Visual poster feedback

OK so basically, I thought Conor and I would visualise for Patrick what our feedback on his poster, and how adding a little bit of colour and an action shot could do there first draft of a poster.

So obviously this was done very quick just as an example, to show the others. But we think just the tiny but of colour we have added to this poster, gives it just that little bit extra that it was lacking.
we havent fully managed to show what we mean by having the red flashing light at the bottom ( like the flashing light you see in films with bombs).. we wanted it so that it would give some glow.. to the 'Summer 2011', which we havent quite managed in this quick attempt, but we hope they will get the idea of what we mean.. If they did think it was a good idea.. obviously it would be done alot better, than me just using shapes..

Also the action shot image of someone running, kinda works, but somethings not right about it.. we wanted it too look like the runner was coming out of the shadows.. but we're sure we can get a better picture for that, but we defiantly think its better than just having lots of text there.

At the moment, we think this draft lacks emotion, so that the audience aren't drawn into the tense emotion that the film is about, As we mentoioned about in the post about unstoppable so we think on how to improve this we could add real emotion to the poster.



Yours Faithfully - I hate that it makes people sounds like they are servants. MS and CW

Unstoppable poster

Furthering our research on posters I thought I would take a look at a Similar kind of storyline, well in the fact that its got the possibility of killing millions and that they have to try and stop it!..

I really like the colours they have used on this poster, to me it shows a real tense action film. Whilst also drawing the audience to look at the poster, in like the same way, people are drawn to look at fire, where you just have to look at it.

For the title which is in the middle of page, which is unusual for what I have seen. But it is cleverly done, as if it is a speeding train on fire, clever!..

As what seems the norm in lots of posters I've seen the main characters are at the top.. In the same font as the title

The images used are enthralling and exciting, mixing the main characters (clearly with loads of make up and photoshopped) up with the action shots, the use of the characters not only show who they have managed to pay to do be in the film, but it adds emotion to the poster, which draws the audience into the story. And as its based on a real life story (apparently). It gives a more appealing look rather than just a top production company doing a big explosive film.

And has all the writing no one reads at the bottom.. Along with the due date..

Thats all from me for now folks. MS

Unstoppable movie FAIL

Okay So Carrying on with my website research! I thought I would have a look at a similar film to ours.
'Unstoppable'!.. So you know google was finding it for me, so I was like Hmm WIKI will show me where to go, and there at the bottom, it says 'Official website' and in the bottom bar.. it tells me  http://www.unstoppablemovie.com/ .. So I said YAY to myself and clicked on it.. and then expecting to see an amazing flash website. But NOO.. I am taken to to there site on Amazon.. umm what, Pesky Wikipedia uploaders.

but I persisted and carried on looking using there facebook website! But there it linked me to the same site.

So basically www.unstoppablemovie.com just auto directs the audience to Amazon. The only reason I can think why they would do that, is just to save money on getting people to code a website for them, which is just a poor excuse, its like trying to force people to buy the Blu Ray!.. I'm pretty sure DVD is still more popular than Blue Ray! If people wanted to buy it then, they would just Amazon search it themselves.. they don't need to be directed there!.. GAH!..

^^ YOU FAIL UNSTOPPABLE! love from a disgruntled customer! MS

The Other Guys website research.

So I'm back to talking about my favourite film at the moment, The Other guys, but not just the other guys, but the other guys website!.. Now this is a fancy flashy, lots of movement website.

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/theotherguys/site/

The website starts with a full screnflash video of the motion poster I mentioned in a post before. Which can be skipped if you wanted to.
It then ends up on here..

The main image is of the main 2 protagonist characters of the film. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, this image takes up the majority of the screen (It also is the image that they use on the film posters.) The smoke effect in the background is constantly moving while the characters in the foreground are static)

The website also shows the title of the film in large noticeable font, just incase the people viewing the website, don't know what website it is..  It also has the names of Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell above, and below the title, it has about the dvd and blueray.

