Film Poster Design

We decided to go for a film poster that is based on the main set of our short film which is at a Bus Stop. We decided that the poster should contain images that the audience would recognise such as for example key props that would be used in our film such as the flowers. We also wanted to link it with the audience by adding material that relates to what they have already seen and do, such as school books. 

Storyboard

Below is our storyboard plan for our film which will be set around a Bus Stop near our school, several other locations that we will be recording our film in are the surrounding areas around the Bus Stop. Which won't be getting as much screen time as the main location since our short will be set around this Bus Stop.

justin storyboard

Casting and Location Reccies

Sean Plummer-this is a friend from school who has agreed to play the boyfriend of the main 

character, this character will also be deaf.

Kate Blythe-she is also a friend from school who will be playing the main characters fantasy girl who is also deaf.

We are still waiting for a reply from another friend who is undecided on if they can play the lead role of the typical 'geek'.

Location Reccies

This is a picture from google maps of the bus stop we are planning to use for our filming. It is just outside school so traveling obviously is not going to be an issue. The only problem is that we plan to film during lunch times as our timetables clash and it is the easiest time to film. the problem with at weekends is the costumes as the costumes are going to be school uniforms and there is no place to change.

Script Planning

Scene 1 Ext Bus Stop Day

Voice over: I've never been that confident when it came to talking to girls always sitting quietly at the Bus Stop, see that boy sitting at the Bus Stop? Well thats me a long time ago during my awkward days.

Dave - Sitting down at Bus Stop

Kate - Walks by 

Dave - Sees her walk towards him and stands by the Bus Stop post

Kate - Turns around

Dave - Looks away and stares at a different location

Kate - Gets on the Bus

Scene 2 Ext Bus Stop Day 

Voice over: The next day I saw her again tried to talk to her... but that didn't turn out so well...

Dave - Tries to speak to her but finds it hard whilst being nervous

             Dave: " Hey...uh...my na..(pushed around by surrounding people at bus stop)

Kate - Ignores him

Dave - Gets knocked over by passers by who are trying to get on the bus

Scene 3 Ext Bus Stop Day

Dave - Tries to speak to her again

             Dave: Hi, you alright I'm Dave

Kate - Completely ignores him and takes the bus 

Dave - Monologuing towards himself 

Voice over: Guess she didn't hear me, gotta do something to get her attention. 

Scene 4 Ext Bus Stop Day

Dave- Brings in flowers and walks towards her until a Bee flies in

Dave - Swings flowers trying to hit the Bee, but hits parts of the Bus Stop 

Dave - Accidentally hits another guy in the face/head

Stranger - Stands up and looks intimidating towards Dave

Dave - Runs off while being chased by the stranger 

Voice over: Why does this sort of thing happen to ME!?!

Scene 5 Ext Bus Stop Day 

Voice over: Right if this doesn't work, then I got nothing else left...

Dave -Walks up to her and taps her on the shoulder 

Kate - Turns around and looks at him surprised 

            Dave: I made this for you 

Dave - Hands her a mix tape

Kate - Looks at it confused and makes several gestures with her hands 

            Kate (sign language): What is this? Is this a joke?

Dave - Realizing she is deaf he tries to say something until he notices the stranger from before

             Dave:..um...

            Voice over:...Aww crap...

Stranger - Walks up and makes gestures towards Kate

                    Stranger (sign language): Who is this fool?

Dave - Realizes the stranger is her boyfriend, walks away feeling sad and embarassed with                        himself

             Voice over:... guess she's taken...

Dave - Sits down at the same spot in the Bus Stop in Scene 1 looking sad

New Girl - Comes in to view of camera and sits next to him looking friendly with a smile 

                    New Girl - Hi I'm new here

                    Dave:...uh... hey

                    

Synopsis Commentary

Our group started with many different ideas for the short film, all of which revolved around violence. We had ideas about a night out drinking turns bad or to have some dystopian future where white people were the minority group and people were highly racist towards them. We realised these ideas would be highly complicated to film so we decided to go along the lines of a light hearted film. We thought doing a romantic comedy would be a good way to go because the british film industry is well known for its romantic comedies and we thought it would be simple to film.

