Individual Poster Designs
For my initial poster design, I researched into existing film posters in order to create a poster that emulated existing ones. Via the research I was able to construct various designs and use conventions of existing posters in order to make an effective final product. I decided to look at the similar films I had researched previously to identify the ways in which the similar products presented their film. As the similar films I researched was Mr Brooks, I decided to focus primarily on this film poster to see if I could use the aspects they did. I first analysed the poster of the film Mr Brooks and identified if it conformed to the generic conventions of a poster and if it elicited the plot well in order to gain audience interest. The image below is the main Mr Brooks poster that was released on the DVD cover and at the cinema viewing. As the film has a similar plot aspect in the fact the protagonist has an alter ego/inner demon that controls them to commit horrific murders I feel it was useful to research the poster. The Mr Brooks poster features the protagonist central on the poster with the Title clearly printed underneath the character. The iconic image of the poster, however, is the cut out of the protagonists face to reveal the alter ego inside him. In order to draw attention to the inner character inside the central character has been filtered red, which has connotations of evil and the the devil. I decided this element would be effective for my poster as I want the audience to identify that the protagonist Vera is controlled by an alter ego, a darker side to her. The clever cut out of the Mr Brooks poster is a reveal of the characters inside and therefore offers an insight into what the film will entail. In creating my poster, I took images of Vera and the Alter ego against a plain background in which I then uploaded to the programme, Photoshop where I could apply the necessary effects in order to emulate the poster of the film Mr Brooks. |
| Image 1: Vera the protagonist |
In order to emulate the Mr Brooks poster, I had the character Vera place her hand over her eye which would give the appearance of holding something. I did this as the Mr Brooks poster presents the protagonist as taking a part of himself away to reveal his alter ego. I found doing this made it much easier in the editing software as all I had to do was simply use the cutting and crop tool to cut a square out of the protagonists face, creating the illusion that Vera is in fact holding a piece of her face. The second image I took for the poster was the image of Vera's alter ego which would be layered over the first image to create the illusion that the alter ego is beneath the protagonist.
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| Image 2: Alter Ego |
I began with uploading the image into Photoshop, there I could resize the image to conform to the typical size and layout of a poster.
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In the next step I used the crop tool to select the square cut out of Vera's face to replicate the Mr Brooks square cut out. I was able to resize the crop tool accordingly and select it in order to cut it out.
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Step 3:
I duplicated the square cut out of Vera's face in order to effectively match up the square piece taken out of Vera's face, I angled the image of Vera's face that was cut out to make it look like Vera was taking the piece of herself out in order to reveal what is within.
Step 4:
I uploaded the image of the Alter Ego and cropped out the eye area of the alter ego to match up with the image of Vera. Rather much like the Mr Brooks poster I used a red coloured filter effect to fill in the image of the alter ego. The red filter elicits danger, evilness and murder lurking within the character Vera. I created a layer as presented in the clip which allowed me to alternate between the central image of Vera and the alter ego and safely save it.
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Step 5:
In this step I placed the previous layer of the alter ego over the existing image of Vera and carefully lined it up with the eye of Vera and re-positioned the cut out of Vera's eye. I encountered a slight issue with the lining up of the two images as the noses of the two different characters do not match up, however I believe the red filtering allows the audience to focus solely on the characters and not the positioning.
As you can see from the above image, I was at the stage of replicating the central image of the Mr Brooks poster. The next step involved the addition of text and a title. I feel the end result of the final image emulates the existing product effectively. Below are the comparative images.
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| Mr Brooks Poster |
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| Playback poster |
Step 6:
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| Text tool on Photoshop |
With reference to the Mr Brooks poster, I identified the title and the positioning of it underneath the protagonist. I decided to emulate this feature and created the title using the text tool. I used the font 'Steel Tongues which I downloaded on the website Dafont.com. I was able to re-size the font accordingly. I wanted the font to stand out and therefore I used a size 36 font in order for it to fit across the protagonist. In order to make an eye catching and apparent title, I changed the colour of the font to red. I decided to use the colour red as it connotes danger and in the films case, blood, however I also opted for the colour red as the alter ego is filtered in the colour red, I believe this create cohesion's on the poster, I also wanted to juxtapose the white background and the white clothing of the protagonist with the overt colour red. I wanted to suggest that the protagonist is of a pure quality as white connotes a sense of purity and kindness, the red contrast of the alter ego and the font indicates that it is the alter ego that has the evil quality. |
| Colour selector on Photoshop |
Step 7:
I then referred back to the poster and decided to add credits at the bottom of the poster which I have identified to be a generic convention of existing posters. The credits consists of the distributor, the director and the cast. I decided to use a grey font as the colour black would distract from the large red font of the title. I stated the name of our production company and then followed this with infomation of the director, producer, editor and cast. I feel this is a useful way to present to the audience who stars in the film and directed/produced it. Often members of the audience will base an opinion of the film by who directed or stars in it. I stated the names of our cast to replicate the form of real products and was able to see the benefits of this feature on posters.
