For our A2 media studies coursework we were assigned to make a film

teaser trailer or a music video of any genre. We decided on creating a film trailer which is a hybrid genre of drama/thriller. We were also asked to

create a film poster and film magazine front cover based on our film idea, in order to promote the film as a ‘package’.

A promotional package must be created to expose the film to the public and attract their attention, because then they’ll be constantly reminded of the film through different mediums, rather than just through watching the trailer. Before making our own posters and magazine front cover we researched real media texts that related to the genre we chose in order to gather ideas and understand the codes and conventions, so that our own creations would be successful promotional tools.

Shawshank redemptionFilm poster

The actors’ names appear at the top, and in the second largest font, probably done so in order for the viewer to adjust their eyes to the names after reading the title. The actors in this particular film are well known, which suggests they will have an impact on viewings. Each actor has been photographed and montaged onto the poster for a mysterious, time lapse effect.

‘Killer Inside Me’ in large font illustrates it is the title. The thin wispy text symbolises mystery and connotes the soul (as the title is killer inside me). Although the title could resemble a horror film, the colours of the poster follow the c + c of a thriller.

Positive review of the film by established newspaper helps recognition to be achieved, and for people to believe the film is good

Distributors and producers logos all here to promote film further – a notorious production company will possibly heighten views

As the aim of a film poster is to help ‘sell’ the film I’ve noticed certain distinct features that are displayed in film posters that make them effective. For example the text must bold and dominant, the main actors illustrated along with their names – in large font if they are famous. The poster’s theme will usually reflect the mood and atmosphere of the film and the genre, and will include a catchy slogan for the audience to remember it by.

Our Film Poster

Our title is ‘The Cost of Love’ – and due to the fact that the colour red is used to symbolise Love, I thought it needed to be added into the title. The creative lettering and alignment is just to make it look more attractive and interesting. Red can also symbolise passion which is very much a convention of the drama genre, the genre that we chose therefore red is a good choice of colour to illustrate the film.

As it is a teaser poster, the information is quite basic, however the ‘coming soon’ implies the film will be due to release and is placed to prepare the audience and allow them to research more into the film, which is why I have added a website promoting the film below.

There isn’t really a colour scheme although blue/green/yellow tones are prominent – which adds certain coldness to the image which could relate to mystery. Mystery is a convention of the thriller genre which is also what we have labelled our film. As dramas focus on the relationships and interactions of people I thought the setting of New York was fitting as it represents a social place, and makes the background less boring.

Taking inspiration from ‘The Killer inside Me’ film poster, I layered the actors over each other and set the opacity lower so they merged into each other and into the background. This effect allows the viewers to see the actors as part of the urban social area in the background, as if the film will be based in this setting.

The actors are not looking at each other which contrasts with the concept of love (audiences would presume the main actors have some sort of relationship and the title hints to romance). However, the fact they are looking in different directions but are close to each other symbolises they may have had a relationship in the past but have distanced themselves.

We made our own production logo which we added in the left hand corner (light box productions) and the distributor on the right (film four)

Main features of film poster

Our Poster

Title prominently featured? Yes the title is very eye catching, and is quite unique in the terms of the type face and how it has been manipulated to look more creative

Main actors featured, and their names?

The main actors are featured however their names do not appear on the poster as it is a teaser poster, although it would resemble a poster more if the name were present

Appropriate theme? There isn’t a proper theme present as there are not any 2 colours that run through the poster, however it does follow the conventions of a drama/thriller genre with the colder tones, and the red and white title and the mellow, social background.

Important information included?The distributors and producers, the ‘coming soon’ and the films website are all promotional and informative text that has been included.

Our film poster does include main aspects of a real media poster which makes it effective and professional. Examples of this are the bold title which is representative of the genre and the film, the actors demonstrated clearly on the front, and solemn expression also representative of the genre/film. We also have the information that a teaser trailer would express (i.e.) the release and distribution companies and maybe a social network site or website. However, our poster fails to show the age rating for our film, but we were not sure of whether should be rated a 15 or 18, though we could have added a TBC logo. It also does not describe the actors’ names when this could be more effective for the actors to gain recognition and to promote the film further. However the image we used does stand out and does seem a little mysterious due to the fact neither character looks like they are in love with each other although the title hints about romance and relationship. This makes the film less predictable and therefore attracts the audience’s attention because it allows them to imagine the plot themselves, and then they’ll want to find out what actually happens and compare to their own made up storyline. The merged images fading into the background symbolise disappearance and add mystery. The expressions of the characters are quite worried as if the plot is quite dramatic and something bad is going to happen. Finally, we did not add a slogan which could have been effective as it would make people remember the film and could be used as an extra promotional tool in itself, as well as giving a small insight to the film.

To summarise our poster is effective image and layout wise however more information could have been added to engage the audience.

We also researched into magazine front covers in order to make our own film magazine front cover. The UK’s leading film mag is called Empire which we chose to use as our feature magazine as it is very popular and for our film to get noticed we’d have to publish it in the leading film magazine.

We liked the layout and font of Empire magazine which was another reason for using its design to feature our film. The font and text effects used are very exciting and bold, and are a good way to catch the attention of the public. We attempted to use the same kind of layout in our own magazine.

our magazine front cover

Key conventions of a real magazine front cover include

- the magazine title (usually at the top of the magazine so that it catches the eye)

- subtitles mentioning the main articles of that issue

- pictures of celebrities or something eye catching to attract attention usually relating to the main articles being advertised

- some sort of reward e.g. free gifts or a competition

- information such as the price, the issue number and date

Our film magazine cover was created on Photoshop and different layers were created to apply text and overlapping of images. It has all of the key features; the title is large and bold at the top, in the same style as the empire magazine itself; it refers to main features of the magazine e.g. mentioning our film using catchy phrases such as ‘New cast, new plot’ whilst also referring to ‘James Cameron’s Avatar 2 and the release of ‘Friends’ the film. It also offers fold out posters and has the normal information like price and barcode. This therefore makes our magazine front cover effective as it follows the codes and conventions of a real magazine front cover. However, the font and imagery is not as striking as the Empire magazine and playing around with the 3D effects on Photoshop for the text and brightening and adding effects to the image could have improvised the look. The layout though, is very representative of a real magazine cover.

Our promotional package as whole works reasonably well, the female main character (Lisa) is featured on both the film magazine front cover

and the film poster, and so the audience are familiar with her and expect her to play a major role within the film. However, I feel the image

of her on the film mag cover is not so effective and doesn’t link effectively to her role in the film, maybe a more extravagant or action

packed photo which demonstrates her role within the film or demonstrates her character would have been more successful. The

colours used in the magazine cover and film poster are similar e.g. the use of the red and white text. Keeping the colour and font the same

allows the audience to link the two together, it may confuse audiences if a different font and colour text was used for each ancillary text.

Although the magazine cover doesn’t reveal the other main character (Ray), the film poster does although no one would know what role he plays in the film, which creates suspense. The public would then have

to view the trailer to find out more about him. Also the female is the real main character; the storyline revolves around her whole life and

problems so therefore as she is more important she should be the one interviewed in the magazine. These reasons make our combination of ancillary texts effective; however a more detailed poster and inspiring

front cover would have made each more interesting.