Ancillary Texts

This is a film poster for the film 'Mean Girls'. The masthead is in two different font types: Arial Black and Arial. Arial Black is used for the lexis 'Mean' this is used as it is a very big and bold font type and makes the lexis 'Mean' stand out on the page as it is the lexis that takes up the most space on the page. The lexis 'Mean' has negative connotions such as: bullying, being nasty and hatred. The masthead has a dark to light, fuschia gradient. Fuschia has been chosen as it has connotations of being a girl's colour and is very bright and eye-catching, making the masthead stand out even more. The masthead is unconventionally placed longways beside the central image, this helps make the central image of Lindsay Lohan appear larger and draws your attention to it. The central image of Lindsay Lohan contrasts to the other image on the film poster of the 'mean girls', the attire of Lohan also juxtaposes to that of the other girls as it is a lot more casual and unlike the others it is not pink. The expressions of the girls on the two pictures contrast and foreshadow the film itself as the three girls on the other image has sour, hard and harsh with the girls in direct mode of address. However, Lohan has a soft, frightened and confused look which suggests her being the heroine in the film. The anchorage text matches part of the masthead as it is in font type Arial. However, it is in a dark lilac shade, just slightly darker than the background colour of the poster. It is the second largest text on the page and reads “Watch Your Back.” This short phrase will intrigue anybody looking at the poster and has connotations of mischief, scheming, sly behaviour and malice. The next largest font on the page are the two straplines of the two most famous celebrities starring in the film, these have been included to intrigue people to watch the film and makes the film seem of higher standard. This text is again in both font types: Arial and Arial Black. 

This is a film poster for the movie ‘The Perfect Man’. The masthead is in a font type which makes it look like a woman’s swirl handwriting and is in a dark pink colour which has connotations of being a feminine colour and shows the person reading the poster that it is a film aimed more at a female audience. The central image consists of three females all of which are different ages; two younger, suggesting them to be daughters and then an older female, the mother. All three females are in direct mode of address creating a personal connection with the person reading the poster. They all have very casual attire, this foreshadows a laid back film with an ordinary family of three as the main characters. The second largest font size on the page is that of the celebrity names whom star in the film. They have used a larger font size to feature well-known celebrity names as this makes the film seem of a better quality to potential viewers. There are two straplines, one below and one above the masthead. These are in the smallest font apart from the information at the bottom of the page and they give a small insight into what the film is about, intriguing people to want to find out more. There is also another featured picture of a man, this is very small compared to the central image, the man is in smart attire and this has connotations of business and intellect. He is in indirect mode of address, looking towards the females in the central image. This foreshadows his involvement in their lives during the film.

This is a film poster for the movie ‘A Walk To Remember’. The Masthead is in font type Arial Black and is displayed across the central image which covers the entire page. The masthead is in bright yellow which has connotations of beauty, happiness and spring-time. The central image is slightly out of focus, this gives it a slightly older and aged feeling which reflects the time that the film is set in. It consists of one male and one female of similar ages, dressed slightly out-dated and they are both in indirect mode of address with happy expressions. The second largest font on the page is the that of the featured celebrity names, by making these noticeable to the viewer of the poster, it makes the film seem more high-end. The anchorage text is one of the smallest font sizes on the page, it adds extra information about the film, which is vague as they want the viewer to want to find out more, this is why they use short uninformative sentences. Similarly to this, the strapline is used to intrigue people into wanting to watch the film more. However, it is in a slightly larger font as it is more likely a person looking at the poster will read this as it is shorter than the anchorage text.

The Masthead is the largest font size on the page and is very bold in a bright red colour, it is this way to make it stand out. The central image consists of a main character from the featured film, on this particular one it is Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. He is in direct mode of address and his arm holding a gun outwards creates a leading line and draws attention towards the text. The featured articles are in a smaller font size and has a colour palette of yellow and white as these have connotations of sand and sun, relating to the beach theme of the films.  The small amount of anchorage text is in a larger font, however it is smaller than the masthead, this is because it relates to the central image. The colour scheme is similar to the featured articles as it is yellow however instead of white it is black as white juxtaposes with the character of Jack Sparrow, whereas black represents him better. The strapline is also in black and yellow, the colour changes have been used to emphasize the phrase “biggest year.” as this is impressive and will entice people to want to find out more, therefore they will buy the magazine. There is also a white black and yellow round flash on the page, this adds extra information and as it stands alone, away from everything else people are likely to read it.

