Question 1

In what ways did your media project develop, challenge or use conventions of real media products?

Poster

Evaluation

What are the conventions of my genre of film poster?

These are three of the film posters that I analysed when doing my research and planning. I chose these three posters as they contrast each other and they are all from the romance/romantic comedy genre.

What are the conventions of my genre of film poster?

On all three posters, the main characters/protagonists are the main feature. This is done with the use of a picture of the main characters. On the Bride Wars poster, the photo has been shot specifically for the poster, whereas the photos on both the Dear John and My Sister’s Keeper’s posters, are pictures from within the film – quite often an iconic/memorable moment in the film.

What are the conventions of my genre of film poster?

From these three film posters, I can see that a general convention is that they are quite simplistic. Other than the photo, the next prominent feature is the title of the film. The font is also used on the titles in the trailer which creates continuity and links between items to do with the film. To add to this, the logos/titles are often quite subtle but still create an impression on the audience.

What are the conventions of my genre of film poster?

On both the Dear John and My Sister’s Keeper’s film posters, small print has been included. The small print consists of names of companies who have helped create/produce the film, supporting actors, editors, producers, directors and so on… The small print is in a similar font on both posters – a thin sans serif font and in a light colour. Because of this, the small print is barely visible to the eye from a distance.

What are the conventions of my genre of film poster?

On all three posters that I have analysed, the names of the actors and actresses who are portraying the protagonists, are clearly visible. Their names are in a smaller font than that of the title of the film.

What are the conventions of my genre of film poster?

To add to this, another feature of a film poster is the date that the film is released. Each of these posters have a different example of the date. The Bride Wars poster says ‘Coming Soon’, which will have later been updated. ‘Dear John’ simply has the month in which the film is to be released, and ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ has the day and month. The date is quite understated compared to the other features on the poster, however it is still noticeable, which is created by a slightly different font or colour.

My Poster

I based my film poster on the ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ poster as I liked the bubbles in the background. To add to this, I felt that as the story line of the film ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ was a romantic film and not based on a relationship between a man and woman, but between sisters and other family members, I thought related to my storyline, so I felt it was an appropriate poster to follow as an outline. I did this because I needed an idea of how to picture the character’s on the poster, as I wanted a different photo to that of the one I have previously used on my magazine cover.

In what ways did I go along with conventions and why?

A convention that I followed was the main image/s being of the protagonists (in this case Emma and Esme). I decided to have two separate images of the girls to emphasise how the film is about them leading two separate lives then coming together, and I chose images where they were looking opposite ways to one another. I did a separate photoshoot, so the photos are not from within the film. I asked the actresses to wear the same outfit as they wore when in the film. I think that the photos I have chosen work well on my poster and they create the effect that I desired.

In what ways did I go along with conventions and why?

Following on, I created a house style in which I wanted the font of the title of the film to be in whenever it appeared in an item connected to the film (any merchandise, the poster, in the trailer etc... The magazine cover isn’t owned by the creators of my film, so that is why it has a different font style when the title appears on the front cover...) I chose the font, enter font!!, as I felt it looked a bit like handwriting, and I wanted this effect to connect to the fact the film follows a letter. My tag line is also in a font which looks similar to handwriting, but is different to that of the actual title. I feel my title/logo of my film works well on my film poster as I think it creates an impression and an impact on the audience but in a subtle manner.

In what ways did I go along with conventions and why?

As well as the photos and title, I have gone along with the convention of having the names of both actresses. I have used a smaller sans serif font for their names as I didn’t want the names to be the item that draws the eye at first. I feel that I have created the effect that I wanted when introducing the actresses name’s; understated and restrained, yet visible enough to credit the actresses work in the film.

In what ways did I go along with conventions and why?

I have created my own small print which includes the names of companies, writers, supporting actresses, hair & makeup, music, editors etc. Following the influences that I had found, my small print is not instantly visible, and you have to look really closely to see the actual detail in the writing. I felt that by including a small print on my poster, that it gave it a more professional mise en scene. Like on the My Sister’s Keeper and Dear John poster I have included a tag line about the author or directors previous/bestselling works, in my case ‘based on the best selling novel’. I did this because it may bring in a larger audience who have previously read the book. Although this tag line is small, by changing the colour to the blue that I have used for the title and actress names, I think this stands out more than the small print.

A convention which I have subverted slightly, is the use of the date. On film posters that I had analysed, the date was subtle and generally in a small font, therefore, not that noticeable. I wanted to draw the audiences eye to the date so that it has greater impact on them (so they will remember the date). To do this, I decided to make the piece of text quite big. I have used the same font that I used for the actresses names’.

In what ways did I subvert these conventions and why?