Film Poster Development..

We are currently in the process of designing our film poster on Microsoft Publisher. We have decided on a pink and orange colour scheme, as these are generally seen on ROM-com posters and portray the feeling of romance very well. We came across a dilemma when we realised the actors names we had chosen to star in our film didn't fit very well with our format, so we changed Zoey Deschanel to Gabriella and Andrew Garfield to Garfield. This was a long process to pick the names, as they had to be the same sort of length and fit well together. We decided to make their last names bigger and a different colour to stand out and catch the viewers eye, because the actors/actresses last names you generally more famous than their first. We have created a tag line for our film which is "love makes the imperfect, perfect" we put this on our poster as well, we chose to put it at the bottom so not to distract people from the title and actors names. We noticed that all film poster have billing boards on the bottom of the poster, we therefore created our own. Generally people tend not to read the billing boards on a poster and therefore granted this feature less iimportant. We zoomed into a ROM-com poster to see what content is included in a billing board, we did our research to find a popuar ROM-com director and chose Nancy Meyers to be supposedly directing our film. We are currently fighting with the size of the writing to make the billing board and it is currently a size 14 in Bodoni MT Poster Compressed style. We chose this writing as on posters it's usually quite squished up and hard to read, and this rests well with the rest of the poster. We chose not to include a specific date of release and decided to just go with Summer 2011, most ROM-coms tend to be released durig spring and summer as these are romantic seasons, where most people tend to fall in love. Underneith the date, we chose to put a website for our film as we found that post posters do have them. Obvoiusly we still have to add in the main picture and title but we haven't had a nice day to take pictures for it. We are planning to have a picture of the main couple sitting on a bench and try to make the title look like it's sitting on the bench with them.

Rom-Com Poster Research..

To understand what we need to include in our romantic comedy poster, we decided to do some poster research solely on Rom-COM posters. All four of these romantic comedy posters have the two main characters fronted to catch our attention, they also have the actress' and actor's names above their picture. Typically the woman is positioned on the left and the man on the right, we therefore decided to portray this on our own poster. Focussing on their names, we noticed that the last name is considerable bigger than the first, and often a different colour, we also decided to include this technique on our poster. Our colour scheme is orange and bright pink, this typically portrays the romantic comedy feeling very well, shown in the 'Faillure to Launch' poster. We also chose to keep our background plain and simple and chose white like 'The Proposal' and 'The Ugly Truth'. In these posters we noticed that the clothes the actors are wearing represent the colour scheme used on the poster, we also decided to use this convention, along with the typical tagline underneith the title. Although this is only shown on two posters, we felt that most Rom-COM's tend to have one, also that the date of release is positioned at the bottom of the poster and is not often specific. We decided to keep the typical convention of having the billing block at the bottom of the poster, which is not only shown on Rom-COM posters, but on most film posters also.

New Story Line..

We have decided to alter our storyline to give it more depth and challenge the usual conventions by using the a black boy as our main male character. Usually in a ROM-com, the main couple are of one origin and don't usually mix between cultures, this can be shown well in the High School Musical franchise, there is a white and black couple, but never any mixed couples. So we are tying a new thing in the media world.


Our story is about a single girl called Maria, who is looking for her perfect man. She is one of those girls who doesn't want to settle for just anybody and believe she deserves her prince charming. As she was brought up by parents with a very loving and strong relationship, she is desperate to find her own happy ending. After trying to find her perfect man she starts to wonder whether the so called 'Mr Perfect' actually exists. Her friends encourage her to go on a final date, she thinks that this man is the best person she's ever met. When she takes him back to meet her parents, the object and forbid her to see him. She's perfect for her, just not in her parents eyes.

Story Line Animatic..

This is the anamatic of our teaser trailer story line.  

Magazine Draft..

