Question 2

I was required to make a film poster and review about my short film. I think my posters and film review were extremely effective because they followed the codes and conventions of a real film poster. I did research on both blockbuster films and posters in order to make sure that I followed the codes and conventions of a film and poster perfectly. I decided to write a magazine review because they are very important in the film industry when you're trying to get people to watch your film. The public can access film reviews online and in shops ect and some are even available for free, so you don't necessarily have to have money to see a film review. Due to the fact that critics writing the film reviews are professionals in finding out a film that will be a success and a film that won't people trust their opinions, which makes it successful. Film magazines also offer readers information about an upcoming film that they probably couldn't have found anywhere else e.g. Empire magazine found out that the character Megatron was coming back in the Transformers 2 film before anyone else. This is why if a film review is good it can encourage people to watch your film, it can even get people who aren't your target audience to watch your film due to film magazines being aimed at the film magazines target audience and not yours.

 

If your film is bad the public will see the negative reviews and will therefore be reluctant to watch your film. Even some posters include star ratings and quotes from critics from top film magazines. I chose 'Total film magazine' due to its energetic and charismatic focused writing style. I particularly love the way in which they were able to draw the reader, while cleverly analysing a film for both its technical appearance as well as the narrative of the film. Out of all the reviews I researched this was the review I felt was similar to my writing style. I liked the way they engaged the reader and the way they made the reader feel comfortable reading their magazine even if they knew nothing about films. I thought this writing style was perfect for our film due to it being an independent film, so audiences weren't used to it. The writing style of the magazine eased them into our film and made them feel comfortable. I believe I followed the codes and conventions of a film magazine to the best of my abilities. Due to my limited supply of word programmes I don't believe my magazine looked exactly like the real magazine, but it was very close; especially considering my armature abilities and software. I chose the main image of Max trying to hold Sarah's hand in order to show readers there tense relationship. I didn't get their faces in the shot because I didn't need them due to the fact that Michael and Sarah aren't established actors/actresses, so I didn't need to use them as a unique selling point for the review or poster; as opposed to the film Seven Pounds' that used Will Smith to get more people to watch the film due to his success in a film that explored the same themes as 'Seven Pounds'. Due to the fact that our film was based on grief I thought a son reaching out for his mother's hand, but his mother not receiving the affection displayed the theme of grief well.

 
One of the main selling points of my film is the level of emotion poured into it by both the actors/actresses and the crew, that really came across in the film. In order to make sure that target audiences could feel the emotion of the film I used images from the film that contained strong body language and facial expressions e.g. in one of my posters the Character Sarah is just looking down feeling sorry for herself. In another poster the character Sarah is on her own on a park bench, which is something audiences associate with being lonely. Most of the posters I made were mainly black and white, so that viewers could concentrate on the facial expressions of the actors/actresses more due to the fact that they weren't established, so I couldn't rely on their faces appearing on the poster alone. I also mentioned the fact that the director of 'Fragmental' (my opening sequence for as level) directed this film as well. I did this to make the director seem well know and I also did this to attract people who had watched 'Fragmental' to our film. Posters usually do this to associate themselves with a previous film that was successful to attract people to watch their film. Some of the posters I made were also quite abstract e.g. there is a poster of the character Sarah looking sad, but you can only just make out her face, but you can see her sad eyes. I thought that this was effective because it would make the audience focus on her eyes only, so they would focus on the grief. I added things like a credit block to all my posters to make them look more professional. I also used the font Myriad, which is a text used for making credit blocks even though it's the less popular one used. I also added small logo's of company's I made up to my posters to once again at realism and professionalism. The font used for the title 'Lost For Words' was Times New Roman. I used this font so that viewers would focus on the main image more. This font is also quite dramatic because it's bold and old, which added to the films genre of drama. The colours black and white are also colours that are quite dramatic because there so classic, so they make a bold statement. For one of my posters the title 'Lost For Words' was spread across the poster moving from left to right instead of in a straight line. I did this to vary the poster up a bit and make it look more interesting. Due to the fact that viewers are used to seeing a title for a film in one or two straight lines; me changing that on my poster on my poster made my poster more attractive because it was different. By doing this I went against the codes and conventions of a film magazine. I also made completely different posters for my film in order for audiences to get a good look at both characters for example there's a high-key poster for the character of Max and a low-key poster for the character of Sarah. The contrast in lighting was used so that audiences could tell who was the one being hurt the most in the relationship between Sarah and Max. Making different versions of a Poster is something that many films do.