Final film poster/ trailer/ magazine front cover analysis

After looking at these four magazine front covers, three film posters and four trailers we decided our sub-genre of our genre was going to be supernatural thriller. All the magazines I had analysed were action thriller genre. I am now going on to analyze one more of each to give me ideas for my own.
The unborn: Film poster.

• The film title has been placed about 3/4 of the way down the poster. The typography is a large white/grey distorted font. This font already indicates that the film may include an aspect of horror or supernatural. Its very important for our film poster that we make indications to our genre by the colours and fonts we include.

The font on the film poster is all in the same font just in different sizes. The typography varies. The top piece of text informs the viewer that it is based on a true story, this makes the film seem more exciting/scary, as it has an element of real life. The next piece of text down says "under the shadow of silence she will never know peace again" this font is shadowed by red writing in the same font. Although the genre is supernatural thriller this gives an element of horror as the red could represent blood.

The writing at the bottom is small in comparison to the other writing. This is because it is not necessary that it gets read. This writing contains information about the producer and famous people that are starring in the film. This may only be read by someone if they were particularly interested in this aspect of a film.

The main picture is made up of black/greens and greys this suggests the genre as if it were a comedy you would assume the poster would be bright and friendly. This is the opposite showing the viewer that it sways more to the thriller/horror genre's.

The picture is an image of a girl lying in a hospital bed, she is lying flat facing towards the viewer with her eyes shut. Behind her you can see the rest of the hospital room, it looks frightening and eerie. Underneath the bed is another girl she looks slightly raised of the floor suggesting she is a spirit or a ghost or something out of this world. She is facing upwards towards the girl lying in the bed this shows there is a connection between the two girls. This could indicate that this girl below the bed is the girl lying in the beds ghost/spirit or someone that is haunting her.

I was unable to find a magazine front cover for the unborn so I decided to look at "The Shining" :

The Shining: Magazine front cover.

This magazine front cover is advertising the film the shining.

The magazine is simple and not crowded, this is effective as it allows the reader to be able to follow the magazine front cover instead of getting confused because it is to over crowded.

The magazine is called "Empire" -Empire is written in large bold font, it is coloured in pink. This colour and typography is actually very eye catching. The title sets the colour theme for the front cover. Above the title and slightly overlapping it is "The 500 Greatest Movies of all time" This is in 3d writing. The word 'Movies' sets the genre of the magazine it shows that it about films.

The main image of the page is overlapped with other text and colours, these are other features of the magazine. This is done so that if the reader isn't interested in the main feature there is something else for them to look at.

The Background of the magazine front cover is black, this contrasts with the pink and white writing giving it a striking effect.

The main image is of a man looking through what looks like a whole in a fence. The fence is grey/white which contrasts with his tanned skin. His eyes are dark and are focusing on something. His teeth are very white contrasting with the black shadows on his face. He is baring his teeth at something showing a sign of anger. There is text over this image saying "I'm not gonna hurt ya.. I'm just gonna bash your brains in" this is something to attract the reader to the film. This little snippet of the script will intrest the reader and make them want to find out what has happened.

The barcode at the bottom of the magazine is a standard convention of a magazine aswell as the price and issue number.

I continued looking at "The Shining" by analysing the trailer:

The Shining trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cb3ik6zP2I

The trailer begins with its production label "Warner Brothers" This is to promote the company but also to promote the film because if people have seen Warner Brothers films before and liked them they will be more inclined to see this movie.

A voice-over begins immediately explaining a story and revealing parts of the story line. The voice-over is a man's voice.

We are presented with some running footage of a car driving up to a large house in a very secluded area we are then shown around the house. It then moves onto footage of what looks like a hospital corridor just as the voice-over is saying "During the winter he must of suffered some kind of complete mental break down" This builds the tension and forewarns the viewer of what may happen.

We are then shown a man leaving a garage holding an axe, his face is not visible and you are only able to see a silhouette but it allows the reader to connect this man with the man that " suffered the complete mental breakdown"

The voice over finishes by saying "Killed his family with an axe" then the music starts, it is upbeat and high pitch.

We are then shown almost a film montage of lots of different shots that last for about 5 seconds or different main parts of the film. They don't give to much away so a lot of the time the viewer is left in suspense.

