Film Posters - Freedom Writers

The 2007 film Freedom Writers was about a teacher (Hilary Swank) who was new at a failing school in the middle of a racial war and helps the teenagers in her class better themselves.
The poster is yellow and black with the faces of Hilary Swank (middle person,top row) and a few of the other main characters in the film. Under each persons picture, there is a small phrase. This is suggesting what each character is fighting for in their own lives within the film; making the audience want to watch the film and find out what happened to each of them. Between the two rows of characters is a large yellow rectangle with black writing in it. The first line is the strapline which says Dont pretend you know our story. This makes you feel like the characters are personally talking to you and saying to actually find out what their story is first before you judge them or the film itself.  The next line is slightly larger and is Hilary Swanks name as the film is about her and how she helps the kids in her class, as well as her own personal life. The next line is the film title Freedom Writers which is in a much bigger font. Underneath is film credits and names of directors, producers, actors etc. Then again in a bolder font is 'coming soon'. I think this poster grabs peoples eyes because of the bright yellow, and each saying under the character pictures draws the audience, making them more likely to go and watch the film. The film has a young cast which also suggests that its aimed more towards teenagers and young adults.

Film Posters - Up

Up is an animated film about a man who refuses to leave his house to let it be knocked down. So instead he ties balloons to it and floats away. unbeknown to him, a young boy has come along with him, and together they explore South America and come across talking dogs, a supposedly extinct bird and a villianous explorer.
The film poster is created and aimed completely at children. In the top right corner in a bold, rounded font, there is the Disney Pixar logo and the film title. The title UP is on a slant which makes it look like it is floating away. The main image is of the old man,young boy, and dog holding on to the rope that is attatched to the house. The house is floating away above the clouds as it is tied to thousands of helium balloons. Below the image in the bottom left in blue is '2009 3D' , which lets people know the release year and that it is in 3D. The poster is very simple and has no actor names straplines or credits. This is because children do not need or care to know about that type of information, and kids are this films target audience. The bold colours and large imagery is enough to attract children to watch the film, and make their parents take them.

Film Posters - Along Came Polly

Along Came Polly is a romantic comedy about a man called Reuben, (Ben Stiler) who catches his new wife (Debra Messing), cheating on him on their honeymoon with the local scoober diver. He comes home to start over again and bumps in to an old school friend, Polly (Jennifer Aniston). Reuben really like Polly but no matter what happens, something disasterous always happens. When hiswife returns, Reuben has to decide who he wants to be with, and chooses Polly.
The film poster is a picture of the main characters walking in the park, with Pollys pet ferrit. Reuben is wearing a suit and tie, while Polly is more casual wearing jeans and a knit waistcoat. Polly has her arm around Reuben and is losening up his tie. This implies that Reuben is an uptight character, and Polly is very chilled out and fun (due to her pet ferrit which she takes out for walks). At the top centre of the poster, its says The new comedy from the co-writer of Meet the Parents. Meet the Parents was a comedy also starring Ben Stiler which allows the audience to think that if they liked Meet the Parents, then they will like this film. Underneath is a strapline which reads For the most cautious man on Earth, things are about to get intersting. This i think intrigues the audience by making them question what in his life is about to get interesting. I also think it relates to the title as its saying how Reuben  is very cautious then along came polly, and his life got interesting. Below the image of the characters is the names of both characters, followed by the film title in a deep red which matched the colour of Jennifer Anistons top on the poster. This subconciously lets the viewer automatically realise that Aniston is playing Polly. There are then credits writtin in a grey colour that almosts blends in with the white background. Finally is the release date of the film in again a bold redish colour that matches the title colour and Anistons top.

Theme

The theme throughout our film will be addiction. Addiction can be found in many forms such as smoking, drinking, drug abuse, sex, OCD, love, eating disorders, gambling, shopping etc. Due to so many types of addiction, we decided to pick for a work on one each. Lauren chose an eating disorder, Jessica has love, Lorna is showing drug abuse and I will be filming OCD. We decided to make addiction our theme as there are many people in todays society living with some sort of addiction, and we wanted to show people that there are all kinds of addiction. Our key aim of our film is to to show an anti-hegomic view of addictions. People instantly assume that if someone has an addiction, then it involved alcohol or drugs. But we want our film to show that everyone has their demons and all addictions are as damaging as drugs and alcohol.

