Almost Finished...

Now that we have completed our teaser trailer, film magazine front cover and film poster we are in the last stages of our coursework. All that remains for us to do now is the evaluation of the work that we have already completed. Some parts of the evaluation will be hard but I think that we have done enough work on the blog so far that it will make it easier for us to produce a successful evaluation.

Textual Analysis of my own work - Film Poster

After analysing my work in more detail I feel that we have created a successful film poster that follows and also challenges some codes and conventions of real media products. I also feel that our film poster flows really well with the trailer that we created for our film because they both represent the same ideologies and portray the same image for our film which I am very pleased about because it means that as a group, we have managed to create a 'house style' for our film that we have followed throughout the completion of our coursework.

Poster Final Copy

This is the final copy of our film poster, we are satisfied with what we have created because we feel that we have created a poster that matches the ideologies and represntations of our trailer. The images we have included in our poster make sense with what the film is about and what goes on in the trailer. We have developed our poster from the last time we added it to the blog by adding the institution logos and taglines and other pieces of text that are found on film posters.

Questioning Our Audience

Now that we are coming to the end of producing our film poster for Nowhere To Run, we have decided to question our target audience to make sure our product is appealing to them and to make sure that we haven't missed anything out that is important. First we asked out target audience to watch our teaser trailer and then we showed them our film poster and asked them questions like...

Do you think that the teaser trailer and the poster go well together?
Do you think the both portray the same representation/ideology?
Do you like the main image?
Do you think the poster fits the plot of the film and makes sense?
What do you like about the poster?

The response we got was...

"They do go really well together and you can recognise the same themes and ideologies in both products."
"I think the main image works well because it is very eye catching."
"I like the colour scheme used and it gives the sense of danger."
"After hearing the plot of the story, the poster does make sense, although I like the way the poster suggests different storylines to the viewer."
"I like the background the most, it looks really interesting and creepy."
"I like the red effect on the main image."
"I like the simplicity of the poster and theres not too much going on."
"I think the positioning of some of the things need to be changed."
"You need to add a slogan or tagline to the poster."
"The top of the poster looks a bit empty."

Now that we have gathered this information we can apply it to our poster and be sure that we are targeting our chosen target market. We have to start thinking of a slogan or tagline that would go well with our film because we agree that we do need to incorporate one somewhere on our poster as it is a keycode and convention of film posters.

Further Development

We have been continuing to edit our film poster in Adobe Phohotshop and we have added some more things to it that are found inother filmposters. We think that it has improved but we will question our audience to find out what they think still needs to be added. Here is our poster so far.

Development of our Poster

This is how our poster looks at the moment. We have combined the image of my red eyes to one of our location shots after editing it to make it black and white. We have faded them slightly together and made the edges of the eyes image less harsh to make it blend into the trees more. We have added our billing block to the bottom of the page. We still need to add a lot of text to the poster to make it look like a real media product. Our poster may change from this and we may change the position of some of the features on the page.

More Editing

We have used one of our images and continued to edit it. We used the brush tool, blur tool and burn tool to enhance the image and make it more noticable and sharper. This is our current position...

The next step we will take is to combine this image with a photo of our location or a forest to make it relate further to our film.

Edited Images

We have edited some images to see how they look, here is what we came up with...


We don't know whether we will use these images for our final poster but at the moment we are experimenting with different ideas and it is helping us get to grips with photoshop. Our favourite at the moment is the red eyes so we will continue to edit this image and combine it with some different images.

Taking Photos for Film Poster

We have been taking photos for us to use in our film poster. We took some from different angles and in different poses and positions. We will now go onto to Photoshop to see if there is anything we can do to them to make them look good on our film poster and to see if they would fit the genre of our film. Here are some of our favourites...

Ideas for our Main Image

We have been brainstorming ideas together to work out what main image we will use for our film poster. These are some of things that we have considered using either alone or combined...

• Extreme close up of eyes
• Hand reaching out towards viewer
• Trees during the winter
• Close up of main character
• Main character looking over her shoulder
• Storm clouds
• Forest scene
• Blood tears
• Hand over main character's mouth

We will experiment with these images and take some photos to see what works best with what and go onto create our film poster.

Film Poster Layout

This is the layout that we will refer to whilst creating our film poster. It gives us a brief idea of what to include on our poster and the positioning of these things. We may make some changes to this layout during the process of creating our poster because we may think that something looks better in a different place on the page.

