Film Poster Flat Plans

My construction of the poster begins now. I feel like I have been informed enough by my own research into conventions and the subversions of these conventions to create a desired effect. Before I even begin to start my photography, I thought it would be best to draft out some initial ideas as to how I imagine my poster looking. Similar to how I made storyboards for my short film, the flat plans are a visual reference point that will help me to determine the types of camera shots and lighting I may need when I go and take the photographs. 

My initial illustration was a fairly straightforward and conventional poster plan. I adopted a minimalist approach when it came to the typography, limiting it to a title, tagline and release date. The tagline I have come up with; 'The line between grief and guilt is not black and white' is a very forthcoming statement that elaborates on the title. The reference to the blurred line between 'black and white' justifies the 'shades' of the title. From a visual perspective I wanted to keep it basic. It includes my two main protagonists standing back to back, but their body postures differ dramatically to emphasise the 'grief' and 'guilt' mentioned in the tagline. 

I drew the Father looking down with his hands in his pockets, appearing quite reserved and uncomfortable. I wanted this to reflect the guilt he feels for running over Dylan's brother, and looking down emphasises his regret but I also thought it could symbolise looking downwards in mourning. Dylan on the other hand is holding a gun (in order to imply his violent intentions) and looking upwards, showing his grief. I wanted one of the characters to look up and the other to look down, creating visual contrasts on the poster that imitate their contrasts in the film. Dylan looking upwards is reminiscent of the shot in my short film where he looks to the sky, almost in a moment of spiritual communication with his dead brother. Standing back to back is a deliberate position to mimic how the characters don't actually make eye contact until the very end of the short film, thus showing their disconnect from one another but also how they are connected through the road accident. 

The text is aligned in a very central position, and I thought that the simplicity of this layout helped to keep the focus strictly on the image. Despite the fact that I like the symbolic implications of this plan, to me it comes across as a little rigid and a bit too much like a book cover. 

This second attempt becomes even more basic from a visual perspective, framing the protagonists at a mid shot rather than a long shot has the effect of making the audience engage more with the characters' emotions and facial expressions than their overall body posture (like in my first illustration). I also like the angle at which I positioned the characters, with the Father concealed behind Dylan rather than the two of them sharing the spotlight. I prefer this stance because in my narrative Dylan is the central role and so it makes more sense for him to have more prominence in the poster. I also like the similar disconnect between the two characters as they look in different directions and view things differently. 

I have played about with the text here as well, changing my release date from a numerical display to an unspecific 'coming soon', which I feel may add a certain intensity to the build up of the release. Additionally I have written the names of the two actors underneath the title (as is quite common) but I am unsure on whether I will keep this as a substitute of the tagline. 

My third flat plan is more of an expansion of the second. I thought that I'd left too much space in the image and so I wanted this illustration to utilise more of the poster. As a result I have combined my first image and second image, showing more of the characters but keeping them in the same position, placing Dylan in the foreground. The concealed gun hints at the violent undertones of the film whilst the Father's hands in his pockets establishes his uncertainty. One noticeable difference here is the substitution of both a tagline and the actor's names in favour of two simple but meaningful words. I have taken the words 'grief' and 'guilt' from my tagline and applied them to each of the characters, making the audience aware of their motivations. Dylan is driven by grief, while the Father is driven by guilt and a desire to redeem himself. I like how the characters accurately personify these emotions, but I don't like how the words address them as labels. I think it could work better when the terms are subtly embedded in the tagline. Nevertheless I like the image in terms of scale and the subtext hinting at the film. 

This fourth poster, in my mind, is a culmination of the three ideas which have preceded in this post. As you can see in the image, I have shown even more of the characters, and this was a conscious decision due to the fact that I have moved the title and so there would be too much empty space above. Therefore I have filled the poster up with the characters, giving them an imposing and memorable scale. Absent from this drawing is the gun, and this is because I felt that it was too obvious to have an object of violence in the image. Like when I trimmed a shot of the gun in my actual film to avoid being too obvious and direct, I feel that the conflict is already hinted at by the stances of the characters and the implication of the tagline. Therefore a gun defeats the subtlety of the other features and diminishes their impact. 

Also, I have changed the release date back to numbers. This is because it is a simple way to add variety, changing the written text of 'coming soon' to numerics is logical to avoid using too much text on the page. Putting the title and tagline in the middle of the page gives it a central focus and gives the picture more depth by framing the characters behind. 

These slightly varying posters are going to form the ground basis of my photography, and I hope that I can capture images which work efficiently and won't require too much digital manipulation, mainly because I think that the most successful posters are the ones that rely on the simplicity of their one image. 