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| Example of Credits on a poster |
Step 8:
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| Pie chart demonstrating the results of the questionnaire |
From my poster research I found that the social media are typically located in the corner of the film posters and sized relatively small yet recognisable to be the icons of Twitter and Facebook. I added the symbols of both Twitter and Facebook to increase the opportunity of audience members searching for the film. Among this research I also found that posters feature an age certificate. The age certificate, enforced by The British Board of Film Classification is located on all public media for the films, this includes, posters, trailers, DVD's and the film itself. The certificate aims to deter those under the age of the specified age certificate from watching the film. As the short film Playback is a 15 certificate, I uploaded the symbol of the 15 age certificate and positioned it in the left corner of the poster.
Step 9:
The vital aspect of a film poster is the tag line that aims to intrigue the audience. Tag lines are a short and brief way to indicate what the films content but can also be used to mislead the audience and therefore encourages them to watch the film. The tag line aspect is featured on the Mr Brooks poster in which I wanted to emulate. The tag line of the film Mr Brooks is, "The man who has everything has everything to hide". The position of the tag line is above the image of the protagonist and indicates that he is the man that is hiding and thus allows the audience to infer that from the image he is hiding an evil version of himself. I wanted to subvert the obvious use of a tag line and allow it to be misleading yet offer information about the film. I emulated the position of the tag line and placed it as the headline of the poster in a smaller font to the main title yet kept the colour scheme the same. The radio trailer and film trailer I created all feature the words MURDER, DECEPTION AND LIES. I wanted to create a theme throughout the three products of my short film and therefore I decided to reinforce the use of the key words in my poster. The reinforcement of the words throughout all media platforms will allow the audience the insight into the films dark content. I used the same font and ordered the terms in the same order both the radio trailer and the film trailer feature them.
Below are the Tag Line terms, the screenshots are from the film trailer.
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| The Tag line variation Once you press play, there's no going back. |
The Final Two Designs featuring all components of a film poster:
Second Poster Design:
I wanted to create a second film poster that suited the low budget quality of our short film whilst still maintaining a professional quality to it. I began by looking through the final film and selected an iconic image of the film. I wanted an image that intrigued audiences yet did not reveal a lot of the films content. When constructing the script and thinking of suitable locations for the murders and horrific acts that take place in our film I decided an underpass would make an eerie location as the closed in walls with artificial light creates a dim and almost sleazy atmosphere. I initially wanted to use an underpass for this purpose due to the research of the film Irreversible directed by Gaspar Noe. The film features an underpass in which a woman is raped, I felt that this could be an intertextual element within our short film as both feature horrific acts. The underpass scene in which Vera has a flashback to an attack taking place in the underpass and running away is the image I chose as the final image for the poster.
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| Underpass scene inspired by the film Irreversible |
Step 1:
The first step I took in the creation of the poster was the transfer of the image from YouTube to the editing programme Photoshop.
Step 2:
I created a black boarder for both the top and bottom of the poster. I did this to cover up the YouTube Title and the YouTube play bar. It also was created as a basis for the text of the film. I created the black boarders by cropping the segments I did not want on the poster and filled them in with the colour black.
Step 3:
I wanted to add an aspect to the poster that would indicate that the film has elements of surrealism and the fact that the majority of the film is video footage. I decided to download an image of TV static and upload it to the Photoshop document.
Step 4:
I created a layer of the TV static and placed it over the layer consisting of the main poster image featuring the protagonist. It created the desired effect of the protagonist trapped in a TV set/ had the quality of it being a film which links to the title Playback. I feel an analysis of the poster would be that as the character Vera is creating the Playback tapes herself and sending them to herself, the tv static quality to the image indicates that her reality has been distorted and is in fact living via the Playbacks she creates. The thriller aspect of the film is also elicited via the dark clothing of the character and the canted effect of the image. The running motion of the character suggests she is running from someone/something.
Step 5:
I used the similar aspect of the first poster design in which I featured a tag line. I used the same tag line terms, "MURDER. DECEPTION. LIES". When considering the font colour I decided that a black and red colour scheme adheres to most existing thriller film posters. I believe red and black elicit death and darkness, key themes within our film. I also added the film certificate and social media icons. 
From the research of posters I found that a critic review is featured on a poster to gain an interest in the film via the good reviews. Typically a well known critic elicits an excellent film worthy of watching and therefore I created a variation of the poster above featuring a real review from an audience member, however I used the name Guardian as it is a popular reviewer of films. To demonstrate the rating of the film I used images of Stars to demonstrate this.
