Planning of film poster

Main image

Mise-en-scene: The main image for the film poster will be the woodlands this is because this is an important and significant location in the film. Scenes in the woodlands include the point at which the audience first see Jade and Cara together this is also the point before the climax happens as the audience see Jade receive a phone call from Olly before they are told that their mother has been involved in a car crash.

I took three test photographs of which could be potential for the main image for my film poster and tested them on a focus group. The results showed that photographs 1 and 3 were the most successful. The feedback showed that photograph 2 wouldn’t be successful as it would be difficult to include any characters on the poster as the photograph is a long shot of the trees and sky. However the focus group thought that it was a beautiful photograph especially because of the light blue and hint of orange in the sky. Feedback on photograph three was successful as the focus group commented on how trees acted as a frame, this implies that it would be successful to position Jade in the middle as she is the protagonist of the film and would create the impression that she is trapped. Photograph 1 received many positive comments from the focus group, the frost on the ground was commented on a lot as it creates a cold feeling and a sense of isolation due to the use of a wide shot. The sun shining in the top light hand corner juxtaposes this and creates a sense of hope. The sun rays reinforce the point of hope in the film after Jade has written the letter to Carol explaining her sexuality. From the testing these potential photographs on the focus group it should that photograph one would be the most successful.

Shot type: A wide shot will be used as this allows the audience to see the surrounding environment, this will be successful as the wide shot will show the empty woodlands connoting isolation. Connoting isolation will reflect Jade’s feelings during the film as she feels lost and believes that she is not ‘normal’ due to her sexuality. From my short film poster analysis in my research I discovered that the majority of the posters are portrait and this is commonly used for film posters. Using a wide shot means that the film poster will be best presented landscape, creating a landscape poster will be seen as quite different this will be effective as it could imply that the short film is also different, this will intrigue to audience to watch the film.

Who: the main characters of the film (Jade, Olly and Carol) will be included on the film poster. Jade will be the main focus on the poster and therefore she will be positioned in the middle to show her

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importance as she is seen as the protagonist in the film. The characters will be facing the character posing this will enable the audience to see their facial expressions.

Text

Typography: Three different types of fonts will be used on the poster. One will be used for the title of the poster which will be ‘JADE’; the font will include sharp clear edges to the letters to link to the genre of drama social realism. This font will show the seriousness of the film, whereas if I used a font with curved edges it would imply to the audience that it’s a comedy. A different font will be used for the tagline on the poster to show that it is different from the title. For the credits at the bottom of the poster a film poster credit font will be used from publisher which is called ‘Bodoni MT Poster Compressed’. This font will be successful as it will make the poster look professional, encouraging the audience to watch the film as it would imply that the film is also professional and therefore successful.

Colour: the colour of the font will be a plain and simple colour so that it isn’t too distracting from the main image but bold enough to attractive the audience. I created four different testers for colours which could be potential for the poster, I presented these to a focus group of my target audience to see their opinion on which colour is most attractive. The feedback showed that the focus group were keen on all 4 colours used. The green in particular was very popular as jade is a green gemstone and therefore the green reflects this. The blue was also successful with the target group as the colour blue symbolises trust and loyalty and therefore would link to Jade feeling trustworthy in her mum as she builds up the courage to tell her mother about her sexuality. Although the colour blue proved successful with the focus group I have decided that it wouldn’t be successful as it would blend in with the blue sky which is the background and therefore wouldn’t stand out and catch the audience’s eye. The plain white and orange were also popular with the focus group, the orange would symbolises the glimpse of hope in Jade’s life when she leaves the letter on Carol’s desk in her classroom. The white is plain and simple but effective, the colour white symbolises peace and innocent again this would link to the glimpse of hope in Jade’s life.

What does the text say? There will be three different types of texts on the film poster. The first piece will be the title of the film – ‘Jade’ this will be in capital letters to make it stand out more and more likely to catch the audiences attention. The second piece of text o the post will be the tagline; this will be a piece from the voiceover of Jade’s monologue. The text will be ‘Keeping a secret shreds you to pieces, it eats you up inside’. The final piece of text on the poster will be the film credits, these credits will include the director, producer, writer, actor and actress and the music used in the film.

Layout

The film poster will be landscape as it will fit in with the main image of the poster being a wide shot of the woodlands. The wide shot of the woodlands will be the background of the poster, layered on top of this will be the photograph of the three characters. These will be positioned in the centre of

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the poster to show their importance as they’re the main characters of the film. The title of the film will be positioned at the top of poster as this will be the first thing that the audience see. The credits will be positioned at the bottom of the poster as these are the less important conventions of the film poster but are still required.