Film Poster Inspirations

Having analysed 3 posters in significant detail and established some stylistic similarities between them, I think the logical progression point is to look at posters which I feel have influenced my thought process for making the poster of my own film. Because of the largely dramatic tone of my film, I didn't want to make a poster which captured the protagonist in a heroic or idolised pose, instead I needed a subtle and less epic  poster which was still captivating and visually engaging. Below are examples of posters that I feel capture a similar tone and enticement to what I want to achieve. 

The first two are from The Drop (a film I took inspiration from) and as much as I like the one with the characters, it was the absence of them in the second poster which appealed to me more. The way it incorporated the Brooklyn Bridge to express the significance of the setting and gangster underground, symbolised through how the gun is positioned to structurally hold up the bridge, emphasises how implication successfully conveys the genre of the film. The bleak and largely dull colour scheme also hints at the tone and pace, quite slow and unfolding. This poster seems to break genre conventions by not including characters on it, and while this may damage a film's familiarity and profile, it contributes more to the deeper understanding of the film itself. Plus like with the Hell or High Water poster I deconstructed, I don't like how there are two separate images being fused together in the first poster. 

These two posters promote one of my all time favourite films, both of which use the same character and tagline, just in different positions. The background is largely insignificant, but the character's suit seems to be cohesive with the blandness of colour, not trying to be imposing. I feel that this links in with one of the themes of the film, where the character above is a hitman and blends in effortlessly with the hectic and unobservant masses of people. He feels like a chameleon even though he detests the loss of identity found in daily routines, so I think that the poster emphasises his ability to fit in. There is a stylish simplicity to the poster and the font, like how the tagline is small and insignificant but still imposing due to the emptiness on the rest of the poster. 

It's important to remember that the Bourne films are in fact a franchise, and so this poster is so effective due to its simplicity but instant recognition among fans. Matt Damon's face, couple with the emboldened 'Bourne' title and tagline 'You Know His Name' (referencing the film's primary plot about struggling to find your identity) is a recognisable combination that adopts the less is more approach. What I like about the poster is the noir colour scheme, using the lighting to hint that the protagonist is lurking in the shadows but stepping into the light. I don't like the credits along the bottom, and although I don't think that I could just use the protagonist's face in my own poster, almost like a portrait, I would like to incorporate the use of lighting to allude to the themes in my film. 

Black Mass is another simple but effective poster. The gangster undertones of the film are implied through the mise en scene of the gun and corpse as well as the background setting, hinting at urban and low key criminal enterprises. The setting itself looks bland and the clothes of the corpse appear irrelevant, but the more colourful clothes of the protagonist suggest his significance. 

When a film receives critical acclaim from a variety of critics the rating and a short quote tend to be included on the film's poster as an acknowledgement of prestigious value and worth spending your money to go and see. The white star rating are the same colour as the quote and the title, drawing audience's eyes to all of these features unanimously. The poster of the film itself is unrevealing, but still engaging as a result of the ambiguity and the deliberate lack of engagement with characters. 

There is something eerie but compelling in this poster, and I think its due to how empty it is, singularly focusing on the intensity of the actor's performance. 'Macbeth' is a well known story and so the simple tagline 'All Hail' summarises the themes of ambition and control. I love the clarity of the image and how the lack of vibrant colours is substituted for the harsh but penetrating darkness of the war paint and armour, juxtaposing the purity of the white title. The notable lack of text is also an appealing quality, maintaining a sparse but elegant display of information that doesn't overwhelm the poster. 

Again, Fast and Furious is a franchise and this poster had a lot of context contributing to its success and purpose. Knowing that the actor Paul Walker had died justifies the straightforward approach to the poster. Vin Diesel's head bowed evokes respect and mourning the loss of a partner, while the focus on Paul Walker's face shows how he is being honoured and that the poster is intended as a tribute to the actor and character. Along with the tagline 'One Last Ride' it acknowledges how this will be the last time the two career-defining roles share the screen together. However what I think makes this poster so successful is again the noir black and white colour scheme and the positioning of the characters. If I applied this to my own short film, Vin Diesel's character could represent the Father's guilt, while Paul Walker's thoughtful face could reflect Dylan's inner conflict. I love the juxtaposition of the two. 

The following posters are all for television shows, and so their conventions are slightly different, but I have included ones that are particularly striking because they contain elements that I would like to talk about. Notably there is less text, and this is something which I find works in the favour of the posters.