Lonely Hearts

Lonely Hearts is a short film produced by four A-Level Media Studies students as their final year project. A man is sitting at home alone with a candle lit dinner, reading the "lonely hearts" page in a newspaper. He finds an ad saying "single woman enjoys romatic walks and ballroom dancing". The man and woman go on a date where the have a picnic and start dancing. Suddenly the man pushes the woman off the edge of a cliff and she dies. The man then puts the woman in his van and takes her home. He places her at a chair in his candle lit dining room and poors her a drink. He then raises a glass and toasts the air. The audience then sees who the man is toasting with, and there are two other dead woman around the table and goes back to their lonely hearts ads that the man had found in the paper. Romantic, classical music is played throughout the film, lulling the audience into believe the film is purely about romance.However, as soon as the man kills the woman, it changes to more high pitched, thriller type music. I think the certification for this film could have been a 12A as there is no abusive language and only a small part is violent. The settings are very simple and believable as the main scenes are on a cliff top and a dining room.I think for an A-Level produced film, it is very clever, well edited and has a good storyline; without being too violent or too childish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9gTCrVxBKM&feature=related

Lovefield

The short film Lovefield is pact with suspense and drama. The film is filled with dramatic and eerie music to create a sense of vulnerability and panic to the audience. It begins in a field and with only a raven sitting on a creaky sign. The camera then slowly retracts across the field, to which there is a phone and bag sprawled across the floor. You then hear a woman screaming and a bloody cloth. The camera does not show the woman, only her foot. When she stops screaming there is complete silence. Suddenly a man stabs a bloody knife into the ground. Obviously at this point the audience is thinking a man has just killed a woman. The man then gets up and runs to the car boot. He grabs a blanket and a plastic bag, making the audience think he is going to wrap her body up. He then hurrys back to the woman and there you see him wrapping a new born baby up in it. All the dramatic music stops as you see the man and woman holding the baby he just delivered. It ends with a birds eye view of the scene and a police car pulling up to help the couple. I think the way Mathieu Ratthe directed and created this film was very clever as their was a constant build up to what was going on. The music, actors and editing also added to the suspense and drama in the film. The ending was very good as it was the complete opposite to any early predictions in the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro

The Plan

The Plan is an award winning short film, written, directed and edited by Matthew Kalish. The film is about a man who quits his job, leaves his girlfriend and drives to Vegas. His plan is to put all the money he owns and bet it on red. He stops of at a shop where he meets a girl who tells him to go to a casino where she just won some money. The man takes a picture of her which she gets very annoyed about and walks off. As the man gets directions to the casina from a truck driver the girls steals his camera. As he runs after he she keeps taking pictures of him. The man loses her and his camera and heads off to the casino where he loses all his money. The man goes back to the shop where he met the girl. Just as his ex-girlfriend calls him he sees a picture of himself on a board. On the back it has the girls address for him to get his camera back. Apart from when there is any dialogue, throughout the film there is a voiceover of the main man telling the audience of his plan. There is also a continually melody in the background. I like this film as it shows that even if your plan fails, there is always a plan b.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGX8iYBBCE

My Personal Narrative Structure

Although I am in a group of four and we are all working together with our film, we each have a seperate part of the film that we will be making on our own. My section is based around a young woman suffering with OCD. The filming is made to feel like it is a documentary, as the camera follows the woman around her house, watching was she does. The first scene is watching the character cleaning and checking everything in her kitchen is how she wants it to be. At the same time there is a voiceover (which is the interviewer) telling the audience who the woman in the film is and why they are recording her. It then goes on the the interviewer talking to the woman (played by Chenice Clarke) before she runs off to check the locks on her car. She then comes back in to the house after a period of time, and repeatedly locking her front door as she comes in . The film then carries on to watch Chencie potter about the kitchen, checking her taps after pouring a glass of water and giving the interviewer a tour of her incredibly clean and orderly kitchen. The film ends with Chenice telling the interviewer she has to go check that she locked her car, to which the interviewer replies and tells her that she already checked it. The finishing shot is a close up of Chenices face, to see the expression on her face.

Our Film

Our film is going to be 4 different narratives, that interlock with each other. We didn't want our film to  have such a straight forward message to the audience like regular films do. Our film is about different addictions ordinary people deal with on a day to day basis. Lornas' story is based around drugs, Laurens' is living with anorexia, Jessica shows obsessions of love, and I explore obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). We think this will be a good film concept as it shows the audience that there are all kinds of addictions, that anyone can be struggling with. The way we have structured the film, it will be exciting and funny, and in some parts uncomfortable to watch.