We came up with the idea of a teenage boy who was typicaly awkward and not very good when it came to talking to girls. The main inspiration for this film was a short film we watched a film as a class called 'Veronique'. 

Our film follows 5 days where the main charcter is trying to get a girl to notice him but is unsuccessful. He tries many things but cant seem to get through to her, the reason for this turns out to be because the girl is deaf and has been completely unaware of what he has been trying to do. The reason why we chose to do a film like this is because we thought the idea would be a bit different and would make our film stand out a bit more. The purpose of this film is to try and take a different look at the normal british romantic comedy and give it a small twist.

Development Of Film Posters

Since cinema began posters have always been a good way to publicise your film. Some posters have become very iconic and many have been based around them. Posters often target specific audiences and always try to make use of colour, and in few examples not, to grab the audience's attention.

As technology has advanced it has allowed for a more techniques to be used within the poster to gain a larger audience. The most common application for film posters is photoshop. This allows images to be manipulated expertly and carefully to design immaculate images to promote their film. Advances have been made making film posters even more sophisticated, film posters are now in 3D and can be digital moving images. The use of technology while making posters has been crucial, many companies want to get ahead of the curve and be the first to produce a poster with the latest technology as it will create an immediate interest among potential audience members.

Short Films research

What are the conventions of a short film?

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn. Academy of Motion picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits. The purpose of these films vary from being educational/Informative films, being promotional for more developed and refined box office films. As well as being an experiment, based on developing actors, summaries for films or testing out visual techniques and camera angles as well as for effects.

One example of a short film that I will be using is the film called 'Ataque de Panico' by a producer from Uruguay called Fede Alvarez. It is about the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo being invaded and destroyed by giant robots and spaceships. It was filmed with a budget of only $300 (£186) and lasts for only 4 minutes and 48 seconds and currently has 1.5 million views on Youtube. The movie will be sponsored by director Sam Raimi who was director of the comic book film Spiderman (2002) and the cult horror Evil Dead (1981).

The narrative structure of the film generally has no dialog what so ever but instead uses background music, the song called "In the house-In a heartbeat" which was an instrumental piece by John Murphy, which was composed in the film 28 Days Later (2002). The only ever dialog used in the film though was from the news anchor played by Martin Sarthou reporting the attack on the city. The theme of the film follows traditional alien invasion films that came before it such as War of the Worlds (2005) directed by Steven Spielberg and Mars Attacks! (1996) directed by Tim Burton. In that it generally starts off with an attack on Earth unprovoked, leading to humans being nearly wiped out but at the end find a way to fight back. In this film however the film concludes with the robots coming together to form a giant sphere that explodes, destroying the city and no one left alive. The style of the film is heavily set within Science Fiction or Sci-Fi in that the majority of the film is based on an Alien Invasion much like War of the Worlds.

The use of sound was used well within this film in that we do not get much dialog other than from the news reporter, instead we mostly hear background noise such as the people screaming and panicking around the city. The sounds of explosions caused by the giant robots can also be heard, all this helps the short film give out a sense of chaos towards people. Use of editing can also be seen easily in that the graphics used for creating the robots and ships were edited within the film as well as the scenes of explosions and fire throughout the city. The editors use of bringing the robots into plain view through establishing shots, where in one scene robots come out from the fog as a way to introduce them further helps understand the fact that they came out of nowhere before attacking the city. The camera angles used in this short are numerous in that some shots are point of of view shots of what people are seeing when looking up at the sky seeing the ships dart across. As well as looking through a persons camera, seeing what they are recording as well. Over the shoulder camera where also used in the film especially in one scene when the news reporter was reporting about the giant robots attacking.The Mise en Scene that we in the film shows how completely unaware the people were when the attack started in the city as all the people we see in this film are civilian just by looking at their clothes, as well as the fact we see no military at all within the short film.

