Analysis of a Film Review Page

For ancillary task 2 I will be putting together a page from a film magazine reviewing my film. After investigating I'm drawn to the double page spreads as they allow for a more interesting layout. Sight&Sound is the film magazine most likely to review a more independant film like mine so I've taken the example of 'Nowhere Boy' which I used as one of the inspirations for my poster in ancillery task one. I like the neat simple layout they've created:

Feedback on 'Final Draft'

The primary feedback I got was:

• The billing block should be at the top or around the edges


• Add a film tagline


• Add reviews from magazines

When the class went on and added their own feedback:

• Told the pictures needed to be of a better quality three times


• And the font of the billing block didn't look quite right

Now it was printed out I could see that the billing block did look wrogn so I will try it around the edges as suggested. I can't picture it working at the top. I will try a tagline although as a rule I think they're tacky but I'm sure I could come up with a couple of naff fish based puns. I may also see about adding bubbles or something to make it more visually interesting. I really don't want to have magazine reviews because they just seem to clutter the poster but again I will experiment.

Final Draft

In the end I've gone with something very like what I started with. Through my experimentation I've managed to address most of the things brought up in my original feedback but I was really happy with Joe and Michael being trapped amonst the black and white figures which were really neither here nor there to them. They were just people they shared absolutely nothing in common with and Michael is the only person who should be of relevance in Joe's life.

Further Experimentation

I wanted to get an idea for how my poster would look in context so one thing I did (partly for my own personal satisfaction) was mock up a DVD case and see how it looked then. From this I decided to take the feedback on the title seriously as I felt it looked a bit simplistic as it was with the dark blue all the way through. It just wasn't strong enough it looked thin and as if I was making do. Also seeing the billing block on the back cover decided for me that I wanted it on the blue background where it would stand out much better.


Next I tried stripping back the poster and getting the main title and so forth up to scratch. I tried a few fonts and ended up sticking with the original but bolder and in white with a navy blue outline. This seems to me a drastic improvment. I also tried putting the billing block (now in dark blue) under the title and felt it fitted in much better there although I had to get rid of the 'a film by Xanthe Z. Young' to keep it looking neat.

I still liked the other charectors in threshhold but I decided to experiment having them around the edge. The 'Eagle Vs. Shark' poster made use of positioning the charectors upsidedown to give the film a more quirky feel so I tried this with some of the charectors here. I think it worked well but I didn't like that Michael was no longer a major part of the poster as the film is really about his relationship with Joe.

Second Draft

Not much has really changed here. I've just made a few adjustments. I've added a billing block but I'm not completely satisfyied with it in that position at all. I may try it around the edge as suggested like on the 'Nowhere Boy' poster.

The other noticable difference is the addition of reviews. In my research I found for films like this is was common to have a couple of star ratings than an actual phrase and I wanted to keep it simple so I ran with that. I felt kind of uncomfortable about rating my own film so instead of using actual newspapers I invented a couple 'The Daily Hypothetical' and 'Invention' which I thought sounded like a trendy magazine.

First Draft Feedback

• Title needs to be bolder and stronger.
• Billing block needs adding (perhaps to top or round the edges)
• Crop whole image to size of A4
• Match colour tones of flesh on both images

Plan of action:

• Experiment with the title with different fonts and different colours. It's been suggested I use yellow as a near complimentary colour to blue and as this was used on both 'Nowhere Boy' and 'Eagle Vs. Shark' in my reseach but I think it gets over used and won't go with the soft watery look I want my poster to have. White with a border is another possibility.
• I will play around with the layout but at the moment I see the billing block in the bottom right hand corner.
• I'm unsure how to crop to A4, I will seek help from my more photoshop fluent friend James.
• Play about with brightness and contrast to get a better skin tone match.

First Draft

The basic first draft I put together.

Putting together the first draft

I used a combination of powerpoint and the second rate online photoshop 'sumopaint' to put together the first draft. I first off used sumopaint to cut out charectors from a whole bunch of screenshots. At the time I has something in mind with the charectors all gathered around with Joe caught in the middle perhaps with Michael just behind him as the film is really about his inability to socialise and be comfortable around anyone but Michael.

Once I'd cut everything out though and brought it into powerpoint with the background that idea didn't seem to be working. What was working was using a couple of Matt's more extreme expressions from the montage either side of him with his head in his hands. I liked this because it drew distinct attention to Joe as the protagonist and the obvious struggle he'd be expiriencing throughout the film:

After adding some place-holder text for the title and 'a film by Xanthe Z. Young' which seemed standard for most of these lesser known independant films (they very rarely advertise the actors) I was left with the remaining cut-out charactors to fill the gaping gap at the bottom of the page. I tried a couple of things but one thing I really liked was use of the 'threshold' tool on the minor charectors. When I put them next to the picture of Joe and Michael on the sofa it gave a distinct impression of Joe being caught amongst strangers that he was obviously uncomfortable and him and Michael standing out as a pair. It's an idea I've been trying to enforce throughout the film so I went with it.

Background

I put together a basic background on photoshop with the gradiant tool so as the make the light blue softer with the addition of of the white circles. They were supposed to be bubble-like in refference to the word 'fishing' in the title and as a reoccuring theme in the film. I wanted a link to this in the poster without heavy emphasis on it.


The use of the soft blue was also a common feature I'd come accross in the reseach so I was fairly happy with the blue background as the premis to work from.

Context

As a guideline for size and the like I decided to do a portrait poster that you might expect to find in:

• busstops
• magazines
• newspapers
• inside cinemas

It's just a vague list but it gives me some idea of where to envisage the final project as well as where to look for any further research.

Film Research

Film Poster Research

View more presentations from Tania Alterego.

A few posters which compared with what I was trying to acheive.