Task 1:Mood board a range of film magazine covers - these can include any genre films but should include labelling of key features (title, headline, colour, cover lines, boost, etc.)
Task 2:Research three different film magazine titles (e.g. Empire, Total Film, Premiere, etc.) - find a front cover for each and discuss the following:
- Distribution (where does it sell, who does it sell to, etc.)
- Cost
- Target audience (who is it aimed at, why, etc.)
- Style (words vs images, layout, regular features, cover stars, USPs, etc.)
Task 3:
Research genre-specific magazines and discuss the differences in look/style/distribution between these and more main-stream film magazines.
Task 4:Discuss which magazine you are going to 'replicate' and why you've chosen to feature your film in that particular magazine, taking into consideration everything you will have researched above.
Your deadline for completing a draft of your film poster and your magazine front cover was supposed to be Friday 27th November 2015.
This deadline has been extended to Friday 4th December to ensure you have maximum time available to complete a competent example of the ancillary products that accompany your film trailer.
Exam board exemplars:
Before you can begin designing your own poster, you need to research and consider the role and purpose of the poster in the first place.
Task 1:
Research the role of posters - consider ideas beyond just advertising.
Task 2:
Find an example of each of the following - make sure it's for the same film and ideally one in your genre.
- Teaser poster - basic info, no credit block
- Main poster - credit block, more info
- DVD release poster - all the above but contains reviews
- Character poster - features one main character
Task 3:
For each of the above, analyse the poster for the following:
- Standard poster features (credit block, tagline, use of star names, release date, etc.) - what are the purposes of these features?
- Main colours and connotations
- Symbols used - does the audience need foreknowledge to decode them?
- Main figures/objects/background and connotations
- Use of graphics/photographs/illustrations
- Intended audience and how you know this
- Genre conventions
- USPs
- 'Expert witnesses'
- The gratifications that are promised
- How it grabs attention (humour, shock, etc.)
- The tagline (humour, pun, etc.)
- Alternative readings that might harm the marketing message
Task 4:
Identify similarities and differences between these four types of poster and discuss why these are important.
