Charlotte Smith's A2 Media Blog: Ancillary Task 2

The ancillary task requires each group to create a poster for their movie there are 4 types of posters in the marketing of film there is the: Teaser Poster, DVD Poster, Character Poster and the Main Poster. We will be creating a main poster for our product before we can however commence on the creation of the poster we must first:

Research the conventions of a main movie poster
Deconstruct a poster similar to our movie
Photoshop Training
Flat plan our poster

and then we can finally create the draft poster:

giving evidence to our construction of the poster
receiving feedback and evaluating it
evidencing the improvements of the poster
publishing the final draft
evaluating the final piece and deconstructing it.

This is the level of detail we are aiming for in our Movie poster.

Movie Poster Research

Main Poster

The main poster shows all the details and includes all main actors in the film. The main actors names are displayed at the top of this poster here with the names of the producer, director and crew members underneath, this poster is the most informative of them all it contains everything but the release date because this one usually comes out when it is already in cinemas. This is the type of poster we shall be creating for our film we want to divulge all the information of the crew and main actors and not tease.

The opposite: Teaser Poster

The teaser poster does what the title says, it teases the audience this is usually released when the movie isn't for viewing yet and has little information on it compared to the main poster, it usually has a release date, the title and the picture with possibly the big names of the actors starring in it. An example of a teaser poster is below:

Film Poster Analysis Sheet

Photoshop Training

To help use photoshop in the way that was relevant to our poster idea we went away and researched techniques we would use in our poster such as blending stray hairs on our female actors and blending our actors together so it looked more professional and less obvious they were photoshopped.

A helpful website for photoshop training was called Photoshop Essentials this was most helpful with lots of information so this was used along side other videos that were researched to get a large expanse of knowledge about how to use photoshop.

Construction of a practice poster

All the information was most helpful but a practice poster was still made so the skills that were learnt could be practiced firstly this would save time when it comes to creating the actual poster and experimenting with the pictures on there.

Adding both photos into photoshop

We started by dragging each of the photos we wanted to use into the same screen, creating a layer on the background image. After this we then had to adjust the bottom images size to match the image of the couple at the top and position it just under half way up.

Creating the layer ready for the gradient

Next we created the layer mask ready for the gradient to be applied this was done so the images could be blended together seamlessly. To do this SHIFT had to be held down as we dragged a small line in the centre of the page downwards to just above the couple in the beach pictures head. This then blended the images together and created a nice effect.

Finished practice poster

Flat Plans and poster layout trials

This is our first trial layout, this is how we got an idea of how we wanted the film poster to look and is a visual of how we would set the things out in Photoshop.
By creating our designs on paper and then transferring it roughly on to photoshop it enabled us to practise a much easier way of teaching ourselves with the layout of photoshop as we were using certain tools to created the plan.

After we had drawn up the first plan we turned to Photoshop to create an experimental draft, we had taken some pictures of the actors without their costumes on as it wasn't important at this stage all we needed was the positioning so we could import this into Photoshop. The cast stood infront of a white backdrop so it was easier to remove the dead space because it was all one colour. Our aim was to simply get the pictures in to see what they looked like in this positioning of the flat plan and to get an angle on using Photoshop.

So this is what the finished experimental draft looked like. We were quite pleased with this lay out because the two females in this are facing each other, one having an equal side of the male protagonist giving the feel that the two females have a link to the male and that they were on the same level at a sort of "stand off" for the man. A little symbolism behind their positioning is the "angle and devil on your shoulders" symbol, one female represents innocence and the other represents deceit. this is shown not only by the positioning of being on either side of the male but also in the lighting effect. Rebbeca (on the right) is swathed in more light and is paler than Millie (left). Rebbeca is the representative for the innocence and Millie is the representative for deceit or evil.
Millie is also positioned higher than Rebbecca because in the movie she "wins" and therefore has more power. The door blended in between the two girls links to the title of the movie "Behind Closed Doors" and was something we felt needed to be in the poster not just to fill the dead space but because it is has a meaning to the movie.