The appeal of the Taboo poster is not only the crisp effect of the black and white, but also the textured look of the character to reflect how he has been damaged and hardened by his time serving the East India Company. Furthermore the font of the handwriting for 'Tom Hardy' along with the character's clothes hint at the time period the narrative will be set in.  

The Justified poster also uses the obscurity of the lighting to reflect the moral conflict of the protagonist and the possibility of darker threats. The reddish tinge on the poster is a convention of the series' promotion, and has been applied to all of the posters across the series' six seasons, showing continuity. Also, the tainted texture of the poster gives it the impression of an old western photograph, and this may be symbolising the western feel to the series but also the urbanisation of Western America. 

The overwhelming blackness of the character posters for Sons of Anarchy reflect the dark places the characters enter, with little hope for redemption, symbolised through the minimal lighting. The almost skeletal appearance of the characters is effective as it shows ambiguity and uncertainty, and I love how the stark contrast of black and white can make an image resonate with clarity and captivation. 

The ray of light shining down on the character creates a feeling of entrapment, and this reflects the point in the series The Walking Dead where Rick and his group were imprisoned by a cannibalistic community, emphasising the theme of isolation and claustrophobia, emphasised with the ongoing objective 'Survive'. The lighting once more illuminates the ray of hope available to the character whilst simultaneously exposing a darker exploration. 

In summary I would say that all of the posters I have looked at for inspiration have similarities in how they are not heavy on colour, but use lighting to reflect the mood and the moral ambiguity of the plot. These are very simple but very enticing techniques that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but allude to the greater consideration of promotion with the subtle references to the story. When planning my own poster this is definitely something I want to consider. 

Trends in Film Posters

When deconstructing my posters, I had tried to select three which weren't conventionally similar in order to demonstrate how each one differs stylistically from the next. That being said, there are still certain traits and features of film posters which frequently recur and so have the impression of being necessary to their success. Below is a list of the possible conventions I have noticed that I could adopt when making my own. 

• Title: Unsurprisingly, the title of the film being promoted is normally the biggest example of typography on the poster, and the most significant piece of text to look at. A title should be as visually engaging as the image, but in a distinctive way. Audiences will come to associate the title logos with the film, so it is important for the title to resonate with the image without impeding it's impact. When making my own, I definitely intend to print the title on the poster because films that subvert this tend to be in a franchise or have a pre-established build up to the release, and so the poster doesn't need to print the title because it is already so well known. My film on the other hand will realistically not be as well promoted and so displaying the title allows audiences to become more familiar with it. 

• Release Date: Most of the posters give some indication as to when the film is going to be released. This is either done through a specific date, often identified as a month and a number (e.g September 4) or just teased to be released some time in the near future, with a phrase such as 'coming soon' used to promote its imminence. Again, I find that this information is absolutely essential to a poster's credibility, because the main aim of a poster is to promote, so without a release date the poster just becomes visually appealing rather than informative. The release date is definitely a feature I shall include on my own poster. 

• Critical Feedback: Films that receive praise and compliments tend to promote these accolades alongside the film, almost as a way of adding an insurance policy. It tells the audience that the film is worth watching, achieved either through a star rating or quotation. Films which don't receive 4 stars or more will not put the star rating on the poster, simply because it suggests mediocrity. As of yet I am not sure whether I want to include a quotation or a star rating on my poster, mainly because I think that it may be aesthetically better without commercial and industrial input. 

• Picture: Normally an image is used on the poster, although in some cases the entire poster has been designed digitally. For example, the poster campaign for the recent film Suicide Squad involved a cartoony emblem to represent each character rather than using an actual image. This is successful when the film has garnered enough publicity to justify this radical marketing campaign, but in the case of my poster, I think I will definitely stick to using an image simply because it will suit the gritty and realistic tone I wanted my film to have. 

• Actor's Names: Films are commercially appealing if they have well-known celebrities cast in them. Even if they are not the main characters, a film's marketing will revolve around promoting the most well known actors in order for the potential audience to recognise them. This is also present on posters, where the names of the main cast are printed somewhere around the title to demonstrate the how the film has appealed to good actors. Whether this is integral to my own poster is debatable, since the appeal of my short film is more based on the narrative than the casting choices. Plus I feel that if the actors are well-established, they will be recognisable in the picture without the need to show their names as well. 

• Other work the director has done: A point of comparison is normally drawn in trailers and posters where it states 'From the director/producer of...'  in order for the audience to familiarise themselves with other notable films that the crew have made. However my personal opinion is that I don't think directors consistently make good films, as I have found in the recent Assassin's Creed film. Justin Kurzel made a fantastic film in 2015 with Macbeth, but Assassin's Creed lacked the depth of character and stylish finesse. Therefore although these statements work from a commercial standpoint, I don't think that they necessarily mean anything and so I won't adopt this feature on my own poster. 

