My Poster - Final

My Final Poster:

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My Final Magazine Front Cover

This is my finished magazine front cover...

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Poster and Magazine

This is my Poster and Magazine covers before my final checks:

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Poster - Main Image

We decided to use a shot from our trailer as the main image for the poster front cover. We all used the same image as we all wanted to create a similar effect, with the gun pointing out towards the audience in order to make them complicit with the film itself. This would also provide a link between both our poster and our trailer, which the audience could use as a connector between our media package. The image of our main protagonist holding the gun also fits with the style of our trailer/film and adheres to the genre of the most crime/thriller trailers/posters, such as 'Welcome to The Punch', which employs the use of their main character (James Macavoy) as well as other characters, holding a gun. 

Below is an example of me layering the image of Gabriel into the already existing lines:

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Poster - Difficulties

I had particular difficulty in colour balancing/saturation of the central image of Gabriel so that he wouldn't stand out as much in comparison to the background image from one the shots from our trailer. 

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Poster - progress

I decided to change the positioning of my title for the front cover of my poster as I wasn't completely fond of it at the top in between the city filled lines. I much prefer the new positioning but was not engaged by the colouring of the title on top of the blue gradient background. Due to this, I decided to add an image from our trailer (moment between Gabriel's character and our female character), which is one of my favourite shots from the trailer into the background of the writing. I much prefer this compared the block orange title I was using before, because it is more engaging and relevant as to our trailer, creating that link in our production package. 

I also decided to change the arrangement of our main actors names in order to again make the poster more exciting and engaging for the audience. I again, much prefer the new positioning as I think they work nicely just below the city filled lines above.

I decided to place a tagline from our trailer at the top of the poster where the film title was originally placed. The tagline was lifted straight from our trailer where it can be seen in the montage with the font/colouring changed in order to the fit the style of my poster. This also links the two products together well creating verisimilitude which is necessary for a movie trailer/poster release. 

I've also begun to add the necessities in different places around the poster in order for it to be more visually engaging and also to adhere to the criteria needed for a movie poster. 

This is how it is looking thus far. Overall I am pleased with how it is turning out. 

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Poster - constructing

I wanted to create a poster similar to the style seen in 'Welcome to The Punch', which is our main influence. I first started by creating a base colour which I liked and wanted to work on top off. I decided to make it blue and I added a few effects, such as gradient overlay and a pattern overlay in order to make it more engaging, instead of simply using block blue colour. 

I then decided that I wanted to create an interesting effect using lines being drawn down the poster cover. I decided to play around with the different line formations until I found something that I liked, again using 'Welcome to The Punch' as an influence. I also decided to switch my canvas by 90 degrees as I felt it suited the style I was going for more closely.

After finding the right configuration of lines, I decided that I wanted to add something (a picture of some sort) in the background of the lines in order to make them more engaging for an audience. I wanted to use an image of the city but seeming as I haven't yet had the chance to properly take a picture that I like, I decided to use a found image to represent what it would actually look like. This part was particularly difficult as I am not hugely confident on Photoshop but after much work, I am pleased with how it turned out.

I decided to add some spotlight brushes at the top of the poster just above where I wanted the title to be placed, in order to highlight the name of our film in a more interesting and engaging way. 

I then decided to add the title plus initial names of our main three actors in the film like most conventional crime/thriller posters. I used the same font as seen in our trailer narrative moments in order to provide that link between film and poster and also adhere to the conventions of how film packages are released. I also placed the certification for our trailer in the bottom left-hand corner. Although I am still deciding where I want the certification to be placed before the deadline for this task. 

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Magazine Front Cover - Audience Research

Vox Pop:

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Magazine Front Cover - Audience Research

Vox Pop:

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Magazine Front Cover - Social Media

We decided to upload images of our magazine to both Instagram and our Facebook page in order to gain audience research/opinions on the front cover. This way we could improve our front cover, based upon the opinions of people who commented. It was also useful to keep up to date with our target audience and make sure that our magazine cover was hitting the aims of our production. 

Instagram:

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Magazine Cover - Details

I wanted to make some of the 'specials' stand out and saw that Empire often added a low opacity box around their 'specials' in order to make them stand out to the readers/audience. I decided to do something similar, as seen below, whereby I created a grey box and lowered the opacity in order for it to stand out in comparison to the background but not crowd out the words above it. I then Layered the text above it and moved it to size. It created the effect that I was looking for, which was pleasing. 