2nd flat plan

This is our second idea, after looking at the first we decided we wanted to see how things would look if they were moved up the page slightly, this would eliminate the credit block covering the girls faces as they're important characters who we really don't want to be undermined as unimportant because they're obscured slightly with the credit block. An effect used on the girls as well is the bottom of their pictures are frayed or ripped, as symbolism to the instability of the two girls and how relationships for the both of them are torn.

Construction evidence for creation of our actual draft

After many photographs and positioning we decided these three images are the ones we are going to be using for our actual film draft. The reason they are all photographed on the white back drop is so when it comes to just wanting their figure it wont take long to edit out the background. It also gave the opportunity to manipulate the light to get the right shadowing effect on the actors for their personalities.
We wanted each character to have a symbolic prop which hints at their personalities and is also a secret clue to the storyline.

Removing the background of the images

The next step after choosing our images was to remove the white background from the 3 photos so that we could apply them to the main poster background. The background must be removed so that the other layers can show through this is important. We achieved this by using the Quick Selection Tool and the Polygonal Background Erase Tool, this removed the white background for us we then smoothed things out with the Refine Edge feature which helps get rid of and add pieces of hair that we needed to make the photo look more natural if the hair was cut off in places when the background was removed.

Creating the Background

We decided on the black background for our poster just like in our trial poster after this was implemented we had to use the gradient tool to blend the image of Richard with the black background, how ever one side was to be black blend while the other was white and made to look quite translucent. To do this we created 2 layers of the image and on each layer we applied a different gradient and then put them together. When this was done we halved the image so we had half of one layer coming through that was applied with a dark gradient and half of the other layer coming through with a white gradient, this was an intuitive and creative idea that Deanna did and as you will see in the finished product look amazing and very well done.
The idea of the dark gradient on one half and white gradient on the other half ties in to the idea that the one girl represents innocence and an angel and the other represents deceit and the devil linking to the angel and devil on your shoulders.

Before and after Old styled saturation preset

Finally the images were combined together and then the saturation was altered using the Old style saturation present so there was less colour in it and more white washed this was to bring out the darker element of our film.

Shading and blending the images together

There is a lot of shading and blending of the images needed to create a dark aura for our movie poster but the end product was satisfying and i feel it was accomplished. The idea was we wanted the girls to look like they were coming out of the darkness or the only light in the darkness, they are white washed to look like ghosts to foreshadow their deaths, the scale of Richard and his positioning shows him as dominant and menacing over the girls.

Adding the door, the final image

After the characters are in place the final image is added which is the open door at the bottom inbetween the two girls, this was used mainly as a filler for the deadspace between the girls but also ase subtle symbolism to the movie title.

FINISHED DRAFT:

Positive Feedback:

The non-verbal communication within our poster is effective and tells the story for itself. The image of the two female characters present the most non-verbal communication in the poster which is what we were hoping to achieve.
The choice of images/framing represent the film in the best way. The way we have positioned the girls in body language present their opposite personalities and tell part of the story for themselves that they are at an opposition. Richard (the male) place inbetween the two ladies represents the link between the two which is what we wanted to show so we were glad it was picked up on.
Tagline suits the film and the presentation is good. The tagline is mixed with red and white, but the key words are in red. This is because, not only does it draw attention and improve the look of the poster, but red has connotations to do with love, lust, anger and danger,

Improvements

The blotch on top of Rebecca's head. Just some editing that went wrong caused her to have a blotch on her head this is easily amended.
Surnames closer to the cast members forenames. the forenames should also be smaller than the surnames. Surnames are more unique than first names so they must be bigger than the forename.
Possibly move the image of Richard up. This was an opinion because the poster looked slightly squashed.
Make the tag-line smaller and make the title stand out. the tagline was mistaken for the title so we were suggested to change it to a smaller font and make the title stand out more.
Alter the tag-line and cast names typography. We have too much of the same font so we were told to experiment with the tagline and maybe put the 2 words in red in a different font for emphasis.