No Photos

I had discussed my apprehension about using the road as a background layer for my poster in the last post, but I have now decided that I am firmly against this idea. By cropping Dylan and the Father onto the photo I think that this would do more harm than good and come across as inauthentic. When deconstructing some professional posters I stated that I found the merging of different images to be quite fake and ineffective, which is why I don't want to replicate this result on my own product. 

Whilst I have not found anything wrong with these two photos, there are other shots that capture the characters in a similar pose and I just felt that these two look the weakest. It is easy when I have a range of shots of the same thing because this way I can just keep the best version, like in the editing process with multiple takes of the same shot. 

I underwent a similar protocol here, since all of the shots are relatively similar I only kept the best. In some of these photos I didn't like Dylan's facial expression because it looked too bland, in others I felt that the Father's head was tilted too forcefully, coming across as fake, whilst some I felt framed the characters too far away. 

I don't like these photos. Not only is there too much closeness between the characters, but I think that Dylan looks too hopeful, and I don't want this to become apparent until the end of the narrative, where he has his change. On the poster of the film, I want viewers to pick up on the conflict and resentment Dylan has, and I want his moment of redemption to come as a shock in the film, whereas I feel it is already teased in these images. For these reasons I won't be using the ones above. 

I didn't want to use these photographs because the stance and holding of the gun looked too rigid and unnatural. In the film Dylan isn't depicted as a professional killer, and the way he holds the gun is in an uncertain and conflicted way. In these photos his posture and body language resembles a bouncer or bodyguard, and this characterises him in the wrong way. As much as I like the idea of him being archetyped here as a faceless thug, (since it makes his transition in the film all the more uplifting) I simply don't like the photographs because they lack depth and engagement. 

The framing of the characters and angle of the setting disrupts the sense of cohesion between the people and the environment in these photos. There are a couple that I have reserved for consideration in my actual poster, but the ones above fail to frame the characters in a way that is narratively relevant. The depth of field of these shots is slightly confusing due to how Dylan and the Father are stood apart but at an angle making it look like they are facing each other. Therefore the scale is slightly disruptive as well. 

I was impressed with the range of head shots I took for the Father, because despite their simplicity I thought that the emotivity of the images was complex and evocative. The ones above are those that I feel didn't capture the Father's facial expressions enough, because in a character poster these need to be very apparent. 

I don't think that the above shots were of the same quality as the ones I took of the Father, mainly due to the slight blur and lack of clarity in the images. There isn't as much definition in the character so I shall disregard these and keep the ones which achieved the desired effect. 

I didn't keep the top two shots because I didn't like how Dylan's arms were at his side in the photos. It looked more natural with them in his pockets because it contributed to his insecure mindset and sense of protectiveness he is feeling in the films. Meanwhile the shot directly above wasn't central and so the characters seemed slightly displaced to look at. That being said I may opt to use this photo because the extra space on the right side of the frame could be used for some quotes or the tagline. 

I think that my body language in all of these photos seemed either unnatural or incongruous with Dylan's character, so I don't want to use them. The low angle makes the character look much more imposing than I want him portrayed, whilst the close ups of the gun are undermined by my stiff posture. 

The characters simply fail to look like opposites in these shots. It depicts them as two characters who look as though they have got each other's backs. And apart from the wrong connotations being implied, I also feel like the low angle frames the protagonists in a way that makes them look larger than life, which is the direct opposite of what they should be. Both Dylan and the Father are vulnerable, trying to make amends in two very different ways. 

With these shots out of the picture (no pun intended), it is time for me to discuss my selected few in the next post.