The Boy trailer deconstruction

The cinematography seen in the trailer for 'The Boy' is smart and creative in building suspense and tension for the viewer as we are only ever teased with a viewing of Brahms, The Boy.

The film is a horror that uses a doll of a boy as the antagonist to create a creepy and tense atmosphere in the film. Brahms is only seen moving for split seconds where the shot then cuts to another, tied in with a flash transition alongside both digetic and non-digetic sounds that scare the viewer. This 'prop'/'character' blend makes for a very different style of horror film that is similar to the doll used in Chucky however this is a more serious, scary horror film than the more comical 80's counter part.The trailer uses a combination of quick burst shots and non-digesis to create a tense atmosphere that is able to intimidate the audience and make people jump. This allows the trailer to conform the the stereotypes of the genre as tension and suspense have been generated through the use of clips and non-digetic audio, with an added sense of fear created by occasional use and volume shift of the digesis heard in the film.

This horror trailer relies on the audience making up a lot of the representation of Brahms, as he is only seen moving after the opening of a closed door or in the final shot where he appears to take on a more human form putting his hand through the painting on a wall. This effect is largely explored across genres as it allows the audience to make their own mind up about the villain and this can create a scarier effect as people can more easily scare themselves rather than seeing the doll running around on screen for an extended period of time.

We decided to utilise the idea of the antagonist not being seen on screen. Whilst our genre is social realism and not a horror piece, we decided that the graphic attack in our piece would have been upsetting and very hard to film effectively and therefore relied on our actress. We combined a number of close up shots of her face and her emotive acting to make it clear to the audience what was happening without needing to show it, which received better feedback than the original idea of showing it. It is also more in accordance to the conventions of the social realism genre as these pieces are meant to be uncomfortable and off putting.

The female lead in this film subverts the usual stereotypical horror that tends to have a male lead and a female that helps/gets in danger throughout the film. This subversion perhaps make the start of the film more effective as she goes to be a nanny, offering a maternal role for Brahms who then proceeds to torment and haunt her.

The trailer is effective through the use of post production editing between the list of rules that the protagonist is given in order to look after and keep Brahms happy and the actions that she does throughout the film. As each rule is shown and mirrored by the shot of her breaking this rule, tension is built continuously to the climax of the trailer wherein she is fully being attacked rather than just seeing the doll move when she ins't looking at it.

Deconstruction of design in a film poster

As our film is under the social realism genre, we discussed what shots would be most appropriate with the tone of our trailer. We decided that our poster should reflect the trailer and therefore should include to some extent the symbolism that we have included as it makes up a part of the narrative. One of our primary ideas was to base the design of our poster off of the image found on our blogs background. 

Another, similar idea came from the film poster of the Revenant. Despite this film not having the same genre as us, we were able to draw inspiration from the framing and presentation of the character. The top of the characters face becomes the trees that surround a lot of the films shots, showing what dominates the character for the film. The symbolic use of the trees splits up the poster into two different images that become one and the same. We decided that it might become effective for us to do a similar idea with the symbol of the falling feathers. We discussed the idea that we might be able to utilise photoshop to fade our actresses face into falling feathers, splitting up the shot and including both key aspects of our film trailer.






This idea was further explored with how we could frame the actresses face to allow us to blend our symbolism in. Art drawn for the film "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" gave us a key framing shot that we would be able to explore for our piece. As this film has a similar narrative to our piece in the sense that the female protagonist is sexually assaulted, we thought that drawing inspiration from this would bring us closer to producing a product that would achieve the requirements of a poster for our selected genre.










To create a poster that will lead to people wanting to see the piece, designers need to find a way to make sure that they create something that is both easy to read but maybe also somewhat inviting to figure out the plot. A film poster can include often just a close up shot of one of the main characters (thus an audience of people who like that actor/actress will be attracted) however the design can almost give away an entire plot.
Its often worth considering the colour palette in the poster as much as in the film trailer. The Revenant's poster for example is filled with blues and greys and colder colours. This foreshadows what most of the films setting is based around. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo again uses a greyscale palette to create a lifeless aura to the piece (the film itself dealing with current issues that cause emotional damage such as sexual assault)

codes and conventions of teaser trailers

Teaser trailers are the shorter, snappier versions of a full film trailer. They serve to grab the attention of an audience and to make people want to keep finding out more about a piece. By lasting for around 40 seconds on average, very little of the narrative is given away and as a result there is a sense of mystery about the film, further leading on the audience to go and watch the film.

Teaser trailers are the primary trailer and can be posted months, even years before the final piece is released. This allows the producer to put in scenes that may not even be in the final film which gives away even less of the narrative and the content of the full feature film.

