We budgeted to buy props for decorations (party poppers and tinsel) and also refreshments for our actors. I decided to do this as I believe that the story is told in the attention to detail, and so preparation was key. The use of party poppers for decoration allowed us to make innovaitve and creative shots, allowing us to experiment with our film making skills.

Setting up shots to film

I continued my role as 'director' following the shot list we designed for this shoot, did camerawork and took control of the progression of the shoot. Tom Bailey and Abi Ford both did camera work both inside and outside the party, and swapping over to perform clapper board duties, so I could dub sound and sync up the sound to the images in the edit. Saqib had a busy job recording sound on the project, which was difficult with so many people. 

props

behind the camera shot

This is a shot from behind the camera looking onto the action taking place. If you look closely onto the camera screen you can see some tap covering the top and bottom half of the screen. This is so we can correctly compose the shots, and no heads are cut off when I add the black cropping bars in the edit (to create a cinematic effect of having an anamorphic lens). 

Saqib doing sound

Tom and I composing shots

Tom composing shots

A (very) Rough Edit of our Trailer So Far

Written by Emma Taylor

Trailer (very) Rough Edit 1 from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

Abi, Tom and I worked on editing a (very) rough first edit of all the footage we had so far, which was not even half the scenes we had yet to film, but we thought it would be helpful if we started piecing parts of the edit together. We edited on Final Cut Pro X (version 10.8) which is a programme I'm very used to, as I regularly use this to edit my own short films, music videos and promotional videos. 

The Final Cut Timeline

This basic timeline formed the outline for all the different rushes from the footage we had already shot, we then cut each bit down, using the 'blade' tool to leave the shots we wanted.

using the 'Blade' tool

One of the most important aspects of editing, in my opinion, to create style, a filmic look, and to also help connote atmosphere is colour grading. Colour grading is where you manipulate the colours within a scene, for example, we used blue and turquoise tints in the shadows, upped the saturation and lowered the exposure to create a cold gritty scene, when Grace is tied up. If you wanted a scene to be muggy and warm, you would use orangey colours.

Colour Grading

correcting exposures within colour grading

Below you can see an example of how colour grading and cropping the moving images can effectively manipulate a scene. The cropping of a full frame (82 mil sigma lens) can create an anamorphic lens effect, seen in all feature films. 

A key part of our project is that Grace has telekinetic, supernatural powers. In order to do this, Tom and  I filmed and edited some practice shots to make sure we could master the process in the day. Within post production, this involves 'modifying; the clip and then 'retiming' it to reverse the shot.

Retime, reverse clip

Below is a screen shots of the more advanced timeline as we progress to sound bridges used within the production. I use 'markers' which are placed on the time line to indicate where exactly to cut and manipulate a clip, which are done by pressing 'm' on the keyboard.

markers

a more advanced time line

3rd Shoot - Fire Station

Written by Emma Taylor



East Lancashire Fire Service from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

Pre Shoot

There was a lot of preparation for this shoot as the Fire Service are an official body. Not only did I send the letter shown earlier on in my blog, but I had many phone conversations with Gary Brook, the fire fighter who would be helping us out on this particular shoot. I had previously met Gary whilst with being a leader with Beaver Scouts on their visit to the fire station and he had said that he was more than happy to help us out. I also had to go for a brief meeting at the station to talk directly with the fire fighters to see what would be possible on the day.

As the fire fighters are working, and could have to shoot off as soon as possible if they had a call out, we needed to work quickly and swiftly to get the shots we wanted.

There wasn't much equipment to take to the shoot as we weren't recording external sound which couldn't be picked up on the internal camera microphones. As we wanted to work swiftly, I brought two cameras to use, so we could have a multi-camera edit on the same action going on, as we couldn't repeat some of the action (eg. cutting a door off a car). I brought my Canon 6D and a Nikon D600 DSLR to capture the action.

During the Shoot

Roles

Emma Taylor - Director and camera

Abi Ford - Camera

Tom Bailey - Camera

Saqib - Behind the scenes

It didn't take too long to shoot fortunately, we were only actually filming for an hour and there were no interruptions or problems on the shoot. We had a good time and learnt a lot about the Fire Service in the process. We had two FireFighters helping us out on the day and we were grateful that they gave up their time to help us out. First of all, when we arrived and met on the car park at 10.30 we went into the board room at the Fire Station and talked through what we wanted to do in the day; film the fire engine coming out of the station and film a rescue scenario in any degree possible.