What is the purpose of a short film?

The purpose of a short film is based mainly for experimental reasons, mainly done by inexperienced directors trying to refine their skills. This can be seen in their use of sound, editing and cinematography. However some directors create shortfilms as a basic template for the future. Such as independent film naker Fede Alvarez's short film Ataque De Panico, which garnered a large amount of views in YouTube that director Sam Raimi has stepped in to produce the short film into a feature length film. Another example would the short film Alive in Joburg (2005) directed by Neill Blomkamp which was about alien refugees living with human beings in Johannesburg, focusing on the themes of Apartheid and waqs note for its documentary style. The story was later expanded in the film District 9 (2009) the theme and setting of this short film is similar to the film Alien Nation (1988).

Fortunately for those short films that have not been picked up on such as the two above, short films do not rely on needing a large audience to watch their short film. Instead these short films are developed to help showcase the skills as a director as well as the skills of the acting cast and film crew to help them get in to the big business of the film industry.

What are the potential audiences for short films?

A feature film is a film made for distribution towards theaters and being the main attraction on the screening, rather than a short film before it. Feature films have to present rather typical themes which can be easily definable in a genre towards the audience. This is to guarantee that a return in investment is assured due to the fact that production of full length films require a large budget for it to be produced.

Also in short films require large funds in order to be produced this often is acquired through institutions such as the UK film council and funding from the National lottery, an example of a film that has done this is the british film London to Brighton (2006). Without the proper amount of funds for production it can lead poor quality filming and a lack of distribution of the film. On the other hand there are some short films that do fine without proper funds such as Ataque de Panico which was filmed with a budget of only $300 (£186) before being posted on YouTube and becoming a huge success.

For short films such as Attaque de panico and Alive in Joburg. Attaque de Panico I think is more suited for older audiences, adolescent viewers being the minimumage to watch due to the fact there is a lot of violence and flashing images used which may be harmful towards younger viewers. Alive in Joburg would also be suited to similar audiences like Attaque de Panico due to both being based in the Science Fiction genre and the fact that this film looks into apartheid would be considered too mature for younger audiences.

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) classify films into different categories depending on the level of violence, language, sex and drugs that are used within the film. Attaque de Panico would likely be given 12/12 A, as the short film does have violence but no one within the film is shown being harmed nor are they emphasised or detailed most of the harm is being done towards the city in the film. As for Alive in Joburg it would most likely gain a 15 as the film depicts a lot of violence as well as dangerous behaviour.

With these sorts of classifications set towards these films likely for those in 12/12A meaning only audience over 12 can watch this although this would not be too damaging towards the films earning as most audiences who will watch the will be over this age limit. As for the film set for 15 this may affect the films earnings as the rating will keep audience below the age 15 from watching the film.

What Is A Short FIlm?

A short film is a film not long enough to be called 'feature legnth'. There isn't an association that decides where the boundary is drawn. The Academy of motion picture arts and science defines ashort film as 'an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits'. IMDB says that its a film less then 45 minutes long. Short films are then classified by the BBFC

Short films use the main convention of being quite experimental due to the fact that the audience is a nische and dont have certain expectations. Also the distribution companies are not worried about where their money is going. Short films usualy try to challenge recurring themes in society, for example 'Double Take' focuses on community payback against criminals. Also short films are there for the director to get them selves noticed such as Fede Alvarez

One not very recognised exploitation of short film is what Neill Bloomkamp did with 'Alive In Joburg' and that is to use it as a pre-cursor for another feature legnth and to show distribution companies.

Differences To Feature Legnth Films

Firstly the most obvious difference between feature legnth films and short films is the legnth of the films. Short films are less than an hour and feature legnth films last over an hour. The other obvious difference is the budget. A big budget for a short film would be a film like 'Cherries' which had a £3000 budget where as the average feature legnth film has a budget of over a £1,000,000. These budget issues also cause for the equipment used and the actors in short films to low budget so short films will include lots of hand held camera movements and the cast will be not very recognisable. Feature legnth films, especially Hollywood have certain audience expectations. The audience usualy expect famous actors and the todarov narrative structure will usualy be included unless there is a sequal expected.