The end of the trailer is used to show off the production company and the important information to promote the film. The information given is to whet the audiences appetite for the film, making them more likely to want to find more out about the film, to research and to ultimately want to see the piece. This is most probably in an attempt to boost the viewings on the opening weekend, to try to make a final push to break limits and to achieve awards.

Some directors make the decision to not include actual clips from the film to generate more curiosity around the piece. In the teaser trailer for "The Dark Knight", Nolan utilises audio from the film to create a trailer that doesn't rely on any visual clips of character to start hinting at the plot and drawing viewers in. By not using clips from the film, very little is giving away and for the majority of the trailer, our sense of sight is deprived, causing us to listen in on the speech. This is particularly effective as the tone of the film is mysterious and the tension and curiosity created is immediately generated, achieving the desired effect.

Our trailer was to inform the audience of genre and to touch on the narrative, whilst not releasing the full plot of the final film. We did this by a combination of shots from the build up of tension and the act of the assault at the start of the trailer, against the ending shot being from the climax of the piece. With a careful choice of symbolism throughout we aimed to let the audience into the mindset of 'Grace' whilst not giving away too much information.

Unlike Nolan, we decided to include no audio from the final film and instead focused on a non-diegetic soundtrack that is a slowed down version of 'You're the one that I want' from Grease. The lack of speech in the piece creates a tense atmosphere as the trailer becomes hard to watch under the knowledge of what our protagonist has gone through from the start of the piece.

DECONSTRUCTION OF OUR GENRE- LONDON TO BRIGHTON FILM POSTER

The 'London to Brighton' film poster is far more graphically complex. It is constructed of seven images of the various characters that are integral towards its plot, these are edited to appear that they are ripped around the edges due to its sinister, dark plot of child prostitution and murder. The title is in bold dark letters that are slanted across the middle of the poster, with the two locations demanding attention of the viewer (this is because these two locations are integral to the plot as it is where the entire film is set). The tagline is also bold and in caps lock also, however is not as emphasised due to the light grey font colour chosen instead of the black. This tagline is quite poignant as it speaks volumes about the plot of this film, 'INNOCENCE HAS NOWHERE TO HIDE' is to exemplify how the child Joanna, is on the run. The top three images are especially significant since the photography is surrounding the eyes of all three characters, eyes being the window to the soul, these images are to reflect the emotions of the characters: primarily fear for the two females, but an eerie determination within the male. The photograph of the two females together establishes location, as it is obviously Brighton pier, being positioned below the title highlights this further. USP's are absent but the directors name is evident, highly due to their reputation in the film industry. The top of the poster is designated for film reviews, the most obvious and eye catching being 'Best British Film Of The Year' by The Guardian, this even has a red back drop to emphasise it even more compared to the other two film reviews below it, this is likely because it is a bold statement due to the superlative 'Best' and could be deemed as a highly persuading statement for anyone who did want to see it. 

DECONSTRUCTION OF OUR GENRE- FISH TANK POSTER

The film poster for Fish Tank utilised framing, the power of thirds is especially apparent here. Having Mia positioned in the furthest right corner allows a larger amount of wasted space to include the titles, reviews and especially USP's. It appears that with the USP's last names font are in bold, likely because 'Fassbender' is more commonly known by his last name rather than his first name 'Michael'. However, the director's name 'Andrea Arnold' is completely in bold, likely due to a reputation that she has within the film making industry, making her highly recognisable.  Mia within the photograph is facing outside the window, in an absent stare, this is to highlight the loneliness which she experiences throughout the film, and is at the core of her characterisation. The blue font has a childlike quality to it that reflects off the pink doodled wall, however the rips and yellow stains demonstrates it more as a coming of age film. In the top right corner above her head there are the awards from prestigious film festivals such as the 'Edinburgh Film Festival' and 'Cannes' whilst next to her shoulder to the left are star ratings from highly regarded papers such as 'The Daily Telegraph' 'The Times' and 'The Independent'. 

INCORPORATING AURASMA INTO OUR FILM POSTER

WHAT IS AUGMENTED REALITY & WHAT IS AURASMA?

Aurasma is a modern augmented reality technology app that incorporates both physical and digital to allow two dimensional images and posters come to life within your phone. In innovative ways Aura's can be used within education, games (augmented reality is famous from Pokemon Go) or as we would utilise it through advertisement. Our phones are generally with us all the time, however when we are on them we are not always searching on internet browsers or on social media platforms, therefore Aura's have the edge that they do not rely on websites or socials to show their advertisements but can be positioned at tube stations; on the sides of busses; taxi or uber windows; bullet boards in universities or colleges; or even on general advertising boards found in towns and cities. However, the edge being that they can interact with these advertisements making them far more tempting to actually stop and connect with. 

