Looking Back...

Looking back…

I feel that our final short film has definitely reached the standards we were hoping for in our research and planning. The final grouping of scenes are definitely what we were hoping for if not more. In the research and planning stages of our portfolio the post below was published stating our synopsis.

I feel, even though our synopsis has changed, this was still a brilliant base level to refer back to as we created our short film. It is also interesting to see how much our short films plot adapted as we went through, as shown through varying from our synopsis in some ways.

I feel as though my poster design is still very similar to how I imagined it to be. I always had an idea in my mind of what I wanted the poster to look like, which is shown through my first draft. Even this wasn't my exact original idea as the titling and various other aspects had become more creative and in-depth than I could first imagine.

First Poster Draft

Also, looking at my final design, audience feedback played a massive part in the creation of the poster. My original idea paired with conventions and the other aspects created the poster we have formed which I believe is highly realistic and successful.

Final Short Film Poster

The review I couldn't really imagine in my mind due to never reading Little White Lies. However, after researching the review and conventions and planning our review out in terms of both text and layout I would say the final outcome is very much what I envisioned.

The text within the review is related very much to the Little White Lies conventions along with putting our own takes on the review, really creating something I wouldn't have imagined creating at the start of the year. I am very impressed with how our review turned out both visually and literarily. Again, audience feedback and conventions definitely also added to our review.

Blind Faith Poster

My poster style conventions are a bit different to other posters seeing as it is portrait rather than landscape.
I think if this poster design was to be used then the space would need to be filled more appropriatly

Style Conventions of Little White Lies

Style Conventions of Little White Lies

Hyperlink to Little White Lies Website: http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk

Little White Lies tends to follow a certain paragraph structure within all of it's review to conform to it's consistent house style. An image tends to scale the top of the review justified along each column. This use of justification helps to converge to the stylistic appearance of the reviews and adds a continuity to them all. The title of the film then follows below in a bold and simplistic font, this is centred and is likely to only fill 1-2 thirds of the page width. Below this in italics are a release date and credits such as 'Directed by' followed by the name of the - in this example director - in a bold and all capitalised font.

Below is where the substance of the review is positioned, which is commonly separated into 3 columns and 7 paragraphs. The main separation of segments within the paragraphs are as follows;

1. Context - this paragraph deals with the contextual issues of the film such as information about the director and perhaps previous films, along with historical and cultural events in relation or as inspiration for the film.
2. Summary information about protagonist(s) and key players - this paragraph looks at traits of characters and perhaps even representation of them in certain areas. Key aspects of the film and featured characters also form the bulk of this paragraph along with an evaluation of each actor as well as character performance. 

The following sections tend to be the longest section of the review.

3. Key themes, issues and plot - being within the core of the review, this paragraph plays a major role in the reviewing of the film. Therefore, it gives a complete (yet condensed!) overview of, essentially, what the film is all about. This does not reveal any key information of the ending or aspects which aren't supposed to be revealed.

4. Narrative devices - this paragraph sums up the overall narration within the film and also evaluates them to give a full review.

5. Use and adaptation of genre conventions - this paragraph deals with genre and also evaluates it. In our case, you could expect to see some references to theorists such as David Buckingham, Steve Neale and Rick Altman.

6. Reviewer's experience of the film - within this paragraph will be some information on the experience of the reviewer's who are most likely members of Little White Lies' target audience.

7. Summary evaluation - this isn't so much a paragraph but rather a conclusive sentence, this will be placed at the end of the last paragraph and will be evaluative and informative to provide a final point reviewing the entire film as an overview.

The final column comes to an end about half way down the length of the other two. This is done in order to leave room for the final rating table. The table is made up into three sub-sections entitled 'ANTICIPATION', 'ENJOYMENT' and 'IN RETROSPECT' and will be graded from 1 - 5 with 1 being the worst and 5 the best. These sub-sections will also include a sentence or two giving reasoning for the rating and are usually dysphemistic and to-the-point.

Here is an example from the digital version of the magazine
regarding the newly released film 'Black Sea'.

Towards the bottom centre of the page in a very small font is a page number which always consists of three digits whether the number of the page be 001, or 222. This, again, adds to the continuity of the visuals and house conventions used throughout the magazine series.

