Film Poster codes and conventions

WRITTEN LANGUAGE:

ACTORS: The main actors names run along the top of poster or around the image. The names can be found in different styles according to the actor and their billing, or how famous/well known they are. If the actor is well known, they will most likely have the larger font and bold text, may be an eye catching colour such as black or red to intrigue the audience of the poster.

TAGLINES: Depending on the genre of the film, it may be comedic or thrilling for the audience. The tag line can provide information for the audience on what the film will be about.

TYPOGRAPHY:

INFORMATION: The poster has to provide such information as "The director of..." and all the other key elements to how a film is made. This can intrigue audience members, if they are fans of a certain director.
- Different colours throughout the poster, such as different use of colours in the title from the tagline, will be eye catching towards the audience, as they will initially look at the title if it is in a larger font and bolder text than all the other text on the poster.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS: The main picture on the film poster will most likely be a larger image of the main actor(s). Or an object/iconography that is used in the film, this provides information on the theme or the story line of the film.

LIGHTING: The use of lighting and colour used on the poster connotes the film and it's story line. If the film was a thriller or horror, colours and lighting will be dark, black and red. But if the film was a comedy colours such as blue and yellow will be used with high key lighting.

CAMERA ANGLE AND SHOT: There can either be a extreme (close up) to show the main actor or the main object in the film. A mid shot- to show other actors and just one at full length. Or a long-shot to show the background which may show a location that us used in the narrative, this can give away the plot to the audience which is interesting.

Film Magazine codes and conventions

MASTHEAD: Features on all magazine covers, usually at the top of the page and indicates which magazine it is e.g. Empire. Our's will be "Sound and Vision". This should be the largest text on the page and it can reflect the audience it caters for.

IMAGE: The image should reflect the audience and the styles of the magazine. The main image is usually a mid-shot and should reflect what the film is featuring. This usually involves the main actor from the film featured.

As you can see from this photograph that we will be using for our magazine front cover, it is a mid-shot of all the main actors in our film.

'BUZZ WORDS': These involve 'free' and 'exclusive' which capture the readers attention and want to buy the magazine; because our film will be quite independent and will be shown at locations such as Theaters, Independent Cinemas and Film Festivals. The magazine will be giving a free chance for the winner and an extra person of their choice to go to a leading film festival VIP- to meet actors and world leading directors.

(Toronto International Film Festival)

ANCHORAGE TEXT: The text that often overlaps the image to tell what the story inside will involve, this could be a quote taken from the interview inside.

BANNER: Gives overall information about the magazine and what will be found inside.

BARCODE, DATE AND ISSUE NUMBER: Something every magazine has and needs.

Photo Shoot for our Film Poster and Magazine Front Cover

The software and technology we used: Behind the scenes!

As you can see from the picture, we have used iMovie to edit our teaser trailer, and other videos that were uploaded onto Youtube such as Poster Audience Feedback, Film Pitch and Poster Analysis.

We used this camera to film videos such as the Poster Audience Feedback and take pictures of the photography room we used for our photo shoot.

This is Annie's camera that we used for the photo shoot, the photographs were used in our poster and magazine. This camera had great effects and quality for our poster and mag.

Target Audience feedback on film poster

As you can see, we went around our sixth form and asked different sorts of people - ranges in age and gender to feedback on the poster.


Questions Asked:

- What genre do you think the film is?
- What age and gender do you think the characters are?
- What do you think are the main storylines and or themes of the film?
- What do you like about the poster?
- What do you think can be improved?
- Where might you see this film?
- Would you like to see this film?

RENDEZVOUS Film Poster

The original photographs:

James as Raymond.

Rosie as Bridgette.

Annie as Vivienne.

Pierce as the Detective.

All of these photos were taken in the photography room situated in our sixth form building. We used Annie's camera to help us get the professional effect that you would find with photographs on film posters. We used a white background in all of the photos as we thought the effect and the sharpness of the photo went well together. 

