Further Question One EvaluationPoster and Magazine

PosterWhile I was researching posters for Romantic-Tragedy genres I realised that they all mostly had something in common, for example most of the posters have the main characters (usually two) positioned at the top of the page. I wanted to be more creative with my poster and not use an existing poster as a base to create mine. However I have been inspired greatly by existing tragic romance posters.Development: I used Photoshop to do the edits on my poster. I then decided to work on the finished edited image on InDesign to add the text. I decided to use this programme as I have had experiences and more knowledge for it from using it in the previous year (year 12).

I really liked the layout of ‘The Last Song’ poster with the two main characters positioned at the top of the cover- fading into a smaller, distanced shot of them below. I did this on my poster however I changed the bottom image with Joe and Ellie, and Liberty ‘looking down’ at them from the image of her above. The positions of the characters on the poster of ‘The Last Song’ is also similar to mine. Joe’s back is facing towards the camera as he is the reason for the tragedy of the film, similar to the male character in ‘The Last Song’. I have also added a quote at the top of the cover which makes the two posters alike.

‘P.S. I Love You’ was also another film poster that has conventions to a Romantic-Tragedy genre and has influenced

me on creating my poster. The image of the two main characters are positioned at the top of the cover- fading into

the bottom image of the two characters taken from a distanced shot, next to the large title of the film (similar to

other tragedy-romance posters).This poster mostly influenced me on the layout of the text I

created on my poster. I decided to add the actors names from my film at the top of the poster in the same style (red and

black). I liked the idea of having their names in red as it is eye-catching and the colour matches with Joe’s jacket (giving the poster a matching colour scheme). The red text also works well with my poster and makes it stand out as the image

contains quite dark colours e.g. dark greens and brown. These darker colours also gives the feeling that the film is quite

tragic and not cheerful.The title ‘BlindLove’ is positioned in the centre at the bottom

of my poster is a large font size. I decided the font colour should be white as it attracts attention. The fonts usually used in Romantic-tragedy posters are generally pleasing and light,

such as French script or times new roman, unlike horror posters that have distorted, large fonts. The colours are also usually calming such as red, white and other light colours.

Target Audience feedbackI decided to ask my target audience for feedback on my poster:

• “You can really see that the poster presents a ‘sad’ romantic film, with the way the characters and positioned in the photo and the darker colours in the background (location). I also really like the way you faded the two images together, it makes the poster look professional and a really creative way of editing”

• “You can instantly tell that it has something to do with a broken relationship. This is because you have the male character in both of the photos used with two different characters. He also has his back towards the camera with Liberty's face looking sad, which tells me that he is the ‘betrayer’. I am guessing that he plays with the relationship by having 2 romances”

• “I really like the colours used on the poster and the layout of the text. Overall I think that the poster looks very professional and I would definitely go see the film if I saw this poster advertising it. I like the bold red text of the actors at the top of the cover and follows the conventions of a film poster because the actors in a film are very important and the audience want to instantly see what actors are in the film. The fonts used for the title ‘BlindLove’ is also very eye catching and creative, the fact that it is coloured in white also makes it stand out more.”

• “Overall I really like the whole poster and everything seems to fit together and work well, however I personally think that the background of the woods makes the film look slightly scary, however I know that this poster is not a ‘happy ending romantic film’ so I guess that it did need a bit of darkness in the poster”

MagazineFor my magazine I decided to research the most popular film magazines on the market that would successfully advertise my film. I found that ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ were the most common film magazines, so I did do more research into them and look at their magazine covers. I decided that I wanted my film (trailer) to be advertised by ‘Total Film’ magazines, this is because I preferred their layout and magazine covers and thought it would work well with my image taken for the cover of my created trailer on the magazine. They also promoted well known films such as Captain America, Harry Potter, Kill Bill and many others. I also really like the masthead of the magazine as it is very bold and would attract the audiences attention.The only disadvantage I came across when looking at their magazine covers where that most of the films advertised were action films, I also found this an issue with the ‘Empire’ magazine covers. This made it more difficult for me to look at the conventions of a romance genre film magazine. However, being advertised on the front page of ‘Total Film’ can be an advantage as it attracts all audiences and new audiences might be introduced to this film making it more popular.

Although this magazine cover of Sherlock Holmes is a different genre, I really liked the layout and colours used on this cover and decided to use it as a base to my magazine cover. The texts are also very eye catching and stands out when its on a bookshelf. However I did change the titles and colours to suit my film genre. It includes the right amount of text that a magazine cover should have, for example some ‘Empire’ magazine covers have too much text on the front covers and makes it look confusing, taking your attention away from the film that is actually advertised on the front page. I also challenged many forms and conventions of film magazines by advertising other films and adding subtitles to the cover for other stories included inside the magazine. This is a clever way of catching the audiences attention and making them want to look inside to find out more about their other favourite films.

For my magazine cover I decided to use a shot that was very similar to my poster image. This similarity will let the audience know that they're the same film and will be able to recognise it if they have already seen the advertisement of the poster.

I have used the same sub- titles for smaller stories that are included in the magazine

Overall my magazine cover is very much similar to the Total Film cover of Sherlock Holmes. This front cover has influenced me on how to create and follow the convention of a popular film magazine.I created my magazine cover using InDesign and Photoshop which is what I also used to create my poster.

Magazine influences

Target Audience Feedback• “The magazine looks professional and draws my attention to

it, I think you have followed the typical conventions of a film magazine and I would definitely buy it”

• “The ‘BlindLove’ title really stands out. This follows the conventions of a film magazine as the title of the movie is normally the most eye catching text on the cover”

• “The colours you have used really stand out and catch my attention, I also like the way you have matched the colours together on the cover e.g. Joes jacket matches the masthead”

• “I've always been interested in “Total Film” magazines. Their magazines are really good and they also have a mass audience which will make a larger group of audience look at your trailer for the film”