In the top left corner of the website it has a featured box, which is basically a quick link to the trailer. The way they have presented this, shows that its what they most want you to look at.

The link bar contains the links.. 'About the film'... 'Videos'... 'Photos'.. 'Downloads'... 'Cadet Academy'... 'Twitter game'

When  your mouse rolls over, the links on the page the text of the link becomes white but also it has a roll over sound what sounds like a gun jamming. (so you can make a cool little tune when moving the mouse over the links.. yeah!) But if it annoys you, what I'm sure it could the site lets you mute it. Also for 'About the film' on roll over you get a horizontal drop down menu.. below 'Story'.. 'Cast'.. 'Crew'

Facebook has taken the internet by storm, with 500 million active users on facebook, the website can get more visitors to their site, by including a 'Like' button what connects with the audiences facebooks, where the like will show up on there profile so that there friends. They also have share buttons for some of the internets social network sites, to share the link on there. This can also increase there audience, The clever thing with this is that its a form of advertising without having to pay!.. Clever!..

When clicking on view trailer.. it darkens the screen and pop ups a flash video player.. which remains dead in the centre of the screen. even when scrolling!!.. Clever.

About the Film - Story

In this page, it shows the drop down menu under, about the film. The page goes over the smoke effect, but loses the action shot photo, it moves the title below the text. At the top of the page it has a wide picture, which is a shot from the film. and the text below. It also has a related  box..


Lots of research! MS

Website feedback

Ok so the design we made was a very very rough quick design. So not much feedback to report on it.
The main part of our background was the building background that Patrick had made. Which not only works well with the website as well. Images were also used to create the text for the website links, this was done because the font won't work on most computers, as they don't have the font installed on the computer, so the web browser would convert the text, to some boring normal one.

So the feedback.
Conors idea is that we could include a bomb timer in the corner, counting down the days until our supposed film will be out. So we would use an image of a bomb, with a clock what counts down. We all agreed this would be a good idea, if we could work out how to do it, as it will emphasise the film.

That we should use the same font as the poster.

Have little action silhouettes.

Roll over stuff.

Have the background remain static, and have a box which scrolls down (leaving the links static at the top too)..

So thats basically all the feedback, which can defiantly be included. But more research needs to be done on websites.

Its half term- Im doing work- Amazed! MS

Extra Poster feedback.

They liked the colours that Patrick and Piyal had used, that its like a poster what could cheaply be mass produced and looks like the posters that see in the Londons underground!.
Something a bit like this. ( I know its an old pic, but it shows the general idea)

They liked the style of font that they used, and commented on its consistance and suitability to the poster.

They also liked the effect that the had used, which made the effect on the cloud look effective for the poster.

The feedback me and Conor gave (but not noted)

We felt there should be some bit of colour, we suggested that maybe the red flashing light of the bomb should be at the bottom (in the dark middle bit).. which could like give a little glow to some of the writing at the bottom, which will give it that extra something. 

As Patrick has already noted about, we said about having an action shot, but didnt go into further about it. We suggested an action shot, to show the audience what type of film it is, to give excitement and tension to the poster. We suggested shots such as like the main MI5 agen (the protagonist) in a running motion, but this could still be a silhouette in just one colour, to stick with the theme.. Or it could be like a a speeding car, the brief case, just something to give a little about the storyline away.

The big group of text in the middle of the poster should be moved to somewhere not at the center of the picture, which draws the audience to that, which isn't very important. On posters normally its like tucked away at the bottom, so it includes it but the audience isn't drawn to it.

But overall I thought it was a very good first draft for the poster.. Defiantly the use of the background!.. Which I'm sure will be in the final poster.

Written up on behalf of the whole group.. MS

Total Film Analysis/Research

I have chosen to focus on the film magazine "Total Film". I am looking at the production details, Audience, mode of address and representation.

