Film Posters

Film Posters That Inspire Us:

What inspires us the most about this film poster in particular is the close up shot of the main character Angelina Jolie. We feel as if the close up is really effective because it puts a face to the film, so for example people will see the actor and immediately think of this film. Also because Angelina Joile is a really well known actress, by just having her face on the poster markets it  really well. Her facial expression and the focus on her eyes conveys the strong action genre of the film as she looks daunting and purposeful.
Angelina Jolie's name is at the very top of the poster, in a contesting white font. The white font contrasts with her jet black hair, this makes her name stand out making it clear to the viewer that she is the leading actress. The way in which her name is featured in the poster before the actual film title tells us a lot about the way the film is being marketed via the actress staring in it, rather than the story itself.
The lighting in the photo is very low key meaning that her face contrasts with her dark hair, the emphasis on her face creates a mysterious feel to the film poster. We really liked the way her hair blends into the background as it creates a dark tone to the film through the colour of her hair. The rhetorical question 'WHO IS SALT?' we think is really effective to have on a film poster, as it makes the audience think and ask themselves what the film could be about. Also featured on the poster is the date the film comes out and a website, we think these are key features to a film poster.
Things we could take from this film poster:
As our main actor has dark hair we think that we could make a poster that is inspired by this one. We really like the idea of having a close up of our main actor to represent our film. We feel as if we focus in on her eyes it would reveal the dangerous side to our character, then making the contrast of the image really high the dark hair would create a black background. We also want to feature the name of our lead actress on our film poster, as if she is a really famous actor as it would make the poster look more professional. For our poster shoot we think our main actress India should have her hair down and be wearing some eye makeup which wall draw attention and emphasise her eyes more.

This is another film poster which we would like to take inspiration from. This film poster caught our attention firstly due to the striking pose featured. The pose includes a woman holding a gun against her face with a lowered head. We really liked this pose on the front of the poster due to the gun being iconography of the action genre, the gun alongside the characters pose and body language brings across the idea of regret and sadness of the character, possibly to do with the events that occur in the film. Another thing that we really liked in this particular poster is the way the setting of the film appears in a location shot, blended into the the separate shot of the character. We thought this is a good way to add interest to the shot of the main character, so that the film poster isn't just a shot of the main character holding a gun as this would be really boring and wouldn't market the film well. Showing the location the film is shot in in the film poster is quite a good way to encourage viewers to watch the film as the location can add interest for the audience. 

The American Sniper film poster is one which we inspire ours to look like and to take ideas from. This poster first caught our attention due to the clear white/grey background which contrasts with the main character based in the centre wearing his army uniform. Everything about this poster screams the action genre, especially the uniform which suggests that this film has connotations of war and violence. The main character Bradley Cooper's facial expression implies desperation and worry, as he is fighting in the US army he would be dealing with life changing events daily and also worrying about his family back at home so this explains his look of sadness and confusion. Another thing which stands out to us on the poster is the American flag, this allows the viewer to understand part of the storyline before they've even watched the film, clearly the film is going to explore a group of soldiers fighting on behalf of the American people to protect their country. Also as the USA is such a tourist attraction the flag is there to market the film, and make it a global film as people all over the world will be attracted to watch it as it isn't designed specifically for a particular niche market. 

Our Logo

Our company logo

We created our company logo on Motion. We inverted the colours of our clip so it created a black and white look and enchanted the logo of our company. Our logo features an animated cage being broken which goes along with the name of our company logo.
To get the animation of the bird breaking the cage we used YouTube and found 'The Bird Animation'. We saved this video and put it onto Motion where we changed the colors around and added our company name onto the front of it. We really like our logo as it fits so well with our company name, it is also very distinctive and is somthing audiences will remember as soon as they hear our companies name!

Task 11: SCRIPT

Our Script:

TITLES: Caged Productions Presents
SIENNA

EXT: London. Busy Streets, cars and people. 
Text 'London'over shots of London, type writer text and sound.

Daunting music plays.

Date, time and location appears on the bottom left of the screen.

Type writer sound plays when date, time and location come on. 

EXT: London. Department store escalators.

Music speed picks up.

People seen going up and down escalators, suddenly a person running down the escalators stands up form everyone else.

BLACK SCREEN + TEXT.

Voice over: London has a secret.

EXT: London. Oxford Street.

TIMELAPSE of people walking and cars moving.

BLACK SCREEN.

A BEAT.

EXT: Dark room. 

Dim lighting, nothing seen but a table in darkness.

Focus on hand, covered in blood, holding a gun. 

EXT: Dark room.

Dim lighting, nothing seen but a table in darkness.

