EVALUATION: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
POSTER:
Myself and Georgia developed the conventions of our poster design by first analysing the differences between the layout of a standard film poster and short film poster, also what we could do to make ours original and not just a copy of an existing poster.
Short film posters often use graphic-based images as opposed to photographed images in feature film posters. They do not push the names of the cast on the poster, in contrast to feature film posters. Feature film posters also often include real images that imply the film was made on a large budget (an explosion, a stunt, special effects etc). Short films have much more modest budgets in comparison therefore won't include this type of imagery on their posters as it is rarely in the narrative. As we researched more of both short and feature posters the contrasts became more and more distinct and we knew what conventions would look at home and those that would look false and out of place.
V.S
The poster was designed first by sketch and looking at physical prints of London Underground Tube maps. We knew that we wanted a minimal design, with the focus of the poster being the colourful, interweaving tube lines - a universally recognised tube map; we cropped the middle of the map in order to include the most popular and iconic stations including Bond Street, Oxford Circus, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Victoria.
Originally we wanted a larger range of stations spanning further East and West, but thought the more concise cropped area of the map looked simpler and more attractive on the minimal poster design. The first, basic idea for the poster design was to play with the connection between specific areas in London and the wealth that it is stereotypically associated with. For example, Bond Street is known as an affluent area therefore there are three pound signs at Bond Street Station on the map. It would have been a more well-rounded design concept if we could have had stations like Whitechapel and Stratford to have our "one pound sign" stations.
As two girls that have grown up in Canning Town and Greater London, we wanted to address the stereotypes about the 'poor East' and the 'rich West'. We thought the most easily translatable way of doing this was by using a tube map to demonstrate it. Further, that London is a city driven by wealth and financial status - the diverse population use their wealth in a million different ways and we believe that your environment and surrounding culture as a Londoner impacts these decisions significantly.
An article on yougov.co.uk included a graphic that we found to share this particular idea, and most importantly, it is a graphic made up of actual Londoner's opinions about their own neighborhoods and each others.
The Sun recently ran an article talking about poverty in London, and Bethnal Green, Bow and Tower Hamlets were found to be worst affected - all in the East.
Tower Hamlets block of flats, the poorest area in London
The richest street in London, Kensington Park Gardens in South West London
We chose the most current Tube Map design (2014) as we wanted to reflect the current opinions and stereotypes held by Londoners. We looked through old editions of Tube Maps from websites like this and thought they looked really interesting but for the reason previously stated we stuck to the newest map. The older ones would have been more difficult to manipulate and work with on Photoshop also, as the images are intricate and hand drawn.
Our poster took a look of influence from minimal reworks of existing posters, as they used simple graphics as a clue or key to the narrative of the film it was for. We looked at a lot on sites like this and this. You can clearly see influence from posters such as Ben Affleck's 'Argo' with it's maze/map like concept:
We used star ratings from The Guardian and Empire - both relevant possible critics. We didn't want to put any of the actors names outside the billing block as we noticed that it wasn't something that recurred on short film posters as the actors are normally up-and-coming and made through the creative concept of film rather than a Star profile of mainstream, feature length cinema.
We've included a release date which notes the film is in 'selected' cinemas, again, because through planning and research noticed that the distribution of short film was much more particular and low-key than feature length film. Our film is intended to be shown in independent cinemas and smaller chain cinemas, specifically London or city based cinemas due to the narrative theme of the short film.
Through using Adobe Photoshop CS6 for our poster design we achieved a professional poster design and were able to materialise all of the ideas and concepts we had planned for it. Some conventions within the poster were influenced by more mainstream and familiar poster design; star rating, as well as a lower mid central title, and billing block right the the bottom - seen on the poster for 'Starred Up'
Above: star ratings on our film poster
Below: star ratings on 'Starred Up' poster
Overall I am extremely satisfied with the outcome and design of our short film poster. I think it's aesthetically pleasing with simple black font, white background and iconic imagery, but still with meaning and concept behind it. I believe we achieved the minimal yet intriguing design we set out to create.