Abi and I filming 

Abi and I filming

The hydraulics

The FireFighters

Abi, Tom and I filming

Filming

Post Shoot 

As a thank you to the Fire Fighters and the station I wrote an email and also put a video together of all the shots just from the fire shoot for them.

A copy of the email is below:

Hi Gary,

Hope you are well. It was an absolute pleasure to work with you today and my team and I are very grateful that you helped us out in filming for our A Level Media Studies coursework. We had an enjoyable morning and we all learnt a valuable amount about the fire service and how you use your tools to help those in need. I particularly enjoyed filming you cutting the door of one of the cars as I had never seen the hydraulics working in action before and I was very interested in the process. 

You do a fantastic job, not only helping in desperate and tragic situations such as fires and car accidents, but the community work you do, not only with us, but with Scout troops and schools is incredible and potentially, life saving. I remember coming to your fire station on a number of occasions from being a Cub Scout and was definitely one of the activities I most enjoyed in my Scouting days. Now, a young leader at my Beaver Scout section I still thoroughly enjoy seeing the work you do at the station and learning how all the equipment works. 

I have edited a short film with some of the shots from today and there are links below.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtVaVlGN6GQ

Vimeo (high quality): https://vimeo.com/80190730

Some of these shots will be included in a trailer for a film called 'Fallen Grace'. We hope to have the trailer out by December/January once we have filmed everything we need to. 

I hope you have enjoyed filming with us today, and thank you once again, it is deeply appreciated. I will drop off a hard copy of both this short film and the finished trailer when it's complete.

Many thanks,

Emma Taylor

Photoshoot - 2nd Shoot

Written by Emma Taylor

On the second shoot for 'Fallen Grace' we planned to shoot a photo shoot for the poster of our trailer and film whilst Clare had her make-up done and was in costume. We took several photographs in the basement against a white background and the lighting was such that it caused a vignette type effect around the photograph, giving it a good portrait/poster style.

Portrait 1

I took a variety of photographs, including in a monochromatic style; in keeping with the Binary Oppositions theory. We also thought it would look good if we cut off half of the face of Grace, to show that a part of Grace is lost, not only in mind, but also in a literal sense as Grace is kidnapped.

Portrait 2

I personally think that the image, for a poster, is better in colour.

Portrait 3

Portrait 4

We have decided that the image below is the best to use for our poster. There are special make-up effects connoting destruction and enigmas are created asking why she is in this state, so I think it works well as a poster. 

Poster Photograph

Shoot 2

Written by Emma Taylor


For this shoot, I organised to film in the cellar of my father's office building where we could look place lights to make the area look grungy and cinematic.

Pre-Shoot

The equipment list was certainly not as extensive as on the former shoot as we didn't need external sound equipment so sync up, or my dolly to do tracking shots as we were in a small room.

The Equipment List

Camera

SD cards

Batteries

Tripod

Back light

fill light

I did a quick visit to the location prior to the shoot to check out what would be possible on the day of filming. I looked at two possible basement layouts and decided that the latter would be more in keeping with our plan of the mis-en-scene. 

The following photos are from the location scouting.

stairs down to the basement

basement 1

basement 2

During Shoot

I thought the shoot went really well. We worked efficiently and effectively within the time restraints we had and got all the shots we needed for our trailer and I also took some photographs for the poster design whilst Clare was made up with make up. There were no issues that arose, we just had to be careful of wires leading to the lights for safety reasons.

Make-up

The make-up for Clare took approximately around an hour to complete, to make it look as real as possible. I got some pictures of the kind of make-up I would like Clare to have. These images are below.

Make -up Image 1

Make-up Image 2

Make-up Image 3

Post shoot

Since it was only a short shoot (the setting up actually took the longest to do) I edited the second set of graded rushes for these clips. I colour graded the rushes (clips) to have a blue tint, to make the images look cold and uninviting.