The masthead for this page is bold, red and the largest size font on the page to catch attention. The central image is of Transformers and a burning city, this has connotations of futuristic, action and excitement. However, instead of anchorage text there is a strapline relating to the central image, which is in black and white which are metallic colours. There is also a flash in black and white which relates to the central image, intriguing readers into reading extra information about the article. There is a film-strip style banner of featured articles across the middle of the page, this has the second largest font size and it is in white to make it stand out. The lexis “new” is repeated numerous times as this will make people want to know what they’re missing out on. There are other featured articles, these have yellow and white font as this helps them to stand out against the dark background.

The masthead on this page is white and bold so that it stands out, however it also resembles the central image, as it is in the colours of the American flag. The central image consists of a man in American flag coloured armour standing in front of a picture of the American flag. He is in direct mode of address and has a very solemn, stern and strong expression, which shows strength and masculinity. The lead article is in a large font and is white so that it stands out against the dark background. The anchorage text is in yellow so that it too stands out. The lexis “biggest” and “war” have been used as they have an impact on the person looking at the magazine. ’Biggest’ has connotations of being the strongest, most powerful and the best. Whereas, ‘war’ has connotations of  power, authority and being brave. They both give a very powerful and strong impression of the character on the front cover. There is a white and grey banner across the bottom, giving extra inside information that may be of interest to the person reading the magazine cover, it is white so that it stands out against the darkness of the background. However, black and grey text has been used to contrast with the banner itself, making it even more eye-catching. They have used the grey colour to highlight the words “Sci-fi special” as this is subject specific and will appear to a niche audience, therefore making them intrigued into buying the magazine for that particular article. There is a list of featured articles running down the right-hand side of the page this is in a font size slightly smaller than the anchorage text and is yet again in yellow and white to make it contrast with the dark background and to remain in the colour scheme. A round yellow flash with black and navy text has been used to add extra exciting information, which will entice the reader into buying the magazine. The colours have been used specifically as these match the nearby uniform of the male character in the central image.

When trying to come up with ideas of how I would approach the designs for my poster for the short film, I decided to acknowledge the genre into which it fits and then research how they portray the film in a poster.

 I chose to look at this poster because I know that it has the theme of death in it, I wanted to see how they portrayed the death of the woman on the poster. They have used proxemics  to place the woman above the man, this has connotations of her being in heaven and of her having died. They have also lowered the opacity of the image, therefore enabling it to look slightly see-through, this also has connotations of death as it resembles a ghost.

I chose to look at this film because it fits into the same 'Drama' genre as my short film and has a similar context, including the bond between two sisters and one of them dying. Unlike the previous poster, this one's proxemics has the main character underneath the other characters, it places the main focus on her however it does not have connotations of death.

Again this film poster has a theme of dying and it's that reason why I chose it. Again the proxemics are that the image is at the top of the main character and the opacity has been lowered, it is a common reoccurring effect which I feel is very effective in symbolising death.


Poster

I created a poster that would meet the appeal needs of my target audience for the short film and made it at high official standards by in keeping with printing processes of professional publishing standards and requirements. Such as the colour chart at the top right-hand corner of the page, this is used in professional publishing to establish that the colours are printing correctly. I also used gutter lines to allow for the cutting process when it is printed. I created my poster using Adobe Photoshop CS5.

This is my final finished poster for my short film 'Letters To Annabel'. After researching the features of film posters, I decided to use some common conventions of them as inspiration for mine. I decided to use a colour palette of dark greys, black and white, I did this because they generally together look quite dismal and this has connotations of sadness, death and loss. When deciding on the font type that I wanted to use, my main priority was keeping it clear and bold so that it stood out seeing as it was my lead article. I reinforced this by applying a drop shadow. My proxemics of the lead article was inspired my my research of film posters.
I also decided to incorporate a quote at the top of my poster, I used a glow effect and drop shadow to make this very visible and easy to read, by adding a quote it anchors people to read the poster, enticing them to want to go see the movie, a key selling point.
 I wanted the two pictures to be equal in size thus making both of them my central images. 