HOW WILL WE CREATE THE AURA?

Below is the step by step process of how we will create our aura. 

Our Aura will be just our film poster and if you hold your device in front of it our teaser trailer will actually play.

FILM POSTER STAGE TWO- PROTAGONIST'S PORTRAIT

The second and highly most important element of the film poster was the portrait of our female protagonist which is intended to be the primary focus and take up the majority of the space within the poster. To ensure that we could illuminate the emotion found in the actresses face, we made her wear minimal makeup so that the sadness and grief evident in her face was clear. The brick wall was used as a backdrop so that it would be easier to remove when editing with Adobe photoshop once we had decided on our final background. This same reason is why we framed our protagonist in the centre of the frame, so that the entire outline of her head and shoulders could easily be cropped with the magic lasso tool. The weather was mildly windy (due to it being photographed in winter) which allowed for our shots where the hair is covering her face to look natural. The natural lighting that highlighted her face, was a means for us to ensure our film poster matched the convention of our genre- social realism. We also had her wearing the same outfit as she did in our teaser for continuity. The straight expression is also necessary due to the serious topic of our teaser trailer. 

LANDSCAPE SHOTS

CLOSE UP LANDSCAPE SHOTS

  

PORTRAIT SHOTS:

Poster deconstruction - Independence Day

The film poster for Independence Day (1996) stands out as one of the most effective I've seen, for many reasons. Firstly, the predominant colours used are warm, earthy colours, with the bottom of the screen black- reflecting the unknown. The spaceship is filled with oranges, reds and yellows, shining a bright white light on New York City. The film poster doesn't reveal too much narrative as no characters are visible however the huge spaceship hovering over the city does provide an indication of what the film could be about. The size of the spaceship dominates the poster and significantly dwarfs New York City- making the Empire State building look vulnerable and weak.
The slogan 'don't make plans for August' is slotted in under the title, this is an example of clever word play and the size of the font could be seen as a marketing technique where the audience would have to stop and read it- very creative. 

Poster deconstruction - A Selfish Giant

This film poster is very good considering the low budget and British social realism genre. The red title on the light coloured background proves to highlight attention. Unlike other posters, the character appears only in the bottom corner, and including the horse also teases the audience with a narrative hint. Along the top of the poster, award nominations are displayed and under the title, film reviews are displayed along with their star rating. The faint drawing of the electricity pylons on the blank canvas background is also very effective, although without watching the film first, it would add confusion but then again, it could attract the audience to watch the film.

Poster deconstruction - The Broken

As a group we were inspired by the creativity of this film poster. The use of a close up shot of one character already greatly appealed to us, and after analysing this poster, it confirmed our decision. Without any background knowledge of the film and it's narrative or genre beforehand, it's clear from this poster that the film is along the lines of a thriller or drama. The lack of bright colours across the poster is also fairly effective as the grey/black colours add a tension and the bland colour highlights the character's red lips. The poster is not over-crowded and the simplicity of it is fairly appealing. The title, displayed in white font on a black background, is the biggest piece of text and therefore attracts attention. The actress' name is displayed very clearly above the title which is fairly rare for a film poster of this genre. Normally, more than one actress/actor's name is displayed or none at all. The poster doesn't display a slogan either which diverts the attention to just the title and character.
 

Poster deconstruction - Room

The film poster for Room proved to be very memorable, for many reasons. The concept of the poster forming the shape of a room with a visible divide in the typography and background proves to be very effective. The use of yellow and white font on a blue sky background also helps the text stand out and draw attention. We liked the strong use of reviews from different media outlets such as the New York Post and the Guardian, and also noted that they used different font sizes for certain reviews. The film poster introduces two characters and although it doesn't detail the narrative it doesn't give off a negative 'vibe'. Being of the thriller/drama genre, the poster doesn't suggest this whatsoever. Above the title, the poster includes the slogan 'love knows no boundaries' with 'love' written in yellow font and the rest white. The release of the film is clearly displayed at the bottom of the poster in a bigger font to highlight that the film will be released 'this fall'.

FILM POSTER STAGE ONE- The SILHOUETTE

In order to form the male silhouette that would cover the female protagonists face, we needed to have a silhouette to work with in the first place. Therefore, we asked a male with a stereotypical male side profile (strong nose, short hair etc), we needed further to photograph this in a highly lit location with a plain background so that when this was inevitably used in Photoshop that when using the magnetic lasso tool then it would be easier to crop around the image to separate it from the background in order for it to be layered on top of the female actresses face. 

Below are the best shots from the shoot from different distances dependent on how long we need the picture to be in order to be in perspective with the female's face.