Over the past few weeks, we have been gaining more of an insight to Adobe Photoshop CS4 and how to use it in conjunction with our ancillary tasks. Having already researched the film posters for Tomas Alfredson's 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', I decided to take an image and to edit it in a style that was used for the original film posters.
The original poster shows Gary Oldman's character George Smiley constructed from inverted text on a simple black background. There are also many elements of text that are either made bold or written in a different colour to highlight them from the rest, for example, 'WINTER', 'AGENT' and 'THE ENEMY IS WITHIN'. The final quote illustrates possibly how a character from within the British secret service could be the one to betray them all, (foreshadowing). From this, I chose to pick out the key characters from the film and the film title.One problem that I found was that I couldn't make the text stand out enough, given that the text font itself was quite small and in white or red it isn't very visible. To resolve this I laid another layer of text on top and added drop shadows and burn effects. The only element that I am not entirely pleased with is the titling because it isn't completely visible within the red text against the background, however this does add to the aspect of the spy/espionage genre.
On 20th June, I went to the University of Westminster Open Day and I visited the Harrow campus to look at the Film and Television Production course. After hearing about the course from the lecturers, we were able to look around the campus at the incredible facilities that they have and to watch some examples of previous students' work. 'Glenn is a disillusioned piano teacher, who once aspired to be a concert pianist. He is moving back to his parents house and is on the brink of giving up the piano for good when Kilov, a Russian gangster, offers him a unique opportunity: £10,000 if Glenn teaches his daughter Beethoven's "Für Elise"... in a day, or have his hands broken.' AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:
Winner: Gold Award, Foreign Film Category 39th Student Academy Awards 2012
Winner: Bronze Award International Film and Video Festival of Beijing 2011
Winner: Audience Award VGIK International Student Film Festival, Moscow, 2011
Nominated: Best Cinematography Exposures Student Film Festival 2011
Winner: Best Fiction Royal Television Society Awards
Honourable Mention Next Reel Film Festival, Singapore
Winner: Student Production Undergraduate and Further Education Award (Sponsored by Avid) Learning on Screen Awards 2012
UK Representative One Country, One Film Festival, France, 2012
Official Selection Sehsuechte Film Festival 2012
Nominated Rushes Soho Shorts 2012
CAST:
Glenn - Blake Ritson
Mila - Eline Pauwels
Kilov - Olegar Fedoro
Mama Kilov - Caroline Blakiston
Mickey - Tom Marshall
'For Elsie' is a 23-minute short film directed by David Winstone. It is my favourite short film that I have seen so far because it is very imaginative and unlike many short films, it doesn't end with a horrible and cheesy punchline that seems very anticlimactic. Another factor which particularly intrigued me was the fact that the scenes that took place within Glenn's living room and kitchen, were actually all filmed within the film studio at the university.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Anglo-French espionage film directed by Tomas Alfredson, from a screenplay written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan based on the 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. The film stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, and co-stars Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ciarán Hinds. It is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service. Prior to the film's release, a number of teaser character posters were released that featured stars including Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Firth. It is clear that the main actor being promoted to an audience because even on the character posters his name is featured in a larger type above the title of the film. I particularly like these posters because the design of the numbers and character faces is very effective and conveys that the film will involve spies/espionage and of a detailed nature.
The official film poster features stills from the film of the key characters and also anecdotes from the likes of 'EMPIRE'. I personally don't think that this poster is as effective as the character posters because it reveals a great deal and I believe that with the genre 'spy fiction', not many details should be revealed aside from actors, title and date because it detracts from the professionalism of the poster. The key actors within the film are also very well known within the industry and to the public and so it is not quite necessary to promote the film with such high budgeting and anecdotes.
When looking at the 1979 TV mini-series of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', it is very easy, putting technological advances aside, to define the differences and similarities between the two. The 1979 version adopts a cartoonistic approach which depicts the character of George Smiley and a number of metaphorical symbols such as the broken statues and running figure. Also, a tagline is used to sum up the film/tv series; I don't think this is particularly effective however, it may be a fairly traditional convention of the time when introducing new plot lines. A strong similarity between the two versions is the strong use of the male protagonist within the poster.
Totalfilm.com named 'The Dark Knight' 2008 as having the No.1 best movie posters, despite these actually being teaser posters.
So the question is, why were the posters so well received and what made them so popular?
"“Why so serious?” is a brilliant tagline for a start, and the fact that it’s daubed in blood amps up the sense that this is going to be a distinctly adult affair. Plus, we love the tease of showing the Joker without properly revealing his face."
The Joker is such an iconic character that he seems to be the main focus for these posters and even in the first, in which his eyes are drawn onto the wall and the red lips, the lips are actually in the shape of the Batman.
Another effective element is the lack of information conveyed and so the audience is already feeling 'teased' and intrigued into watching the already very famous film franchise. In not revealing the character's actual physical appearances, the plot line and character's real identities or even actors are not revealed.
"Film posters have been used since the earliest public exhibitions of film. They began as outside placards listing the programme of (short) films to be shown inside the hall or movie theater. By the early 1900s, they began to feature illustrations of a scene from each individual film or an array of overlaid images from several scenes. Other film posters have used artistic interpretations of a scene or even the theme of the film, represented in a wide variety of artistic styles." Beginning in the 1980s, the American film studios began taking over direct production and distribution of their posters from the National Screen Service and the process of making and distributing film posters became decentralised in that country. Also known as 'Key Art'.
So, what is meant by the term 'key art' or a film poster? A poster used to advertise a film; there may be several versions for one film, with variations in regards to size, content and country of production of the poster.
18-year old Mathew Carpenter from Australia established on the 'webdesignerdepot' website that there are 7 elements of a great film poster design:
1. Attention – jump out from the wall.
2. Iconography – showing without telling.
3. Interest – create an incentive to see the film.
4. Appeal – create desire with fans and non-fans alike.
5. Style – a look that’s consistent with the film.
6. Lasting Appeal – a look that suits other formats.
7. Recognisability – if it’s a sequel, make it obvious.
Bill Gold
Artist Bill Gold joined the advertising department of Warner Bros. at 21 and shortly thereafter created the poster for the 1942 classic "Casablanca,". Over the next 60 years, Gold designed or worked with illustrators on about 2,000 motion pictures such as, 'The Clockwork Orange' and 'The Sting'.
Types of film posters
Window card for the 1915 film, Birth of a Nation Lobby cards are like posters but smaller, usually 11 × 14 in (28 × 36 cm), also 8 × 10 in (20 × 25 cm) before 1930. Lobby cards are collected and their value depends on their age, quality and popularity. A teaser poster or advance poster is an early promotional film poster, containing a basic image or design without revealing too much information such as the plot, theme, and characters. The purpose is to incite awareness and generate hype for the film. A tagline may be included. There are some instances when teaser posters are issued long in advance before the film goes into production, although they are issued during the film development.
For a film with an ensemble cast there may be a set of character posters, each featuring an individual character from the film. Usually it contains the name of the actor/actress, with or without the name of the character played. It may also include a tagline that reflects the quality of the character.
Over the past few weeks, we have been gaining more of an insight to Adobe Photoshop CS4 and how to use it in conjunction with our ancillary tasks. Having already researched the film posters for Tomas Alfredson's 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', I decided to take an image and to edit it in a style that was used for the original film posters. 