When these shots appear we are able to guess who the main character is (the one who had the mental breakdown) because of his continuously menacing and evil looks.

At 2.06 minutes the camera seems to be in someone's eye0line view, the camera is chasing a women down a corridor. This creates tension and makes the viewer scared.

A little boy is featured throughout the trailer. This will make some people feel more scared as he is unable to fend for himself.

The mise en scene give us clues into what genre this trailer is. The knifes show a sense of horror but thriller at the same time. The fact that he seems to be haunting them also shows it could be a physiological thriller.

The trailer picks up the upbeat music again towards the end.

It finishes with the title coming up in a red typography.

Sub genres of thriller

These are the different sub-genres of thriller:

• Crime thriller- suspense, successful and failed crimes, action, include serial killers.
• Legal thriller- the lawyer/hero confronts the enemies outside of the courtroom risking their lives.
• Mystery thriller- Involves solving a crime or mystery
• Psychological thriller- emotional/mental problem over a physical problem
• supernatural thriller- Film using otherworldy elements E.g. ghosts, spirits.
• Techno thriller- where the technology plays a prominent part

The sub genre that most appealed to us as a group was Supernatural thriller. We chose this due to the fact we felt it was the most intresting, it was also the most accessible. We also thought that the acting would actually be easier for this and not to complicated as we can just use sounds and noises to represent the "ghost/spirit".

Film Posters

As thriller appealed to me the most I decided to analyze three trailers and their film posters from this genre.
After doing some research on GOOGLE and looking at class notes, I found out that these are the main things a film trailer should contain:
- Distributors/film studio
- Typography (title credits)
- Visual Codes
- Speed/style of editing
- Sound effects/music
- Voice over
- Penultimate frame
- Last frame
- Narrative codes
- Star appeal
- Audience appeal

My first trailer:
Law Abiding Citerzen:
The trailer of Law Abiding Citizen begins with a very normal family scene of a father and a child sitting together, as the music is tense and upbeat we are able to tell that something bad is awaiting. The fact that a small girl is involved evokes fear in the onlookers as they fear for her life. The main charecter Jerrad Butler a very famous and well known actor answers the door and is attacked. As the daughter onlooks what is taking place the atmosphere becomes more and more tense. Throughout the short production the music stays upbeat and tense. The colours genrally stay dark giving an eerie effect. The mise en scene alters throughout the trailer but there is alot of fire and many people seen holding guns giving the viewer an idea that the genre is thriller. Alot of dramtic lighting is used when Gerrad Butler decides to take revenge on the invaders almost giving it a role reversal as he becomes the villan. A tag line appears about half way through the trailer saying 'a man who loses everything is capable of anything' this gives us an idea of the story line, but also leaves us in suspence. The penultimate frame is Butler on looking a huge disaster that he has created showing how destructive hes become in revenge. The last frame is the Date release promoting the film.

Law abiding ciziten film poster:

• This film poster is known as a Main poster as it contains the main information about the film.
• The title of the film is shown in white block writing that overlaps. The typogrpahy has the two main charecters names either side to show they are the most important. Gerard Butler is a well known actor meaning he brings box office draw to the movie.
• The main image on the front cover shows a man in black suit walking, he looks angry and like hes on a 'mission', overlapping that image is a faded image of Gerard Butler. His eyes are menacing and he is giving direct eye contact to the audience.
• The tag line says "How do you stop a killer who is already behind bars?" This leaves the audience questioning the story line. The fact that Gerard Butler looks so menacing in the image gives an idication that this tag line is most liekly about him.

Second trailer:

Inception:

This trailer begins with upbeat low pitch music the first image shown is of the Warner Brothers logo, this is a way of promoting the film as this is a well known studio for entertainment. A voice over then takes over the music and we see Leonardo Dicaprio face down in water, again this is further promotion as the fact Leonardo Dicaprio is in it will attract the audience. This scene also forewarns us that it is either going to be one of these genres, horror or thriller. The colours are dull throughout and lighting is fairly dramatic. At about 20 seconds in we are presented with an action code, a man unknown to us loads a gun and walks into a room. The audience is then left in suspense. The music becomes louder and the beat becomes faster adding more suspense. WE are presented with many obscene images of streets folding in halve. This again leaves the audience questioning why this is happening? for what reason? and how did it happen?. We are also shown Leonardo with a women, this leaves the audience questioning what happened with them? did she get hurt because of what he was doing?. Throughout the trailer words come up every so often the typography is silver metallic and quite small. The title of the film "Inception" is shown about ten seconds before the end of the trailer. Making the last image shown information about the director and release dates.

