Magazine front cover draft

After researching the front covers of film magazines such as Total Film and Empire we decided to draft our own. We decided that we would use Total Film as our magazine that we were designing for. On our front cover we are going to use a photo of our main female character as the narrative of the film revolves around her. From our research we found that Total Film often have a personal story about film stars inside and this draws the audience in so it is featured as a main story on the front cover. Other features we included are:the bar code, price, other cover lines to attract our target audience and the month of release.

Draft film poster

Before designing our film poster we researched a range of film posters. From these film posters we were able to see the typical conventions. We then designed what we initially wanted our film poster to look like:

Our first thoughts were that the image we would use would be of our main male and female characters on a bench. This is a situation is a typical image related to romantic comedies. We also decided that we would stick with the conventions of a rom-com poster by putting the billing block and release date at the bottom. Originally we couldn't decide where we wanted the name of the film to go so put it on the bench next to our main characters and underneath the bench to see which we thought looked better.Another convention we stuck with was putting the stars names at the top of the poster. As a group we decided we would have a tag line for our film which is "love makes the imperfect perfect" and we chose to have this at the top of the poster to attract our target audience and give them a clue as to what the film is going to be about.

This is a later version of our film poster. Here you can see that we have kept the release date, billing block and stars names in the original place we put them. We have also kept the original image of our main male and female characters on the bench.However we have moved the film's tag line to underneath the image.

Audience research

We felt the best way to find our target audience was to construct a questionnaire as we did at A.S. This is because it is a quick and accessible way to find out relevant information and then this information can be easily summarised for us to find out the results. These results from 15 people will then help us to create our teaser trailer, magazine front cover and film poster.

 Age was an important question for us to ask as we wanted to know the age range we should be targeting with romantic comedies and if romantic comedies were more appealing to a particular age range or across the board. As you can see the majority of the people we asked were aged between 16 and 24.

Finding out how often people went to the cinema was also another important question as we want to find out the possibility of our film/teaser trailer being seen at the cinema. Also we wanted to find out what these regular cinema goers watch at the cinema and what they expect from posters, trailers and film magazines.

The social network question was important for us to ask as it allowed us to find out the best place to advertise our film. From this we found Facebook and YouTube were the most popular of these sites so if we were to advertise to the target audience of 16-24 these would be the best places to do so.

Very often there is a link between the film genre's people prefer to watch and their favourite music genre. We found that pop was the most popular music genre amongst our sample and pop is most commonly linked with romantic-comedies or comedies in general.

From this question we found that people tend to look for the image when initially looking at film posters. This means it is important that we take this into account and make our image stand out to entice our audience.

Finding out if people see films they wish to see is useful to us as if they tend to see a certain genre over another it could not be their personal choice but someone else's. From these results it is obvious that the people questioned do see films they want to therefore we can take these results as quite reliable.

We asked this question to see if there was a trend in the age range we picked. We found that friend and partner were the most popular choices. This does typically reflect the age range we were hoping to target.

In this question we asked the participants to rank their favourite film genres from 1 to 5. Rom-com come out as number one which means that this is a popular choice for this age range and a good genre to make our film.

As we were undecided as to whether or not to put actors or actresses names in our work we found out whether this would appeal to our audience. As it does we have decided to do so.

Although we have to produce all 3 of these advertising formats we thought it would be useful to see which is most regarding by our target audience to ensure we get the genre of our film across completely in this format.

After looking at our results we are able to gain some ideas as to what to include in our products to make them accessible and appealing to our target audience. However as we handed them out to the majority of the age range we wished to be our target audience these results could be a little bit biased but they have helped us to get specific information that needs to be included in our products.

Initial Narrative

After researching and discussing various ideas we have finally decided to do production based on a romantic comedy. So far we have decided on the title; Imperfect Mr Perfect. To begin with we struggled on ideas for the teaser trailer but after getting the basic story line and watching a range of teaser trailers that fit our film genre we have been able to come up with rough ideas of what we want to produce.

