Unit 8 - Researching film posters & wider context research

From the research that I had decided to do on the 25th April, I decided that it would be better to do even more research, educating myself on film posters and doing some wider context research that could be contributed to help structure and form my work. The first thing that I decided to do was to gather some information about what a film poster is, what it portrays and what different types of styles a film poster has.

WHAT IS A FILM POSTER?

(An image of a film poster below)

A film poster is an image that is used to help promote and advertise a film. These posters are usually displayed in several areas such as outside the movie theaters, bus stops and on buses, they do this in order to get their film branched out into the world, thus attracting viewers to want to come watch it. For the strucuture of my final major project I thought it would be very useful to annotate and analyze film posters, similar to what the genre of my short film will be which is a drama/comedy. Getting inspiration from each film poster and seeing if any of their features could be contributed and made into my own version towards my own short film poster.

Critically analyzing and annotating film posters -

To be honest when it came to finding film posters that was related to the concept and theme of mine, which was someone who was obsessed I found it rather difficult, So I had decided just to find films that sort of had the same genre of mine.

The 1st film poster that I had decided to look at was called Obsessed, It was the only film poster I found that had the same content that my short film would have which is someone with a very obsessive behavior ..... In this film poster I saw that it was very distinctive, having colors and particular font and features that really related to what the film is about, which is one of the reasons I had decided to annotate and analyze this film poster, whilst also taking inspiration from it.

OBSESSED - 2009

GENRE : DRAMA, THRILLER

Director : Steve Shill

Writer: David Loughery

Below is the annotated version of my film poster, as you can see from the image I went into clear detail and examined every little color and style they had combined into their film poster.

From this annotated film poster I will be taking a lot of inspiration from it, looking at it, trying my best to add symbolic and well combined colors together, to make my film poster look a certain way and also to convey messages to represent my film genre.

The next film poster I had decided to annotate and analyze was ''Black Mirror''

Because they didn't have an actual film poster because it is series, I had decided to analyze the series filter instead.

Black Mirror is a show that I believe has some features of short film in it, conveying the message that how using social media can change someone, maybe not as dramatically as my idea. - Which is someone turning from a dog lover to a dog hater when using an app her friend recommends.

BLACK MIRROR

GENRE : BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION

Executive producers : Charlie Brooker Annabel Jones

Below is the annotated version of the series poster and what I found out from the types of images and font they had, had.

From this film poster I will most definitely be taking inspiration from it, adding small subtleties about what my short film might contain through the use of fonts and images that are portrayed on the font cover of my film poster.

The last poster that I had decided to was confessions of the Shopaholic. I chose this movie mainly, because yet again like the OBSESSED film poster, it features themes that shows someone with an obsession, it may not have the same genre of mine which is an drama/comedy but it does have sort of the same concept.

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC - 2009

Genre: Romantic American Comedy

Director : P.J. Hogan

Writers: Tracey Jackson (screenplay), Tim Firth (screenplay)

From this film poster I will not be taking any inspiration from it personally, as I believe that just because it has the same concept present towards obsession, doesn't mean it has the same themes of mine which is a dark drama comedy, however I do believe that it is good to still analyze it, as it would help me regardless get a deep understanding of the type of features some film posters may contain.

Now its time to do some wider context research in order to help develop my character more for my final major project, I felt that it would be beneficial and helpful to do so, looking at the real life of some people who may be obsessed with animals, mostly dogs.

When it came to browsing on watching people with obsessions I never really found a clear short video of one who had an obsession with dogs, so instead of looking at people obsessed with dogs, I decided to look at anyone who has an obsession with any sort of animal, as they would contain the same features of what my character would have, someone that is rather deluded with a weird mind state, causing them to have such an attachment with an animal. - AN OBSESSION

Below is the video I decided to analyze and look at which is someone who has an obsession with rats.

As you can see from the video we see a woman who is obsessed with rats extremely, she speaks quite softly and is almost always surrounded by her rats in different shots of her. We see that her obsession has caused her with life difficulties, making her have a damaged relationship with her husband, resulting in her moving out just to be with her rats. She even states how her marriage is over.

She is a very cheery person, stating that she even loves her rats more than she loves people. She even goes to measures to ''huffing a rat'' which means sniffing them, laughing and stating that she they smell of nachos. This woman is clearly in love with her animals and owns quite a variety of them, naming them, talking to them and even choosing them to hold quite a significant part in her life. She even says she suffers from ''GGMR'' a condition she made, which stands for gotta get more rats.

The personality that she has is definitely what I want to add into my character, someone who is quite happy and delusional. In a mind state where all that matters is being with her desired animal.