Film Poster Conventions

Knowing the features within a film poster will be very beneficial so I can make my own film poster as correct and high standard as possible. These are the main features within a film poster:

Image

Film posters almost always contain a main image of some sort, which is the main item that catches peoples eyes. The images are usually still shots from the film, or character shots to reveal more about the characters or either a graphic icon something related to the film. They are typically simple and clear to tell more about the narrative of the film and to intrigue people to watch the film when its released. 

Title

Almost certainly there will be a title of some sort on a film poster. It will be unusual if there is no title as you do not know information about the film itself so it is a poor advertisement without a title. Normally teaser posters may not have a title but apart form that you typically would come across them with a title.

Directors, Producers and actors

Also, directors, producers and actors are typically displayed at the bottom of the film poster. Or in large text above or below the film title. This is important to include, especially if they are a big and well known film and this is used as one of there main selling points. Such as Steven Spielberg, they would advertise a lot using his name.

Awards
Furthermore, awards are sometimes added to show positive feedback. This will intrigue the audience more to know that it has won awards and then they will be more interested about the film.

Taglines
Taglines are used to emphasize a point within a film. It tells you more about what the film is about and also makes it more dramatic. They are very memorable to the audience as it is short and sweet and when they remember the tag line they will remember the film also. So it is very effective.

Distribution companies
You usually see the logos of the companies by the side of the billing block, these are the distributers of the film poster. Knowing that these film companies have worked on the film is a big selling point for people as if they like there previous work they will recognise and watch the new film.

Moreover, there are many things you have to think about when creating one to make it stand out. Firstly, it has to be eye catching, something that will stand out among others or in the street. You need to make sure the main image is eye catching especially, that will grab the audiences eye straight away. The title should be large so they can easily recognise the film and bold so it stands out on the poster among the rest. It should also clearly define the film's genre so the audience for the genre can easily recognise it. It should be most attractive to that audience. Furthermore, It should state when the film is being realise such as 'coming in cinemas this summer' or 'coming soon' so the audience knows when they should be expecting the film. Lastly, there might also be reviews from companies somewhere on the film poster so the audience knows what to expect.

Film Poster Cliché Patterns

From researching film posters I came across a great website called 'reeldealbsu' that combined the same poster types and explained the meaning behind them. Many posters have very similar cliché patterns which is really interesting to see how similar they are.

Teal and orange
Teal and orange is one of the most cliché and used poster technique. Everyone seems to love it as the colours mixed looks satisfying to look at.

Golden yellow
You see this normally in big independent films. They contain either gold or yellow background with a simple picture on top. It is really simple yet effective design that catches your attention due to the bright background colour. I will however not use this as it does not suit my genre or my film is not a big independent film.

Back shot
This one is typically shown for a hero, they have there back faced. You can see how popular it is within hero or villain based films. It is a very popular technique. This may be something I am considering of using even though my character is not a hero or villain, many post-apocalyptic film posters use this.

Big-name head shot
This is typically used if there is a big star in the film and they want to endorse this a lot. There face typically fills up the entire film poster, overlapping with large bold text that stands out. This is possible for myself to use, I think it would look good.
Back-to-back
This is used when the film is about a tough love relationship. Two people are physically standing back to back representing it. I obviously will not be using this as this is completely the opposite of what my film is about.

Ensemble
Ensemble is what you usually see in family films, when there is a lot of characters you see them all bundled up, posing, and the setting in the back drop.

Orange and white
You see this typically within many action films. It suggests the film is going to be very edgy, and the orange represents the action going to happen within the film and the explosions they are going to have.

Floating heads over scene
Floating heads over a scene is normally used when the film is very meaningful, soft and touching. The backdrop is usually a beach or a field of some sort. This could be a film poster that I may use.

Film Poster

Now I have completed the short film, I now can move on to producing my film poster which is one of my ancillary tasks for the coursework. Film posters have still maintained in remaining a very important marketing technique from the beginning. They are typically used to remind or tease the viewer after a trailer is released, to give them more to look at and revealing more about the theme or characters within the film. They are seen in numerous places such as in cinemas, on the sides of busses or big billboards. It is a very important advertisement for films.

I am expecting to finish film posters by the 10th of January to then begin a magazine review page which I hope to finish by the end of January.

My Short Film: Outlaster

My Film's Certificate (BBFC)

The British Board of Film Classification is a non-governmental organization, founded by the film industry in 2912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films exhibited at cinemas and video works. The BBFC currently issues 6 certificates:
UNIVERSAL - All ages are admitted and nothing unsuitable for 4 years and over.
PARENTAL GUIDANCE  - All ages are admitted however some scenes may be unsuitable for children.
12A - Unsuitable for young children. If you are under 12 you have to be with an adult.
12 - Only suitable for 12 and older.
15 - Films in this category contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong language and strong violence. Only suitable for ages 15 and above.
18 - Suitable only for ages 18 and over. There is no limitation of foul language and real sex scenes are shown.