I also decided that I needed to change the colour of my film title slightly and so decided to keep the powerful 'Two' and 'Evils' in bright block red but changed the subtitle to a much darker burgundy. I felt that this balanced the overall look to my magazine, which is essential for it's success. 

I wanted to add some sort of logo and was set on the idea of using an image of a razor-blade to fit with the 'Extended Cut' masthead. I placed the razor blade image all over the magazine and even attempted to add a line of them through the already visible cut in between the top and bottom layer of 'extended cut'. In the end, I decided to change the colour of the razor-blade and tilt it so it would fit into the 'T' at the end of my magazine title/name. 

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Magazine Cover - working progress

Below are a few photos showing the progress of my magazine cover, with the different puffs, square blocks added carefully and placed in a particular spot on the front page, where I believed they looked best. I am fond of the slick, sharp feel to most empire magazines and so wanted to replicate this in mine. I was also influenced by the 'coding' from media magazine and so attempted to do something similar as seen by the faint coding travelling down the background layer of the magazine. The blue title was also included in order to outline where my masthead would be placed. I particularly like the the red puffs in the bottom right corner, combined with the black and white writing as I think it creates quite a striking effect. I think the central image is extremely striking and works with the grey/white background colour to my magazine.

Progressing: I placed the 'Two Evils' title almost all over my magazine cover before finally deciding to place it either side of Gabriel's head. I wanted to do this from the start but was trying out different placings before I went with my original idea. I like this placing due to the fact that it fits with the connotation of the title itself. Our film plays around with the theme of split-personalities and this is highlighted through the broken placing of 'Two' and 'Evils'.

Progressing:

I decided to place the CMYK mask just below the title of my magazine front cover as I was strongly influenced by many of Empire's magazine covers, who place a small red 'plus-sign' on their magazine cover to signify that it is their very own front cover. I also thought it worked within the style of the magazine itself. All that was left for me to do here, was to change the colour of 'Two' and 'Evils' in order for them to stand out compared to the brighter, more block red of the magazine.

I was having particular trouble with the masthead for my magazine cover, mainly due to the fact that I was short of ideas. I wanted to play around with the idea of using a razor blade in order to link in with the title of my magazine, which is 'Extended Cut'. Another idea I had was to have the two words on a different level in order to show that it looked like they had been 'cut'. I will keep playing with it until I find something that I think works well with the rest of the magazine cover.

I decided to split the words 'Extended Cut' in half in order to represent this idea of the 'cut', which is a term used in film on a regular basis. Below is the end result…

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Media Magazine - Progress

We decided to take a few photos of our main actor (plus us, as the directors for Charlie's magazine) in order to insert these images into Photoshop and then play around with them. We wanted to play around with a few different images in order to increase our chances of finding one we particularly like. Below, you can see two different sets of images of Gabriel in the editing stage of Photoshop. As you can see I played around with the different colours, their transparency and saturation in order to find the desired effect. I particularly like the first image below and decided to use it as the central image to my magazine, which is influenced by the famous 'Empire' Magazine. I also enjoyed using tools such as spot removal in order create a completely clean-looking face, similar to that of modelling photos on the front cover of a magazine.

As you can see below, I decided to play around with the different levels of brightness, temperature and vibrance in order to make the central image more powerful. I decided to play around with the different colourings as well but landed on this image below and felt it was the perfect fit for my magazine front cover. 

I originally wanted to split the central image and have Gabriel looking both ways on the front cover, but after much deliberation, I decided that it would probably be a better idea to attempt this for the poster, instead of the magazine. 

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Institutional Analysis of Sight & Sound

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Institutional Analysis of Little White Lies

The publisher of the magazine Little White Lies is TCOLondon. This is a company which specialises in slightly off the wall, individual and quirky takes on stories which would not usually get views, or angles on films which are not usually assessed. The very branding of the website (www.TCOLondon.com) as shown below differentiates itself from other forms of media by defining itself as a breed, something which is lifelike and ever evolving. From work in skateboarding, phone companies, games consoles, and sponsoring YouTubers, their list of partners ranges from Grolsch to Audi. This shows where the inspiration for Little White Lies comes from, as well as why the company decided to back such an out-there product. Even within their distribution, with Little White Lies originality being an online-only magazine, they establish themselves against the norm and through this use of technology cater to a specific audience.

