Film Poster Analysis

Analysis of Some Film Posters...

In film advertising, the film poster is the most basic form of illustrating a film's genre, the simple plot and the tone. For example the poster for 'Saw' is going to try to set a different mood and target a different audience to 'The Notebook'

 The poster for 'Saw' instantly creates a horror vibe, using a blend of the colour choice of mostly black and the image of a terrified face, in some sort of deadly mechanism. The title in a bold bright red font stands out massively from the rest of the poster, emphasising the importance of the colour red in this particular film, which makes sense in relation to the gore involved. The tag line also helps the reader to understand the main idea behind this film, and by using a rhetorical question it makes the viewer think about what the film may involve.

'The notebook' is almost the direct opposite. It uses bright colours of clear skies, grassy fields and the emotional image of a couple kissing in the rain to display that this is an emotional romance film. It is clearly aimed towards everyone, with a fairly cheesy tag line to set up a light hearted love story between two people. The font also plays a role, and being fairly large states the importance of the film's title.

Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange 1971 Poster

Finally the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film 'Clockwork Orange' has one of my favourite film posters of all time. The tagline is incredibly effective. I doubt you've ever scene a tag line involving rape and ultra-violence and the audience of the time had definitely never seen anything quite like it. The tagline represents the film perfectly, unusual slightly creepy and very shocking. The sci-fi triangles and the font for the main title, create that slightly strange dystopian feel that the film has. The poster also further illustates that violence plays a part in the plot by drawing attention to the blade that the main character us holding.

A Practice Shoot

A Practice Shoot... 

Today I was finally given the chance to shoot some simple clips using the Black Magic URSA Mini, a piece of kit so upmarket that I doubt I will be shooting on it soon after my media course!

Before I was able to get hands on, I was told of the 180 degree rule, which states the fact that every scene has an imaginary 180 degree area in which the action can be filmed. When broken, the final look will seem disorientating and can confuse the viewer on the geography of characters of objects in a shot. Secondly I was given the simple and yet effective advice to have the camera at the same height of the object being filmed, as amateur filmmakers can easily make the mistake of filming everything as if you were looking at it from head height. Shot height can effectively be used for artistic purposes

 

Finally I was taught some language used on film sets in order to avoid confusion. To begin with the director would say "Standby" and one by one each group involved (sound, light, cinematography etc.) will say "standing by" so that everyone is ready and in the right mindset to start shooting.

I then began filming, and having regained control over focus I found it fairly easy to work with the camera, shooting a range of close ups, mid-shots and wide shots. Obviously this activity wasn't to make a 5 star movie, and so I only shot the simple short of someone walking into frame, checking their phone and leaving immediately. It was fantastic experience to get hands on with the gear.

Analysing Se7en Opening Titles

Analysing Se7en Opening Titles...

This is a very distinct style and does a fantastic job at setting up a character and genre without giving a lot away. In the sequence we see lots of close ups of some fairly disgusting things. For example we see the unknown character shave the fingerprints off his fingers. This in it's own says a lot about the character being introduced. For instance he/she must be hiding themselves from investigation, so we know they're a criminal of sorts. 

Also, it's not the most normal thing to do, and so we know that they may have a twisted mind. This idea of the character being twisted is heavily supported by the added sounds and title style which are fragmented and broken.

If this wasn't enough evidence, there are then extremely short close ups of mutilated fingers, and a dead body. The character seems to be keeping some sort of scrapbook, which he does in an incredibly detailed manner. We see slow close ups of sellotape being cut perfectly, photos being stuck down precisely and extensive writing. However there's more to the character that is also revealed. He seems to be homophobic and traditionally religious, crossing out terms of homo and transsexuality in a news article.

Overall the short sequence does a perfect job. It instantly sets the horror/thriller tone through sounds and creepy visuals while lightly hinting at the type of antagonist the film will deal with.

Analysis of Pleasantville

Analysis of Pleasantville...

Pleasantville by Gary Ross is a 1998 comedy film about a brother and sister who end up in the classic 50s American TV show, Pleasantville, and how their views on society clash. The introduction very cleverly sets the tone and theme of the film. We instantly know that the film is going to be set around television from the first short clips of various TV channels. This use of quick channel changes also gives the viewer the sense that whoever is watching the TV is bored. Following this, the film grabs the viewers attention by finally staying on a channel which is advertising a 24 hour Pleasantville marathon, emphasising its importance to the plot.