Focus on hand, covered in blood, holding a gun.

Gun drops, slow motion.

BLACK SCREEN.
A BEAT.

EXT: Dark room.
Dim lighting, nothing seen but a person in the shadows. All that is seen is there silhouette. 

EXT: London. Busy streets.
Shot of characters shoes walking down the road.

BLACK SCREEN + TEXT.
Voiceover: We knew time was running out.

EXT: London. Busy streets.
Mid shot of character's body. Starting to walk faster.

BLACK SCREEN + TEXT.
Voice over: Fast.

EXT: London. Busy Streets.
Close up of shoes. Running down the streets of London.

BLACK SCREEN + TEXT.
Voiceover: What had to be done.

EXT: London. Busy streets.
Long shot of Sienna running down the road.

EXT: London. Busy streets.
Close up of Siennas face, she then turns her head (SLOW MOTION).
Cut to long shot of her running away.
TEXT NEXT TO SHOT: India Ferguson starring as Sienna Rodregaz.

EXT: London. Busy Streets.
Another character appears round the corner.

*END CREDITS INC RELEASE DATE AND LINKS*

Task 10: 25 Word Pitch

Our 25 word pitch...

This is our 25 word pitch. We included two characters names and mentioned that there was a big secret involved in the film. We also included the location of the film. We think that in this 25 word pitch we have included three of the main aspects of our film, a part of the plot, a character and the location. By mentioning these three things it draws people in.

Task 9: Costume and Make-Up

Costume: 

Our inspiration for our main character Sienna's costume comes from Angelina Jolie in 'Salt' and Zoe Saldana in 'Colombiana' as they are both crime/action films that have a female leading role very much like our trailer will be we thought that they were the perfect inspiration. As in both films both main characters are mainly dressed in black to camouflage themselves, this is where we got the idea to dress 'Sienna' in all black or a camel colour trench coat.  In our trailer Sienna will be wearing a trench coat in dark colours such as a camel/black, as dark colours reflect danger, and the trench implying a mystery aspect, this furthers the genre of our film. The dark colours also reflect on the way that Sienna lives her life, she is a very dark dangerous character who holds a lot of secrets that will do a lot of damage if they are found out. The darkness shows the audience how 
there is never a dull moment in the life Sienna has chose to live, it is full of action and crime. In 'Salt' and 'Colombiana' we feel it is important how they wear black and large coats as we feel this shows power, the colour black represents the colour of the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, creating an air of mystery which reflects on the storyline of both films. As in Colombiana she is keeping a secret from the police and trying to get revenge for her mother and father's death and in Salt she is trying to protect the USA by destroying past of her past which she got away from that has come back to haunt her.  Another reason we decided that black would be the main colour of costume in our film is because due to recent surveys it is known that a person is seen more aggressive and frightening when wearing all black as it reflects there dark mysterious personality and thoughts. We feel that in our trailer this will allow the people Sienna is against to know they should be worried and she is a vital enemy of theirs.

This was our final costume choice, the trench coat looks similar to a Burberry Trench coat which is a iconic fashion statement which was an essential during times of war and violence. The Burberry trench coat looks very professional and sophisticated, but also very mysterious. Although we would have liked the coat to be black, we feel as if the costume still works well. The trench coat with the black bag with metal handles also we feel looks very professional and makes the audience question what is in the bag. The black bag also brings in the colour scheme we wanted to stick too of black. Megan was also wearing black jeans and casual shoes which contrasts with the top half of the costume, the black jeans and trainers make it clear to the audience that she is a professional spy, but is constantly ready to take action on anything that is going on around her. Although we would have liked our actor to wear black boots, we found that this was quite an unrealistic stereotype that woman in action films have, as in reality no one could really take action on a criminal in black boots. 

Make- Up: 

In our trailer we have decided that main character Sienna will have very natural make-up as it is an action/crime/horror film we understand that she as a character would not be very bothered about applying lots of dramatic make-up everyday so the natural look portrays her character greatly.
An inspiration for our natural make-up comes from Cara Delevingne in 'Paper Towns' although this isn't an action/ crime film her make-up shows how ideally how we would like ours to look in our trailer. This gives her a distinctive look, showing off her natural beauty.
Although we are going for natural make-up we have decided that she will only be wearing the essential makeup such as foundation and mascara, as this will be the only obvious make-up on Sienna we feel as if it is necessary as it reflects her having secrets and her mysterious persona.

