When I edited the poster for our film I wanted to ensure that I had chosen the appropriate effect for the genre of our film. I did this by experimenting with a number of techniques to ensure i found the correct one. As we got a lot of inspiration from Reservoir Dogs I also wanted to limit our colour palette so the poster remained eye-catching for example narrowing the colour scheme down to black, white and red. As a group we decided on the picture below for our poster yet as it uninteresting I wanted to make it as striking as possible, to do this I used Photoshop.
As our film genre was British Gangster I wanted to include something which reflected this, therefore I thought having an establishing shot of London in the background would not only compliment the theme well but also make the mise-en-scene appear more obvious to the audience/consumer. I then went to London to get some still shots of famous land marks to use as the background for our poster.
Firstly I experimented with this picture of the Millennium Bridge that I took whilst in London. I originally thought that this was a well recognised land mark and could work well as the background for our poster. The original picture was rather dark therefore I had to adjust the Lighting Levels on Photoshop to brighten the picture up and highlight the finer details so they were more visible making the photo look better.
Once I had copy and pasted the boys onto the London background I then chose to change the colour scale to black and white as it made the picture look a little more realistic. Although I was happy with the outcome of this picture I wasn't fully convinced and was more than sure that I could do better. I knew what kind of effect I was going for in my head and wanted the background to be extremely eye catching, my reasoning for this was because my entire poster was going to be in black and white therefore it really had to stand out to compete with the colour scheme. I then looked through all the shots I took on that day and found a still that I knew would work.
This is the picture I finally chose to use as the main picture for our background. My reasoning for this was because the picture was incredibly clear therefore it would be ideal to use when it came to editing. I chose to use a sharp depth of field by reducing the lens aperture to small diameter, this meant the photograph was fully in focus and all minor details remained visible. As it is London Bridge is it incredibly famous world wide and would be recognised by all audiences, especially the British. I was also very fond of the lighting in this picture and thought the clouds looked very effective. I firstly opened this picture up onto Photoshop and improved the lighting levels by adjusting the input levels. I then opened the picture of the boys onto a separate layer and again adjusted the input levels so the lighting and contrast appeared sharper. By lightening the picture of the boys not only did it look more professional but it also highlighted their facial expressions which would then tie in with the title and genre of the film extremely well.
I then had to get the picture of the boys to lay on top of the picture of London Bridge. To do this I used the Lasso Tool to cut around the boys and the wall. I ensured that i zoomed in so I was being accurate so I would get a better outcome at the end. Although this was incredibly time consuming it made it easier for me when copy and pasting the cutout of the boys as i didn't have to adjust it too much. Once I was happy with how I cut around the outline of the boys I then used the feather tool to soften the edges, i did this by changing the pixel radius to 1, this meant that the boys would look more realistic when placed onto the London Bridge background. I then pasted them onto the background and used the clone tool to fill in some of the missing colour for example blending in the edges of the boys with the background, again this was really time consuming but all worth it in the end as i was really pleased with the outcome.
Once I had copy and pasted the boys onto the background of London Bridge I then chose to experiment with the colour scale. I chose to change the picture to black and white as this made the overall picture look more realistic as well as effective. Although I was really pleased with the outcome of the picture being in black and white I was worried that it may not be colourful enough to be a film poster, therefore it may not appeal to the audience. As I was a little worried about the lack of colour on the poster I really had to put a lot of thought into the colour and style of the text I would later be putting onto the poster such as the billing block, the title and the tag line we wanted to add. Even though I was really pleased with the outcome of the picture I wanted to try one more experiment to ensure I was making the right decision.
I chose to put an old fashioned paper effect frame over my picture on Photoshop as my final development to ensure i didn't want to edit the photo further. Although I think the frame looks good over the picture I don't think it fits in with the typical conventions of a Gangster film and juxtaposes with the time era our film is now set it. If we hadn't changed the time era of our film I think this effect would have worked well and would have been a direct link to the era we would have been reflecting. Although I didn't want to use this effect for the poster I didn't think creating it was a waste of time. I think the time was spent effectively as it made me certain that the decision of the black and white poster was the right one to go with. My next step towards creating the film poster was to add the billing block, title and tag line. I had previously made the billing block on a PowerPoint presentation. At first I thought making a billing block would be relatively easy but until it came to making it I realised it was quite a challenge. My first difficulty was getting the correct font for the text, I kept referring back to other film posters such as Public Enemies to ensure I was doing it correctly. My second difficulty was the layout of the billing block as I had to ensure it fitted on my poster accurately and didn't cover the background picture too much. And my final difficulty was adding the pictures of the production companies to the billing block as I found it to be really fiddly. I found myself correcting the billing block about five times as I kept noticing minor mistakes or things that needed to be included.
My next step towards creating the film poster was to add the billing block, I did this by copying and pasting it from PowerPoint to Photoshop. Once I did this I then had to change the blending mode so the background of the billing block became transparent. I then had to use the move tool to rescale the size of the billing block, ensuring I held down the shift key whilst doing this so the writing didn't go blurry. I then had to add the title to the poster, I wasn't entirely sure how to do this as I wasn't sure on a colour or font. I knew we had to inject colour into it some how but wasn't sure if making it red would look scruffy. I firstly tried with the title white and made the tag line red so there was a splash of colour.
I was really fond of the style and colour of the font, which I created on live type, as I liked the way the white a little transparent. I was fond of the way the wall showed through the font as it added a shabby effect. I also liked the way the tag line was in red as it drew the attention to the title more so. Although I was really fond of this poster I was a little disappointed with the lack of colour therefore I wanted to try the poster with the title being red and the tag line in white.
This is the final draft for our film poster. I was really glad I chose to change the title to red although this was the most time consuming job of them all. I had to ensure I was really accurate when it came to colouring the outline of the title. I did this by zooming in and using the lasso tool along with the paintbrush to colour the title in. I then chose to stretch the title across the bottom of the poster so it represented a police line. I chose to use the colour red as it has connotations of violence, this created a catharsis allowing the audience to relate to the poster. I then added the tag line 'Loyalty Is Everything' by using the text tool from the left hand side tool bar, i chose to put this font in white so I kept to the colour scheme and it contrasted well with the main title. Overall I was really pleased with the outcome of the poster and took a lot of pride in it. To ensure the poster looked good I printed it out in A3 and A4 and held it up against the wall to see if it was eye catching enough, I also showed the poster to a few people and asked them which genre I was trying to represent, luckily everyone answered correctly.
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