Poster designs

This is our first poster design that we created earlier however we made a few adjustments. We first of all increased the colour intensity to really make it aesthetically pleasing and stand out as an advertisement to promote our film, we also increased the contrast so that the protagonist is more of a silhouette but also a lot darker so he is the clear focus of the poster.

This is our second poster design and also on our favorites. The shot is taken at an angle so the we see the protagonists profile, his expression is important in this poster as there is not a lot going on else where in the composition. His body language is relaxed but his expression more relieved. Because his eyes are closed it gives the impression that he is trying to shut out the world which relates to our narrative. The wall that we used in the poster is white which, after research of social realism film posters, we found was used commonly, it also appears gritty and worn adding the working class element to the poster.

This poster emanates vulnerability as the protagonist is sitting down and therefore appears smaller. The graffiti in the background implies social realism because it represents rebellion and is linked to the working class, however it is also tightly linked with gangs and films such as Adulthood and Kidulthood which is not the type of social realism that our film is.

This poster stands out to the rest as we used black and white. We took the photo through iron railings to give the notion of entrapment as he is contained by his social class. We used three different colours on the text, red, white and blue, to show British patriotism. However we decided not to use this poster because we felt it fitted the conventions of a horror/thriller because of the black and white and the appearance of the protagonist in the background.

This poster looks more like an album cover than a film poster. This is because of the positioning of the text and the dimentions of the poster. We have also used a white wall in this poster to follow the conventions of social realism posters, human culture has many references to white and it often represents purity and innocence. White is the opposite end of the visual spectrum and is related strongly to nature because of bright sunlight, clouds and snow. ; The colour white is probably connected to social realism films as it is simple and strongly symbolises good and evil, night and day, because of its correlation with black, this is something all humans are capable of and it is said we all have the capability for evil linking white strongly with human nature, it would make sense that social realism films use white to advertise.

This poster was another one of our favourites however we decided against using it. The photograph used in this poster is taken from an interesting and more unique angle, a low angle. The shot looks up at the protagonist making him seem important. The use of the fence in the background adds an interesting mise en scene, the lines in the compostion are interesting and it is clear they have been graffitied implying an urbanised area and therefore fitting the codes and conventions of a social realism film. We decided against this poster becasue we felt that it made the protagonist look aggressive and intimidating when we wanted the audience to sympathise with him.

This is out last poster design and it was taken at the same location that third poste was tasken. We decided not to use this poster for similar reasons, it looked to urban and gang-like for our film idea. However we really liked this poster because of how the mise en scene and background become the poster as we put the font on the black door and it blends into the graffit but the title still sounds out. We like the positioning of the protagonist as he looks tall but still appears intimidating.

Shot inspiration : Is There Anybody There?

 After watching the light hearted drama, Is There Anybody There?, primarily because it involved a friendship between an elderly man and a young boy, we were inspired by a few shots and so used similar ideas in our own trailer. The shot that inspired us were the extreme close ups of the elderly mans hands and face, editing had clearly been used to create a blurred effect. The point in the film where these shots are is when the old man is slowly becoming frail and losing himself to old age. The close up of the face in our trailer starts of a series of shots that focus on the man in the cafe, the shots along with the music, pace and emotion provoked through acting creates a sense of worry. 

These series of shots combine slow motion and quick short shots creating a mix of effects which are meant to trigger several emotions. Originally we were going to have a lot more dialogue over these shots of Jacob shouting at the old man and taking his anger out on him, however, after reflection we did not feel that this was necessary so placed a short section of dialogue over the last shot in the series where the man says, "the best thing you can do is walk away" 

Character shots - old man

These are character shots of our old man character. We had to change the actor due to accessibility reasons, however after doing some filming with him we feel he suites the part well.

We looked into costume and experimented with different hats and glasses. These two photos show our selected hats, the bottom image is a woolly hat however we decided  not to choose this option as it had a football emblem on it and we do not to associate our film with football. We finally chose the flat cap as the actor is not quite as old as we had hoped and the flat cap appears to make him look older. 

 We also decided against the glasses because it symbolises intelligence and a better upbringing which does not fit the old man role as he is meant to be working class and educated through experience instead of learning through an establishment. Finally we wanted him to wear a dull coloured coat to emphasise the idea of a negative life. 

This is England - Trailer

The film This is England is a social realism film, directed by Shane Meadows and had a buget estimated at £1,500,000