Inception film poster:

• This poster is what you would call a main poster as it contains the main information about the production personnel and distibutors.
• The typogrpahy is in red bold
  writing which contrasts with the blues and blacks that cover the background this makes the title visible and stand out to the viewer.
• 'Leonardo Dicaprio' is the other most visible writing on the poster. This is done to attracts peoples attention. Leonardo Dicaprio is a well known famous actor meaning that it attract attention also known as Box Office Draw.
• Another reason his name is in a larger font is to show the audience that he is most likely the lead Charecter. The fact the main image shows him standing there also shows he is the main charecter and gives star appeal.
• The main picture is peculiar and surreal it shows city buildings being submerged in water. This already gives you an idea of the genre of the film.
• Leonardo Dicaprio stands there alone. In he hand he is clutching a gun this action code again hints and the genre.
• Underneath 'Inception' in smaller white typography it says "from the directors of the dark Knight" this again is advertising the film. If the audience have seen the Dark Knight and loved it they would be more inclined to go and see something by the same producer.
• At the very bottom of the poster it advertises that the film is also avaliable to see in the IMAX cinema, the IMAX cinema offers the film in 3D this would be appealing to the audience as watching a film in 3D allows them to feel a part of the movie itself.
  

Third trailer:
2012:

The trailer begins with flashing images going along to the beat of the music. The music is a low pitch and holds a steady beat. We next see images of a television showing world wide catastrophes. A voice over runs along with all of this. The voice is a man's voice it is deep and serious. The colours throughout the trailer stay dull and dark leaving suspense. Between the new images there is writing, the typography is a silver medium sized font it fades out when the next picture is going to be shown. A new voice over begins about half way through this voice is wispy and has a more chilling effect. Writing that advertises the film takes place throughout, at 41 seconds in 'from the director of independence day' appears this is to show the audience the directors other films, this is a very effective way of advertising if the audience have seen the other film as if they liked the first film they will be more inclined to go and see another of the directors films. Throughout the trailer we see the world within the film falling apart, this gives the audience an idea that it the genre is thriller. At 1 minute 41 seconds we are presented with a image of the world falling into the sea, as the audience focus on this a plane fly's towards the audiences face giving it a very life like effect. As the trailer comes to an end 2012 appears in big writing and the last image left with us is the release date.

2012 film poster:

• This porster is known as a teaser poster. It only contains the basic information. This is done to whet the appetite of the film audience.
• The number 2012 being the title of the film is in large silver writing. This typogrpahy has a metalic look to it. On the number 1 there is a bright light almost like a sun. This could indicate to the audience that the majority of the film is set outdoors.
• The tag line at the top "who will be left behind" doesnt really indicate alot about the plot, but it leaves the audience wondering what it could mean. This feeling of suspence will draw more and more people to watch the film.

Analyzing Magazine front covers

Magazine front cover 1:

The magazine front cover that I am Analysing is called Empire. The purpose of this magazine is to inform the target audience of the new movie news, film and DVD reviews, celebrity interviews, competitions and more. It provides interesting information to the reader about new films coming out.

The target audience of this magazine would be men of any age between 15 to thirty. The reason i say this as the colours and films used and advertised on this front cover in my opinion would more appeal to men.

The target audience would be on a average income (meduim/high) meaning the magazine is £3.99 a bit more expensive than other magazines.

The masthead is in large red typogrpahy The letters are seperated and the middle letter is covered by Leonardo Dicaprios head. The title of the magazine has no indication that the magazine is about films.

The feature article photograph is an image taken from the new release 'inception' The background is an image taken from the film of city buildings. Leonardo stands with a gun in his hand his facial expression is very serious and he is not holding eye contact with the audience. He is wearing a black suit indicating authority. Tnhe use of guns, authrotive clothing reinforces the genre that the movie is, action thriller.