This is our first draft of our magazine front cover. After researching into Total Film magazine we decided to base our ideas around their layout. We will be using a close up photograph of our main character - Maria (Jade), as this is the typical convention of a magazine cover. We also noticed that Total Film often advertises story headings which are covered inside. The magazine also usually gives away free posters inside, therefore we have included this ad on our poster. Typically the magazine title would appear behind the main photo so we will show this on ours. We also need to make sure we include the important finer details like the bar code, date and price.

Film Poster Draft..

From our film poster research we concluded that there are some conventions of film posters that we have to abide by, these include:-

- having the date of release at the bottom

- putting the billing block at the bottom

- having the actors names is at the top

- the film title to be either in the middle or at the bottom

- a possible tag line near the title

This is our initial idea of our poster. We decided to place the main characters on a bench as this is a pose that the audience could relate to in a romantic comedy film. We would use a photo to create this image, whereas we could have drawn or computerised it. We kept the typical convention of having the billing block and the date of release at the bottom of the page as these are seen as less important. We also decided as a group to have a tag line that represents our film and gives the audience an insight of what could happen throughout the film, we decided to put this at the top to make it eye-catching and not draw too much attention from the film title. We couldn't decide the best place to put the title as we wanted to make it eye-catching and impacting, so we chose the middle.

This is our latest design. We have kept the billing block and date of release in the same as this is generally the place the audience will first look for that information. This information is also not as important as the film title and actors/actresses names. We have also kept the same image as before as it shows the genre of the film very well. We decided to add the actors names at the top of the page as this makes our poster look more professional. We had to move the tag line to underneath the image and title, I feel this was a better idea as it doesn't pull the attention away from the image and title. We decided to put the title next to the characters and try to create an effect of it 'sitting' next to them on the bench. We will use bright colours like pinks, purples and oranges and these are romantic, cheerful colours. We will try to portray this in what the characters are wearing as well as the writing. I think a white background would work best as this is typical of romantic comedy posters, such as Bridget Jones and Slumdog Millionaire.

Magazine Research..

For our coursework, we also have to make a film magazine front cover for our film. We decided to research different film magazines to get an idea of how to make our magazine cover stand out and effective. Most film magazines tend to have a similar layout which makes it easier for the audience to recognise the magazine in a shop and also for the front cover to catch their eye. This is done by make the headlines/subtitles bright and bold so they stand out onto of a relevant image.

Empire
Empire is a famous film magazine which includes lots of features and reviews of upcoming/newly released films. Their front covers keep to the continuity rule by always having the same layout and format. This consists of the magazine title always being bold, bright and eye catching. Unlike the film posters, the titles of magazines are always at the top, this helps the buyer to recognise it in a shop with lots of other magazines. The main character of the latest film is on the front of the magazine, sometimes covering part of the title. As the audience know the title very well there is no need to have it all showing as they know what it says. This causes the image to be bolder and more elaborate which brings more focus to the main character. The colours of each issue are usually based on schemes, so all the colours match each other, as if the colours were to clash, it would seem unappealing and messy. This magazine appeals to its target audience as it is bright and eye catching, the image is also of a famous actor that is very well known and would attract a wider audience too.

 

Total Film

Total Film magazine is similar to Empire considering they have used the same layout and kept the continuity throughout the piece. The magazine title is also as the top and the subtitles are usually all to one side, so it is unusual for the main film title to be centred for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film cover. The images are also of very popular actors, especially the Twilight themed cover, even if people didn't usually buy film magazines, they are likely to buy this as it is a franchise and could become a collectors item, which I think is a good way to sell their products. This magazine also covers the title with the image, as it is a major film magazine, the audience would already know the magazine cover well and are able to get away with it.  

Looking at these magazine covers has given me and insight into what is expected of a film magazine. We will need to take into account all the conventions we will need to stick to, like the large image, a good title which is often covered by the image, subtitles to the side of the cover. We will also need to remember the little details to make it authentic like the bar code, date and price. We must always keep in mind our target audience and make sure that our cover is always relevant to them.