Deconstruction of Typography in Film Posters

Deconstruction of Typography in Film Posters

Paper Towns

• The title of the film is large and fills a quarter of the poster. It is an outlined, handwriting style font. The title of the film is in white, which contrasts to the use of yellow for the other words - the tagline, release date and selling point.
• All of the fonts used are a handwritten font, this is a common convention in teen dramas as it creates a feeling of imperfection, making the film more relatable, accessing the target audience.
• The main selling of the film is that it is written by the same author as The Fault in Our Stars. This is shown by the title of the film being in a large capitalised font at the top of the poster. 

We Are Your Friends

• The title of the film is in the bottom quarter of the poster. It is a simple, thin, white font. The main difference of this typography is that there is a letter in each of the words of the title of the film represented as a symbol. The W is a fast forward symbol, the A is an eject symbol, the O is a CD symbol and the I/E is a pause symbol. This hints at who the target audience for this film are, as it is obvious that this film is about music/technology - the main character is a DJ.
• It is obvious what the selling point of this film is as the name of the main actor Zac Efron is written in a large, pink typography at the top of the poster, taking up the whole width of the page. This is contrasted by the other actors names being in a smaller, darker typography on top of the name of the film.
• The tag line is in a different font to the rest of the poster. The typography is quite digitalised. The D's look like play buttons, again hinting at the plot of the film and highlighting the target audience.  

Project X

• The same, plain white font is used throughout the poster. This is effective for the poster as the colours used are quite lowly saturated and neutral, which contrast against the brightness of the white typography.
• The title of the film is quite unclear given that the tagline is in a larger size and in the centre of the poster. The title of the film is in the centre third of the width of the page, at the bottom of the page.
• The main selling point of the film is shown at the top of the poster, stating that it is from the same directors as The Hangover. The title of the film being bold and larger than the line above. This targets the correct audience, as if the audience like one film they are likely to enjoy the other.
• The tagline fills the width of the poster. The typography is slightly translucent, which makes it stand out against the party scene in the background.

Deconstruction of Previous A2 Media Film Trailer

Deconstruction of a Previous A2 Media Film Trailer

The trailer is on YouTube, but cannot be embedded into Blogger. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBZHv3rV_WU 

Sound

• The trailer starts off with slow piano music. This creates an eerie feel as the clips playing make the genre of the trailer unknown. 
• Following this, there is a voicemail message of a girl. The plot of the film is uncertain. The message is very clear, so it is likely that the group filmed the girl talking and edited the audio to sound like it was from a phone. 
• After this, there is a voiceover of the assumed main character. The outline of the film is brought to light. The character summarises that his girlfriend was killed and he is in search of her killer. 
• As the clips are edited faster, there is a violin and drum beat added to the audio. This creates tension and builds the intensity of the trailer. 
• There is a good mix of diegetic and non diegetic sounds throughout. For example the indicators and the pen scratching the paper. 

Editing

• The clips all have dark lighting and low saturation. This creates an enigmatic feel and is appropriate for the genre of the trailer. 
• The editing increases in speed throughout the trailer, this creates tension. The editing slows towards the end of the trailer before the billing's block. This conforms to Todorov's theory of  equilibrium and disequilibrium.
• The clips in the middle of the trailer change at the drum beat of the song, creating a routine. 

Mise-en-scene

• The mise-en-scene of the trailer is very strong. They use good props including organising the photos of the girl to then have the panning shot. 
• They also use good locations. In particular the scene of interrogation, it looks as though it is set in an abandoned building, with rope around the room. 

Improvements

The only improvement would be the titles. 

• The typography is quite weak as the font is basic and there is no particular skill involved. 
• The image that the titles are layered over isn't relevant to the trailer as it is an image of a cracked wall. It also has a very blue filter on compared to the neutral colours used in the rest of the trailer.
• The billings block at the end of the trailer is also not set out correctly, reducing the professional look made by the quality of the rest of the trailer. 

Location shots

Before we started filming, we had to look for suitable locations to film our scenes. These locations should be easily accessible and appropriate for our genre of teen/urban drama. We will be using a range of locations to film our shots. These include an alleyway, a train station, public toilets, abandoned buildings, etc.