The idea of the film being a fairy tale is then created with the title screen of 'Once Upon a Time' in a typical calligraphic font. Futher cliche's are used to set the scene of a typical American high school; the yellow school buses being the most obvious.

We are then introduced to our main character, who is clearly represented as a school nerd through many stereotypes; a mix of untidy hair, smart clothes and awkward social interaction. His awkwardness is emphasised by the use of a short depth of focus, putting the audience's attention solely on his face. The director then cleverly sets up his first trick by using shot reverse shot between the awkward guy and the popular, good looking girl in order the make it seem like the two are actually talking. This is then heavily contrasted when the camera changes, and we see an over the shoulder shot with a very deep depth of field in order to hit home to the audience, the distance between the boy and girl, and the boy's total isolation. The isolation is then further emphasised by the wide shot which makes the boy look small compared to the lamp post.

Looking for Inspiration

Looking for Inspiration...

Knowing that in a few months I will be making a title sequence for a thriller, I decided to go back and look at previous student work. I found one that I like named The Crossing. It uses a very clever blend of different colours, focus types, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds to catch the viewer's attention. The blurry start reflects the tumult of the situation and the sounds of radio broadcasts keep the viewers trying to guess what's happening.

I think the first shot of the field is great; good colours, sound and camera work, but it is simply too long! It starts to build tension but by the end I felt as if it would never end. The short sharp scenes which follow are well executed on the other hand, and really bring a sense of desperation and panic. After this, the smoke being introduced to the plot threw me off a bit. Instead I think it would have been more effective to make the approaching monster more obvious. If i ook anything away from watching this it would be:

.1 don't over-complicate the plot

                                                .2 Use of colour grading can be very effective in creating tone

.                                                       .3 When editing, give reason for the length of each shot.

Hands on with Some Gear

Hands on with Some Gear...

Today I was able to try out some of the film equipment that I will be working with over the next coming months. I was fairly familiar with the Vinten tripod, which we learnt to raise, drop and level using the spirit level. However the Black Magic camera was new to me. Having been taught how to connect the camera to the tripod, I learnt the most basic part of camera work - focusing. To focus a camera like this one, it's not as simple as the touch of a finger like on an IPhone. You first have to zoom in on the object you want to film, make sure the image is clear using to focus wheel, and then zoom out as far as you want.

Following this I learnt about exposure, which is basically how much light we want to allow into the lens. To expose the shot, I used an exposure wheel, which was an add-on and so not part of the original camera hardware. It wasn't incredibly well designed, and not only was it difficult to move in order to gradually change exposure, but it was also directly over the lens release button which could cause a major issue in the future if I'm not careful.

Then I was shown shutter angle, which on these cameras is normally set to 180. The shutter angle determines the clarity of fast moving objects. So, for example in sport, a high shutter angle is used in order to reduce motion blur and have a sharp picture.

Finally I learnt about white balance (WB) which is the process of altering the light in order to make the image look more realistic and to remove colour casts. With the Black Magic camera I used, the white balance is usually best at 3000 for indoor shots and 5600 for outdoor shots

Let Me Introduce Myself..

Let Me Introduce Myself...
I'm Guy, and well, where do I start. I've always been into the idea of making films. My dad used to make them when he was around 13 years of age and he taught me how to edit and physically cut and paste film strips for his antique  projector. Times have only slightly changed since then and now I am a keen editor and I enjoy making short travel videos and action sequences such as the one below.

I've only recently thought more seriously about film. Having spent the last 3 years at a strict academic school, I had no way to learn, practice and put my self-taught skills into action. Then, last summer, I participated in a 2 week film course in Rugby, which caught my interest massively, whilst learning the basics of camera work, script writing, sound and Foley etc. Since then I've been set on the idea of working on set or as an editor professionally.
Generally most of my inspiration when creating films comes from my favourite director Wes Anderson, who created incredible films such as 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and 'Life Aquatic'. His use of symmetry blended with incredible costume and set design make every single shot in his films look like a piece of artwork. My favourite film on the other hand is not by Anderson. It is instead the incredible Robert Zemeckis film, Back to the Future, but I'll go into that another time.

Over the next two years I hope to improve my skills, gain experience on set and make some great shorts! I will be blogging just about every single step of the way, so stick around!