Todarov 5 part narrative technique:

*Equilibrium
*Disequilibrium
*Recognition of disequilibrium
*Attempt to resolve disequilibrium
*Resolution, with a new equilibrium

Short films audience's dont have the same problem as the audience is a more nische audience who go looking for the films.

Film Posters

Film posters are produced by the company who has made the film in order to promote the film and attract a large audience. To gain a mass audience the posters are placed specifically where the institution feel the majority of people in the area will be there target audience. An example of this is billboards in which a poster is displayed. Billboards are very useful in the sense that they target both pedestrians and drivers. Posters are much smaller and are usually located on primary and secondary roads, with some being placed in commuter hot spots such as train stations and bus shelters.

Posters are designed to catch a persons attention and to create a memorable impression very quickly. They are designed so that even once the potential customer has already passed the poster that they are still thinking about it. Posters are designed to portray the story of the film through an image and very little text. Poster should contain specific elements and details about the film. The title is almost always mentioned, this is to allow the audience to know what they are looking at. However the title isn't always shown, as in the poster for 'District 9' . Posters like this use a 'call to action', This is often a website adress which the audience can use to gain extra information about the upcomibng film. Techniques like this are not very common as they are very risky, however, it creates intrigue among the audience and can sometimes pay off.

Short Film Research

Short films are defined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and sciences is "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". Short films tend to differ from feature films with the narrative structure. Classic Hollywood films tend to have closed endings and feature a linear storyline. However short films tend to have non-linear storylines and an open ending. This is to fit more into the short film, non-linear narratives are used to present the background to the story within the time constraints.

Feature films have to present very typical themes and be easily defined into a genre, this is mostly due to the budget used needing to guarantee an audience to make a return on the investment. Short films often have very limited budgets such as "Attaque De Panico" which had a budget of $300. This therefore allows the themes presented within short films to be very experimental, often tackling taboo issues such as racism, immigration or freedom of speech. short films generally present a 'dystopian' theme, this is to reflect upon society as it is and to question what is happening. The benefit of social realist films is that they have a very gritty look, this adds realism and is one of the cheaper genre films to create.

Short films are generally made by inexperienced directors, this means that the film will often suffer issuses with sound, editing and cinematography. However, some short films are made by experiecned directors such as Neil Blomkamp, who was trying to promote his idea for a film of 'District 9' by making 'Alive in Joburg' to show off the type of film he could make.

The Audience for short films is very limited, fortunately short films are not made specifically to attract a big audience, instead they are used to promote the ability of the director, cast and crew. Short films are used as a way of breaking into the highly competitive film industry.

Short films often require a lot of funding and the distribution is limited due to the financial implications. Short films require funding from institutions, such as the UK film council and funding from The National Lottery. The lack of funding can result in a poor quality film and a very limited distribution of the film. Of course this is not always the case, as shown by "Attaque De Panico" a short Uruguayan film with a $300 budget which went viral becoming a huge success.

Unfortunately the audience for short films is very niche. A few short films are lucky enough to be shown at film festivals, however these tend to be directors with some prestige already obtained. The internet has had a very big impact on the distribution of short films. Short films have mainly been shown through film festivals and small gatherings and to a limited audience. However the internet has allowed for video hosting sites. For the smaller, more independent short films this is essential and their films are often broadcast on youtube. While this is a good way of your video being recognised and shown for free the audience often have to intentionally be looking for the video and it is unlikely people will stumble upon it and watch it.

Short films usually tackle quite controversial issues and therefore the British Board Of Film Classification would give the film a much higher age rating. This can be an issue in terms of distribution of the short film. This may effect what festivals the film can be shown at and if it is lucky enough to be shown on a government owned television channel it will effect the times that it can be shown. Most short films are likely to receive an age rating of 15 as they often tackle taboo subjects and have frequent use of bad language and violence.

