Poster Analysis - Scream

• The whole poster is in black and white which is quite simple yet very effective as its giving the film a very dark atmosphere with the main image being in white to catch your attention.
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  The girl’s eyes are wide open and pure white as if she is terrified and shocked which gives the audience a sense of what the film is about.
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  The only slight touch of colour in the poster is her blue eyes which though are not very bright coloured but they do stand out from the picture. This is because the focus of the poster is supposed to go to her eyes because that’s where the emotion is and that’s where the audience will be able to feel intrigued by it.
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  There is a hand over the girl’s mouth which shows why the girl is scared and shocked. It also gives a scary and creepy effect to the poster and it also relates to the name of the film “Scream” because the hand is preventing her from screaming which is quite ironic because of the name.
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  Her lipstick is quite dark and you can tell its red though it’s in black and white. This could have been done for many reasons such as showing fear, blood and darkness. It even suggests that maybe there is a lead female in the film.
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  There is caption on the top of the poster which is quite creepy when you read it as its hinting about what the film might be about. This also could be seen as quite cheeky as it’s kind of hanging you and builds up the suspense even before you start watching the film.

Poster Analysis - Drag Me to Hell

• There are two houses in the background where one of them is surrounded in a dark atmosphere and is completely blacked out whereas the other house has some light in it and there’s some light in the sky. This contrast between the light and the dark is to image the idea of hell/heaven and good/evil impact which is a great representation of the title of the film.

• There are houses in the background which seem to be your everyday houses that you see wherever you go suggesting that the film is based someplace which isn’t out of the ordinary. This shows that the people in the film are your average middle class people. 
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  There is a brief and short caption just above the title which overall gives the whole summary of the film. It starts off with a warm and happy feeling by using terms as ‘good’, ‘great’ and ‘bright’
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  A image of a hand is shown which is holding on to her necklace and seems to be pulling it down. This suggests to the audience that she is being pulled down forcefully and by her body language, the audience can see that she is struggling and crying to break free.
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  There are flames at the bottom of the poster suggesting that she could be burning but most importantly it’s trying to get the audience to think that she’s burning in hell which is connected to the name of the film.

Existing products – Posters

As part of our coursework we had to do two ancillary tasks alongside the main piece of coursework. One of our ancillary tasks is to produce a poster for the film and so therefore to get good knowledge on how to produce a poster for my film, I researched up on the different kinds of posters there are. Once again I looked at posters from the different genres so that I can see how they are produced and if the genre of the film has effect on the poster itself. By doing this research I will hopefully have an idea in how I will construct my own poster which will also have to be relevant to the trailer I will produce.

The different genres will also help me in deciding which genre I will choose for my trailer as this is essential when producing a film/trailer in general. Though personally I feel that creating a trailer in the horror genre would probably be the easiest to construct, I still would want the option to create one from other genres such as comedy as I would find this quite interesting to do.

Rough plan/list of what to do in research and planning

Things I need to do:

·         Research up on the different genres

·         Look up on short films varying from these different genres

·         Analyse the different types of short films

·         Pick a genre which we want to work with and go in depth with it

·         Research on short films within that genre

·         Analyse the work done by other A2 students and done by professionals

·         Research on target audiences

·         Compare the audience of the film to what’s allowed to be shown in it

·         Choose the target audience I want to aim my film at

·         Produce a questionnaire so that I can get a better view of what the audience wants

·         Research in depth of the camera angles/shots

·         Analyse how directors use the different shots

(More to come.. )

Introduction to research and planning

Now that we have chosen a brief which we will be working on, we now need to start work on the research and planning part of the coursework which is important if we want to be able to produce our film to the highest standard. While looking at the work I did for AS, I feel that I didn’t do the research and planning piece in as much depth that I should have which would probably give me more marks. This is because last year I wasn’t that organised and that I should have made a plan/list of what I need to do and when to do it before I start which helps keep me on task and it also helps me on knowing what I’m supposed to be doing, when and in which order. This benefits me in many ways as I know what I need to complete so that I am able to make decisions with full knowledge, this also helps with my time keeping as it gives me an idea of how much I need to complete to a certain time so that I don’t waste too much time on something which isn’t as important.

Whilst doing this I will be able to check off what I have already completed. By doing this, I will also be keeping my blog in a neat and organised order which will not confuse me while I am doing the work. It will also not confuse my teacher and the exam board whilst they are marking the work and so will be able to see what I have done, where and whether it makes sense over time if done in the correct order.

Making the list is very handy as when I complete the work, I will be ticking off what I have done so that I know it’s been done. As well as it being on the blog, I will keep a copy to myself so that I can personally rule out what I have done without having to change it in the blog making it messy. At the end of the research and planning I will create the same list again and re-check the work I have done and tick it off again once I’ve done this so that I know that I have done and checked the work as I will be able to change any mistakes been made. Also while I am doing the work, if needed I can add more things of which I need to do while I work however leave some time at the end so I can complete this.

The plan/list is in the next post!  J

Revaluating the AS "Research & Planning"

Looking back at our work and looking at the mark scheme given to us, I feel that for the research and planning part of the coursework I got a level 2 overall. This mark is reasonable and nearly accurate because I feel that I have done the basic work but have not been able to get into depth with it which would bring my mark up. I feel that I could have done a lot more research in to the coursework as this allows me to have more of an area to work with and allows me to have more choices. It also shows that I would have looked up on the different factors leading up to the main task and gone through the tasks in order and in detail rather than skipping it and going straight to the main decisions with no backup research. I feel that I did do this to an extent but not enough for it to go up a level.

At the start I did research up on the different film openings which allowed me to gain knowledge on how films produce the opening scenes of the films and in which manner they present it to the audience so that they wouldn’t feel dissatisfied. However in saying this, though I did research up on it I didn’t expand my search into different genres and actually going into depth with what I found.

I also looked at the different camera angles and shots which I think was very helpful and helped me a lot in producing the final piece of work. Before filming something it is essential that the cameraman/woman know how to shoot a scene and in which direction they should shoot it because otherwise they may not get the result that they are looking for. This is because different angles/ shots have different impacts on the audience such as if there is dramatic scene with someone crying and you shoot a close up of their faces, you are able to see what emotions they are feeling and the audience feels more connected to the actors/actress in the scene whereas if it was shot from afar the audience wouldn’t feel as if they know what is happening which would most likely lose their focus on the film and the connection between the audience and those in the scene wouldn’t remain for long. I did my research on this subject to a good extent which I think did help me in producing my opening scene however as I am learning to develop these skills, I feel that I would need to expand on that in much more detail in A2 to improve on the standard of the work I produce.

I think that the research and planning I did for my AS coursework wasn’t as fulfilling as it should be due to many reasons such as me not engaging myself fully into the work and in somewhat ways that I didn’t actually know what I was doing but also that it was my first year in doing media studies. However I am glad that I did this in the first year as I can use the knowledge I gained and the experience I had to improve on my A2 production work and hopefully not make the same mistake again in A2.