Evaluation - How like film posters and magazines are your ancillary texts?

March 11, 2017 Unknown 0 Comments

Film Poster

The film poster for ‘Aurora’ took inspiration from many different adventure and science-fiction films. Posters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and X-Men: Days of Future Past have been shown above, as they closely represent the genre used in my film trailer and are also well rated films.

The main eye-catching features of the film posters are the depiction of the main characters in the film. We can see they are overlaid on-top of each other, with the main characters in the background and top of the poster and the importance of each character decreases as they go down. The importance of the characters is portrayed through the size of them. In the Days of Future Past poster, it is evident that the main characters are the Wolverine and Mystique because that cover most of the poster and are on top of the page. I’ve used this have concept in my film poster. The main character, Nick Aries, can be seen big and at the top. In this, I’ve also used the rule of thirds in my poster to create a more appealing poster. The main characters are not positioned central, but instead lie within the thirds of the poster. This creates a ness linear feel, making the film poster seem more dynamic and eye-catching.

The general design of these film posters show the main images covering most part of the poster, the film title near the bottom and other credits and release dates underneath the title. In order for my film poster to stay conventional to the genre, I used a similar design. The title of the film ‘AURORA’ is displayed in bold white text, and credits underneath are shown using a smaller font. From the credits used in the Star Wars and X-Men posters, the most prominent pieces of information are the release dates and the type of viewing experience e.g. 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D. The viewing experience of most films are displayed in bold because it’s a unique selling point (USP) of the film. In my poster, I’ve also used this as a USP because my target audience would prefer a more pleasant viewing experience when watching the film. At the top of my poster, I’ve included the names of the actors who plays the most important characters in the film. Although not used in Star Wars or the X-Men posters, they are a common element in a film trailer because they show the different actors that may make the film appealing. If well-known, popular and well regarded actors are cast in the film, their names may be in bold, and used as a USP for the film as people will want to see it for this reason.

In all three posters, are many genre indicators for a science-fiction and adventure film. In the Star Wars poster, there are flying vehicles shooting lasers, robots, lightsabers and the background of stars to link to the sci-fi and adventure genre. In the X-Men poster, we see more flying vehicles and robots, and a variety of characters which all seem as if they have different powers and abilities. In my poster, I’ve included many flying spaceships and different characters to suggest a sci-fi genre. The rocky base, starry sky and the large purple/blue and yellow planet indicate the film is set in these different locations.

Magazine Cover

My magazine front cover has a lot of influence from top film magazines such as Empire, Total Film and some from Entertainment Weekly. Having analysed many covers, there is a trend in the use of the main subject overlapping the title of the magazine. This may seem bad to cover up the title of your magazine name, however, the title is only partly covers so the logo it still noticeable, and it makes the character from a popular film pop out. In my magazine cover, I’ve used the same design – the main protagonist of the film lays on top of the title ‘CineFilm’. In most cases, there is only one main character that’s is shown on the cover. This shows the audience that they’re an important character in the film. The use of a low-angle shot of the subject in the Star Wars and Assassins Creed also shows their importance and makes them look powerful. I’ve also used a low-angle shot in my magazine cover to stay conventional to the typical magazine cover design.

In each magazine cover, the use a colour scheme and different visual elements are used as genre indicator. It is evident that it’s an action, adventure, thriller because of the low-key lighting, and background location and the blades in his hands – connoting danger, action and fighting. Through mise-en-scene, we can see the character is wearing hooded costume which seem as if it set is a different location. In the Star Wars cover, they’ve depicted a large Death Star in the background. This is a genre indicator for a sci-fi film, and her clotting contain weird, sci-fi- looking patters – also backing up the sci-fi genre. In my poster, there is the depiction of a large purple and yellow planet in the background. It has been positioned on the left because it will be the first thing people see as people generally read left to right.

In all three posters, there is a badge/stamp/sticker on the covers, which contain text on important content inside the magazine that the target audience will likely be interested in. The text usually contains information about exclusive content that can only be found in that magazine, and there displaying it on a shape makes it a USP (unique selling point). In most film magazine covers, there is also usually a ‘Plus’ section which tells the reader what else to expect in the magazine. These are typically small description of what to expect, or just new and up-coming film titles to draw the reader in. I’ve chosen to use film titles because it allows the audience to quick know the films that will be covered in the magazine.

The title of the film is positioned around a quarter of the page from the bottom, and it either used the official film logo, or a different font and colour of the film title. I’ve chosen to use the logo that is seen in the trailer; this helps brand identity because audience members can associate the font and colour to the film. My film title has been displayed at an angle as this makes it stand out from all of the other linear text.