Magazines

The purpose of a magazine film review is to gain further advertising and allowing the potential audience to gain an opinion about the film and to gain additional information. The audience look to magazine film reviews to gain a 'third party opinion'. In magazines this is a film critic, considered to be an expert and therefore want an informed decision on the film. Furthermore the advertising potential that a good magazine film review can give a good film is immense. So much so that advanced previews are based on receiving good critical opinion to further advertise the film and may win over the audience who might not have seen the film.

Within the UK the main film review magazines are 'Empire' and 'Total Film'. These magazines are completely based on retail potential. However for critical opinion the main film review magazine in the UK is 'Sight And Sound'.

Both 'Empire' and 'Total Film' are based upon purely market research. They are very much the Hollywood style of publishing. Most critics would say that the magazines are 'style over substance'. We can see the Hollywood emphasis on these magazines as it is always a huge blockbuster film that is on the front cover. The content is very much the same, they present the gloss and glamour associated with Hollywood.

However, 'Sight And Sound' magazine is very much the opposite and would be considered the critics choice. It is endorsed by the British Film Institute, and unlike 'Empire' or 'Total Film' it would be considered 'substance over style'. It presents a more global focus and even reviews foreign films.

'Sight And Sound' target their audience by being very detailed and often describing the whole film. Whereas 'Empire' and 'Total Film' outline the film but do not include any spoilers and generally present the film very well, intertwined with witty humour. Meanwhile 'Sight And Sound' give analysis rather than outline the plot mixed with interviews and dry humour. 'Sight And Sound' often assume that the audience knows everything about cinema, However the more Hollywood based magazines such as 'Empire' or 'Total Film' try to spoon feed all the information to the audience.

The Target audience for both 'Empire' and 'Total Film' are mainly 17-30 year old males. This is due to a very masculine style for the magazine and the reasonable price of £3.99. 'Sight And Sound' on the other hand have a more upmarket audience even though it costs £3.95. For the audience that it targets 'Empire' and 'Total Film' magazine present a very colourful layout full of pictures and information that isn't very relevant just to fill the page. These magazines also have add-ons such captions which try to add humour. 'Sight And Sound' also try to add humour in captions, however the humour is targeted specifically at their audience and is not very obvious to a normal film goer.

How are Semiotics and anchorage used for film posters?

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, as well as the messages we read in them. Many film posters contain semiotics, in that the audiences quickly process a lot of information just by looking at visual imagery contained within them. These can be through the use of colour which can set the mood or feeling in our first look of the film poster, the titles and fonts used to catch our attention further in the poster when reading about it. Use of image can be important as well in the visual display towards audiences in that just by looking at the image it can tell a lot about the film and what audiences could be interested towards it. Another important feature towards attracting an audience is its layout.

Contemporary examples

Just from looking at this layout for the film poster I'Robot (2004)directed by Alex Proyas, it has garnered $144,801,023 worldwide thanks to film posters like this that grab the peoples attention due to its imagery. From looking at this poster we can see Will Smith as the main character on the foreground with rows of robots lined up behind him. This helps viewers better understand the plotline of the movie just by seeing whats on the poster, the angle by which these specific images are placed also adds a bit more attention to it towards passers by as this breaks away from traditional layouts of normal film posters. Which people more commonly see thus not grabbing their interest when looking at it. Another detail by which this poster grabs attention is the use of font it uses for its title, i,robot is similar to other well known names specifically i,pod because of this it helps people relate to the theme of technology that we today have grown accustomed to. Another way of using text to further pull the audiences interest is the use of taglines such as the one used by i,robot, "One man saw it coming", this gives a better image as to what is happening in the story for viewer. From looking at this poster we can only presume that; Will Smith plays as the main character and from seeing the badge on his belt it tells he plays as a detective, the tagline "one man saw it coming" is another give away to his profession as a detective and the fact that there are row upon row of robots standing in the background further links to the tagline and the main character as well as the fact the film is called i,Robot.