The first draft:

Our detailed analysis on our RENDEZVOUS poster:

UPDATE!!! (31/03/15) 

After having our audience feedback, we realised that the poster lacked a tagline- and this was the most answered question for improvements on the poster. So we have decided to draft our poster again by adding a tagline, also by further analyzing the poster. 

The second draft:

***More analysis*** The photographs of the 4 different characters suggest some sort of mugshot- like picture as they are a close shot of the faces. The emotions that are shown on the faces of the characters are those that are associated with a mug shot- they are not happy. The mug shots highlight the sinful acts that the characters are involved in throughout the film- these sinful acts involve adultery, manipulation, murder, etc. These are crimes, so the mug shots on the poster give away the plot for the audience.

 

***Even more analysis*** The tagline that we put on our 2nd draft highlights the plot of the film and what happens.

Sight and Sound

Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI).It has been publishing magazines since 1932, and management of the magazine was handed to nascent BFI in 1934.

The magazine reviews all film releases each month, including those with a limited (art house) release, as opposed to most film magazines which concentrate on those films with a general release. Sight & Sound features a full cast and crew credit list for each reviewed film.

Sound Effects

VOICEOVERS:


This voice over reflects what Raymond is going through in the film, he is deceived by all the other characters. This is especially from his wife, Bridgette who carries out a love affair behind his back with the detective.


Obviously from this, you can see this are the voice overs before they are edited into the trailer. You can see that we have got voice overs from all of the characters so the audience can connect, but also see their side of the story. This sets the narrative up, so the audience can find out what happens and why, and how it all started- this gives background knowledge to intrigue the audience in.


The voice over coming from the character of the Detective, establishes the setting where it is filmed, the time period and location. This is important for the audience, as they will expect from this to see period items and clothing- also characters that are seen in 50s Film Noir. We have been influenced by "The Great Gatsby" when Nick Carrawy introduces the film location and time period.

This voiceover was voiced by Mr Schillingher, he put on a London accent to convey the sort of accent of the film and he also described the plot for the film.


MUSIC THAT WAS CREATED BY JACK CUNNINGTON FOR "RENDEZVOUS"




We recorded these in the music block in our school. We used the instruments such as piano, guitar, drums and bass.

Empire

EMPIRE is a well known film magazine owned by THE BAUER - the largest privately owned publisher in Europe, publishing in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom as well as in USA and Mexico.

The purpose of EMPIRE Magazine is to: "To provide indispensable insight into cinema, from recent blockbusters to classic films."

The audience for EMPIRE is mostly made up from ages 15-44.

So films that are on the covers for this magazine would be perfect for our film "RENDEZVOUS" as the target audience is from 15+.

 

Target audiences for EMPIRE is made up of E Unemployed, students as the age range starts from 15+

 

 

 

 Mainly for this audience, I would think that the target audience for both this film and the magazine article are aimed at 18+ male audiences, but also females.

Props List

In Film Noir there are many props that serve as iconography for the audience, these props are what the audience looks out for when watching the film.

In our teaser trailer we want to involve all the sort of iconography that the audience would be looking out for when watching the teaser. This will attract audiences into watching the film as they will know from the iconography what type of genre of the film it is.

LIGHTING:

The use of low/high key lighting can represent the character and their status or if it is a negative or positive portrayal of the character. 

CHIAROSCURO:

Chiaroscuro is an Italian artistic term used to describe the dramatic effect of contrasting areas of loght and dark in an artwork, when applied to film noir it helps give the picture detail, depth and helps draw attention to certain objects, characters and parts of the face.

VENETIAN BLINDS: 

Blinds are used in film noir to highlight the secretive nature in the plot, that they are hiding in the darkness. 

SILHOUETTES:

The image of the person, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, it's edges matching the outline of the subject. In film noir it creates a sense of mystery, stealth and of the unknown. 

CIGARETTES (SMOKE):

Cigarette smoke can be used to good effect in film noir, adding white to otherwise dark scene. Nearly everybody smokes in film noir, it seems to be a natural thing for the detectives and even the femme fatales to do.