Inception is written across the middle of the magazine. The wrtiting is red which connotes danger as well as anger, which links in with Leonardo holding a gun.

The other writing around Leonardo looks like it is being sucked into something. This may give an idea of what happens in the film. The writing is black and contrasts nicely with the red. The two main colours used on the magazine are black and red this again gives a sombre look to the magazine.

There are various cover lines placed randomly on the front cover. Giving snippets of the storys held inside. This will encourage readers to buy this magazine.

Magazine front cover 2:

• The magazine I am analysing is called Total FILM. The purpose of this magazine is to inform its target audience of the latest film releases.
• I would say the age group for this magazine would range from about 20-30 as the film looks slightly older. In my opinion this magazine would appeal more to males rather that females. I think this because of the colours used, the film looks slightly more appealing to males and females may prefer something a bit more feminine.
• The masthead is a large white font. The word total is superimposed into the white writing, overlapping the white writing is the main picture. This may have been done to show this man is important to the magazine.
• Half way down the page is more writing, the writing looks broken this gives an indication that the genre is thriller, the writing isn't neat or girly, its fierce and obvious.
• I find the picture used really interesting it almost looks 3D. The gun seems to be coming out of the page. The subject isn't looking at the audience and seems to be focused on something else this suggests that he is aiming his gun at someone, his facial expression is serious.
• The fact that the picture seems 3D will make the reader feel more involved in the story. As we don't no what the subject is pointing his gun out it leaves readers in suspense making them want to see the film.
• The rest of the front cover is fairly plain in the background of the image its night time, dark and solemn colours are used to give it an eerie feel.
• There is little other writing on the magazine front cover, but the writing there is it telling the reader of what the magazine contains.

Magazine front cover 3:

• The main title follows the theme of the red brightly coloured bold typography. They have done this to make the title stand out from the dull background.
• Johnny Depps head covers the M this is done to show his importance, hinting that he is the main character in the film.
• PUBLIC ENEMIES the title of the film is the next largest piece of writing on the front cover, this writing is in a different colour and font. The fact it is the next largest is to show its importance, as this is the film the magazine front cover is advertising.
• The main feature article photograph is of Johnny Depp, he is clasping a gun that it pointing upwards, he is not looking at the audience instead focusing on something in the distance. He wars a black top hat and a black suit, this shows that what he is doing is a serious event, it also shows some sort of authority.
• The background is made up of grey and white smoke, at the bottom of the image his black coat is overlapped by some of the smoke, this special effect may have been used to hint at a fire or to hint at what setting he is in.
• At the bottom left hand corner is a red + and then some red writing this matches the main title making it more obvious to the readers eye.
• Other images are displayed up the right hand side showing that this magazine is about films. It also shows that the main picture from the film public enemies isn't all the magazine will be about.

After looking at these four magazine front covers we decided our genre was going to be supernatural thriller. All the magazines i had analysed were thriller genre. I am now going on to analyze one more magazine front cover to give me ideas for my own.

Questionairres

I have also handed out a small questionnaire asking other members of the public which of these genres appealed to them the most.

I asked sixteen students within my school to complete my questionnaire, I made sure that the ages of the people I asked ranged from between 15- 19 as this will be my target audience. I asked each Student to circle one genre. Six of the students circled two answers as the liked each genre equally. This left me with 22 results.

My results showed comedy and thriller were the most popular genres. I did this questionnaire in order to find out what genre most appeals to the age range I want my trailer to be for. It is important that I picked a Genre that my audience will enjoy. I also did this task as I was indecisive of what genre to choose and this has helped me make my decision.
Seeing the trailers and looking at my results has helped me make a final decision on the Genre I am going to pick, and the genre I have chosen is Thriller.

After doing this questionnaire and deciding my genre would be thriller, I decided to hand out a more in depth questionnaire on the genre thriller.

Here is the questionnaire i handed out:

I asked various questions about the genre, what the genre means to them, how they hear about the films, film posters and film trailers.

I handed this questionnaire out to 10 people in the age range of 15-19to get a variety of results. I also asked a variety of ages so that my results varied. I kept the questionees names anonymous so that they felt more comfortable answering the questionnaire.

Analyzing the answers:

Question one- what does the word thriller mean to you?