Ideas for our Poster

Here are some things that we have thought about putting on our film poster because we either think that they would go well with our ideology, or we have been inspired by other film posters.

Mise en scene: We discussed and looked back at our research and these are the ideas that we came up with for what to include in our poster. All of these objects represent either our film or the stereotypical representation of the horror/thriller genre. We wanted to stick to this code and convention because we felt that you can not avoid using these things when creating a film poster for the horror/thriller genre as they a directly associated with this genre. When questioning our audience we found that they prefer to see these things on a film poster for a thriller film because it makes it easier to identify the genre of the film.

Colour Schemes: We listed the possible colour schemes that we could use for our poster. We chose these colours because they are related to ideologies that are found in our trailer and the one we want to portray. The colours are quite dark and gloomy which go with the codes and conventions of other film posters from the horror/thriller genre. Some colours also relate to themes in our trailer. E.g. Greens=forest, Red= gore, danger, blood. Blue=nighttime, mysterious.

Ideologies: We wanted to portray the same ideologies in our film poster as we did in our trailer, and make our poster the representation of our film. Also, we want our film poster and trailer to relate together so they do not seem like two separate products. This could be the main issue when creating our poster because from our research we found that all trailers and posters are related strongly together.

Effects/Edits: These are very important when creating our poster because effects alone can make a image match our ideology. They can also give a surreal feeling which will also relate to the trailer. We may use image effects like black and white because from our research we found that this is extensively used and strongly relates to the horror/thriller genre.

Slogan/Tagline: These are the possible taglines we may use in our poster because we found that many other film posters use taglines. All our possible taglines relate to our film and help to create suspense and panic.

Moving On..Again

Now that we have completed our film magazine, we will now move on and start creating our film poster to go with our trailer. We have already finished our research of film posters and recognised many codes and convetnion in them that we could take inspiration from, or manipulate to make them suit the genre of our film.

Textual Analysis of my own work - Spotlight Magazine

We created Spotlight film magazine to represent our film Nowhere to Run. The median of the product is print in the form of a magazine. The ideology of Spotlight is exclusive, exciting and action packed. You can tell this from the colours and themes used. The genre of Spotlight magazine is film but as this issue is about a horror film, that makes the genre horror and the cover looks quite mysterious. The representation of the magazine is fun, modern and up to date. We did this to relate to our target audience. The audience for Spotlight magazine is around 16-24 year olds, you can tell this from the stories included. The institution that Spotlight belongs to is EMAP, a big magazine company. The narrative of the front cover of the magazine is quite simple and informal to reach our chosen target market.
One of the first things that the viewer sees when looking at the front cover of the magazine is the masthead. Spotlight is in a noticeable dark font that stands out from its red background. This masthead is also the biggest piece of text on the page; this is a key code and convention of other film magazines that we have followed. Another code and convention that we followed was to have the tagline and date, issue number and website directly under the masthead which is where they are found on normal magazine products. The tagline ‘The beginning, middle and end in Movies’ relates to the genre of the magazine and makes it clearer what the magazine is about to the reader.
There is a bright red banner at the top of the page which makes the magazine very noticeable. ‘Thrill special!’ is shown in the corner, this shows the genre of this particular issue to entice consumers. At the very top of the page other popular, new films are advertised in block capitals. This is to show what else is inside the magazine to tempt the consumers to buy it. There is a colour scheme that can be recognised on the cover of Spotlight. The main colours used are red, black and dark blue. We used these colours on purpose because from out research we found out that not only to magazines use colour schemes but they include colours that have the same representation as the featured film. Red, black and dark blue relate to the representation of our film because they can represent things like danger, darkness and are quite mysterious.
The main image on the cover is of me, the main character in our film Nowhere to Run. The image relates to our film because the picture was taken in a forest which shows our location, and there is shadow over my face which could suggest a ‘dark side’. We didn’t want to give away too much of our film in the image so we haven’t got a photo of me covered in blood or anything because we found that sometimes the main images on other film magazine covers have nothing to do with the film or they have too much. We think that the technique and image we have used gives our magazine a modern twist and relates to our target audience. Another way that our image relates to our target audience is that the photo is at eye level so the eyes are recognised.
The main cover line we have made to look quite interesting. There is a lot of black scribble and then ‘Escape is Futile’ over it in a white font. This cover line relates to our film and its genre. The reason that we didn’t have the title of our film, Nowhere to Run across the front of our cover was because, during our research we found that most film magazine do not use the title but instead a catchy slogan that relates to the film. Underneath the main cover line in red font we have written, ‘LOCK your doors...You’ve got Nowhere to Run!’ A brief explanation of the main cover line underneath it is a code and convention found in most magazines which is why we included it. It also gave us the chance to feature the title of our film on the front cover. We have also included a quote “The most thrilling film in decades.” This quote could be from a film critic or someone influential in the film industry. Many magazines have quotes included in them as do film posters because they make the viewer think that the film is worth watching.
The dark blue banner at the bottom shows what else is featured in the magazine. We included this because as we weren’t making a contents page to go with our magazine we wanted to give a brief idea of what we would put in our magazine if we were to create it. Many magazines include banners like this on their font covers to grab the reader’s attention and make them think that there is a load going on inside the magazine.
The other cover stories are situated down the side of the page where they are normally found on a magazine front cover. We have included stories about new films and popular young celebs and film stars to relate to our target market and make the magazine seem more attractive. There are stories about Megan Fox and Taylor Lautner who are very popular film stars at the moment. There is a small image of Taylor Lautner on the front cover to show who he is in case the viewer doesn’t know. There are small pieces of text like ‘PLUS!’ and ‘EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS!’ in big bold lettering, this will grab the readers attention and these are found on many other film magazine front covers that we looked at during our research. The bar code is situated down the side of the page which is where film magazine barcodes are usually found.
I think that by creating Spotlight we have successfully targeted the correct audience and that the magazine attracts both males and females which are important to us. I think that we have also portrayed our film and its genre well and it gives a good representation of the film. We have questioned our audience as well and they also agree with us.