Our story is about a girl named Maria, she is a single girl looking for her perfect guy. As an independent girl she understands she doesn't have to settle for anything less than perfect. After seeing her parents inspiring relationship, their never ending love, she is desperate to get a taste of a happy ending. She’s searched in all the wrong places and starts to wonder if there is such thing as Mr perfect. Her encouraging friends manage to persuade to go on one final date. It goes unbelievably wrong and it doesn't stop there. Her car breaks down on her way home and she is forced to take a bus. On the way to the bus stop, whilst on the phone to her friend a reckless bike rider ignores the road and focuses all his attention on Maria and unsurprisingly falls over. Shockingly, completely out of character, Maria is impressed by this maniac and gives him a hand up. We could say love is blind! The chemistry is instant and their love is apparent. She shocks her friends including her parents with her new found love. Their bizarre relationship is annoyingly romantic and Maria starts to pick up his crazy hobbies. Love might be blind but Maria has found her Imperfect Mr Perfect!

Film Magazine research

Empire magazine is a British film magazine has been published monthly since summer 1989. Regular features within the magazine include: film reviews, film news, film previews, a classic scene section which includes the transcript from notable films, a top ten list, DVD news and releases and interviews. The front cover usually displays an image of an upcoming film, usually with a well known actor or actress advertising it to attract the audience. 

                                                                                       For example this Harry Potter issue has Daniel Radcliffe on the front to advertise the issue as he is the main character in the film as well as a well known actor therefore appealing to a wider target audience. However it does include the images of the other main characters to suggest to the audience that these characters are still important and play a main part. The main image is covering the "I" and "R" in "Empire" but the magazine wouldn't worry about this as the magazine is highly regarded by it's readers and already has a strong following so would be familiar with the magazine name.

"POTTER 7" is in a large, bold font so that it stands out, although the film is actually called "Harry Potter" this didn't need to be included because it is a mainstream film that people have been following for many years. In a smaller font "The deathly hallows part 1" so that the film is introduced formally even though many people would know previously what the film is called.

Above the name of the magazine there is the selling point of the magazine "Our best preview issue ever". This is put there to entice the target audience and make them want to buy this issue. There is also a small taste of what is going to be inside the magazine so that the reader knows if they want to buy the magazine straight away. This is put the purposefully to try and make people want to read on and buy the magazine. Additionally at the bottom of the magazine you have another selling point "10 must see movie exclusives!" this would attract a film savvy audience and make them want to buy this issue.

Occasionally film magazines will do the same issue with more than one cover to introduce all the characters to the audience. For example Empire have done a 3 cover special to advertise Tron:Legacy, this allows a varied audience to buy this issue of the magazine.

 

   

Often, film magazines have a colour scheme which they continually use so consistent buyers are comfortable with what they see and read. Empire's colour scheme is seemingly, black, red and yellow.

Another big British film magazine is Total Film. Again it contains the typical features of a film magazine such as: interviews, reviews, previews, quizzes and top ten lists, however it doesn't have an apparent colour scheme as most magazines do.

     

Here we can clearly see that there is no apparent colour scheme linked with Total Film magazine front covers however the colours seem to represent the genre of the film they are advertising much like an actual film poster. Despite this we can see that the masthead is always in the same place and in the same style of writing to keep continuity for Total Film magazine readers.

When creating our film magazine front cover we need to consider where certain features are commonly place on the front covers, what is information is included and maybe think of a colour scheme. We also need to take into account there is normally only one person on the front each magazine and this person is usually the main character or has been interviewed as a feature for the magazine.

Media Institutions

As part of our research we looked at the media institutions that could possibly distribute our film.