Although we have put the fake blood on Sienna's hands in the prop section as it represents what has just taken place in the trailer, and how death or drama has just occurred, we do still feel it partly comes under the make-up section. We come to the decision of using it to create drama and to get a reaction from the audience, making them aware of the genre. We also decided that Megan should defiantly just have her hair tied up, as this shows that she needs to have her hair away from her face to show how she is ready for action. We feel as if the hair tied up away from the face looks very professional and separates her from the stereotype that all woman care about is their appearance. 

Task 8: Props

ADDED PROPS:
During filming our actor came along with a doctor like bag, at first we weren't going to include this in the filming as a prop. However carrying the doctor like bag adds effect to the overall look of our character, as it makes her look very professional. Also during some of the shots she takes the gun out of her bag, almost as if it is an everyday item, this adds to the danger effect of our film. Through our character pulling a gun out of her bag it almost makes it seem like an every day item for her.

Task 7: Actor/ Actress Shots

Task 6: Location Shots

Establishing Shot:

We chose to have an establishing shot of London in the opening of our trailer, we felt this was necessary as it is where the film will be set. In earlier research we picked up on that in a lot of action film trailers they use establishing shots at the beginning of their trailers to set the scene, for example the trailer for Legend and James Bond: Specture. As we want our film to appeal to a global audience having an establishing shot of London will immediately attract viewers from other countries who take an interest in english culture. As it wouldn't actually be possible for us ourselves to film an establishing shot of London from a Birdseye view, we had to use a found shot which we got off youtube that went around all the main places in London such as; big ben, houses of parliament and all the sky scrapers in London. We think the shots we found for this were really good as they highlighted the main areas that London is known for, therefore meaning that when an audience watch our trailer, without being told they will immediately know the film is going to be shot. This also makes our film appeal to a audience that love the London culture.

Shot of London Streets:

We are using the streets of London in our trailer as we think that London is a much more interesting place to film compared to the streets in Bromley and Beckenham. We think by filming it in London it would make our trailer more eye-catching and appealing to different audiences. We are going to film just off the road of Oxford Street, near Selfridges as all the roads around this area are filled with expensive cars, wide roads and really tall buildings which would look really interesting on film. The atmosphere of London is something which really captivates us as it is always so lively and is often associated with business workers and profession. We feel like this atmosphere is appropriate to our film trailer as we want it to look as serious as possible. Also most action/crime films that are filmed in England are mainly based around London as i
t is such an interesting place to film and is somewhere the audience will immediately recognise. This is one road we filmed on called Wigmore Street which was a road off Oxford Street near Portland Sqaure. We chose this road to film on as it set a really busy atmosphere for a good location shot. Also when we were filming here loads of iconic London features appear in shots such as black taxi's and really fancy cars.



Another place we filmed was just outside a hotel called The Hyatt Regency London - The Churchill. This was a hotel just off Oxford Street. We didn't originally plan to film outside a hotel, however when walking past looking for new places to film in London we stumbled across this very posh hotel which had a black Lamborghini outside. Having an expensive car in a film/film trailer is a very James Bond thing to feature, and really sets a very cool and sophisticated feel to a film trailer, which are theme which are presented very commonly in action/crime films. By filming outside this hotel it was almost as if we were renting out an expensive car to feature in our trailer, but for free!

Apartments In London Shots:

Another location we wanted to film was outside and expensive looking apartment/house in London, as we wanted to make it appear that our character lived in London. We knew that in Gloucester Place they had really expensive and eye catching apartments and buildings which looked like stereotypical London houses. When searching around for locations we could film our character outside we spotted this restaurant which looked like a house on the outside and immediately knew that this is where we would be filming! We thought we could get some really nice shots of our main character walking out of the door from different angles low and high, to make it look like it was her house or a mysterious building which she was leaving. The two large black doors we really liked and thought they would look really good on camera. However we knew we would have to be careful filming outside someones house/ a restaurant like this as it is private properly so we had to do it discreetly.

London Oxford Street:

As we were filming in London, we knew it would be silly of us to not film in one of Londons best known streets; Oxford Street. By the time we got to Oxford Street after exploring in London for places to film, it was quite dark and the whole of Selfridges was really well illuminated which we thought looked really interesting and camera! We wanted to film on Oxford street as we know its a really vibrant and busy road with lots of atmosphere and so much going on all the time! However we knew it would be really difficult to film on Oxford Street due to the masses of people constantly walking around and it would be really difficult to set up a tripod in the middle of a really busy street! So we thought about using Oxford Street just for a place where we could film location shots, as location shots on film trailers really take up a huge majority of the trailer itself for a lot of the time.

