I have created a theatrical trailer, poster and magazine
cover for a film called ‘Ever After’. The film is a romantic drama genre and is
an independent film, because of this it does not follow mainstream trailer
conventions such as using the names of the directors and makers of the film who
are well known which will attract a larger audience. Romantic drama films
typically appeal to females rather than males as they’re stereotypically more
emotional and would relate to a narrative that displays the tension between a
male and a female characters. This would perhaps allow the female audience to
identify with the female character. Taking inspiration from the film ‘Gone Girl’
for the narrative of my trailer, as it was a film that was very successful and
so I wanted to create a similar storyline to ensure the success of my film.
The characters I have used follow romantic drama genre
conventions as I have an attractive female that appeals to the male audience
but also who comes across emotional which follows the stereotypical traits of a
woman. I did this to make the character easily identifiable to the audience,
this kind of character can be seen films such as ‘Girl on the train’. The two
main characters are introduced in a bed together asleep to show that there is a
relationship between them and the next few shots emphasises this through mid-shots
of the two characters in a bath. For the introduction of the characters and
titles that appear with them I took inspiration from the film ‘Cherrybomb’ as I
liked the way the letters appeared separately instead of the whole word
appearing at once, for my film I used an effect which did the same thing as I
thought that this again created the calming atmosphere I was trying to create
at the exposition part of the trailer. I put the titles at the bottom left of
the screen as it doesn’t take away the focus of the introduction of the
characters.
From looking at different romantic drama films such as
‘Cherrybomb’ and ‘Submarine’, I found that the most common camera shots used were
close ups. They are used to show the audience the characters emotions to
explain each decision made by the character. I used close ups when the two
characters are arguing so that the audience can see the emotion on their faces
without having the rest of the setting to be distracted by, and to also draw
attention to the words that they are saying and the tone of voice they use. Films
such as ‘It’s kind of a funny story’ used close ups to focus on the emotions of
the characters and the words they are saying. Close ups also show important
features of the film to try and help the storyline continue, I have used this
when trying to create the calming atmosphere to set the scene and give an
insight to the atmosphere of the film at the beginning of the trailer. I used a
close up of the lights and the dream catcher to set the scene and give an
insight to the atmosphere of the film. Film trailers such as submarine use this
when emphasising items that help create the tone of the trailer.
They also generally use a lot of over the shoulder shots,
this makes the audience feel like they are looking at a scene they are not part
of or shouldn’t be looking at. I used this when the male character is looking
at the missing poster.
Slow music is generically used for a romantic film and a
more upbeat sound track is used for a drama film. I used a mix of both so that
when the tone of the film changed the music altered to emphasise the change in
atmosphere which will help the audience understand the storyline easier. This then created tension and made clear to
the audience that this is the turning point in the trailer and relationship of
the characters.
When planning the costumes and makeup for my characters I
took inspiration from the film fish tank, I think that some of the costumes in
the trailer represent teenagers in real life and so wanted to dress the
characters in my trailer similarly. For example a lot of the girls in fish tank
are wearing tight vest tops and so in the last scene of ‘Ever After’ the female
is dressed alike. They also have the girls wearing dark eye makeup so in most
of my trailer I have the female character wearing dark eye makeup.
From looking at other film trailers I have had to look into
the types of institution I will need for an independent film. Film such as Fish
tank Trainspotting and Submarine are all produced by film 4 productions, I then
chose to use Film 4 as the main institution for my film trailer because I took
inspiration from these films and they have produced films that are similar to
mine.
When planning the ending of my trailer I looked at how other
trailers have created mystery and enigma codes to leave the audience wanting
more. The ending of my trailer is mostly inspired by the trailer for ‘Fish
Tank’ this is because it becomes very fast past but then leaves the audience
wondering what happens to the character next and leaves them wanting to watch
the film to find out the answers. I tried to create a similar ending which then
leaves the audience wanting to know more about what happens to the characters
next, like where did she go and did he found her.
When creating my poster I came up with three different
designs that I thought related to my film appropriately. I took inspiration
from the film posters of the perks of being a wallflower, winters bone and blue
is the warmest colour. I tried to make my designs as similar to these posters
as possible so that mine had all the correct features of a real film poster. I
decided to go with my first design as it showed the girl alone in the street
which is a good representation of my film. I blurred the right side of the
poster so that the main focus what the girl on the left and so that I could add
text and information about the film without it looking too cluttered. Most
mainstream film posters are portrait so I went against the generic poster
design and created a horizontal poster to attract a larger audience because it
looks different than a blockbuster film poster. I then followed a similar
layout to the winters bone poster as mine also had the character to one side of
the poster being the main focus with all text to one side. The winters bone
poster has the name of the film in larger text with the reviews and details of
the film in a smaller size. I then also made the text on my poster different
sizes so that the name grabs the audience’s attention first followed by the
smaller details. I took my inspiration for my colour scheme from the film
poster of Blue is the warmest colour, in the poster they have used mostly dull
colours with only one brighter colour. I have made my poster quite dark and
dull as it corresponds with my trailer which has many shots from dark
locations. The colour I have used in my poster is a yellow that is featured in
both my trailer, magazine cover and poster, linking them all together. I added
a yellowy tone to the photo as it could suggest a deeper meaning because yellow
symbolises happiness but in the trailer the female character comes across as
upset and depressing.
I looked at the film poster from ‘Perks of being a
wallflower’ and noticed that a film poster needed the release date, social
media links and a billing address. I then created a social media link for
twitter and Facebook for the film and put it on both my poster and the end
title for my trailer. My poster is different to the Perks of being a wallflower
poster as they have used well-known actors and so have their names right at the
top of the poster, because my actors aren’t well known I decided to put their
names into the billing address.
All the research I made really helped create a professional
looking poster.
This was my first design of an Empire magazine cover I was
going to create, however when putting together my first draft of my trailer I
began to rethink what magazine my film would appear in. I then gathered
audience feedback from a focus group who then suggested I go for a different
magazine like Sight and sound or little white lies. I then decided to change
the magazine to sight and sound magazine as empire magazine features more
Hollywood films so I had to find a magazine that shows independent films. After
I decided to change magazine I then had a look at more covers from sight and
sound magazine. I took inspiration from these three magazine covers, a common
feature from all three is that the centre image is a close up of an actor and
so I took some photos of the main female from my film that I could use as my
central image. In these two magazine covers the actors on the front are not
looking directly at the camera, because of this I decided to use this photo as
the main image for my magazine. I then zoomed in on the image and got rid of
the blank space around the character.
Sight and sound magazine have a similar layout for their covers and so I
recreated this by having the title of the magazine across the top and over the
forehead of the actress, this got rid of any blank space in that area and made
the magazine more alike to the others produced by Sight and sound. I then made
the name Alba Vellozo bigger than the rest of the text at the bottom so that it
grabs the audience’s attention and follows the design of sight and sound
magazine. The text ‘The ever after
interview’ is written in the same font that is used in the poster and in the
trailer through intertitles, this helps create a strong brand image that would
make the campaign more recognisable.
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