This audience is that of 18-30 year olds who are either young professionals in or students of media. They must have significant disposable income because of the monthly subscription of £3.95 for a product which, looking past its potential as a collectable and art, provides less than a week of entertainment. This suggests than that like Empire and Sight&Sound, that the demographic for the company is ABC1 and massively involved with South East London promotions. This is done in the Barbican, BFI and Picturehouse cinemas' and film festivals which caters to the sort of indie film buff audience with disposable income. The benefits of this are found within independent and cult cinema fans who would rather discuss films as an art form rather than just passive entertainment. The magazine caters to independent critics and in depth interviews with cast, directors and producers in order to help their readers form opinions upon the films they cover. 

The magazine, along with others' of its type, use mosaic geodemographics in order to establish the type of person their product is going to cater towards. An audience segmentation can be found below. This shows that the majority of the audience is found within London based Hipsters which falls under the magazines demographic of Group O buyers, standing for Urban Intelligence that 'Mostly consists of young and well educated people who are open to new ideas and influences'. It also caters to audiences such as Group E, young people who have gone through higher education and can be liberal of idea, and have access to disposable income. It caters to this audience through claiming to be about truth which connotes authenticity. Because of this, the more niche audiences of Arthouse film fans and Aspiring filmmakers are also catered towards, while more mainstream film fans and design students are left to read magazines like Empire and Total Film.

The purpose of the magazine fits with the publisher's slightly independent style of reporting. Even from the weight of the paper the magazine feels like a substantial product, filling a gap in the market for collectors items concerning film, which is then corroborated through the hand drawn/graphically modified artistic style of the covers (Of which they employ independent designers) and the typography of the front cover. The choice of film is also essential as to its purpose, and in turn the sorts of audience which are going to read it. Taking up yet another niche gap in the market, focusing on films such as "Black Swan" and "Let The Right One In", they decipher films which are not only in between the mainstream and indie genre but also those which are going to obtain a cult following. Due to this, in combination with the subtle yet aesthetically pleasing cover which screams that the magazine producers know their movies, the magazines' purpose is to fill a gap in the market between Empire's mainstream coverage and Sight & Sound's more individual movie coverage through an artistic and bold cover, substantial page thickness and quality which would leave you wanting to show your collection off to your friends. 

JL

Institutional Analysis - Empire Magazine

Purpose:

• Steven Spielberg - 'Empire is the best movie magazine in the world bar none. Quite simply, it's peerless'. 
• The previous quote pretty much sums up 'Empire' and it's purpose as a magazine. It is quite simply the most popular movie magazine on the market and thus it has to constantly release the highest quality magazines in order for it to keep this title. 
• It can offer audiences many different exclusives that other magazines cannot offer because of it's popular/well-known title. This in itself gives the magazine a purpose of constantly wanting to find new exclusives (interviews etc with stars) in order to keep and expand their already large audience. Without these exclusives, 'Empire's' audience would most probably look elsewhere.   
• according to Bauer, Empire's purpose is to provide, 'indispensable insight into cinema, both blockbusting and classic'. 
• It is evident that Empire, in stark contrast to magazines, such as 'little white lies' and 'sight and sound', provide far more mainstream coverage of the bigger and more high-budget movies being released. Having said this, they do still cover the more independent movies, which could again suggest something about their purpose as a magazine. They would like to hit all audiences (basically film fans in general, instead of particular 'niche' audiences that might buy the more independent magazines), in order to increase the consumption of their product. 
• Perhaps the purpose of empire magazine is emphasised through their particular style of reporting - They attempt to reach out to all different audiences (mainly male of all ages) and this can be seen throughout the magazine, with pages devoted to hundreds of different movies of all different genres and styles. This idea of the magazine being mainstream as previously mentioned gives it a purpose, which, as Bauer explained is to give audiences an insight into cinema (of all different genres) that cannot be seen elsewhere from any other magazine on the market. This is why people buy empire magazine.

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Sight & Sound "Cosmopolis" Magazine Cover Reasearch

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Little White Lies "Attack the Block" Magazine Cover Analysis

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Magazine Cover - 'Empire'

This is a piece of analysis on one of 'Empire Magazines' front covers completed using the Photoshop software on the Mac:

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Poster Analysis - Welcome to The Punch

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