My Film Poster

For my film poster I want it to bring across the message that my film will be very dark. I will do this by using very low lighting and also edit my photo so that it is very dark and almost black and white.

I took a few pictures which would be suitable for my film poster and that I thought would create the right effect. I narrowed my decision down to these two.

I decided to go for the image of the character sitting in the bath as this involves no blood. I was unsure whether it would be a good idea or necessary to have blood on my film poster.

I also thought that I would be able to edit the picture very well and I could see where I would fit the title and other information in.

I started the editing by reducing the saturation of the chosen picture. I did not do it too much as I did not want a complete black and white effect, instead I wanted a darker effect with a small hint of colour. I then increased the contrast to make the subject really stand out.

Next I made a faded black effect on the top and bottom of my photo, I did this by creating a new layer in photoshop then used the gradient tool.

I then started to add the title, there were three fonts I was interested in (see below) I decided on the first eroded font as it stood out well and looked effective. As I made the fade into black top, I thought that grey would be a suitable colour for poster title. I then used a slightly different grey and a smaller font for the actors names.

Some posters include "directed by", I did not do this as the director's name is already above the title as I acted and directed in the trailer.

I then moved on to add other text such as "coming soon" and theatre details.

The final text I added was distribution and production details on either side of the poster.

I felt that my film poster went very well, better than I expected. I have never used photoshop before so it was a program that was very new too me, however I learnt the basics fast and quickly made changes to my photo. I believe that my film poster put across the message that I wanted very well.

Film Poster Research

I am going to research movies off the thriller, crime and film noir genre that also explore life in a dark city.

Film: Sin City

Poster: http://thehealingtouch.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/sin_city.jpg
Director: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
Writers: Frank Miller
Tag line: Hell of a way to end a partnership.Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything.
Skinny little Nancy Callahan. She grew up. She filled out.You're gonna love this,baby.
There is no justice without sin.
Summary: "Sin City" is four stories inter-weaved telling tales of corruption in Basin City. The first story (The Customer is always right) is short, and is based on the depression of women that they need to pay a man to feel loved when they commit suicide. The next story is Part 1 of "That Yellow Bastard"about a cop who needs to save a young girl from being raped. The third story (The Hard Goodbye) features a man taking revenge on a heartless killer who murdered his one-night stand. The fourth story (The Big, Fat Kill) stars a man who must dispatch a cop's body, but it will be a tough ride to do it. Following that are two conclusions to Sin City,the ending of "That Yellow Bastard" which is set 8 years later, and a short story that ends Sin City. (taken from imdb.com)
Relevance:Sin City is very relevant to my film idea as it covers similar issues in the same film noir style. Also it uses voice overs a lot through out the film, something that I plan to do.
Analysis: As you can clearly seen on the film poster, it has used very low lighting to portray the theme of the film. The film poster is entirely black and white apart from the film title which is in a deep red which uses a font that resembles an old comic book style, just like the Frank Miller comic book series. The subjects of the poster are the main characters of the film all in different action poses and also a small silhouette of a lone figure walking in the city.

Film: Pulp FictionDirector: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino, Roger AvaryTag line: You won't know the facts until you've seen the fiction.Summary: Pumpkin and Honey Bunny are two thieves who, while dining at a coffee shop
, decide that the best thing to do is to rob it. Vincent and Jules, two hit men workingfor
mob kingpin Marcellus Wallace, are sent to retrieve a very special and very mysterious briefcase for their boss. Vincent later must also show Mrs. Wallace a good time while her husband is out. Butch Coolidge is an aging prizefighter who is being paid to "take a dive", but instead, accidentally kills his opponent, and tries to flee town, but not before getting his dead father's lucky golden watch. These four seemingly unrelated stories are interwoven together in a non-linear fashion (taken from imdb.com)
Relevance: Pulp fiction is a crime thriller with a moderate amount of blood and violence.
Analysis: The pulp fiction film poster uses very low lighting and Uma Thurman laying on her front smoking to create an old style, sexy look. She has a gun and cut drugs in front of her to resemble danger and thrill. The poster has been edited to look like an old, tattered poster by using a ripped effect on the side and a worn effect over the entire poster. The fonts used stand out, yellow on red background, and also help with the old school look.




