Post Production: Draft Two

After looking through Internet images of any influential poster ideas, I managed to collect a few conventions of a poster. The films I looked at were True Grit (2010), Casino Royale (2006), Inglorious Basterds (2009) and The Dark Knight (2008).

I used these posters to get an idea of how a teaser poster looks in terms of, layout, font, size of text, design and colour. Each poster individually helped me create the teaser poster with the suitable conventions of a teaser in place.

In terms of development we worked as a team to portray a poster as effective as possible with the equipment we had. From the draft one to our final draft, there are noticeable improvements to the quality of work.

As we tried different images, we realised it is crucial to maintain the idea of being a 'teaser'. Therefore we needed to make sure that little information was given away and keep the design of the poster neat. After looking through more posters we had an attraction to making the image of John Walters a shadow. As an editor this task was challenging as I had to cut out John Walters character and expose the shadow clearly. To do this I masked off section of the characters body, and had erased it. This appeared rigid and messy, so I used a range of tools to blur, burn and smudge areas. These tools blended pixels together, therefore reducing the rigid appearance and creating a bold outline. In addition to this I manipulated the image itself, adding darkness by adjusting the contrast and brightness.

Magazine Front Cover Analysis

We wanted the title to be big and bold, as this would stand out for our target readers., also with the bold white writing on a dark background, it stood out even more.
With the title, we decided to use a typical western font, as this was the correct decision considering our film was within the western genre, also knowing that the title is exactly by a picture of the main character enables the reader to understand what the magazine cover is about. We had some small issues with jimmy’s head, as at first we could not put it over the title until we cropped it.
The use of different films congealed on a certain side of the cover is a typical magazine convention, and engages a reader to buy the magazine and read on. The use of different fonts for the films was to show how all the films have an individual identity.
The use of the sub-heading ‘world exclusive’ is another typical magazine convention, and we used this heading, as it was used often on many professional magazine covers.
Once again the use of the sub-headings are typical magazine conventions, and give the reader a slight insight into what they expect to see within the magazine.
With the picture being in the middle of the page, it enabled us to consider over conventions such as the headings, title, barcodes and the use of font.
The use of the barcode, is a usual convention for any magazine, and we after looking at many different magazine front covers, the majority of the barcodes were in the bottom right hand corner of the page.

Post Production: Draft One

To create the poster I used the graphic editing software Adobe Photoshop CS3. As the CS3 version isn't the newest product Adobe had made, it was easier to get different tutorials because of how long it has been in use. Also I found it easier to work with because I work with Adobe Photoshop CS3 in other subjects.

Firstly I emphasised the influence of black within the photo,creating an ominous presence. I achieved this by 'masking' the areas behind the character John Walters, then filling the area I had selected with black. I also added the title of the film, placing it on the black in a white font so it stood out. I carried on using the same font, used throughout the film. Once I had added the title, I placed the logo that represents our production team and then other logos that existed within our film.

To make the logos appear more effective I had to erase all the white areas around the image. Furthermore I decided to retouch all the rigid areas around the 'Four Horsemen' logo, by zooming in on the photo showing all the uneven pixelated areas. I simply erased the uneven edges, using the 'eraser tool'. It was vital I organised my work accordingly, placing different steps into 'layers'. Layers are in Adobe Photoshop to hold part of an image or a whole image, create exacting adjustments to our images, combine multiple images, or create new images. They are effects or images that have been placed into the programme by the editor, which then can be organised into groups or named.

 After I had completed these steps I looked through the images we had taken for the poster, and decided to start a new draft on an image that looked effective. I saved this draft and began editing a new image immediately.

John Walters Analytical Poster Review

For our poster, which is in the process of being edited, we have a shadowed figure in the background, which may show the audience that the main character is a strange yet mysterious person. This may also show the possibility of a split personality problem, and how he has not got a clear idea for himself.
The use of light on the back wall, suggests how Walters may be moving forwards into the light and into a brighter future, especially suggesting the way that his shadow is facing. It may also suggest the use of a split personality once again with the use of the light with him dark, perhaps suggesting how he is in a different mindset.
The use of the lonely guitar case resembles Walters past, as he has been very troubled, and has gone through a rough patch in his career. The Guitar case also represents strength to the audience, as it stands there alone, it can relate to Walters, how he has to battle his own wars alone with alcohol and drug abuse without any help.
The use of font for our poster is Vanilla White; we chose this because it gave the best effect of a western genre. The wording is very western like, but also gives a slight hint of the godfather, with the lines blurring off to the side.
The use of the website on our poster is to give the idea of a real poster convention; therefore like the posters we studied such as Inception, they all had links to their websites at the bottom of the poster.
The use of production companies at the bottom of the page is another typical convention of film posters, as this is shown with the posters in Gran Torino and Inception. It sometimes has links to the production company’s websites, which can give more information into the existing film.

6th February 2012

Final production work is eventually being tied up and completed now, and should be completed shortly. The poster has been evaluated and completed, and we are just waiting for other members of the group to upload them. Our evaluation is also near conclusion; the only thing we are waiting for is the upload of the final pictures to the evaluation.
Our magazine cover is also near to being finished, with just a few, small adjustments being needed to try and perfect our cover, we were having obvious problems with the titles and sub-headings along the side of the front cover. We had problems with the 100 greatest performances, which seemed strange for a magazine cover. For the fonts, we had numerous different fonts for the magazine cover, therefore causing a lack of continuity running through our front cover.