I think that is is very important for producers and especially distributors to have their film containing a suitable and accurate certificate rating for the film. If you get the wrong age group such as lower that should be aimed at the higher age group then it can cause a lot of controversy and especially a bad reputation on the film. Along with traumatizing many kids that watch it.

Similar Products Certificate
From looking at similar products, such as Zombie Land and I am Legend they both have the age certificate of 15. I believe this is due to the intense language and violence used within the films. However, my short film does not contain both of these. Therefore concluding to the decision of my certificate to be 12a. I feel like this is the relevant age as it is quite a dark short film but no violence, nudity or foul language within it. I am very close to choosing PG but there is some areas within my short film that made me tilt towards 12a.

Scenes I Didn't Use In My Short film.

I was originally going to use this scene showing that he has only ventured areas around him due to it being unsafe. So this scene was to show this, to be over the narrated text
'So far I have only ventured beyond my immediate neighbors a few times. I mainly adventure only within my area as people are not trusted out there. However, it proved to be quite fruitful as being elderly had cupboards of tinned food, most of which was in date. My other neighbor was a keen hiker and camper and I managed to obtain two camping stoves and enough gas for six months - if I last that long.'

However I felt like if I added this it would make the short film overall seem too boring, repeated and long. Therefore, I decided to not include this within my short film and I feel like it was a good decision. I love the shots and angles within this and it did waste a lot of time filming and editing it but I still feel very strong with my decision.

Final Changes to my Short Film

Once I edited the majority of my film, I then came back to it later that week and saw that all the editing that I had previously done has vanished. This is due to using Final Cut Pro as it automatically saves and I have no power of saving it myself. However I have now learnt from my mistakes and I now used an external hard drive to save it on. This really unmotivated me however I got back onto form and decided I wanted to improve my film overall as I think it needed some work. This resulted to many changes of previous planning. Of many that I needed to film and add to the scenes. I also made the relevant changes from my peer feedback as it was very useful.
At the beginning instead of him having a nightmare of him exploring areas and getting chased or shot at, It is now a montage of him turning on the computer recording software to document his life so far in the post-apocalyptic world. This makes more sense as the whole film is narrated over by himself already however now adding that he is talking to a camera, documenting, it gives a sense of realism and sense to the short film.
Moreover, I have filmed more scenes that fill in relevant moments to make the short film go more swiftly. 
Lastly, I have removed a lot of boring scenes that made the short film too long, 2 or 3 in fact. I have also rearranged some scenes, as the order I had it in before didn't make sense. I firstly put the scene of him in the past with his family at the start then cutting to present of him in the post apocalyptic world. I am very satisfied with the changes I have made as I think it is now a very professional short film.

Peer Feedback Response of My Short Film

Now I have a rough copy of my short film I feel like having peer feedback would be very useful to see how I can improve the short film to as high standard as possible. These are the responses that I received from a few people:

Would there be anything you would change?
.'I would change the order as the past scene is in the middle of the short film and is quite confusing'
.'Perhaps make it so he is acting like he is recording a video talking about his time rather than just a narration. It will give it some more sense.'
.'No I felt like it is just fine as it is'.

How effective was the film, did you enjoy it and think it was entertaining?
.'I thought it was very effective however you should make some little changes to make it even more so'
.'It was very entertaining to watch and grabbed my attention most of the way'
.'It was alright however I found it a little dull and repetitive at times'

Did you think it was clear, is there anything that did not make sense?
.'It was clear with the titles and plot, just re arrange the scenes for past first then all the present after.'
.'I found it very clear, simple and understood most of what was happening.'
.'The narration explained a lot of what was happening so that was very useful'.

Getting Permission For My Non Copyright Music

I was in search for non copyright music, which I then came across MobyGratis at 'mobygratis.com'. This is a site for non-profit filmmakers, film students and more. It is ran by a man called Moby who creates all the music himself, and there are over 150 tracks on his website. I used every song within my short film from his website, 3 in total, which I had permission from him to use them. You simply have to pick the song you want then send him your film's details and who you are and then he will later on accept or decline, and luckily accepted all of mine. An example is shown to the side. Moreover, I got my sound effects from a website called 'Freesound.org' where it allows you to use the sounds for your films for anything. This website had many sounds which was useful through out my short film and made it more life like.

 The website for my free, non copyrighted music.

http://www.mobygratis.com

                                 The website for my free, non copyrighted sound effects.

http://www.freesound.org

Colour Grading

I decided to colour grade my short film as I felt like the majority of my shots that I filmed were too bright and happy for my genre - post apocalyptic fiction. From my research of similar products to mine, they have also colour graded there film. They typically colour graded it darker and added blue to the shots. I have never colour graded before, however final cut has a very simple feature for it which worked very well as it was very easy. As shown on the picture below, I could change the colour which i found blue mainly worked for my scenes. Blue looks soft, gentle and added the dark feel towards the shots. I also changed the exposure on some shots, which you can make the shots lighter or darker. For most of my shots I obviously made the shots darker as he is in dark times not bright and happy times.  