• Varying the typographical features: With posters that are covered in text, I think that it is important to present each part of the writing (the film title, actor's names, release date etc) in a way that is visually unique but also coherent with the rest of the text. Therefore slight variations in font, size and colour help to distinguish each bit of information is an easily accessible way. I don't plan to overload my poster with text, but I intend to make sure that the text I do include is visible and creatively balanced. 

• List of credits: Usually in a thin font and small print, some film posters opt to include a full list of credits at the bottom of the page, consisting of all the main cast and crew. This is quite a traditional technique and although it recognises a larger number of the people involved in the production, I always feel that the additional information is slightly unnecessary and doesn't really make you engage with the film more. Therefore I wouldn't want to use up valuable space on the page to credit those behind the filmmaking process, simply because audiences are drawn to the picture and main pieces of information, not the small print. 

• Company logos: Company logos are often a compulsory aspect of posters, done to recognise the financial support behind the making of the film. It is almost a form of branding, since this is an advertisement and so the institutions involved are concerned with the commercial profitability of the product, making ownership of the film a sign of control and industry. They are often unobtrusive and subtly printed along the bottom. Personally I don't think that company logos should be compulsory and so I don't want to include them on my poster. The very concept of a poster is promotional and based on marketing, so I don't feel like this needs reinforcing with institutional recognition. 

• Tagline: Taglines are beneficial for being informative, often providing more of a hint towards the film's focus whilst still maintaining ambiguity. This is done mainly when the film title contains too much ambiguity and so the tagline exposes more about the content of the film. I think that especially with my title, 'Shades of Reason', the audience will need some sort of clarification or direction as to what the name alludes to, so this is a feature I intend to use on my poster. 

• Visually reflects film's themes: As seen on the three I deconstructed, the visualisation of the poster cleverly reflects the film's exploration of its themes. So after watching the film, it should be easy to determine how the poster resonates with the film. To some extent there should be a synonymity between the poster and the film, be it through the colour, props or general tone being denoted. I completely agree that the film and poster should complement each other, otherwise the audience are being misled by the poster and so it fails to fulfil its purpose. 

Film Poster Deconstruction 3

This poster adopts quite a retro technique by displaying the characters at different sizes and to varying degrees of prominence. It is notably used in all of the Star Wars films and in my opinion doesn't have as big an impact because it detracts from the authenticity of the image and is easily detectable as a Photoshopped poster. Nevertheless I think that this retro style is what the marketers were aiming for, since it complements the themes of the old West and traditional values of America explored in the film. 

I especially like the way that the poster frames the characters, with the two brothers on the run in the foreground and Jeff Bridges' U.S marshal looming in the background, foreshadowing how he is constantly on their tail throughout the film. 

The text used on the poster is kept towards the left so that the image is given central focus, but I think that in the case of the title it distorts the visual prowess of the film's name. It would have worked better with more clarity just written out in one line. The basic colours of the typography are designed to reflect the fading values and decaying state of rural America, blending effectively with the blandness of the image which has a rustic and faded feel to it. Like the poster for Manchester by the Sea, this includes a full list of credits for the main cast and crew, as well as a release date and company logos along the bottom. I think that the release date and film's tagline 'Justice isn't a crime' should definitely have been emboldened to stand out, because even though they are a unique colour from the credits their similarity in size means that they are not instantly visible and so their effect is lost. 

Overall, out of the three film posters I have deconstructed, I would say that this is definitely the weakest (though I just want to state that the film is excellent) and even though it uses the colour scheme and positioning of the characters to reflect the film's themes, I think that as a promotional tool it comes across as too uninteresting.  

These other posters are much more efficient at promoting the film because it gives the characters more focus and in the case of the left one, offers insight into the film's quality through quotes and ratings. It even reassures the audience by using  'From the writer of Sicario' and 'The director of Starred Up' to list other acclaimed films that the crew have made. The left poster is much more colourful but still retains the Western feel to it, whilst the poster on the right feels a little too glossy and refined, undermining the grittiness and subtlety of the other two. 

Having evaluated multiple posters and looked at many more, I think that I am in a comfortable position to list the trends that I have detected in the posters and decide whether or not they would be something I want to adopt or reject as a convention in my own construction.

Film Poster Deconstruction 2

Unlike my first deconstruction, the poster for Manchester by the Sea is seemingly more conventional of a film poster, though it still maintains a certain ambiguity that works in its favour rather than hinders its appeal. 