Film Magzine Research

Ideology

The values and beliefs perpetuated by the majority within a society may be described as DOMINANT IDEOLOGIES --> usually that of a
. WHITE
. EDUCATED

. HETEROSEXUAL
. CHRISTIAN
. MALE-CENTERED
perspective










LEVI STRAUSS theorised that all narratives were based on conflict through finding the BINARY OPPOSITIONS in texts where dominant ideology can also be found.

Ideologies are not fixed- they change and mutate. Dominant ideologies tend to 'swallow up' and absorb any threats to the order.

Hegemony- this process by which dominant ideology was able to naturalise aspects of how society is organised and this was achieved through control of cultural practises.

According to Stuart Hall - there nay be other ways that other part of the audiences may read the text this can be through an oppositional reading. Or that the film itself has oppositional ideologies... the text is constructed to represent a different viewpoint od life and society; these views are an alternative to mainstream views.

However, in our film it will have dominant ideology due to the lifestyles of the character's.

Young female vs old female
love vs hate
unfaithful vs faithful
male vs female
rich vs poor

Risk Assessment

A2 Media Risk Assessment from rosieallen1997

Analysis of "The Great Gatsby"(2013) Teaser Trailer

The first shot from the teaser trailer is the production company- with the well established "Great Gatsby" background which is the background of all the posters. The audience watching instantly know this is "The Great Gatsby" trailer, also the production company "Warner Brothers" is a well established and well known production company- so the audience know they will be watching a film that is properly filmed and funded by a conglomerate.

The first shot of the film's teaser trailer are establishing shots of New York in 1922- which shows the iconography of the time period the film is set in. Whilst this montage of New York establishing shots are running, there is a voice over to set the scene. The voice over is by Toby Maguire- one the of main actors in the film, also mainly the audience that have read the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel will know that it is narrated by "Nick Carraway" who is played by Maguire. 

What first sets the scene of where the film's location shots will be is Gatsby's mansion. The establishing shot sets the scene for the audience.

There are medium shots of two of the many main actors in the plot here to introduce the characters and actors playing them. The shot of the two, "Jordan Baker" and "Nick Carraway" suggests instantly to the audience there may be a relationship or friendship of some kind. 

Teaser trailers will mostly consist of fast paced montage shots, throughout this trailer there are many. One of them is when the characters are all repeating the name "Gatsby" which highlights the film's title. The repetition of the word suggests he is an important person. 

The first time in the trailer we see the most famous actor in the film, is 40 seconds in; also because this actor is one the important characters, there is an anticipation for his first shot. The camera is at a low angle to highlight Gatsby's power and dominance over the other characters in the film.

The Director's name is put early into the film's teaser trailer due to Luhrmann being well known as an actor. Audiences may watch the film to view his adaptation for the novel itself, and the earlier adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" film.

There is a shot/reverse shot between the two main actors as this part shows the beginning of their love affair. There is great emotion in the scene where the two meet, this is also reinforced by the sound of thunder in the background to show that something great is about to happen.

The Director is well known for his great adaptations in these two films, he has also worked with Leonardo DiCaprio once before in the film "Romeo and Juliet"

The trailer's pace is fast throughout, there is a party scene to highlight what the film is about- and audiences can recognise basic iconography of that time period. 

The first actor to be listed is Leonardo DiCaprio who is the most well known actor of them all.

Secondly, Tobey Maguire is listed as one of the most well known actors in the film.

This is shortly followed to introduce his character as "Nick Carraway"

One of the least well known actors, a newly introduced is Carey Mulligan who is one of the main characters.

She is then introduced as her character "Daisy Buchanan", who "Jay Gatsby" pursues a love affair with.

This is highlighted by the hands under the table shot, as it suggests a forbidden love and that this relationship is hidden. 

The main title screen is then introduced at the end of the trailer.

A mid-shot of "Jay Gatsby" himself, with the background being the party suggests that this man is lonely as he watches over relationships and friendships form at his parties. Also the last shot of the most well known actor further anticipates the audience to watch a film he is cast in. 

The billing blocks proceed to inform the audience on any additional information.