Location 1: Alleyway/garages - Vinters Park

Location 2: Graffiti - Town Centre

Location 3: Subway - Maidstone

Location 4: Train Station

Shooting Script: Day 3

When?

- Thursday 12th November
- Starting after school at 3:20

Where?

- Chloe's house
- Public toilet with mirrors
- Underground subway in Maidstone
- Maidstone east platform
- Alley way in Maidstone
- Chloe's Garden
- Invicta Grammar School


Who?

-Chloe
- Gemma
- Lillian
- Steven
- Owen


How?

We will be filming with a cannon camera which will be used in all the scenes apart from the scene in the public toilets where we will be using the hero go-pro, to film the scene in the sink.
We will be filming at night as there is better lighting for the birthday cake scene and underground subway scene using the amber lights as a form of low-key lighting.
We will also be filming after school as will need to film at Maidstone east train station whens there's lots of people walking past.
However these shots may not be finished in one day so another additional day maybe required.

What?

- Birthday cake shot- medium shot-characters eighteenth-blowing out candles-with friends around her
- Bathroom scene- beaten up look- make up down face- crying- staring at reflection in mirror
- Underground subway shot- tracking shot- running down the subway
- Train track- still shot- sitting on the floor- homeless
- Drug deal- close up shot in alley way of drug deal
- Cocaine- Eighteen- titles
- A-level results celebration- friends throwing results in the air- happy and celebrating

Production Companies Research

The 5 biggest Hollywood studios:

1. Sony

2. Time warner

3. The Walt Disney Company

4. Comcast/ General electric

5. News corporation

 Project X

Warner Bros pictures- 
is an American entertainment company that produces film, television and music entertainment. As one of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California. 
Films they have produced:
- I am legend 
- The Blind side 
- Gravity 

Green Hat films- 
I very small production company that has helped produce films such as 'The hangover' and 'Due date'.

21 and over 

Relatively media-
Relativity Media LLC (sometimes written as RelativityMedia and Relativity) is a global media company located in Beverly Hills, California

Films they have produced:
- Wild child
- 3 days to kill
- Mirror mirror
- Grown ups

Mandeville films-
Mandeville Films and Television is an American independent film production company headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios.

Films they have produced:
- Warm bodies
- The divergent series
- The fighter

 

Trainspotting

Miramax (formerly Miramax Films)- 
is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
Films they have produced:
- Viral
- The best of youth
- Blindness
- An unfinished life



 

Deconstruction of partying scenes in Bad Neighbours and Project X

Originally, we were planning on including some partying scenes for when she is being influenced by the boys; these partying scenes will be used when she transitions from good to bad. However, we thought that it would be too hard to film a partying scene due for the lighting and amount of people needed. In the trailers that I have taken inspiration from, there is a lot of bright, neon lighting which glows in the dark and has smoke which will be quite hard to re-create. 

I have taken inspiration from the following trailers:

Bad Neighbours

• Bright lighting is reflected onto the crowd
• A large house to host the party
• Fireworks to signify celebration and parties

• Large crowd
• Smoke, fireworks and alcohol are visible

• UV/glow in the dark lighting
• Large crowds
• Dark lighting is used which may impact the quality of our video

Project X

• Again, like Bad Neighbours, bright lighting is used which flashes to represent the hype
• A pool and alcohol have been included

Lighting Test: Fire

One of our scenes in our trailer will show Rose - our main character - sitting around a fire with her friends before her life takes a bad turn. I therefore tested and altered the lighting around the fire during filming to improve the lighting as we filmed.
We may also use the photos from the lighting test for Rose's fake Instagram page.

Before: This photo is lit only by the fire. It is very dark, even though the videos come out lighter but less grainy.

 After: I turned on the security light and it made the image brighter and cast shadows on the face however the orange tint from the fire was still visible.

We added fire lighters and newspaper to increase the size of the fire to improve the brightness. This image is lit by just the fire and security light however the fire was brighter so more visible than the artificial bulb lighting

The shots during this scene were a lot brighter and were successful. We will review the footage and add the best shots to the timeline on FinalCut.