Textually, the film is given a lot look at. The biggest example is the critical quote, written in the same font and colour as the title itself to create a synonymous cohesion between the film and its critical expectation. Likewise, the names of the cast and crew are written in the same blue colour and font to express the similarities in their involvement and contribution to the film.  

Its critical acclaim, although hinted at through the notable quote along the top, is confirmed and supported by the rave ratings it has received from other critics, visually represented through the 5 star reviews laid out neatly in rows to express the film's value. This critical praise prevents the poster from being underwhelming and ambiguous, because we trust film journalists and so their reviews are enough for us to believe that the film is worth watching.   

That isn't to say that the poster is aesthetically bland, just not so easily determinable. It is possible to imply that the film is a drama based on the domestic appearance and lack of intensity occurring in the picture. However it is also possible to read into the poster that the two characters are undergoing difficulties, hinted at through Affleck's uncomfortable body language and Williams' emotional expression. The blurred background creates a focus on these two protagonists, but also keeps the setting as an important part of the image. The blue and coastal town supports the title 'By the Sea' and the mise en scene of the seagulls helps to maintain this local appearance. With this locational intimacy and character relationship audiences can determine that the film will be dramatic and based in a small setting important to the film's arc. 

I like the approach of the poster here, letting the critical appraisal speak for the film. It is an unobtrusive and not necessarily eye catching poster, but the light and pastel colour palette creates a simultaneous uplifting and downbeat tone reflecting the film's dramatic but human approach. 

Films do provide both portrait and landscape posters when promoting their films, and this is both a practical decision since most cinemas display an array of different sized frames, but also a visual decision because it allows advertisers to create slight changes to the appearance. For example the portrait poster for Manchester by the Sea includes more focus on the setting and the critical quotes rather than the star rating. The sea gulls, sea and shoreline add more authenticity to the title and this brings greater importance to the role of the setting in the film. Additionally, a quotation rather than a star rating adds more clarity and insight into the specific appeal of the film. In particular, the film is praised for its actor's performances and for being 'heartbreaking and heartwarming'.

I like how these posters maintain a simple but impactful representation of the film and its themes. 

Film Poster Deconstruction 1

The reason that I wanted to deconstruct this poster is because I think it subverts most other poster expectations by being incredibly vague but distinctly understandable at the same time. For starters, there is minimal text. Where some posters try to be reassuring with lines such as 'From the Director of...' or 'From the Studio that brought you...' this poster opts for a minimalist approach. The blurred institutional logos along the bottom are indistinctive but still present, suggesting a need to maintain a commercial image without being intrusive on the film.  Logan's poster effectively promotes the film, since there is nothing to read but the title 'Logan' and the release date 'March 3' audiences are easily immersed in the two bits of key information (the title and the release date), giving them enough information. The colour of the typography is another crucial aspect of the film, with the blandness of the colour white adding an impactful balance to the dark gloom of the image, whilst the red of the release date provides an intrusive and dangerous warning, acting as both an invitation and a challenge. 

It is heavily based on context, which is why it doesn't need to be as instantly forthcoming and informative. The focus on the claws makes it identifiable as a Wolverine movie, and the title Logan already hints that tonally it will be a very different film especially since it doesn't involve a titular reference to either the 'Wolverine' or the 'X-Men'. There has been a lot of coverage and attention drawn to how this movie is unlike any of its predecessors, and the poster here has tried to reflect this. The child's hand gripping Wolverine foreshadows how he becomes a mentor and protector to a younger mutant like himself, suggesting a more intimate and character driven story rather than the explosive blockbusters expected from the X-Men universe. Similarly the blood on his arm and claws reflects the older age certification that the film will be given (15 instead of a 12A like the rest of the franchise). What we are seeing here is a clear attempt to diverge from expectation and establish the individuality of this film, both in terms of the franchise but also in the wider scale of the superhero genre itself. The poster is neither heroic nor intense. The simplicity but emotional depth conveyed here is enough to express the focus on the characterisation of the globally recognised protagonist, which is also fitting since it is confirmed to be Jackman's last outing in the role. Therefore the poster appears as a conclusive and important departure from both our understanding of Wolverine as well as his portrayal on screen.

I absolutely love this poster. I have chosen to analyse this first one rather than the others that were released later on (shown below) because I think that its subtlety adds authenticity to the film as a character study rather than a franchise blockbuster. Themes like attachment and preservation are hinted at and the global awareness that this film will wrap up Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Logan adds both a sense of tragic farewell whilst also being a tribute. 