Task 5: Story Boards

We were really hoping to be able to film in London Selfridges for our trailer. However to make sure we weren't going to get into any trouble for filming we had to ask security if we were able to film in store. Sadly, and to our disappointment, we were not able to film in London Selfridges, as we were told it would disturb shoppers and cause risks in store. However instead of filming in Selfridges, we did find an alternative, which was the outside of the London Regency Hotel which had a number of very expensive cars parked outside which we were allowed to film around! We thought this would have a really cool look in our trailer, as often in action films, the expensive cars the actors drives, adds to the spectacle of the film (James Bond).

Task 4: Target Audience Research

Task 4: Target Audience Research

The four film quadrants..
The four main quadrants that research companies break the audience into is...
Older Males (>25) Older Females (>25) Younger Males (<25) Younger Females (<25)

We have decided that our film is going to be a two quadrant film.
We think our film could appeal to Younger Females (<25) and Younger Males (<25).
We think our film would defiantly appeal to males due to the genre crime and action is more stereotypically related to men, however we are hopeful that are film will challenge this stereotype and apply to females too.
Out of the 3 main film categories:
Mainstream 
Specialised
Niche
We have decided that we feel as if our trailer will fit best in the mainstream category due to the genre being widespread appealing to a variety of audiences.

To ensure that our target audience for our film/trailer is actually correct and not just an assumption we have decided to research, using IMDb, the target audience of films which follow the same genre and idea as ours.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

This diagram tells us that more commonly the film has been watched by female users on average 7.5. This is more than the male vote of an average of 6.9.
However the film has been watched mostly by females under 18 compared to any other category on the vote list.
This information tells us that we are right in targeting two quadrants, younger females and younger males. This table proves that our idea to target females just as much as males is an appropriate one as females voted for this action film more than men. We will not target our film towards viewers aged 45+ due to them having one of the lowest votes at an average of 6.5.


Legend

This diagram from IMDb tells us that on an average of 7.7 woman have watched the action film Legend more than men who voted on an average of 7.4. This information follows the information that Maze Runner has given us that woman watch these action films on average more than men.
On average the film is most popular for people aged 18 and under, however it is more popular between males under 18 by 1.8 votes (males under 18 8.7 votes).






Taken 3

Overall this diagram tells us that females have watched this particular action film over males. On average 6.4 woman voted for this film compared to men which was 6.0. Once again its proven in this diagram that more people under 18 voted for this film at 6.8, this proves that our idea to aim our film at people aged 18 and under is correct due to the action genre mainly applying to this age category. Females under 18 have also voted for this film more than males under 18 by 0.6.

Task 4: Target Audience Research

Create your own user feedback survey

Task 3: Moodboard

Our Moodboard

We looked at images from real media directly focusing on the genre action. One film we looked particularly at and went to see in the cinema to get inspiration and outside knowledge from was the film Legend. This film is based on a true story about the Kray twins, two gangsters Reginald and Ronald, set in East End London during the 1950's and 60's. We included them in our mood board as the storyline inspired us with ideas we could interpret into our trailer.
In our mood board there is also two images from the old TV drama The Sweeney (1970's) and the updated film version which was made in 2012. Unlike the film Legend this action film is seen from the police's perspective of crime in that period. We liked the idea of looking from the police's perspective as usually we see the crime from the criminals point of view, we thought this was interesting.
Another thing that is repeatably used in our mood board is guns, the gun is used as an object of iconography and we feel it is key to represent the action genre correctly.

Edited Images:

we edited these images to be featured on our mood board, however we found there wasn't enough room so decided to show them separately. In order to edit these images we we picked two images which we thought would go together quite well and tried to edit them together.

Taken image:

1.  The first thing we did to the original image of the man holding the gun is made it brighter.
   

2. We then played around with making the image black and white, and adding tones of red to it, but decided it would be more effective to have it in full colour when another image was edited with it. 

3. Next we used the quick selection tool to remove the background of the image. We felt that the image would be more effective with the background removed so the focus is directly on the characters facial expression and that he his holding a gun.

4. Next we found an image online that related to the film taken. We found an image of the main characters daughter whom in the film he is trying to save, we thought that the image of the main character on the phone whilst holding a gun would blend really well with the image of his daughter trying to run as it represents the main plot of the film through an image.

5. Once both images were on the same canvas we started to play around with the blending options between the images. We thought the blend mode 'Hard Light' looked the most effective with 100% opacity as it meant that you could see the daughter running slightly through the main characters concerning face. The images over lapping each other also created some really nice colours on the image. 

This is our final product......

Our second image is a double shot of Angelina Joile holding a gun. 

