Skills Acquisition
I first developed my skills using Photoshop and illustrator doing various tasks to improve my skill and help with the final product. I learned a range of transferable skills and techniques through several different tasks using Adobe applications. I created an illustrated portrait in illustrator (which you can find on a blog post here
Adobe illustrator Vector Graphics (cartoon portrait)), Photo manipulation to create the perfect model using a range techniques in photoshop such as smart blur and Spot Healing Brush tool (
Smoothing skin), and finally a film poster i designed in photoshop using green-screen elimination (
Photoshop film poster-Green screen elimination). I used these transferable skills when making my designs in Photoshop or Illustrator. I also conducted some photography work which also helped me with the assignment and gave me the ability to create better imagery.
Research and ideas
The next part of my graphic evaluation was to look at codes and conventions of different posters and DVD sleeves i analysed to look at the various formats and genre conventions such as Horror, comedy, action genres works etc. I explored fonts and titles, Produced written analysis of posters and DVD sleeves to uncover codes and conventions and finally produced a formal proposal for my film poster. Looking at codes and conventions of various film
poster genres I found that comedy had a lot more brighter colours such as pink and
bold fonts which had a fun and cartoony look to them due to the genre being
funny and comical with images of the cast doing over the top funny poses and
facial expressions, The action genre had images of explosions and men with guns
surrounded by buildings that where destroyed and had a sharp bold font that
looked distressed to correlate with the destructive nature of the film mainly in the colour red to match the
destruction that happened in the film, and finally for the genre I chose which
was horror I found the codes and conventions of the genre to be dark and
frightening due to the posters I analysed having images of shadowy characters
that looked enigmatic or scary which I chose to do in my poster and DVD sleeve
by placing a shadow on one side of my actors face. I also found that the
colours on horror posters were a dark red colour and black to match the
horrific, scary feel of the film and the bloody nature of the film, the fonts
used were bold and the colours looked bloody to correlate with the atmosphere
and content of the film.
Fonts and titles
I first explored fonts and titles by experimenting with different fonts using the website DaFonts and looked at what fonts suited what different genres. You can find the blog post here
Font types, as you can see i chose the best fonts for Horror, romance, Action, Sci-Fi and Historical Drama. The reason i completed this task was to get a better understanding of the different fonts to see what fonts represented different genres and see what conventions were related to the various genres. Choosing the different fonts for the genre horror helped me with choosing the font for my DVD poster due my poster being horror.
Analysis of posters and DVD sleeves
To uncover codes and conventions of DVD posters and DVD sleeves i analysed several different posters relating to the genre horror and had a look to see what content was present on the DVD poster and DVD sleeves. The first analysis i did was DVD posters that i did on a blog post (
Poster analysis) for this i chose three different horror posters which all had similar codes and conventions,
which
were the colour used within the poster that was a bloody red and black for the
fonts and background which was dark throughout the different posters I
analysed, I also found that the fonts that were used were always bold and distressed
to correlate with the films content and the images used were of dark,
frightening characters that had a shadow over them to make them feel more
enigmatic, The codes and conventions i found throughout looking at these posters are the title of the film stands out off the page due to this being the focal point for the poster due to this letting the audience know what the title of the film is and interest them so that they go and watch it. I also found that if i want my poster to look authentic and interesting i should include reviews, images that relate to the genre and film, Credits bar and a tagline related to the film, Which i achieved whilst creating my poster.
I also looked at different DVD sleeves to see the codes and conventions of various DVD sleeves. I completed this task on a blog post here
DVD Sleeve Analysis, As you can see i analysed two different DVD posters that both related the horror genre. I took influence from these posters when creating my final design as i wanted my DVD sleeve to look as great as it could be and feel authentic.
I
took inspiration from the fonts and colours which were bold and stood out due
to them standing out from the dark background and I also took influence from
the imagery used on the posters which were of frightening, mysterious
characters surrounded by a dark shadow. From analysing these posters i found that there is three crucial parts to a DVD sleeve, The front, spine and back. The front is the main focus point on a DVD sleeve due to it being the first place the audience looks at and what attracts them to buy the DVD from looking at this i found that the front of the sleeve some what replicates the poster due the sleeve containing the same image and using the same font as the poster. The back of the DVD sleeve contains the blurb which is a brief description of what the film is about, and has the credit bar which also appears on the poster. The back of the DVD sleeve also contains any extra content such as special features.
Formal proposal
For my DVD poster and sleeve i had to produce a written formal proposal (
Film poster proposal) which contained information about what my poster will contain such as a short summary of the film, title, Legal and ethical considerations, and intended audience and age etc. I did this due to also giving me an overview of my idea and helped me get a better understanding of my film. This was a compulsory part of the production process due to it being the start of the poster as it gives an overall idea of the DVD sleeve and Poster.
Paper Designs
Before i created my final poster and DVD sleeve i sketched out my idea and layout onto my sketchbook to give me an image to work of when creating my DVD poster, you can find my designs here
Sketch Designs for DVD poster. As you can see from my final design
Finished Movie Poster the poster has been changed due to me using a different background image which was of a derelict insane asylum instead of a forest which i sketched in my book. The poster was also originally portrait but due to several changes i made the poster was made landscape which worked better than if it was portrait. The final difference was the font that the title was presented in due to it being bold and sharp looking because it was supposed to represent the edge of a sharp knife, but instead the font i used on my final design looked more like the title had been written in blood splatters which i thought gave the film a more terrifying, violent feel to it. The only thing that bares similarity to my sketch work is the image of the antagonist (killer) due to it using the same body language and characteristics on both pieces of work.