The colour scheme of the above two posters (released later than the first) is intentionally designed to reflect the Western setting of this instalment. The sunset, orange glow and vast plains in the background pay tribute to Logan as being genre-subversive, taking on the conventions and tones of an old western, with inspiration credited to films such as 'Unforgiven' (the director has even confirmed the tonal similarities). With this in mind we can see how the differences in this poster are intended to hint at the visual style and tone of the film, whereas the first poster was drawing our focus to its themes. In the second version, the tagline 'His Time Has Come' is attached to the title, confirming the finality of this particular film. However the fact that this statement is absent from the other posters suggests that the film didn't need a heightened sense of drama because the promotional buildup was enough to justify the basic approach to the posters. Therefore it benefits from being nuanced.

This type of poster is very rare, and if the title character wasn't so well known the ambiguity might be too overwhelming and thus make the poster ineffective. I must admit that I love how the posters aren't insistent on showing us the Wolverine in that much detail  because we all know who he is and so the focus has manifested to reflect the film rather than the character. 

Ancillary Task: The Poster

Posters are marketing techniques. They are designed, like an advert, to be visually engaging promotional campaigns and something that you would find printed in cinemas and on billboards etc, and they are even digitalised so that they can be spread online. The thing to remember about posters is that there is no 'correct' layout that makes them effective, because their uniqueness is often what makes them memorable. 

A poster needs to assert hints about what to expect in a film such as the tone and visual style, as well as provide critical information such as the release date, film's title and sometimes a catchy tagline that becomes associated with the film. It is also important to remember that most films are not limited to just one poster, instead they opt to promote the product via different posters which share the same visual style (to show coherence) but differ in content, allowing audiences to explore the connotations more. 

Since film posters tend to be very diverse in layout and content at an individual basis, I am not going to be so bold as to find 'conventions' for film posters, but I would prefer to say that my first part of research will be to find trends in the promotion and distribution of films through posters.

Once I have established these trends and deconstructed some posters in detail, I will narrow down my research even more by selecting posters which I think can give me inspiration when constructing my own. 

Magazine page: Final Design

Constructing the Magazine Review Page: Part 2

Before I dismissed the current appearance of my review page, I wanted to add more of the features so that I could see it from a more completed perspective. The screenshot above shows how I have come up with a heading and subheading for this section of the magazine within the wider context of the publication. If this page was in a proper magazine, then the contents page would promote the 'Wild Reviews' section as the place to find the film reviews. I settled on the title 'Wild Reviews' because it is a continuation of the name I would use for the magazine (Screen Wild) and so the word 'Wild' is directly continued from the magazine name but also has connotations of excitement and entertainment within the reviews themselves. 

The subheading for this reads:

'All the latest releases seen, summarised and scrutinised'

I think this works effectively because it establishes trust between the reader and the magazine by stating that 'all the latest releases' are being reviewed, thus showing how they are keeping audiences up to date on the film industry. I also wanted to use alliteration and a list of 3 because it becomes more rhythmic to read, so the 'seen, summarised and scrutinised' shows the progress of the critic, who first watches the film, then summarises it, then is critical about it. I think that both the heading and subheading provide a balance between audience engagement and professionalism. 

The captions for the photograph needed to be written in a colour which wasn't intrusive but wasn't invisible either. White provided the subtle but noticeable presence needed and when placed in a darker area of the image it became a distinguished label. Also relevant here is the colour change of the background. I swapped to green because I felt that it was brighter and more illuminating, helping to add to the 'wildness' of the magazine. 

This is a full shot of the current state of my magazine page. I have arranged the layout to mimic that of my flat plan and placed each review into its own, cordoned section, with the white boxes helping to segregate each article slightly without isolating them too much. I pasted all of the captions, stars and taglines into the necessary positions for each review, as well as a promotional website reference in the top right of the page. 

Remembering that the review sections never appear at the start of the magazine, I chose the page numbers 34 and 35 to show that I had considered the conventional position of my page within the figurative context of the full magazine. Additionally, as is common throughout magazines, I wrote the title logo next to the page number to repeatedly promote the magazine, as well as the month and year of the publication. 

Another change of colour, and this time I think it is the best fit for the overall tone of the page. Since I have written the verdicts, the magazine title, the stars and the section heading in blue, using a sky blue backdrop helps to create cohesion between the features on the page and so the whole appearance looks more synchronised. With blue as the main colour, varying it slightly for each part of the page was a good way to express how it would have functioned as the ongoing theme for the magazine. 

This is now the completed appearance. The promotional website along the top reads: 'Not a member yet? Subscribe at www.screenwild.co.uk for exclusive content, interviews and sneak peeks.' Using direct address at the start with 'Not a member yet?' is an encouraging and slightly pressurising rhetorical question promoting the subscription service offered by most magazines. 

