Film poster- first draft

This is the original image that we used as the main feature on our film poster. We decided on this because Jess is the main character in our short film and we used subtle symbolism by her holding her stomach and having what is portrayed as alcohol in her hand. By doing this, it hints at the storyline of our short film as it based around teen pregnancy caused under the influence of alcohol.

Original image of Jess

I used Photoshop to create a film poster to ensure it appears professional. I started by uploading the above image of Jess to make that the background and main feature of the poster.

The toolbar on photoshop enabled us to add different features the main one being text. A default font was used for the text besides the bottom writing as we installed a particular font named 'steel tongs' which is a key feature used on film posters. The font enabled us to add information such as 'directed by' or 'edited by' in the correct way for example, the below images are the bottom of our film poster and the poster for 'The Last Song.'

Last Song film poster text

Our film poster text

I also needed to add other images onto the background image for example, the 12A and the stars at the top. This was done by using the 'magic wand tool.'

After opening the image I had to use the tool quick selection to go over the image/outline I wanted to put on the poster. By doing this, it would erase the background to show continuity on the poster it wouldn't be the same as the colour on the image of Jess.

The same process happened when doing the stars by I had to duplicate them to make sure they were the same size again to add continuity within the poster. The two images to the left show the process I went through to achieve this.

On the poster we added some effects to make the finished product more visually appealing. The first example is on the text as all the text on the poster appeared the same, I believed it would look better to add variation and emphasise the actors names. Therefore, I added a shadow effect shown in the image to the left which is a subtle way to make them stand out.

The second example of effects is to the main image of Jess. Due to the lighting not being good on the photo it was essential to adjust the brightness and contrast. This made it appear more professional and made the overall image appear better and not as dull. However, due to this I thought Jess needed to stand out ever more as she was the main feature of the poster. The effect (shown in the image to the left) did this as it enhanced the colour within the photo which ensured more emphasis was added on Jess.

This is the finished film poster. We went for a simplistic approach because we felt it would leave the audience more intrigued to watch the film as a result and also with the subtle symbolism of Jess holding her stomach and a drink (representing alcohol). The main title 'Deception' is situation around the areas where there is symbolism to draw attention to them more which again, is a way of intriguing audiences. The main title is also in a larger font to the rest of the text because it is the main title of the film therefore wanted to add more emphasis on that along with the strap line. 'Who would you tell' is intended to be a rhetorical question with a massive reference to the film as Jess (Sally) has to make the decision of who to tell she is pregnant after cheating on her boyfriend. 

These two images show that I have distributed out film poster on the social networking Facebook and Twitter in attempts to gain a variety of feedback from friends/followers. This gives us opinions on what other people outside the group may think about out poster and to highlight any areas of improvements to it.

New shot list

1. Close up of Sally's feet.
2. Long shot of Sally walking past the camera.
3. Long shot to establishing shot of Sally.
4. Panning shot.
5. Establishing shot of Sally walking to the train station. 
6. Long/Medium shot of Sally talking on the  phone.
7. Medium/Long shot of Sally walking into a house. 
8. Medium shot of Sally closing door.
9. Establishing shot of Sally and Lizziy sat on a settee.
10. Medium shot of Sally drinking.
11. Closeup of Sally drinking.
12. Closeup of Sally drinking.
13. Medium shot of Sally and Laura drinking.
14. Medium shot of Sally, Laura and George talking. 
15. Medium shot of Sally and George talking.
16. Unsteady close up of Sally walking up stairs. 
17. Unsteady close up of Sally and George walking up stairs.
18. Close up of Lizzy talking to Sally. 
19. Close up of Sally replying. 
20. Medium close up of James knocking on Sally's door.
21. Medium shot of James and George talking.
23. Medium dual shot of Lizzy and Sally talking.
24. Close up Sally.
25. Close up of Lizzy.
26. Close up of Sally.
27. Close up of Sally and Sarah.
28. Medium shot of Sally.
29. (Shot reverse shot)
30. Medium shot of James and Sally on the phone. (split screen)
31. Medium shot of James on the phone.

Creating a Film Poster

Steel Tongs

Film posters all have certain elements that are constant in all of them. In order to make our film poster look more realistic and professional we need to incorporate some of these things. To start with they all include the cast and crew at the bottom in a font called 'steel tongs.' I have downloaded this font and intend to use it in our film poster. 

Here is an example of the poster for 'Angles and Demons' that uses this font and idea in the poster -

Gangster Squad - 

As you can see the font and style is used in both and this is what adds to the professional and polished look of the film poster.

This is the font - 

This is the font I have downloaded and installed on Photoshop.

The Style

Something else we have to consider is how much the style of the film poster matches our own film. Generally in very good film posters, they borrow elements of the film to add to the poster. This creates memorability and tells the audience what the film is about, this is key if you want them to decided whether or not to watch the movie. A good example of this happening is in the poster for the film 'Watchmen.' Despite this not being in the same genre of our movie, it still has that style that is carried throughout the entire movie. 

You can see that the post borrows from the beginning scene of the film, whilst adding a key element with the smiley face button that acts as a symbol for the film as it is a big franchise. Considering that our film is not going to be a big franchise we don't need to worry as much about this aspect. However, like this film they have toom a very dramatic and action packed part of the film to use which is good as it entices the audience and interests them. There is a man falling, blood and broken glass, this is very in you're face and interesting so it works in advertising itself and getting more people to buy cinema tickets and purchase the DVD. Although our film is not full of action it does have dramatic scenes that we can play on when making the film poster.

Film poster idea

This is my initial idea for a film poster. I mainly kept this simplistic as it's a short film, so I didn't want to give the majority of the narrative away in the poster. This is because it wouldn't be good in promotion as there's nothing to watch it for to discover or attract audiences.

The title 'Deception' I decided to do this in all capitalised letters with bold underline this is to emphasise the film and draw attention to it but to also make it look serious because of the underlying topic of teenage pregnancy in our film. Furthermore, I chose the colour scheme for the titles to be red and black purposefully because darker colours also make it look more serious and red can connote love (as a genre of our film is romance) but also danger (connoting the drama aspect). 

The image is two of the main character, Sally and George stood in a doorway. I chose this because this is the turning point scene in our film when Sally cheats on James, however, the audience will not know this yet. Although, I thought that this image would represent the film well as it is a crucial aspect within it. 

The box at the side of the doorway, I wrote 'possibly add a strapline here,' as it could potentially attract more people to watch it. We haven't thought about using one just yet but it gave me the idea to when creating this film poster to, therefore I would give an indication if we decided to adapt this idea. 

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