The general answer I got from people was a list of deciding words such as, exciting, gripping, action, scary, adventurous, jumpy, scary. This shows what people expect from a trailer. Meaning it is important that our trailer includes some if not all of these aspects.

Question two- what are your two favourite thriller films?

For this question I received a list of recent thriller films. Most of the films they wrote down were actually action thriller. This will be good for me if we decide to go with that sub genre as we can look at these trailers to get ideas, but we haven't chosen our sub genre yet.

Question 3- where do you prefer to watch thrillers?

30% answered 'cinema', 40% answered 'at a Friends' and the remaining 30% answered 'in your own home'. I asked this question as I was intrigued to see where people prefer to watch this genre of film. These answers may have varied if the genre i was asking about was for example comedy.

Question 4-How do you usually hear about new thriller films that our coming out?

Most of the respondents ticked more that one answer, these were the results: 5 people ticked 'word of mouth', 6 people ticked 'watching movie trailers', 2 people ticked 'seeing posters for the film', 1 person ticked 'Internet' and none of my respondents ticked 'Internet'. 6 people was the most ticks I got and that was for 'watching movie trailers' this shows that this is how most people find out about new films. This shows that its very important that the trailer is appealing to the audience.

Question 5- What makes you enjoy a thriller film?

Most respondents put either the twist, the suspense or the action. This means that we should try and make our trailer have all of these aspects so that the viewers anticipates the film.

Question 6-What helps you make the choice of what thriller movies do and don't want to see?

1 person answered 'box office draw', 6 people answered 'nothing in particular', 2 people answered 'the producer and animation team' and one person answered 'the genre itself'. This shows that most people just go and see what they feel like and are not attracted to a film by any of these things. Instead they might be attracted by watching the trailer or seeing the poster.

Question 7- what do you want and expect to see in a trailer?

one person answere 'some good clips of the film, but not the best bits so they dont ruin the film' - this is important we dont include the main bits of our story as not to ruin the film. Another person said 'something to entice me' meaning we need to make our film trailer attractive to the onlookers.

Question 8- What kind of information would you like to see on a film poster?

These are the answers i got: main charecters, dates, the title, the producer, the director, famous actors, nominations, rating star. This is important that when we come to design our film poster we include all of these.

Doing this questionairre has allowed me to collect further information on my genre. It has also allowed us to decide on what age rating our film is going to be. As all of the respondents were between 15-19 we are going to make fifteen our age rating. This sort of genre really appeals to this age range as it is exciting.

I will now go on to do further research by myself of the genre Thriller, the other members of my group will also do their own research to ensure that we have a large range of ideas.

Analyzing Trailers

For each Genre I researched I have watched four trailer videos and looked at each carefully so that I can decide which one appealed to me the most.

Rom com (Romantic Comedy) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRv4CoXQoAQ=uRv4CoXQoAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwt2VtFxKccv=Hwt2VtFxKcc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPgZcW8MCaA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YjSIvmNjT8?v=6YjSIvmNjT8?v=6YjSIvmNjT8

Comedy-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOfCW_jIELo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd9WJnV9Gek=Kd9WJnV9Gek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFjaJbihWwc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlBR-T8gdFo

Horror-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wacflk6uelE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoA6dxLeWFo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1F7hJNsi5M

Thriller-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYVrHkYoY80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg2A7Tr8it0tch?v=rg2A7Tr8it0

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=THE+BEACH+TRAILER&aq=f

hhtp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Z2n534q1Q

After watching all of these trailers the Genre that most appealed to me was Thriller. This was because it was the most accessible. I could film alot of the trailer in my own home/garden and the woods near my house. I would also be able to use props that I already have. To confirm this is the genre I was going to actually choose I went on to do a questionnaire to help me make this final decision.

Initial Ideas - Genre

I have decided for my Media task to create a film trailer, Ive also decided that i would like to work in a group for this production. After doing my own reasearch I will meet with the other members of my group to decide what jobs we will do to ensure that we all contribute equally.
The initial decision I need to make was what genre I would like my trailer to be.
I have decided to do some research on my four favourite genres.
These are the four genres I am going to choose from:

• Rom com (Romantic comedy)


• Comedy


• Horror


• Thriller