Blind Faith Poster

The amazing spiderman poster analysis

 The poster is divided into many bright colours and also a very different unique shot which brings out the power and agility of spiderman. For instance the type of colors used, the blue on spiderman most probably connotes depression or coldness which creates a quite curious and cold atmosphere for the audience, this probably applies the film might be quite a very dark and physical atmosphere. Also the red possibly connotes a bit of power and and evilness which mixes into the blue which could possibly connote his powers are so incredible that he can choose whether he wants to be the good person or the bad.
The use of 'New York City' being at the bottom of spiderman portrays that he must probably have so much power that he owns the city as being on top of it shows the ultimate power he has in his hands. He is highest up and therefore he is looking down on everyone else- this is used by a high angle shot. And also from putting him in such a high place of the city shows that he must really be at the top of the border when be recognized in the area and city. Also the use of him hanging shows to the audience one of the uses from his powers as he can hang on walls which connotes the amount of power he obtains and owns in his ability to do extraordinary things. 

The darkness foreshadows maybe evil or bad things lurking on the horizon due to the top left hand corner being darkest with it becoming lighter in towards the middle.  

• The film is advertised to be seen in 3D which may make is more appealing for the psycho-dynamic audience who are into watching films and going to the cinema. 

Even though the title is the most obvious text to stand out- the title doesn't fit into usual poster conventions due to it being placed more to the bottom right hand side than in the middle making the image the thing that stands out the most. This may be because as this is a series of movies- many audience fans will know the name of the film as it is a popular film collection. 

 

500 days of summer poster analysis

Released - 2nd September 2009

Institution - Fox Searchlight Pictures

Directed by - Marc Webb

The 500 days of summer poster shows the indication of a romance/comedy genre (making the more known hybrid of a rom-com.) 

• The main feature of this film poster is the collage of all the different images of the character 'Summer', with some being made to look like a sunshine. There is an interpretation that there is around 500 pictures linking to the title off ;500 days of summer' This gives the impression of something quite arty and original, which relates to the film as it is not a typical romance, and has a sense of being quite personal to it. The vast amount of pictures of Summer implies Tom's perhaps obsession with her, and just by looking at the film poster we are already getting the sense of maybe 'she means more to him, than he does to her'

• The actor's names appear in an uncharacteristically small font on the top of the poster, and this implies that the director is not trying to use big name stars to try and sell his film. This again re-iterates the overall 'anti-Hollywood' feel of the film as a whole. 

• The colour scheme is fairly neutral, except for the sunshine in the middle that is yellow. Yellow has connotations of light and warmth, which could represent Tom and Summer's relationship (in it's good days anyway), informing the audience that this is a romance film. Yellow is also the most difficult colour for the eye to take in, and is thought to enhance feeling of emotional distress. This could represent love and it's many complexities. 

• The tagline for the film 'This is not a love story. This is a story about love.' runs across the bottom of the poster. The font looks almost handwritten, which again gives the poster a more personal and casual touch. It also implies that the film's creators seem to have a point that they want to put across. This film is not completely shallow, it has a message, which relates to short films as they often have an objective, rather than just a storyline too. 

• The body language of Tom instantly suggests that he is more of an introverted person, as his stance isn't very open, and he almost looks like slightly childlike. This could represent his naivety and the fact that he has a perhaps childish perception of what love is (definitely in comparison to Summer). He is also drawing, which implies that he is quite a creative character, which we find to be true in the film, as we learn that it is his dream to become an architect.

• The photographs of Summer show a wide variety of facial expressions, which portrays the wide range of emotions that are portrayed throughout the film. This suggests that Tom and Summer's relationship isn't necessarily going to be an easy ride, but more of a roller-coaster - the audience should expect a lot of ups and downs.

The Narrative:

  The film poster is very bright and initiative which can reflect on the narrative itself. The genre is clear it is romance due to the images of two people showing their close bond in a relationship. The impression I get from the character is that he is down to earth and enjoys journalism due to the book he is constantly holding writing down ideas and everyday occurrences.

The layout:

The different layering on this poster indicates the layering of their relationship in the narrative. The first layering would be the small images in the collage form which takes up the majority of the poster. This highlights the different events emerging into their relationship showing confusion or a close bond between the two main characters. Then the text is layered on top as if it is labelling the meaning of the images as well as stating the name of the film. This shows the close connection between the text and image

 

What are the layout conventions- the house style of LWL

House language

Noun- Complex Noun:

• Name of person, place, state, thing or quality e.g. horse, love. 'emboidment' -more complex noun

Complex sentences:

• Several points compressed into one sentance, using complex language.

Restricted code in langauge:

• Specialist langauge which assumes knowledge from the reader.

Metaphor:

• One thing used to suggest something about another thing e.g. 'it was a nightmare!' or 'it was a kick in the head!'

Example of house langauge

Layout

- Justified text; uniformed paragraphs
- Consistent font used throughout
- Film still; rectangular with 90 degree corners
- Rating and numbers; compact and neat, use of lines helps section the categories
- Always three digit number for the page number