The Final Product

This is our final front cover for our film magazine. We feel that with this product we have reached our target audience, successfully portrayed the genre and representation of our film and presented the ideologies that we had in mind. Also, from our previous research we feel that we have filled a gap in the market with our product. After questionning our audience extensively, we feel that they agree with this too.

Questioning Our Audeince

Now that our front cover is almost finished we thought that we would ask our audience for their views and opinions on what they like about it and what they would make better. We asked open and closed questions and they were...

What do you like about the front cover?
Would you change anything on the front cover?
Do you think the main image looks good?
Would you change the positioning of the main image?
Do you think the front cover would be appealing to 16-24 year olds?

"I think that the masthead needs to stand out a bit more from the rest of the text"
"I would change the positioning of some of the cover stories"
"Maybe you could change the clour of the cover story fonts?"
"I like the main image, the eyes really stand out"
"I think that it would be appealing to 16-24 year olds because of the young person on the front and the cover stories included."

We will take this advice on board and apply it to our front cover. Once we have a finished product we will add it to the blog.

Final Main Image

This is our final main image that we will put onto our front cover. As we had to remove the background on our main image we then used another photo we had taken to act as the background. We weren't sure how it would look but we think it looks successful. We will question our audience to see if they agree.

Edited Main Image

This is what our main image now looks like after we have edited it on Photoshop. We used the brush tool to make the eyes more noticeable and the blur tool to make the changes we made to the image less obvious. We then used the magic wand tool to take the background out of the pictures. We needed to do this because the image did not fit the page properly which meant that my face was not in the middle where it should have been and instead it was too low down which means it was too covered by the text. By removing the background it meant we could reposition the image.

Our Institution

Whilst creating our magazine we have decided that the institution that would best represent our magazine would be EMAP. This is because they are a big British media company specialising in the production of magazines. Also, they already produce Empire, one of the biggest film magazines in the world which would give us an advantage because we would not be competing with Empire as much and we can be sure that EMAP know how to market a film magazine. EMAP was founded in 1947 and is continuing to make large profits which prove they are a good reliable institution with a good reputation.

What Should Be Our Main Image?

Now that we have taken the photos for our main image on our front cover we must now decide which one would be the best one to use. We asked our audience which one they preffered and 70% said they liked the third image because there is shading over the face which could represent a 'dark side' to the character. We thought this was good because it would show the genre of our film. We will know use Adobe Photoshop to edit the image to make it good enough to go on our front cover.