This is the first of my central images, it is a medium shot of a girl in basic everyday clothing, looking up and to the left. I lit this picture by using lamps to the model's left, by doing this I achieved a soft glow on the model's face and the light reflecting in her eyes. To this picture, I cropped the background out, using the magic wand tool and the rubber. I then used the spot-healing tool on content aware to diminish any blemishes. I needed the model's arms to be in the shot more and so I used the pinch tool to bring her arms into the frame and then used the spot-healing tool on content aware to match the skin back to how it was before, some areas were too large for this tool to be effective and so on these areas I used the patch tool. I also used the  pinch tool to make the model's shoulders relax a little, by doing this the image as a whole looks a lot softer and evokes more sensitive emotions. I used the sharpen tool on the model's eyes to make them stand out and by doing this the reflections of the lamps in her eyes looks like a sheen of tears creating a sadness that wasn't there before. I altered the saturation and the brightness of the image to make the colours softer and less bold, as they would contrast too much with the colour palette of the poster. I also applied a glow effect to the image so that the colours wouldn't appear too harsh and the edges wouldn't be so defined, in addition to this, I used the blur tool on the edges of the image to give them less definition.

Here is the final image cropped down to fit proportionately onto my poster.

This is the second of my central images. This is a close-up shot of a young girl lying on the floor with her head in her hands smiling in direct mode of address, which is very eye-catching. I chose for the model to wear casual attire and sit in this position whilst I photographs her because I thought it would look the least strange if I had her face and arms in the shot rather than her whole body, as it would look as if it were floating when I placed it onto my poster. I lit this photograph using a camera flash, I did this because I didn't want any shadows to remain on the model's face. To edit this, I firstly used the rubber and magic wand tool to remove the surrounding background and unwanted areas. I then used the spot-healing tool on content aware to diminish any imperfections. Because the image is meant to be ghost-like I decided to decrease the opacity and then decrease the saturation, I didn't completely desaturate the image I left it almost black and white, however brown still is visible in her hair and green in her eyes, it makes it look less flat and creates a more subtle look.

Because the image was taken in portrait, it wouldn't have fit the area of the poster where I wanted to place it well, therefore I decided to change the shape of the image to fit more squarely, I did this by holding down the shift key when the image was in free transform mode thus enabling me to change the shape without affecting the image quality, I then decided to add an outer glow to make her look even more ghostly. 

I think that the composition of the poster works very well, you are instantly drawn to the contrasting bright image of the 'living' character and because she is looking upwards towards the other character's photograph, it creates a leading line drawing your attention to that image. The second image is in direct mode of address and this captures your attention fully, forcing you to engage with the poster.

Magazine

I used my magazine research as inspiration for my own short film feature on a movie magazine cover. I created the magazine cover using Adobe Photoshop CS5. I chose a colour palette of dark grey, inkeeping with my poster, white and a dark pink. I chose to add in the dark pink because a magazine cover needs to be very eye-catching and I thought a dark colour such as red would be very eye-catching without losing the message and feel of the film featured. However, because of the death and loss themes of the movie red would have too many connotations of murder, gore and violence when them movie is meant to be more sad, meaningful and encourage empathy, therefore I decided a dark pink would be eye-catching enough but wouldn't affect the nature of the film being perceived by the audience. It is important to remember to think about what will attract your niche audience. 

I maintained the crucial features of a movie magazine such as Empire by including aspects such as the date, price, barcode, slogan and website address. However, I then went on to develop my own individual aspects which would suit my short film. I again, made my magazine upto professional standards by applying gutter areas which would be cut off in the printing process to allow for correct sizing and keeping of all content and I also applied the colour chart in the top right-hand corner to allow for ink colour checks whilst the printing process is underway.

I used a classic font, seen on the cover of Empire magazine which I sourced from www.dafont.com I then went on to give the image as a whole a texture to make it stand out and look more detailed. I created this effect by layering and editing many of the texture presets on Photoshop. I wanted it to look even more unique and professional so I used the shape tool to create a small triangle on the 'E' I made it slightly lighter than the rest of the 'E' so that it would be clearer that it was a piece of the back rather than just a shape on top of the letter. I used a white faint paintbrush to add highlights to the edge of the triangle to make it look less one dimensional. By adding this small detail it links to the featured film 'Letters To Annabel' as it makes the title look like paper/sticky notes.  I went on to add a drop-shadow to the whole title as this also make it look less one dimensional and makes it appear to stand out away from the page, appealing to people looking at the magazine.

