A2 Media – Creative Project

Jack Beckett

Film Posters

Cowboys and Aliens

Obvious cowboy iconography (hat, clothes, gun, scenery) juxtaposes the science fiction aspects of the wrist device.

Main character’s face is not shown which enforces the films sense of mystery.

No actors are mentioned which shows this film was either in pre-production or in the early stages of filming.

Mentions that the film is “From the Director of Iron Man” which indicates to the audience that the film will be action and special effects heavy.

Features the films title and its approximate release date.

The dusty brown colours contrast to the metallic blues which represents this films genre hybrid of Western and Sci-Fi.

Office SpaceFont choice connotes fun and comedy.

Red lettering brings to mind red pen on white paper, often associated with negative office conventions.

General business aesthetic conventions, e.g. half-frame glasses, tie, formal shoes and suitcase.

The fact the character is covered in post-it notes with only their business apparel showing is indicative that due to the nature of office work, business becomes more important than the person within.

Mentioning the creator Mike Judge and his previous work alerts the audience that this film may be a comedy focusing on contemporary American subculture.

Rejected Poster Design

My Film Poster

Evaluation of Poster

For my poster for Office Politics I wanted to produce something very simple, but still brought across the 9 to 5 working lifestyle. I feel I achieved this target with my poster. Firstly I wanted to ensure that I used plenty of business genre conventions such as keyboards, mugs and ties. The sketched, collage effect was use to make the poster stand out among other posters, bringing across a bold simplicity to the image. The font choice was chosen to give a fun and hand drawn feel to the poster.

Magazine Covers

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory Total Film Magazine – May 2005

All the main features of this issue with the Name of the magazine are all located within the top third of the cover. This is to make it instantly eye-catching whilst on the shelf, as it may possibly have other magazines in front covering the bottom half.

This image was most likely used to promote both the film it depicts and the summer preview feature. Also using such a high-profile actor in an unusual role is sure to catch the reader’s eye.

Filmmaker Magazine - QT

The layout of this cover clearly tries to make Quentin Tarantino the main focus, even placing him in front of the masthead.

The casual body language and expression are meant to make Quentin Tarantino seem quite casual and relaxed, reinforced by the almost Bond-esque suit and rose.

The subtitles are placed conveniently in fairly uninteresting areas of the image in order for Quentin Tarantino to remain visible.

Font choice denotes fun and comedy. Bubble font implies relaxed, fun atmosphere.

The black suite contrasts heavily to the white background to make the image stand out much more.

Rejected Magazine Cover Design

My Magazine CoverThis was the design I settled on for my magazine front cover. I felt it followed the film’s creative identity and style much closer than the design I rejected. I felt creating a coherent style across all the advertising would benefit the film far more than using more fragmented media styles. I kept the film’s title smaller than the masthead as this is a common magazine convention. As with the poster I used the common business conventions. However I felt it may seem hard to identify the genre straight from the cover image so I mentioned the genre in the subtitling beneath the film’s title. I did contemplate using more colour but I felt in just black and white it helped contrast against the colour of the masthead.

Teaser Trailers

The Woman In Black

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSHEYVGaWok

This trailer for the Hammer remake of the Woman in Black stage production and book uses a large number of thriller conventions. The prominence of black throughout creates connotations of mystery and fear, complementing the dreary grey used for the old building and surroundings. The quick shots and jump cuts interrupted my intertitles keeps a steady pace but still manages to build tension. By using the entire spectrum of shots they are able to give a sense of variety and surprise to the whole trailer.

The Avengers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2MhYgWBjTo

It has become a common teaser trailer cliché to present a gradual revealing of a well know logo or title. As the Avengers is a comic book film the primary audience is those media literate to Marvel comics. This is why this trailer appeals to a niche audience as it relies on the audience decoding the trailer themselves. However to potential audience members with no knowledge of comics may struggle to understand the films themes and genre just from the trailer.

My Teaser Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql2W3J5elMo&feature=channel_video_title

I felt my trailer managed to stay in line with my original artistic style I wanted to use. I do feel it may appear quite confusing to some audience members but I feel I stayed true to my original vision, making my film seem more like an indie or art film. I wanted to keep a slow rhythm to the piece which was aided by the music. This music contrasted the shots very well adding to the comedy of the trailer. I felt the intertitles were spaced just enough to provide all the information without disturbing the flow too much.

EvaluationI wanted to try keep as much of my productions as original as

possible so I tried not to rely on the conventions commonly used in comedy texts set in the workplace. I wanted my film to take on more of an “In the Loop” approach, providing believable, human characters instead of more exaggerated characters seen in comedies such as “The Office”. I still wanted my film to take a more fun approach, shown in the fonts used; a similar choice to the font used on the “Office Space” poster. The “hand sketched” effect applied to all my productions was intentional, as I wanted to bring across the idea of doodling and procrastination; escapism from the office working lifestyle. Obviously the main factor in producing a teaser trailer for the contemporary postmodern world was the internet as a powerful advertising tool. Due to the rise of viral marketing it meant the teaser needed to be fairly short, punchy and fairly enigmatic in its content. This meant I had to ensure there were no prolonged drawn-out sequences within the trailer, as this would bore the audience.

Evaluation Part 2The relationship between both the main product (teaser trailer) and its

ancillary texts (poster and magazine cover) is important as it creates a field of interest surrounding the potential audience. For example, the teaser trailer could alert an audience to a film’s presence, and the magazine covers could later refresh interest in said film. On the other hand the magazine cover or teaser could spark interest, causing audiences to seek out more information given in the teaser trailer. This means that the various advertising texts must work in sync to firstly make audiences aware but then remind those already aware of the film. In this age of abundant digital publishing, media is able to saturate all aspects of our lives, mainly giving the advantages of both ease of use and better time management. For example producing a film poster by hand required a large amount of skill and expertise pre computer era. With the rise of digital video and image capture, the teaser trailer, magazine cover and poster all required less work to publish than they would have required if done by hand, pre digital era.