Poster Research

A film poster is is sometimes the first introduction that an audience has to a film. Because of this it must not only attract the audience, but also describe the basic narrative of the film,  genre of the film and the starring cast of the production.
These must be displayed clearly, and presented in a format that will show the nature of the film as they may be the reason that the audience decides to vue the film . They must display its convection's correctly so as  not to mislead the audience.


There are a number of convection's  present in film posters, that give the audience suggested clues about the overall plot and genre of the film.


The genre of the film can be seen in the overall colour or use light in the poster, dark or black colour's suggest that the film is a horror film, war or action film or possibly a thriller. While light and bright colours suggest a comedy or a film with a more light hearted content in its narrative.
  
The narrative of the film can sometimes be seen through the emotions of the characters on the poster, if there are any characters shown on the poster. 
It is normally also displayed through written text on the poster ,which can give important indications as to the narrative. This is shown through a specific quote from the film, or a slogan that gives an overall message relating to the film plot, this assists in marketing the film to its chosen audience.


Example's

The poster for the film Taken shows many of the convection's of a poster for a thriller. 
Unlike a action film where the main character stands in a position of authority, Liam Neeson is out of shot in a sinister pose. The colours in a poster for an action film , tend to be bright and the writing is usually bold and clear. The poster may also show  explosions in the background.

The main character here however is half in darkness, and half in light consequently we only see one side of his face. This masks the identify of the character and makes him look sinister, any emotion from him is not seen as his face is obscured by shadow.
The poster also lacks colour, in fact in the poster, is black and white, except for the film title Taken and the name of the main actor Liam Neeson, which are both displayed in Orange. The lack of colours suggest the dark nature of the film.

Written across the central part of the poster is a quote from the film this sets the overall message of the production, for an audience it also further suggests the films dark nature.  The quote has little meaning to anyone who has not watched the film ,it does however have deep and sinister undertones This in itself may intrigue them to research the film further, and ultimately go and actually view it.

This poster is in contrast's with the poster from Taken. The writing is in bold and is clearly visible. The main colour of the poster is white and silver. Bright colours make up the main body in this poster, unlike the poster from Taken where the main colours and theme is very dark. 

The main actors are also seen clearly, this is also in contrast to Taken where the main character's face is masked by the darkness.

The bold writing and pose of the characters suggests to the audience that the film is an action film.  

Example's of the science fiction film Poster.

[Example 1]

Posters for Sci-Fi   films have there own specific Convection's that make them stand out to potential audiences, and  display the Genre of the film. Most of the film poster's for Sci-Fi films are displayed in dark colours normally with black and shades of grey.
Another characteristic is how the main character, actors or villains appear in the poster, their face is normally displayed in the poster, but only their face, or as shown here in the poster for Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back (Example 1) where the characters are seen on the poster in a number of scenes from the film with the villains face or symbol normally behind the rest of the main cast, showing his dominance as a character. This is normally the case in sci-fi films that have a number of fantasy or adventure elements . The poster is similar to others from this genre.
Also included in these poster but sometimes forgotten, is the underlying text which includes the names of actors and production company and the film name (which is normally displayed in the form of a logo, that will also be seen in the film).


In many Sci-fi posters, the actors are not shown at all in the poster, and a major scene or event is depicted (Example 2 & 3). Possibly a prop for the film is shown instead (Examples 4).

[Example 2]

[Example 3]

[Example 4]

Poster Research

The most important feature of a film poster in attracting an audience is the image and presentation of it. It shows the audience what film it is, when it is out, what genre it is, who stars in it, etc, all key points that influence a decision to watch a film or not.

Film posters also tell you what the narrative to the film is. This, again, can be seen through the mise-en-scene of the characters.

The genre of the film can be clearly seen through colour and the lighting of the poster which is sub-conciously is taken into account very clearly. For example, red, black and other dark colours can mean a horror film or a film with dark elements.

Written text give very important indications to the film whether it be a quote from a newspaper, a star rating, a quote from the film, an effective line to make you think about the film, awards, outstanding actors, outstanding directors/producers/writers, etc.

Examples

In an adventure drama film like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the character is stood looking like he is in mid-battle as implied from the weapon in hand and facial expression of being on guard. The colours are dark and dingy-looking to create a sense of discomfort to portray the film events. The writing across which says "NOWHERE IS SAFE" indicates a quest for safety or an end to a war/feud/dangerous situation which give the sense of adventure from the poster.

In a comedy film like Knocked Up, the characters are pulling facial expressions that are humourous and the picture behind them is a serious situation which shows immediately that the film will have a large humour based around a real-life situation. The play on words at the bottom which says "Expected in cinemas soon" allows the audience to look out for the release date as well as it implying a joke on childbirth expectancy. The magazine quote "Unroarious... explosively funny" states the genre as comedy.

Sci-Fi Film Posters

Science-Fiction films would contain futuristic elements to describe the futuristic narrative and the colours would genrally be silver, blue, etc, and the written text across would usually be a quote about the filmto make you think about it.

Extra Filming Scene

At this point (09/01/2012) we are in post-production.

In this stage in the film industry, shots that do not go right are re-filmed. These shots/scenes are called 'pick-up' shots/scenes.

We realised from the beginning that if we were to do a sci-fi film, there would be location and set problems for us. For example, we possibly find a creation lab or use a hospital room in Barnsley General Hospital.

We have found that, in the scene where Alpha 7 is supposed to be confined, there are continuity errors on the shots, plus the scene does not look effective because he is supposed to have just been created and left in solitary confinement in a hospital-like room, however, we shot it in a classroom.

We later found a small room in the college which is a hospital/medical room for nursing students which we did not know about before. Due to this, we have decided to do a 'pick-up' scene where we can fix both the set and the continuity errors.

As a result then, the scene will look more realistic and the continuity errors will be solved.
This is the shot list for the filming to commence on the 12/01/2012 is listed below:


1) Long shot of Alpha on bed looking blank
2) Close up on him
3) Long shot of him walking over to wall to listen (Pan Shot)
4) Medium long shot of him searching for clothing (Handheld shot)
5) Close up of shoe on
6) Close up of shoe strap
7) Close up of shirt
8) Close up of collar put down

Audience Research

I was planning on doing molre research on the Irish classification of films for my audience research however i am unsure of it relevance after we have already looked at the BBFC, Here is work i had already done towards it:

I have noticed that most films not only have the BBFC classification on them but they also have classification fromt the Irish Film Classification Office. Seen as our film, if it were to be released, would be released in the UK i thought it a good idea to also do this classification also as very occationally they differ.