1. To edit this image we first chose two images of Angelina Joile.
   
   
   
   2. We then put them both into the same canvas by using the option 'Stack Files'.
   3. Once they were both in the same canvas we then edited the layer style of the two images so that they would blend nicely together, we chose the blend mode 'Screen' with opacity 52%. We liked this blend mode the best as you could see both images mirroring one another, showing two separate shots of the main character holding a gun. The gun really represents the genre action.
   
   
   
   
   
   Our finished image..
   
   
   

Summary:
The key things we noticed in the pictures we have chosen for our mood board are firstly the colour scheme is mainly darker tones, specifically black. In our trailer we will ensure that not only our actors are wearing black but we create dark lighting to give off the tone of the film. We noticed in our mood board that the characters are mostly men who were in black suits with ties or wearing leather jackets. Even though these images are taken from action films the characters still look tidy and attractive. We would follow this theme by dressing our actors smartly. The main prop shown in our mood board in the gun, this is iconography of the action genre, so we will defiantly be using the gun as a prop in our trailer. The settings shown on our mood board are mostly in the streets and one which is in a car, therefore in our trailer we will make some of our location on the streets.

Task 2: Influences From Real Media

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials 

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials is an action film. This trailer in particular caught our attention due to the effective suspense building, sound effects and voiceover. Also as there is already a previous Maze Runner film, we already had a good amount of background knowledge about the characters, the plot of the film and its intentions. One thing in particular that we found very effective throughout was the voiceover, as the trailer begins the voiceover is the enemy portraying that they hold all of the control as they have Thomas and other characters captured in the 'maze' brainwashing them. However, as the trailer progresses and secrets are discovered and revealed causing Thomas and other characters to escape the maze into the scorch Thomas becomes the voiceover implying they are now in control of themselves.

We found the voiceover very effective because even if you hadn't watched the previous film it helps the audience understand the storyline so you have a good understanding of the aim of the film. 

The suspense building in this trailer we found to be very influential as when watching the trailer for the first time we couldn't take our eyes off the screen and was drawn in by the action filled scenes and quick cuts. Throughout the trailer there are so many moments where Thomas or another character has a near death experience but at the very last minute they escape or are saved, this is effective because although they are showing a lot of action in the trailer it isn't too much and as the audience we know that there is still so much unseen action which will be shown in the actual film. 

We feel that the technique of suspense building and voiceovers are key when making a trailer because if your target audience isn't being drawn into your trailer then no one is going to be attracted too see then film when it comes out, causing the film to be a failure. 

Sleeping with other people

Sleeping with other people is a romantic comedy. The reason we have chosen to look at this trailer in more detail is because of the special effects used on it added in the editing process. 

One thing that we really liked about this trailer is the way when the two main characters are introduced the character has a conversation with another character about how they have cheated, the shot freezes, one half of the screen gets blurred out and opening credits are shown of their character names introducing them to the audience. For example 'Jake'.

We really liked the idea of introducing the main characters with a piece of dialogue that describes them then their name to the audience in the trailer as it makes the audience begin to form an opinion of them immediately before even watching the film. If the character is introduced in a good way it will make the audience like the character and therefore take more interest in them and the storyline, this encourages the audience then to watch the film. Both of the two main characters in this film are introduced in a similar way, having the problem of sleeping with other people. Jake gets caught sleeping with his girlfriends best friend and Lainey admits to cheating on her boyfriend.

This immediately draws the two main characters together in a humorous way and the audience can already see that some sort of relationship is going to form between the two. We quite liked the idea of the audience already having an insight of the characters personalities in the trailer and is something we may use in our own. 

Credits are then again used more frequently throughout the trailer to tell the audience small snippets of the main storyline and main theme of the play - two people who have issues sleeping with people. Part of the storyline is revealed through the credits when firstly the two characters are introduced

• 'Jake' 'Cant stop sleeping with other people'
• 'Lainey' 'Cant stop sleeping with other people'
• 'But sleeping with each other..'
• 'Is out of the question'
  

We really liked this idea of the credits almost moving the trailer along and explaining the plot as when we looked at other trailers which had no credits, we found them quite confusing and less effective. This was because instead of concentrating on whats going on on the screen you are trying to figure out whats actually happening in the trailer, or what the main plot could be.

Lastly, this trailer also had a lot of reviews shown such as 'One of the most entertaining and honest love stories of the past 10 years' and 'Show up for the sex jokes then be knocked out by the heart'. Having these reviews on the trailer is really effective as it gives an opinion on the film and also reveals a lot to the audience about the genre and what type of film they are going to see. For example the way one review mentions its a love story, attracts audiences which like a romantic film, but the other review mentioning sex jokes, makes the film appeal to audiences who like to view a comedy. We found the reviews make the trailer look professional and we will defiantly consider using some reviews in our trailer.