Thursday, 20 November 2014

Graphics Evaluation

Skills acquisition
In order to start to make my film poster and DVD sleeve, I first needed to build up my Adobe application skills. I created a cartoon portrait of myself using Illustrator to start to build up my skills. In the process of creating this portrait, I had to firstly take a picture of myself and then use the pen tool to start tracing around certain parts of my face. I have showed the stages and the tools I used on my blog. I also created a ‘perfect’ model in Photoshop. Within this skin tutorial, I used tools such as the spot-healing tool to remove spots, freckles and blemishes on the females face. The stages that I went through while creating this ‘perfect’ model can be seen by referring to my blog. I created my Expendables poster also in Photoshop. I did this as it will give me practice when I start to create my film poster and DVD sleeve as I can use some of these transferable skills. I used green-screen elimination to remove the background from the individuals who will be on the front of my Expendables poster. With things such as the background, BBFC logo and the main characters I had to move and scale them to how I wanted them to be. I recorded then stages I went through and posted them on a blog with an explanation of what I did. One of the last things that I did before starting to create my film poster and DVD sleeve was looking at photography. When taking the pictures, I had to keep in mind what my genre for my film poster and DVD sleeve was. As my genre was horror/thriller, the lighting in the studio was rather important. With having only one light shining on half of the face, it created a shadowy effect and linked well in with my genre. I used all of the transferable skills from creating things in Photoshop and Illustrator and these will help me when creating my designs in Photoshop.

Research and ideas stage
In the research and idea stages I studied the codes and conventions of both film posters and DVD sleeves. This meant looking at the format and genre of film posters and DVD sleeves but also the genre works. I looked at what is in a film poster to give me a better understanding of what should be in mine when it comes to creating it. I created a mind map of all the codes and conventions in a film poster, for example layout, images, headline. This can be referred to by looking on my blog where I inserted an image of my mind map with a small summery of what it is.

I started to explore different fonts and titles looking at how a genre can be shown through the font that is being used. I looked at 5 different fonts that all connected with the genre and explained how it did. For example, having curvy lettering with love hearts around the text would be obvious that the genre is romance. I showed what I did with screenshots on my blog. With exploring fonts, I started to look for what font my film poster and DVD sleeve will be like. Dafont was one of the websites that I explored for my fonts in which I found 5 fonts that I could use in my film poster and DVD sleeve. All of them are suitable as they all link in with the genre of my film due to certain aspects of the letting. For example, having blood dripping of the letters. With the 5 fonts that I chose I explained why there suitable, how they link in with the genre and what the audience would be able to get from them. Within this idea stage, I also explored suitable colours for the text and then actually chose the font type that I was going to use. I posted what fonts I found and why I think there suitable on my blog.

I produced a written analysis of film posters and DVD sleeves to explore in more detail the codes and conventions. I searched for film poster with a genre of horror/thriller, as that’s the same genre that my poster will be and I will be able to relate to this. For example, I found the Insidious poster in which I started to uncover certain aspects of it. I explored the font, style and the colour used for the title and explained how this links in with the genre. I also looked at the taglines, which were displayed on the posters, I explored in detail the words which were being used, the effectiveness and the font/style of the text. I looked at 4 different posters exploring aspects such as the image, headline, tagline, colours, and background as it would help me when I start to create my film poster. This can be found in my blog. I followed the same stages as I did when I was exploring DVD sleeves. I described what was in them, how it links in with the genre and why it is effective. I looked at 3 different DVD sleeves, which would all help me and give me ideas for my own DVD sleeve. I inserted my analyses on my blog. I explained the similarities and differences of a film poster and a DVD sleeve, looking at what they both have in common and what’s different. I did this to help me when I start creating my film poster and DVD sleeve, as I will then know what I need to include in them. I also posted this onto a post on my blog.

In order to think of the design for my film poster, I had to create my own story synopsis. In my synopsis I wrote about a possessed girl with her family having no one to turn to. So on my film poster I made sure to have an image of this girl and a tagline saying ‘Who will the family turn to?’ to link in with my story synopsis. I produced a formal proposal describing the intended audience, summary of style, legal and ethical consideration etc. I did this because if I didn’t have a proposal, for example if I didn’t know what the style would look like, I wouldn’t really be able to choose the overall look of my poster/DVD sleeve. I posted my formal summary on my blog.

Paper designs
I sketched some designs of how my film poster could look when I start to create it. I took pictures of the stages that I went through when sketching out these designs. It is important to do this before starting my actual design using Photoshop to give me a better idea of how it will look and where things such as where the title will be. I recorded the stages using blogger, explaining what each thing is on this blog. I also did the same stages when I sketched paper designs of how my DVD sleeve will look. From looking at other DVD sleeves, this helped me as it gave me ideas of how my DVD sleeve can look. I put this on my blog

Digital Design Stage
When thinking of ideas what my poster and DVD sleeve will look like, I didn’t create a digital plan of what this will look like due to already planning it out on paper how it will look. I find it easier to design straight on screen from looking at my paper designs as some of my designs will change throughout the process of actually creating it in Photoshop.

Evaluation of final designs
In my proposal I aimed for my genre to be horror and suitable for 15 year olds and over. I also summarised the layout of how it will look with a girl in the middle being the main image. Overall this as been achieved to a high standard because I followed my paper designs and how they looked to try and achieve what I aimed to do in my proposal. One thing that I could have done different was having maybe a Victorian house in the background of my film poster as in my summary I said that this is where the film is mostly filmed. Although in my DVD sleeve I did put an image of a Victorian house on the back of it. I followed the same layout in my finished film poster as I did in my paper designs. I put the image, title, credit block etc. in the same place. I used the font that I chose from when I searched on Dafont and in my proposal I talked about using red, black and white in my poster, I achieved this by using these colours. From my paper designs, I wanted half of the girls face to be in the shade and be darker than the other side. This is another thing that I achieved as when I was taking the picture I projected a light to only one side of the face. The body language and facial features what I talked about in my proposal were shown in my film poster and DVD sleeve so this is another thing that I achieved. 

For inspiration, I looked at the Orphan film poster and DVD sleeves for ideas. I did this as in my paper designs I sketched out a girl in the middle of the page with a red/black background with scratched marks in it. In the Orphan poster, there is also a girl with a serious face with a green background so this inspired me with other ideas such as the font for the title. In my film poster and DVD sleeve I included realistic elements such as my taglines, which are in all film posters and DVD sleeves. I also included the legal elements which I talked about in my proposal so things such as the BBFC logos, restricting certain ages from watching this film. Each of the stages that I went through all relate to the audience as people who enjoy horror films will get what parts of my film poster and DVD sleeve are such as why the shading/shadowing is used, the facial expressions and fonts. The audience who will be interested in a film with a genre of horror/thriller, will be people who enjoy these types of films and more interesting to watch.

No comments:

Post a Comment