Media Report

Media Report.

Pre-production:

For my pre-production, for my poster and D.V.D cover, I produced a script for my thriller film idea. I tired to follow the conventions of a thriller by adding a mysterious antagonist within the film idea. I looked at other thriller scripts including Gone Girl as I have previously watched the film. I tried to replicate some of the techniques that the script uses by opening my script with a voice over of a police report about a missing girl.  The script helped me to create a film so I had an idea of what I was going to design when making the poster and D.V.D cover. From my script, I knew that I had to show both the protagonist and the location of my film. It meant that I could add all the extra details on to the poster and D.V.D cover, for example a blurb, because I had a clear story and plan for what was going to produce.




(Gone Girl)

















(Blonde)

Also for my pre-production I created a Pinterest board where I collected images of other thriller posters that would inspire my poster and D.V.D cover. I then analysed them and noted key factors of the poster to help me decide what I could use for my production. They gave me an idea of the layout, colours, font and pictures I should use for my production as I wanted to follow the conventions of a thriller poster and D.V.D cover. The main posters that I looked at were ‘Winters Bone, ‘Sin City’ and ‘Final Girl’. Because they all included aspects that I wanted to use in my designs.

The main colours that I saw when creating my Pinterest board was red as red symbolises danger and blood which is a common aspect of a thriller. For example, on the “Sin City” and “Final Girl” the colour used is red. This automatically shows to the audience that they are thriller films. However, on the “Winters Bone” the main colour is blue, which although it is not traditional to the thriller conventions still works because it gives a gloomy and dark effect over the whole poster showing to the audience that it is a thriller. Blue and red were the two colours that I was considering when making my poster and D.V.D cover as they will show the thriller genre clearly.

For my pre-production I also planned what I could do for my poster and D.V.D cover by taking multiple photos (of the protagonist and the location of the film) that I could use and creating a rough layout of photo shop.

The first picture was my plan for my poster. I had chosen the best picture that I had taken to use as my image for my poster. I liked this photo the best because it only shows half of the protagonists face which makes the poster more mysterious as it is hiding parts of the story. Like the ‘Sin City’ poster I used colour isolation by making the person and the title in colour and the background black and white. This made the title and the protagonist stand out on the page. The title the same colour as her hair because it links the two together so the audience knows that she is significant. The second image was my plan for the front of the D.V.D cover. I used a picture of a tree and edited the image so it was the colour blonde. This design also fitted with the conventions of a thriller as it doesn’t reveal much about the film. The audience only knows that it has something to do with the woods and that the colour blonde is important.

Production:

For my poster, I decided to stick with my original plan of using the best picture I had taken and using the same layout. Originally I was going to stick with the black and white background for my poster but as the poster started to develop it didn’t really look like a thriller poster because the colours didn’t fit the conventions. Although I used black and white which are conventions of a thriller, it wasn’t dark enough. So I decided to test out 2 different colours that I could use to make the overall poster more like a thriller poster.

For the first test I decided to put a red filter over the top of the image to create a red background. I though that this fitted with the thriller conventions the most because it Is what I saw frequently when creating my Pinterest board (collecting thriller posters). The only problem with the red background is that the text didn’t show up on so it wasn’t very clear. Another problem was that the title colour and the main image didn’t go well with the red because the colours clashed. Although this was the most conventional colour to use it didn’t work on my poster.

For the second test I decided to follow the “Winters Bone” colour scheme as the style of my poster is very similar. I tried to make to make the background as dark as possible without making it black because I wanted I thought that it would look more like a thriller poster because of the dark colour scheme. All the colours on the page stood out and complimented the background, so I thought that it was the best colour to use. I decided to use this one as my final idea as I thought it was best suited for the poster as it everything was bold and it looks like a real thriller poster.

I added details including the 5 star ratings, the film distributors logo and credit block as they are seen on almost every film poster. This was the hardest part of making the poster as I had to think carefully about the size and positioning of all the details and also the colour of the font I was going to use because they needed to stand out from the background. Once I had the image and the colour scheme I wanted to use, it was just about making sure that all the details were on the poster in the right place so that it followed the conventions of a poster to make it more professional.

To follow the conventions of a D.V.D cover I added the age ratings, film description (blurb) and the credit boxes. All of these aspects are on every D.V.D cover so I the idea was to try and make it as realistic as possible by adding all the little details including adding the running time and age ratings.

For the front of my D.V.D cover I decided to use the same image on the poster as the main image as it clearly links the two together. This is often seen for other films where they use the same image for both the poster and the D.V.D cover. One poster and D.V.D cover (for the same film) that I looked at was “Short Term 12” (2013). The poster and the D.V.D cover have the same main image but they are slightly different. I tried to follow this same layout as even though it is not a thriller film, I need to follow the conventions of a poster and D.V.D cover.

On the back of my D.V.D cover I decided to use the image of the golden tree that I made when planning my poster. The reason why I chose to do this was because I thought that it was still a good image to use as it fit in with the thriller conventions. The three images that I put on the back of the D.V.D cover and the image of the tree is there to give more information to the audience without revealing to much within the film. This attracts the audience as they are more intrigued to how the images relate to the film.

On the spine of the D.V.D cover I placed the title of the film (Blonde), the age ratings the film distributor logo in order to follow the conventions. I had to make sure that the spine had the right measurements otherwise it would have thrown the whole case out of proportion. The only thing I would change about the spine on my production is adding a small picture of the front cover as it is commonly seen on other D.V.D cover, this would have made it more realistic and professional.

The main problems that I faced with my D.V.D cover is making sure that the measurements were correct as it needed to fit inside the D.V.D cover. I had to re-scale and re-print multiple times because I wanted to make sure that it looked professional and everything was to scale.

Overall, I think my poster and D.V.D cover was successful as I think it clearly shows the conventions of a thriller due to the colour scheme used and the layout of the picture (showing half the face) as it connotes darkness and suspense. By making sure I had all the little details on both the poster and D.V.D cover I think made them look more realistic and professional. My target audience for this film are teenagers aged 15-18 as it is around the same age of the protagonist which will attract them to watch the film. Teenagers will want to try and relate or find out more about the protagonist which means they will be more likely to watch the film. The D.V.D was the hardest to make as making sure that all the details were in the right place and lined up perfectly was difficult and time consuming. The one thing that I would change would be trying to make the red colour scheme work in the poster as that follows the thriller conventions more than blue does.