Warner Bros Pictures

Founded in 1918 as a subsidary of Time Warner, Warner Bros pictures is now on of the major film distributers. Warner Bros Pictures is probably most famous for films such as Harry Potter or cartoons like Scooby Doo. However it has, in the past produced and distributed films such as Two Weeks Notice starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock which is much like our film a romatic comedy. Therefore we could use them as a the institution to produce our film and teaser trailer although as romantic comedy is not the companies usual production line it may be better to use another distribution company.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony. In 1989 Sony accquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, an American film and television distribution unit and in 1991 renamed it Sony Pictures Entertainment. It has been from this company films of the rom-com genre such as My Best Friends Wedding and 50 first dates have been distributed. As it seems that Sony are a popular distribution company for romantic comedies, we should keep this institution in mind and maybe do furhter research into other films that have been distributed by the company.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures is a production and distribution that is owned by Viacom. It is the oldest existing film studio. Paramount was founded in 1912 and it has a reputation of being ranked one of the top-grossing movie studios. By 2006 Paramount pictures became a parent company of DreamWorks. Famous romantic movies distributed and produced by Paramount pictures include Titanic, Pretty in Pink, What Women Want and Falling in Love. I think this company could possibly distribute our film as it seemingly has a range of romantic comedies linked to it previously.

Romantic comedy film posters

 This film poster is very typical of the romantic comedy genre. The use of the colours pink and purple appeals to the main target audience of women and with these colours on a white background it makes them stand out to attract the target audience. The pink and purple colour scheme is carried through to what the stars of the film are wearing to ensure continuity all of these features are used to attract their target audience of 25+ year old women.

Unusually the name of the film is at the top of the poster along with the billing block. These typical features are usually at the bottom of the poster so here the conventions have been broken. However the cast names are at the top to catch the attention of the audience.

 As in most romantic comedy posters the main characters are at the forefront of the poster to suggest to the audience what is going to happen in the film. In this poster the female character is in the middle with the two male characters either side implying that there is going to be come sort of conflict between the two male characters over the female character. Also the handwriting over each of their heads reminds the audience that the film is about the stories a woman writes in her diary.

The film poster for romantic comedy "Never been kissed" is similar to the Bridget Jones poster as it uses the same colour scheme of pink and purple to attract a female audience. They have also kept the main character in these colours to keep the continuity much like in the Bridget Jones poster. Although this poster is similar to the Bridget Jones poster it is clear that this poster is trying to attract a much younger target audience as the actress is younger and is posed in such a way that attracts 16-24 year old girls rather than a 25+ female audience

Unlike the Bridget Jones poster the film name and billing block are at the bottom of the most therefore sticking with the normal conventions. However the cast names are not horizontally along the top as they normally are in film posters.

Made of Honor stays with the typical conventions by having the main male and female character on the poster, this automatically suggests that they are romantically involved or are going to be romantically involved. 

There isn't a large billing block on this film poster and the the name of the film is at the top of the poster unlike most film posters. Also the well-known actor's name is at the top, although this is typical it is unusual for there only to be one well-known actor as usually both the male and female characters are played by popular celebrities.

As in "Made of Honour" both the main characters are on the film poster suggesting romantic involvement. The film poster is very simple with a white background and green writing to stand out.

This film poster is very typical of the romantic comedy genre with the two main characters being played by well-known Hollywood stars who's names appear at the top of the poster. Both the billing block and film name appear at the bottom as they do in most film posters.

 This film poster is very different from many film posters. It is a very simple poster with the typical white background with black writing very cleverly in the shape of a wedding dress implying what the film is going to be about. The name of the film is in bright pink to stand out and attract a young female target audience. There is no celebrity names that stand out to the audience to make them want to see the film because of the stars that are in it.

 This film poster is similar to the Bridget Jones poster as it has the three characters on it suggesting that their is some sort of love triangle between the three of them. Unlike Bridget Jones the female character is not between the two male characters which suggests that she is not interested between both the male characters. Again the cast are dressed to match the colour scheme of orange that is on the poster.

The casts names again, at the top as it is a typical convention. Although the film name is quite high up compared to most film posters the billing block is still at the bottom sticking to the typical film poster conventions.  

500 days of Summer is challenges many of the stereotypical conventions of film posters, by doing so this suggests to the target audience that the film is going to challenge the typical conventions of a romantic comedy. It could also suggest that the film is trying to attract a new young audience.

It is unusual for film posters to have more than one image on them as many images do not always convey to the audience what the film is about. Also the casts names are at the bottom of the poster compared to the top and the name of the film is in the middle of the poster compared to the bottom. However the billing block is still at the bottom as the audience would expect.