Classic examples

Image has been very important but films are often remembered for their tagline. Films such as Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott, is a great example of this, with the popular tagline "In Space no one can hear you scream". This tagline is a great way of emphasising what the movie is about in that it is a dark, sci-fi, horror. Because of its success the film has gone on to produce three more sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997) as well as two spin-offs Alien vs Predator (2004) and Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007). The layout of this film is completely opposite towards the above example in that it follows a very dark and somewhat devoid backgroud this in a way emphasises the setting of the film being in space, with what appears to be an image of an egg on the foreground hatching. This image tells viewers of something stirring in space, something alien. The use of bright neon green mixed in with the black gives a very stark imagery of whats to come in the film, it also further strengthens the notion of this being a horror film, the bright light coming out of the egg gives viewers that feeling of wanting to know whats beyond it.

Film Posters

The main purpose of a film poster to advertise a new film that is coming out and to create hype for the film. To gain as much exposure as possible these posters will be laid out in places where as many people as possible will see them, for example posters will be put on big billboards at the sides of roads, on the underground and in bus shelters.

This poster for Shaun Of The Dead was placed specificaly on the underground to appeal to the people taking the underground. There are usualy different posters made up to appeal to different audiences.

This district 9 poster was put across bus stops. The public will realise this is obviously for a film and will use the call to action at the bottom of the poster to find out more about these films.

This jaws poster is arguably one of the most famous and recognisable film posters. This poster is from 1975 and only shows iconic scenes from the movie, more modern posters have an iconic image plus credits,names of actors and of the director. This poster makes the themes very obvious as we see it's most likely going to be a thriller/horror about shark attacks. Film poster will use the code of using an iconic picture from the film.

This poster for the film Wanted is a perfect example of a modern film

poster. It features a billing block,call to action, names of all the lead roles, a release date and an iconic picture of the film. From this poster you can clearly see the genre of the film will be an action film through the main focus of the poster being the gun held in the main characters hand. We see the co-star in the background holding a pair of guns as if he is about to shoot. The background is of the sky but it is almost a golden colour which could suggest the film could have some kind of a religous theme.

Short Film (Research)

The narrative structure of short films differs from film to film, for example some films such as 'Double Take' by Toa Stappard have a non-linear structure and others such as 'For The Love' by Chtis Sherriff have a linear structure. Short Films can have open endings or can be closed ended. Todarov came up with a 5 part narrative structure; Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, Recognition of disequilibrium, attempt to resolve disequilibrium and Resolutio, with a new equilibrium. So the narrative structure of short films is the same as regular full length feature films except it is achieved in a shorter period of time.

The themes of short films are very different from feature films as there is more freedom for directors to explore events that affect society such as war (Cherries by Tom Harper), immigration (For The love Of by Chris Sheriff), etc.

The genre of short films is often social realist or depict a dystopian future as the genre often reflect problems happening in society.This isn't true of all short films as some follow genre that reflect their countires film industry such as 'Veronique' by Patrick Bergh, this short film is a romantic comedy and this is associated with British film. Short films have a low budget that is very different from the budgets of hollywood films, for example 'Attaque De Panico' by Fede Alvarez had a budget of only $300 and relied on the directors skills with CGI. The low budgets often work to the social realist themes of these films as they give them a gritty look.

The low budgets of the film will of course affect the equipment used and therefore affect the sound, editing, cinematography and mise en scene. There will be some hand held camera work and unless the director has experience in special effects there will often be none. Editing will be done with a high standard software but not quite professional and the score will usually be a free download that dosen't go against copywrite law as the budget isn't big enough for copywrited music.

The purpose of a short film isn't always to reflect on society but also to show off the director. Short films are usualy shown at film festivals such as Cannes and bring forward up and coming directors. 'Alive In Joburg' by Neill Blomkamp was made to show off his idea for 'District 9', and 'Attaque De Panico' by Fede Alvarez was show off his CGI skills, his video went viral and he was offered to make a film with a $300 million budget compared to his $300 budget film. Short films give up and coming directors to show off their creativity and to be experimental rather then being given a strict formula like hollywood films.