PRODUCTION DETAILS
Total Film is produced by Future Publishing in Bath. Future produces over 150 magazines worldwide including magazines like Classic Rock, Xbox 360 Magazine and Total Guitar. Their magazines are produced in over 30 countries around the world.
Total Film is one of their biggest selling magazines with around 85-90,000 magazines sold each month. It costs £4.00 and will occasionally have free DVDs and books accompanying the magazine. It features reviews of new films and old films revisited.
It has a consistent format and layout with the following elements:
a). Cover article - the big feature of the month
b). Buzz - film gossip and news(films not yet released)
c). Reviews - reviews of cinema releases that month
d). Lounge - home entertainment news and features (near the back)
e). Reader's letters and competitions (to guarantee audience engagement)

AUDIENCE
The audience is primarily made up of young men who are film fans. Most of the letters are from men and the advertising is male-orientated. Most of the adverts support the film industry e.g. HMV, Play.com, DVDs due to be released. Men are also targeted for the classified adverts at the back for games, gadgets, technology, cars and phone sex lines. However, the magazine does claim that 25% of its readers are women.

MODE OF ADDRESS
The mode of address is playful, masculine and youthful e.g. looking at Harry Potter lego designs to see if it gives clues for the films. The magazine is not very laddish by including film references and jokes whilst not being too serious. It positions its audience as young, knowledgeable film lovers who are familiar with pop culture references and have a sense of humour

REPRESENTATION
There is a bias towards men which is the same as in Hollywood. Most of the stars and directors featured are male. The women who are featured are presented as sex objects who are all attractive and sexy. It does reject laddishness that is in magazines like Zoo and Nuts. Future conducted a survey several years ago that claimed that the average demographic is 75% male and the median age is 26. The psychometric profile describes Total Film readers as dedicated film goers who see films on the opening weekend and show off their film knowledge to their mates in the pub.

PM

magazine research

I know for the ancillary tasks we are doing Posters, and the website. But I thought as a backup I thought I could do also, a magazine research and a rough draft. For my research I have been looking at couple of websites.

http://www.empireonline.com/
http://www.totalfilm.com/magazine

I have been seeing how they have been laying out, the content, the size of font and maybe other features. I will try and my own on this tomorrow using some aspects of of these websites.

Feedback on Poster

Last media lesson with Mr Wroe we showed our poster to the class and got feedback on it. I was generally quite happy with the comments we had and I now have a good idea where to take it now to improve it. The comments we had were:

- "One of the taglines is all in capital letters whilst the other only has the first letter with a capital!

- "Should mix a tiny bit of colour into it"

- "Add another image into it, possibly an action shot"

Piyal and I will take these comments into account when we meet again to re-think the posters design.

PG and PM

film poster research

As our genre of our teaser is action/ thriller there was one thing which came to my mind researching an actual film poster and that is Casino Royale.

This is a really good poster to look at for many reason. Every aspect of this poster works means something and the attention to detail makes this poster work so well.

So we first see the Facial Expression it looks quite intense, serious and a face of thunder which means business. Bond is dressed in a stereotypical bond outfit. But it also a loose tie which might mean that is going to become a rebel and not play by the rules. He is seen as a focused guy on a mission and he wont stop till the task is done. His body language is not directly at the audience but more to the target and looks like a man to not mess around with. He doesnt look happy and he looks determined to get the job done which we can see through his facial expression and his carrying of the gun.

We also see the Bond Girl in the background. As other films he always has his lover for the film but she isnt you typical Bond girl. She looks serious and seems to be a character who isnt easy to work out if she is playing Bond or helping Bond. But looks like she will play a big part in Casino Royale.

It also has the release dates and the credits at the bottom telling us who produced this film. It has the movie company also put in on the bottom right. It shows that there has been a lot of detail put into making this poster. Covering a lot of the aspects which made it so successful in advertising Casino Royale.