Above is a video of the comparison, you can clearly see the difference It has made and the effect colour grading has done. I have very happy with the outcome and the feature on final cut as it was so simple and easy to use.

How I Edited My Short Film

Trying Out Black Bars

Films usually have a black bar known as a 'letterbox'. They do this so they make it standard width video format while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. Filnal Cut Pro has an effects tab when you simply search letterbox and drag it on the video and then on the right hand side you can change the width of the letterbox. I was going to use black bars as it makes the film have a more professional approach. However as shown in the image above, it cuts out footage for the news clips. It looks strange having the top and bottom taken off and therefore I could not use this effect in my short film.

Webcam Effects

To make it look like he was recording on a webcam, I recorded it on two devices and paired them later on. I filmed on my actual Mac on a software called 'Photo Booth' shown in the first image, and then my normal camera filming him looking at his mac in the second image above. I simply clapped so I could pair them both together later in the editing software and then I used the two different clips to make one scene when I needed them.

To get the webcam effect, I used many techniques. As the Photo Booth quality was too good, you would not be able to tell the difference between my camera I recorded for the whole short film and the Photo Booth video. Therefore I had to make it look more camera like. Shown in the first image, I added a slight blur, within the effects tab, called 'Gaussian blur' to lower the quality of the footage. I then added an effect called '50's TV' which makes it have an old fashioned feel towards the footage. Then I added a effect called 'Bad TV' which really makes the footage look old by having lines wave across the footage and makes it look static like you see on old webcam devices. Lastly, I made the text you see on old cameras and recording devices saying the date and time in Photoshop. I made the text look curved so it seemed real. I added it above the video footage in Final Cut and shrunk it to the correct size, in the bottom left hand corner. Then I was complete and I was very happy with the webcam effect as I feel it turned out very realistic.

Slow Motion

I added some slow motion scenes to firstly make the scene look more steady and also to add in the effect that time feels slow, it emphazises that he has been alone for so long and nothing is changing soon. I did tis by using the 'Slow effect' and changing it to 25% then I used a great effect called 'Optical Flow', in the video quality tab. This blends all the frames together, making the slow motion a lot more smoother. I was extremely happy with the outcome of the slow motion shots. They really make it more intense to watch.

Title

I wanted the title to be different compared to other short films, however simple at the same time. As the previous scene was him on a computer, I decided to include the Typewriter Effect'. This makes it look ike the text is being typed. I added a sound effect to make it seem realistic also. I feel like this is a lot more better than just a text that is still, or enlarging or decreasing - which is overused. I chsoe a simple text that is easy to comprehend and a simple white background so the text stands out on top.

Sound effects and Music

I got my sound effects from a  website called 'Freesound.org' where it allows you to use the sounds for your films for anything. This website ha all my sounds in my short film which made it seem more realistic. The website was a great help. I used the typewriting sound effect for the title, sirens to make it more intense and suspensful along with a warp sound increasng in volume before he wakes up from a nightmare. Then I used alarm clock sounds as it would be too hard to have actual alarm clock sounds in the shot at the time. Freesound.org was a huge help to my short film. Also MobyGratis was a large help as it is a website where Moby creates his own music himself for films. I got permission to use his songs, and I only used his songs. They made the scenes more intense and others dramatic and also in some scenes more isolated. The music was great and I am happy with my choice of music.

Dissolve

I used many dissolves to bring two scenes from scenes with different time and place. It worked great and made it even more suspenseful. I did some scenes where I faded to black and some where I faded to white. The last scene however did not have a fade, it was cut straight to black to leave it on a cliff hanger. To make the audience want to watch more. Final Cut Pro simply had a 'Fade To Colour' effect which you place on the end or begging to a scene. You can then change the duration, colour and opacity on it.

Editing

This is my first time using Final Cut Pro. This was a huge risk as I usually edit with Sony Vegas, which I am most sufficient with. However, I chose to edit on my mac and use this new software. Reason behind it was that it is an incredible software that has one of the fastest rendering times, furthermore the effects and transitions that come free with it is incredible. 
Putting the footage in order was easy as my filmed clips were in order as I filmed it in order due to my storyboard, which was very helpful. However timing the footage down to smooth cuts and shots to make it realistic and entertaining was very hard. It took up to 10 hours.
My microphone seemed to pay off as the background noise was very low which I am extremely satisfied about. Adding the background music overpowers any little background noise anyway which is great.
Some of my footage was very jittery, which I was able to either use the stabilization tool or I added the affect slow motion. The great part of Final Cut is that there is optical flow to slow motion which makes it very smooth.
I was very satisfied with the quality of the footage, filming in 1080p and 25fps. You can also color grade on Final Cut very easy, doing this I made the scenes darker to make the overall short film seem more dramatic and serious.
Overall, I am very happy with the editing process. It did take long as it is a new software to myself but it is a very professional editing software that has very impressive tools and effects on it.