codes and conventions of film poster

Codes and conventions of my film poster

Codes and Conventions of Film Review

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I used empire, a film review magazine to inspire me with me film review, as I thought the look was modern and slick. Shown below is the real magazine and my version

Film Name and Year

Having the film name and year of the film release is conventional to any review as it allows the audience to understand the film genre, credits, details, director, screenwriter, cast, stars, soundtrack and much more information.

Quotes and Tag Lines

More often then not a review will begin with a quote or a reference or a tag line from the actual film as a brief introduction into the film to grab the audiences attention, hence it is a common feature into reviews. Although it is not used by all short films as they may not have key quotations within them due to their length.

Introduction and Summary

Its is very conventional for the first paragraph to contain a brief plot summary of the film, often written with the intention of leading the audience to want to see the film. The summary will include aspects of the timeline, location, narrative, cast performance, etc. This is often proceeded by a personal view of the film form the writers perspective.

Ratings

In film reviews it is conventional to summarise the review in a brief paragraph. Usually with a percentage or a rating out of five stars. However this isn’t always present as it is sometimes just apparent in the wording of the review and is therefore not needed.

Plot change

We have made a few changes to our short film:

- It's now a video diary
- Therapy session at the start
- No businessman character
- 2 characters only maths teacher and evil computer hacker
- Jekyll and Hyde story-line
- Ending by killing himself (Filth 2013)

Mise en scene in thriller films

Of Unsound Minds - Short Film (draft)

Film Posters

Poster Questionnaire - Promotion

I placed my questionnaire on twitter to get more feedback due to the fact that social media is trending meaning more responses

Film poster questionnaire

Film review 1st draft

short film posters - research

This film poster is red and white mixed in with a little bit of brown this could connote the danger and action that happens in the film and furthermore it’s a very simple colour scheme that is effective and would entice audiences to watch as it doesn’t give too much away, finally there is no actor on the front and no social media links unlike Hollywood movies

This short film shows a shadow of a person pushing a boulder and a shooting star, with the title in bold underneath and the colour scheme is a mix of dark and light emphasising that there could be a form of mystery/ drama as it doesn’t reveal too much, this also doesn’t have any actors on the front and it’s a simple colour scheme this also consists of social media links at the bottom and credits

This film poster hasn’t got any of the actors in it but just has a shadow of a huge robot covered in flames which could mean danger and that this is an action due to the fire and could suggest robots taking over the world, this also doesn’t have as many companies working in synergy with them compared to Hollywood film posters you see all the companies at the bottom.

Hollywood film posters - research

  

This poster has the protagonist (James McAvoy) as the main attraction on the poster but has half of him cut off and the side of his face has a black shadow and he is in black clothing showing the nature of maybe this character has a dark side and the background is white which could be showing his kind side that is quite innocent, and there is cracks all over the poster meaning he has split personalities.

This poster hasn’t got the main protagonist in the poster and just has a cartoon house in the middle of nowhere showing that maybe at night there will be something eerie that’s going to happen as a secluded house is always a setting for a psychological horror/thriller. There is also some rules which attracts audiences to read the poster and lure them in to watching and finding a deeper meaning of those rules. Lastly there is red writing and bloody marks on the poster showing that there will be violence/gore at some point and danger.

This poster uses the star power approach, because they have put both main protagonists on the poster Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis, there is again cracks maybe to show edginess and that there is split personalities, also the whole poster looks like it’s In the shadows and there are bits of light this could show there is a lot of mystery and thinking to be doing in this film.  

Panic Attack - Case Study

 

How was the short film distributed?
This short film was distributed on youtube by the director (Fede Alvarez), this was then watched by Kanye West and he then tweeted about it and put the link on the video and people watched it  and it has currently hit a grand total of 7.7 million views which is a lot for a short film

Differences between blockbuster film and this short film post?
The differences are that there is not a lot of credits on there compared to a mainstream film like Don't Breathe which Fede Alvarez also went on to direct because he got recognition from his short film such as the companies they work in synergy with e.g. universal, imax etc. and they different amount of actors one has no big star power actors and the other has actors