On inspection, I realised that I hadn't included the convention that Empire use, where they capitalise the first few words of each review. Therefore I changed the opening words of my fours reviews so that they were in capital letters and consequently more imposing. The large gap going down the centre of the page signifies how this would unfold as a double page in a magazine. Overall I am very satisfied with the appearance of my magazine page. It clearly demonstrates more structural awareness than my double page spread last year because I am positioning four separate topics into the same space, thus showing a broader understanding of layout and a better creative approach to balancing the whole tone of the page. 

Constructing the Magazine Review Page: Part 1

When I made my magazine page, I did so on a school day where I had most of my free periods and had the opportunity to stay after school to get it finished. Therefore even though my production commentary has been split across two posts, I still had to make this in one day. 

The first stage, in my opinion, was to get all of my chosen images onto one Photoshop file. I opened them in separate documents and then dragged the images onto one layered file, where I could then adjust their sizes and make them adhere to the layout I wanted. Because each image was taken from a different source they all had different dimensions, hence why in the screenshot above the two shots differ in scale rather noticeably. 

After I had added the photos, scaled them accordingly and added a temporary background colour, I hid the photo layers so that I could purely focus on copying and pasting my text onto the page. The three articles above have a greater word count than the ones in my previous post because I wanted to extend the reviews in case they didn't fill enough space. This way I could just delete any excessive material if there was too much. As you can see above there was a lot of text already and so I didn't want to add the review for Shades of Reason until I had organised the reviews into a better structure and more fixed position. With the Assassin's Creed review on the left, I started to split it into two columns to adjust the width and height of each column so that it fit all the text on. 

When I looked at the width of the page I was working on, it seemed too long for a magazine and so I cropped it at the side to reduce it to a more realistic scale. In the screenshot above I have also made the photo layers visible again (leaving space for Shades of Reason) so that I can visualise both the text and the images together. I narrowed the second column of the Assassin's Creed review even further so that the text extended towards the bottom of the page.

At this point I inserted the screenshot for my own film but deleted the review for Rogue One whilst I worked on positioning the images. This is because when trying to select and drag an item in Photoshop where the layers overlap, it becomes difficult and you end up selecting the text instead. So I temporarily got ride of it whilst I adjusted where I wanted my images. 

With this current visualisation, the page looks like it will be too crammed. But the review for La La Land will be in columns and look narrower, plus cropping the Assassin's Creed image and moving the columns closer together should make more space for the other two reviews to fit. I definitely think I made the right choice to put one of the smaller images along the bottom because otherwise the page looks too rigid with all of the review still shots along the top with the text underneath. 

The purpose of using a background colour was to help distinguish the text when I put white boxes around it, as demonstrated above. In order to achieve this I used the rectangle shape tool to create boxes that covered the review and left a thin but distinct white border around the edge of the image as well. This gave the review its own definitive area confined within the white box. I then had to adjust the layers so that the text and photo were above the boxes, otherwise the review would be hidden behind the white. Although bland, the white background colour is a convention of magazines alongside black text. I also made another box to cover part of the image where the title is located, showing that the text and image are blending together. 

Before I moved on to the other reviews, I wanted to make sure that I had settled for an effective layout on the review I was currently working on. I have added the film's biography under the title and tagline. I have experimented with all of the text by using a variety of fonts for the different parts of the text to make each section stand out individually as well as contributing to the review as a whole. I have given the verdict its own colour at the end of the article and put the introduction in bold to demonstrate the clear starting and ending point of the review. In addition to this, I have written the tagline in bold to show its importance under the title as well as added my star rating (I have put 3 instead of 2 so that I can move the third one to my next review and copy from there). Noticeably I gave the stars a colour rather than just black because I wanted it to be separate from the colour of the text and shown a continuation of the blue theme I began with the colour for my verdict.  

It is also noticeable that I've moved the whole review downwards so that there is more space along the top than there is along the bottom, and this is because I am thinking about the section heading that I will need to include later on. 

I did a continuation of this current layout by adding a box that would cover the review for Shades of Reason. I pasted the review and aligned it into a column, along with the title and star rating to examine what it looked like. At the moment I was slightly apprehensive about this because it didn't look very polished. 

Technical Problems

At my school, there was a cyber attack last year and so we are not allowed to actually save anything on our school accounts any more, since it is all done via Google. The problem with this is that I can only get Adobe Photoshop at school because I don't have the program or the money to buy it at home. This means that when I start to construct my magazine and poster, they will need to be completed within a day, because if I wanted to save it and come back to it another day it would not have saved onto the school servers.