Evaluation of final designs
Above are my final designs, The first image being my DVD sleeve and the second image being my DVD poster. From looking at my final designs i believe i have achieved what i set out to do in my proposal due to in my proposal i outlined that my poster and DVD sleeve would be marketing a horror film which would be intended for an audience that is aged 18+. From looking at both of the layouts i can see that both are doing its intended job such as the poster marketing a horror film and the DVD sleeve trying to sell the DVD whilst still keeping in theme with the poster. The layout of the poster is landscape due to the poster being able to show more content whereas the the layout on the DVD sleeve looses its ability to hold more content due to the DVD sleeve being portrait and a being a smaller size. Also on my poster i have put the antagonist central to the poster because i wanted it to be at the forefront of the audiences attention and to be the main image on the page due to the film focusing on his story. I then placed the title of the film on top of the image which has a white border around the text so that it gives the title more depth and makes it stands out off the page and central to the audiences eye line, i chose to keep this format on my DVD sleeve so that it matches my poster and correlates with the theme of the film which is horror. I also felt on my DVD poster that i could possibly have included more content such as more reviews etc just to fill the visible spaces on the poster, but for my DVD sleeve i found that the layout worked well due to the content of the sleeve suiting the format well such as the where everything is placed just fits the layout of the DVD sleeve.
The fonts i used on my poster and DVD sleeve is matching due to me wanting them to correlate and match one an other, The only fonts i used different is the blurb and the extra text which says 'Extreme Edition' due to it giving the sleeve more character and makes it more interesting. The font i used for the titles is a font i downloaded from Dafonts which is called 'Crime Scene', i chose to use this font due to it representing a slasher, horror film as it as though the title has been written with blood. Although the title font on both the poster and DVD sleeve is suitable for the genre of film i feel like i could of chosen a better font which is more visually appealing such as making it is easier for the audience to read but still keeping in theme with the genre. The fonts i chose for the actors names and the reviews are the same so that it did not look messy on the poster and sleeve due to if i had put different fonts on each individual piece of text it would of made it look a bit confusing and messy. Also the various posters i looked at used this theme such as using one font for the title then another for reviews and actors name so i thought that is the theme i will stick to. For the back of the DVD sleeve i chose to use a sharp font for the special features which is the same as the tagline for the film 'HELP ME', i chose to do this as the DVD sleeves i analysed used different fonts to highlight the special features which i also did to separate the special features from the rest of the text and make them stand out. Finally i used a more bold, simpler font for the blurb and the 'EXTREME EDITION' feature due to the idea being that it makes the audience know that this is the blurb and makes it easier for the audience to read and know about the film also i feel that it makes the DVD sleeve more interesting.
The colours i used for the both these designs follow a theme, The scheme i chose was red, white and black i believe that these colours worked well together when i was designing due to it relating to the horror genre and give the sleeve and the poster that gritty, scary feel it needs. I also found that when looking at other horror posters red and black was the type of colour scheme they used especially the colour black which is a convention that is used in the horror genre along with the colour red. The title is in red so that it stands out of the page and that it is the first aspect of the poster that the audience is drawn to, also on the title i used a white glow around the text to make it more 3 dimensional and stand more off the page, i then put the surrounding text in the colour white to make the writing visible and correlate with the red but also put them further back so that the title stands out, as you can see i did this with the tagline also to give this same effect. The back of the DVD sleeve still follows the same colour scheme but what i chose to do is make the credits bar and special features in white and the blurb in red. I chose to do this so that it splits the back in half so that the bottom is in white and gives the audience the idea that it is the special features at the bottom and the blurb at the top, this was so that it follows the same format as the front such as the text in red is more important the text in white but still makes the text stand out and not blend in with the background. The background colour is black on the back so that the text are more visible on the page.
The images i used all relate to the theme and story of the films plot. I used an image of the antagonist on the front cover of the sleeve and on the poster, The image used is to look sinister and frightening due to him being the serial killer in the film. To do this i put his hood up and Jamie gave an evil facial expression, i then photoshoped a knife into Jamie's hand to look as though he has just killed someone. Finally i placed him central to the page and put a subtle red glow around him to make him look more evil than he is already looking. The final images i chose to put on my DVD sleeve are placed at the back due to them being stills of the film. The images are of s mental asylum, a bloody knife and bloody hand prints, I chose these images because they relate to the theme of the film and make the audience know that this is a horror film i also feel that the images intise the audience into watching it and give the sleeve more authenticity. The DVD sleeves i analysed also had images on the back that gave indications on what the film was about, which i found that this is crucial to a DVD sleeve due to it enticing the audience into wanting to pick up and watch the film.
I also added bbfc logo, Production company logo and the DVD logo on the front, back and spine of the DVD sleeve, Whereas on the DVD poster i only put the bbfc rating due to the aspects are not important to the poster only so that the audience know the age rating of the film. Looking at other film posters they only include the age rating and none of the other content. I chose to put all three on the DVD sleeve as it makes the film look more authentic and gives the sleeve more character. The tone and feel of my DVD sleeve and poster is meant to feel like it is representing a horror film and is terrifying, From analysing different posters i found that horror has a unsettling feel and tone to them due to the images they use are disturbing or scary elements in the film such as an image of the killer. To achieve this, which i think i have was that i made the image of the killer dark and mysterious by darkening one side of the face whilst putting emphasis on the bloody knife to draw the audiences eyes towards this. I also tried make the feel and tone unsettling by the background image i used which is of an abandoned mental asylum which is where the majority of the film will take place.