This is the banner for the top of my magazine, I chose a simple yet effective font, which will appeal to people and make them want to read it. I wrote it in block capitals as this reinforces the eye-catching appeal and is also the reason why I added a drop shadow. I chose the background to be white and the copy to be in the classic dark pink, in keeping with the colour palette because they contrast so well and it work well with the other features around the top of the magazine.

I wanted to make sure that the magazine was still relevant and have matching aspects to the poster, therefore instead of having the picture of the other character, as this just wasn't appropriate for the magazine, I decided to apply a gradient glow to the top left-hand corner to connote heaven and the passing of a loved one. I created this by using the diffused circular paint brush in white and then with the opacity turned down apply various sized circles on top of each other. This created the gradient effect, I then went over any areas where the separating lines were visible and smoothed over them until they were no longer visible. I think it works very well, as the banner and the very beginning of the gradient glow diffuse together and then as it passes beneath the Empire masthead it accentuates the drop-shadow. 

This featured articles aspect was heavily influenced by my research. I noticed that the other featured articles were either non-existent or were very inconspicuous. I wanted to add another level to my magazine so I chose to add them, however I did decide to make the smaller as I didn't want to distract attention away from the lead article. I placed the photographs in a white box so that they were clearly put there for a reason and this made them clearly matched up with the banner running along the bottom.

This is the first of the images that I used for my featured articles. I wanted the featured articles to be of women as people that are attracted to the lead article would probably be women therefore the featured articles would appeal to them. I firstly edited this image, I originally took this direct mode of address photograph as a medium shot with flash lighting, however I then cropped the image to make it more of a close-up, placing the focus on the model's face. I used depth of field to make the facial features stand out and her clothing blurred. I chose the model to wear contrasting coloured clothes and make-up to her fair skin tone as I thought the contrast would draw people's attention. This image links to the 'Lunch with Drew Barrymore' caption on the bottom banner. I rotated the image to fit into the featured articles box.

This is the second image on the featured articles strip. I didn't choose to make this fit more fully on to the page as it is in film reel style and so in actual fact it would disappear off of the page, exactly how it is seen on my movie magazine. I shot this photograph in a studio it is a long action shot of a very pale girl, I shot it on a Canon 450D DSLR Camera, I used snoot lighting to emphasis the girl's paleness. This fits perfectly with the 'Behind the Scenes' caption on the bottom banner of featured articles as it looks less casual than the first image and in a lot more professional looking environment thus making you think it is at a film studio. 

I increased the contrast of this picture making everything stand out against the very pale background and model's skin. I also increased the contrast to capture the shadows in the background more clearly as they make the image a lot more striking. I cropped and rotated the image to fit into the featured articles strip.

The lead article text was sourced from www.dafont.com I chose it specifically because it looks like handwriting. It isn't a very commonly used font type, however it fits into my movie's themes and relates to the word 'Letters'. Because of the fact that is is a very thin font type in contrast to the regular bold font types, I decided to give it a drop-shadow making it appear a lot bolder and more eye-catching.

I created this flash by using three different coloured and sized circles. I used a large white circle as the base, I then made a smaller circle in the middle of the white one, the same colour as the background to make it tie in with the background well, I then made an even smaller circle, the same dark pink as other aspects and placed that in the centre. I then used two font types found pre-listed in Photoshop fonts, I used a very bold one to make the number stand out and a thinner less direct one for the information. The idea of a flash is to add extra information, mine was in the style of a sticker, keeping with this idea I decided to rotate my flash slightly to the left so that it looked like someone had stuck it onto the cover, adding an interesting edge to the flash which would entice people.

This was the medium shot of my main character which I took on a Canon 450D DSLR camera, using a lamp lighting to capture it in a 'natural' way. It is also after I cropped it and got rid of the background using the magic wand and rubber tools, I also used the spot healing tool on content aware to diminish any imperfections and the sharpen tool to make her eyes appear brighter.

Here is the image after I had finished editing it. I altered the brightness and contrast slightly as I didn't want it to be too contrasting against the dark background, therefore I decreased the saturation slightly and increased the brightness. I also went on to blur the edges of the image so that it wasn't so sharp and harsh against the background of my cover.