Poster Development

1) Starter Images:  First of all for my poster I had to decide what my main images would be and what my U.S.P would be. I centered my poster on two images of my main male characters, seen above. The U.S.P will be the addressing of the audience with the stare by my main character which will grab the audiences attention and look rather dramatic. Then my secondary image will be the supporting actor representing a separate character and separate personality with his expression.

2) Background image: I had my main images, now I needed a background. For the background I decided to have dramatic grey clouds, representing the dark, gritty nature of my film and also the audience are then able to establish the Drama genre that is being exemplified.The image itself is an image that I took of clouds on a relatively bright day, then the effects that I applied to it on Photoshop meant that I could have a much darker and moodier background.

3) Text: A vital part of a poster is the text and the titles. I wanted the title for my poster to stand out in the street and therefore, I used bold colours such as red and black with white text. I also wanted the title to split up my poster into 4 parts so people could distinguish characters, text, reviews and taglines. The images seen above are key for the marketing campaign of my film; the star is to symbolise the rating of my film from well known sources and the social network logos such as twitter, facebook and youtube show the audience a place where they can become an active audience and discuss their opinions on the up and coming film with others.

4) The final product: I put the parts together and I was left with a poster that I was pleased with as I believe it is clear what genre of film my film is and the tagline really helps to establish what my film is about. Reviews and critics are key to people deciding on whether they are going to go see a film at the cinema and that is why I have placed them clearly in the top right hand corner of my poster. Finally, the inclusion of the film's website on the poster is another important convention of film posters which encourage the audience to look at the film in further detail and become active.

Magazine Front Cover Development

1) Main image -  This was the starting image for my poster with no effects on it whatsoever. There was strong lighting in the room which meant that my face and it's features are clearly visible. It is vital to have a clear main image so that when people see it on the shelves they immediately recognise who is on the front or what is being portrayed. 

2) Masthead -  Next I made two photoshop documents for the masthead of my magazine front cover. Using a white text on a black background was key to making my magazine stand out on the shelves. Similar to the yellow colour background for the Sight and Sound masthead I wanted to catch the eye of the audience with my main title. The words relate very much to the theme of my magazine with it's Britishness and looking at English films started on low or high-budgets. Next to my masthead I accompanied it with a tagline to support the British theme being portrayed: "The British Film Magazine", also I got the logo for BFI and placed it on the background to give the magazine a classy feel.

3) Barcode, Dateline and Cover Price - Following this I added the dateline, cover price and barcode which can be seen above. Continuing with the black background with white writing, I also made the issue's month red because it stands out on the black background and is again a colour of the Union Jack. A small logo that I got off Google Images and darkened was the coat of arms of London, again to symbolise the urban nature of my magazine, focussing on young British talent from the streets and following their progress in the film industry as a worldwide picture.

4) Having the main image, the masthead and the barcode sections I placed these into one Photoshop document and my Film Magazine front cover began to take shape. 

5) Background Image and Text - Here is where I added my main text and also the background to the whole magazine. I had in mind that the background of a wall of which I took a photo of would not be the main background as it is too bold. I would therefore, use the texture of the background and place brown shapes over it to make it look less rigid and more up-market. The text's colour palette is the colours of the Union Jack again to symbolise the Britishness and the font is downloaded off DAFONT which gives a very urban look to my magazine with sketchy serif effect. 

6) Final Product - The final touches to my final product included adding three blocked brown shapes to the background and tweaking down their opacity so that the rigid, gritty background could come through with its pattern. Finally I used the gradient tool on Photoshop to blend the main image into the background so I didn't stand out and look extremely artificial compared to the background. This is what the darker brown shadow around the main image is. 

Magazine Front Cover Audience Profile

Most magazines in the UK are owned by Bauer Publishing Group. Most notably they own 'Empire' Magazine. It is most probable that Bauer would publish my magazine and sell my magazine at retail all over the country. The audience to my film magazine would not be too similar to 'Empire' magazine and would rather be more like the audience to the film magazine, 'Sight and Sound':
 

“Sight & Sound” is a British film magazine, published monthly by the British Film Institute. It was first published in 1932, before being taken over by the BFI in 1934. For the majority of its history, “Sight & Sound” has been published as a quarterly magazine, except for a brief spell as a monthly magazine in the 1950s and from the 1990s onwards. “Sight & Sound” is marketed as a high-brow, consumer magazine. It's audience is considered to be mainly male, around 70% to be precise but most importantly is considered to be read by academics and written by specialists within sectors of film. Whereas "Empire" would lean towards a more mainstream audience who are only interested in whether a film is "good" or "bad". They are not interested in reading in depth articles into the positive and negatives of a film. Furthermore, "Sight and Sound" reviews every film that is being released in the UK during that month, whether it is Indie or Arthouse or a big blockbuster, it doesn't matter, they will review a film no matter the money put behind it in the production stages. This is something that I would look to do with my Film Magazine, however, where "Sight and Sound" is an International Film Magazine, perhaps I would like to make a magazine that predominantly looks at home-grown talent and their work in the UK.

Magazine Drawing Draft

Above can be seen my first drawing draft for my magazine front cover, with particular attention being paid to the focus on the main image, the masthead and the cover lines. I would want my magazine front cover to be simple yet classy, like the front covers to the film magazine called 'Sight and Sound'. Therefore I did not want too many bright colours like seen on 'Empire' or 'Total Film', I want it to look low-budget and keep it very British, so I can attract my target audience

Adulthood and Kidulthood Posters

"Kidulthood" and "Adulthood" are urban dramas with strong violence, drug use and sexual scenes, they try to exemplify what it is like to live on the streets. With my film I am showing what it is like to come out of prison with no prospects, no family and nowhere to go except back to the old life which got my main character into prison in the first place. The thing which most stands out to me in both these images is the use of a dramatic skyline in the background over the high rising flats in the urban city of London. This is something which I am intrigued to use in the background of my film poster. Also the characters address the audience with strong stares at the camera which look menacing especially with the inclusion of weapons such as baseball bats. With the life of the youths in these two films being similar to that of my main character, I will perhaps try and use this effect of addressing the audience with bold facial expressions and try to convey the theme of my film with use of props and costume.

Shifty Film Poster

Shifty is a low-budget British urban drama which holds a number of similarities in the narrative, focussing on the life of young men and their struggles. This poster above shows a number of techniques which I may be interested in to use in my film poster. The bright yellow and the contrasted black title gives this poster a simplicity and also helps it to stand out and draw attention from walkers on the street. The main photo of the two young males seated is an image that I am hoping to use with my main character posing on the left side and right side of the poster symbolising his change from "bad" to "good" and also enlightening the audience to my narrative, especially as this image will be accompanied by the title of the film in bold saying, "Redemption". The title vividly stands out but the thing that I am most interested in is the use of the 'I' in "Shifty"dividing the two characters up, I believe I can use this with my film to symbolise the change in lifestyle for my main character and the divide between the past and the future without giving too much of the narrative away. "24 Hours To Deal Yourself Out" - This tagline seen above is very dramatic and would certainly encourage people to go see this film if they are interested in the lives of those who grow up on the streets and are less privileged and therefore must resolve to drug dealing to pay off debts or stay alive.