This is quite problematic because it only gives me a narrow window to make my two ancillary tasks, and so it will most likely require me to dedicate a whole day of work to constructing each of these two products. 

It is because of this that I wanted to have my magazine articles more or less completed so that when it comes to digitally making my magazine page, all I have to do is copy and paste the reviews into the document to save me some time to prioritise other aspects of the construction. 

My next post will be the construction of my magazine review page. 

The Reviews: Assassin's Creed

Review

2/5

'Assassin's Creed had plenty of pressure, not only was it being helmed by the core trio behind Macbeth, but it also needed to break the spell on tragic video game adaptations. 

As the man who successfully reimagined Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, you'd think that Justin Kurzel and his two leads could convert a film about ancient parkour into a thrilling visual experience. And thankfully, for its faults, the scenes taking place in the Spanish Inquisition are filmed with stylish intensity and slick choreography. Fassbender scales rooftops, spins spears like a hula hoop and leaps from horses in sequences which are choppy and vivid, but a little too fast.

We are rushed along at a pace not even Fassbender's Assassin could keep up with, skipping from scene to scene all in service of plot but very little in service of character. Neither of Fassbender's incarnations, the Assassin Aguilar de Nerha or death row convict Callum Lynch,  are developed enough to make you care about their conquests in the past or the present. They are given nothing to do except wear their hidden blades and look sullen in most scenes they're in. 

At the pace it moves Lynch's character arc, from being a rebellious and carefree prisoner to becoming a faithful loyalist to the Creed feels rushed and unbelievable. 

Not even the wider conflict, the age old grudge match between the democratic Assassins and the dictatorial Templars is developed enough to make any stakes seem engaging, so viewers struggle to invest in anything that is going on. Delving into the pass and becoming immersed in the ancient conflict was one of the biggest appeals of the games, but it feels very much like a sidelined focus here, used as a plot device used to serve the scenes in the present day. It is admirable that Kurzel wanted to draw more attention to the contemporary struggle, but there is not a satisfying balance and leaves audiences wanting much more of Cal's Spanish ancestor, or indeed, just more of the past. 

Verdict: Assassin's Creed favours spectacle over substance, with engaging action scenes and a good concept. Even though Kurzel's film admirably attempts to make audiences engage more with the modern day story, it leaves you feeling cheated out of a different and better story in the Spanish Inquisition.'

Analysis

I was thoroughly disappointed in Assassin's Creed, mainly because the expectation was high due to the previous work of the director and the lead actors when they all worked on the harrowingly beautiful Macbeth in 2015. Therefore I wanted to make sure that readers were aware of the decline in quality between the two films, and consequently I included the line 'you'd think that Justin Kurzel and his two leads could convert a film about ancient parkour into a thrilling visual experience,' as both a mocking but critical comment that highlights the unexpected disappointment. 
Since the main appeal of the film was its action, I decided to make sure that I showed this with 'thankfully, for its faults, the scenes taking place in the Spanish Inquisition are filmed with stylish intensity and slick choreography'.  The adverb 'thankfully' shows that the action is the redeeming quality of the film. Like with the tagline I came up with that played on the context of the film, I also continued with references to the context, such as 'we are rushed along at a pace not even Fassbender's Assassin could keep up with,' suggesting that the film is too fast-paced and doesn't allow time to get to know the characters. I have critically observed that neither of the protagonists in the past or the present are developed enough to make them seem engaging and so as a result this impedes the emotional connection between the viewer and the events on screen. 
Perhaps the biggest let down of this film was its tendency to build the story in the present rather than the past, using the past as 'a sidelined focus' and 'a plot device to serve the scenes in the present day'.  The biggest attraction of the games; the concept of reliving the memories of your ancestors, is not a big focus here, and so being immersed in the Spanish Inquisition is all too brief and detached. 
Because film fans will know what Kurzel is capable of (his work on Macbeth evidently demonstrates this) I wanted to make sure that his attempt is commended, praising that it 'is admirable that Kurzel wanted to draw more attention to the contemporary struggle,' but then I supported this with the suggestion that it didn't payoff. I described how 'it leaves audiences wanting much more' of the sequences in the past, crediting the film's potential but more the fact that it failed to live up to its potential.
In terms of the verdict, the main issue with Assassin's Creed was that 'it favours spectacle over substance,' which immediately addresses the lack of emotional stakes, and followed this up with how it makes you 'feel cheated out of a different and better story in the Spanish Inquisition', asserting that there needed to be a better balance between the past and present.