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.