The final film posters:
Third Poster Design
As I took inspiration from the film Irreversible I also took inspiration of the film poster in the fact Irreversible features an underpass with a woman walking through it. The font on Irreversible is the same font used in the title sequence to the short film Playback which was inspired by Gasper Noe's other film, Enter The Void. I decided to use the font we used in the film to create a sense of cohesion and that indicated they linked. From using the same font, I began to create and emulate Irreversible's film poster which is a perfect of example of the intertextuality across both the film and film poster.
Comparative images of the underpass. In both films an horrific scene takes place in the underpass, the wide walls creates a sense of confinement around the characters.
I identified the components of the Irreversible poster in order to replicate it. The use of a red filter in the Irreversible poster creates a sense of danger surrounding the female, I wanted to emulate this and therefore I had to place a red filter over the image. I used a Photo Editing applicator that allowed me to increase the saturation, contrast and select a colour to emphasise. I selected the light source and saturated them until they produced an orange hue. I then selected the red/brown striped walls and contrasted it several times in order to produce an unnatural red. It created a surrealist effect which our film can be interpreted as surreal as most of the images presented to the audience is in fact a video tape recording and fabrications of an insane woman controlled by an alter ego of herself. 
I used the programme Photoshop to create the third poster design and had to change the size and layout of the new project to fit the landscape image of the underpass image.
I created a landscape black background as this would create the border after the image of the protagonist is applied to the programme Photoshop.
Step 3:
I then created a layer for the underpass image and positioned it to right of the background in order to create a thin border at the top of the poster and a large border down the side and bottom. I will then be able to place the font on the black base including critics and the title.
Step 4:
I then selected the colour swatch red from the previous posters and filtered the image of Vera slightly red. The red is the aspect of the Irreversible poster which has been my inspiration, however, the red connotes danger to the audience offering them with an insight into the films content and themes.
Step 5:
I then used the bottom of the border to place the credits of the film in the font steel tongs and used a deep red for an eye catching quality but to also replicate the block colours used in the sequence of the short film Playback and the poster Irreversible.
Step 6:
I then created the title of the film and adhered to the convention of existing posters by situating the title above the credits and below the main image. I used the same block orange and capital lettering as the Irreversible poster. I feel the contrast of the red and orange against the black creates an enigmatic poster. I feel the font has the look and quality of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction which is an iconic font and film.
Step 7:
I then added the tag line of the short film MURDER. DECEPTION. LIES to place above the image and headline the main image. I opted for a red font as I wanted the title to singularly be orange and the smaller font to be red yet still capitalised.
The final addition of font was added to fill the black side bar. I decided to use this to display the critic opinion of the short film. I used a white font to indicate that it is not part of the initial film, it is the added information for the audience to see the thoughts on the film.
Step 9:
The finished components suited the style of poster I had initially wanted to create. The image below is the final image of the poster with all the aspects discussed above.
Step 10:
As you can see from the comparative images below, the Irreversible poster presents a canted image of the woman in the underpass, however, in the film the cinematography does not present a canted angel, whereas our film does present the underpass scene in the canted angle shot. Therefore I opted to not angle the image in the same way the Irreversible poster does as the canted still image creates its own disorientating effect.
I felt that the Irreversible poster connotes more danger due to the red filtration in comparison to my poster. Upon research of other films and their genre, I wanted to elicit the same aspect their posters did via the use of a red filtration. The Hitchcock film, Psycho uses the red filtration and therefore I have created a similar image as the one demonstrated below I therefore decided to saturate the image more and create more of an unnatural red rather much like the experimental image of the film still prior to creating the poster. 
As demonstrated in the image, the image has been saturated and the red filter has been exaggerated to create the similar filter to the the Irreversible poster. Upon closer inspection I found that the Irreversible poster feathers the edge of the image in order for it to blend with the black. I firstly used the gradient tool to make a gradient to apply to the image.
I then was able to select the type of gradient and the visibility of it. I then selected OK which then allowed me to draw a line of where I wanted the gradation to appear. I labelled the image to demonstrate the gradual fade of the central image into the black background/border.
The image now has less apparent lines and corners, it has been blended smoothly into the black creating an even more disorientating image. It creates a vignette look which is something the Playback footage within our film has.
I then felt the underpass needed to have the exaggerated red as in previous attempts and therefore I saturated the image and placed a red filtration over the main image.
The Final Film Posters:
I created two final poster variations that could be released in leaflet handouts at film festivals due to the art style of the images. I created one with the image of the protagonist placed over the black background and another where the image has been blended into the black creating a vignette effect.
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