Film: Bangkok Dangerous
Director: Pang BrothersWriters: Jason Richman and the Pang Brothers
Tagline: The hitman has become the target.
Summary: Joe, an international hit man who follows a simple code, arrives in Bangkok for his last contract - four kills and then retirement. He hires Kong, a local street hustler, to run his errands, and he gets to work. By the second hit, Joe has started violating his four rules, losing his anonymity, leaving behind traces, and getting emotionally involved. Only one rule remains intact: don't ask questions. Can Joe regain his footing and get out alive?
Relevance: Bangkok Dangerous is a crime thriller involving a twisting plot line which includes crime and romance.
Analysis: The poster for Bangkok Dangerous is in black and white, something I am interested in. The fonts used are very big and stand out. A bullet hole has been placed in the middle of the word Bangkok to represent danger. The poster subject itself is Nicholas Cage the lead actor of the film in very dark lighting and then as you can clearly see, the picture has been edited so it has very high contrast, for example the face is black one side, in the shadow and then the other is white.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the new generation of the internet, applications that broaden our possibilities. With web 2.0 the internet is much more interactive and audience created. Websites and applications such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia and various blog sites. Web 2.0 allows the user to exchange content and communicate with other users.
With new websites such as Web 2.0 users have more control over the website instead of the website solely being run by the producers, where as before users could only retrieve information from a web 1.0 website.
"the characteristics of Web 2.0 are: rich user experience, user participation, dynamic content, metadata, web standards and scalability*"

YouTube, the video upload site is a fine example of a Web 2.0 as the website would not be able to work without the user. The producer requires users to upload home made videos to the site to increase site hits. Without the home videos then there will be no hits, which means no more rise in users, which then means no more videos posted to the site.
Flickr is another fine example, similiar to YouTube however it revolves around photos uploaded by other users.


*scalability is a desirable property of a system, a network, or a process, which indicates its ability to either handle growing amounts of work in a graceful manner or to be readily enlarged.

Media Presentations

Newspaper Presentation

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Television Presentation

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Filming my Trailer part 1

For the first day of filming I tackled all indoor scenes, these included shots that would introduce the characters into the film.
I was lucky and had no complications during my filming, something that doesn't happen often. I filmed a variety of shots which included props such as knives, bottles and a banjo.
As I'm editing all of my film into black and white, it is crucial that I have a strong, direct light source on my subject. I used a powerful lamp and pointed it at my subject to create this light source.
I used my own house to shoot most of the scenes, and a number of rooms such as my bedroom, hallway with wooden flooring and also my bedroom. The hallway was very useful for footsteps sound effects, and the lighting worked brilliantly.

I have about two shooting days left, on the second day I shall do outdoor scenes and a fight scene. I'll also be doing a scene using strong lighting, natural darkness and also a fire. On the third day I'll be concentrating on filming scenes involving a speeding car, during this time, safety is very important.

Editing my trailer part 1

As my film is an action film noir, I think that it is very important to have it in black and white, I feel that this creates a very desireable effect.

In previous years changing my film to black and white was a simple task of simply going to the top bar in iMovie, going to video effects and clicking "black and white".

However in iMovie 08' it is a slightly harder task, I used the internet to research a method to turn my film trailer into a classy black and white film noir master piece.

To turn any clip black and white, first I must select the clip and press "V". This brings up the adjust video panel.

This panel allows me to change the colour in my video clips.

By decreasing the saturation to its' very lowest point I take away all colour. However I must then increase the contrast so that my images are not "muddy" looking and are clear. Higher contrast makes dark images look darker and light images look lighter, which is perfect for a black and white effect.

Long Tail Theory

Long tail theory involves selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities. Amazon.com is an examples of a company that has used this strategy.
The advantage of Long Tail Theory means that companies are able to realise the potential profits from selling small volumes of hard to find items to a larger number of customers instead of only selling large numbers of not so popular products. The total sales of this large number of "non-hit items" is called the Long Tail.
Given a large enough availability of choice, a large population of customers, and negligible stocking and distribution costs, the selection and buying pattern of the population results in a "Power Law" distribution curve (as shown top right). This suggests that a market with a high freedom of choice will create a certain degree of inequality by favoring the upper 20% of the items ("hits" or "head") against the other 80% ("non-hits" or "long tail").