Outline of my Film

The film begins with a voice over, with short snapshots of video. The images and sounds are a reflection of the main character, Grace’s, life. The film then moves to the present, with Grace, now an older woman (80 – 85) being cared for by a nurse, and talking to the nurse about her own past. Grace obviously doesn’t get on with the nurse, having just lost her husband; she still wishes to be self-sufficient. After an argument with the Nurse when she leaves the house without her say-so and Grace fires her. Her daughter, Sophie, begins to become infuriated and threatens to put her mother in a nursing home, angering her mother. Sophie gives her a last chance, with recently qualified nurse, Diana. Unlike the previous carer, Diana listens to her, and allows her to continue living as she wished. Grace begins to retrace her life to Diana, changing her life for the better, increasing her confidence and expectations in life. Sophie begins to go through marital problems with her husband, Charles, a banker. Sophie reattempts to convince her mother to move into a nursing home, because of financial problems with her husband, arguing with Diana over the matter. Grace is then diagnosed with early on-set Parkinson’s disease. Her son, Richard, returns from America to help care for her, and quickly falls out with his sister over the care of their mother. Sophie’s marriage continues to fall apart, and Charles tries to seduce Diana, who tells Sophie. Sophie them argues with her, reducing Diana to tears, who then quits as her mothers nurse, after Charles blackmails her. Richard then finds her, in a small, slightly run-down flat, and attempts to convince to her to return, as her mother misses her. On their way back to Grace’s house, Richard and Diana share a romantic moment, and then fall in love.


As Diana had been gone several weeks, the state of the family and Charles has begun to steal from Grace. Diana and Richard find him stealing from Grace’s room, whilst she is out. Charles threatens them, but Grace and Sophie return from shopping to find him with Grace’s retirement money. Sophie then files for a divorce, winning a large amount of money. Diana and Richard then become engaged and marry. Grace’s condition worsens, and on their wedding days evening returns to her room, and does not wake up.

The film ends with a voice over by Grace, reflecting about the importance of life, which she wrote in a journal, leaving in to Diana. When her house is searched it was found that she was living surrounded by exceptionally valuable paintings, which are later sold, and shared amongst the family.

Research of Magazine Covers

Unlike Film Posters, Magazine covers have to feature several seperate films or articles, and compete with them for the audiences attention. A good Magazine cover has to immedietly grab the attention of the audience, so they immedietly view the article, and most importantly, buy the magazine.
Here are a collection of magazine covers I have found:

Film - Spiderman 3 (2007)
Genre - Action and Thriller
Made by - Columbia Pictures
Evaluation - The picture used is exceptionally simple, but speaks volumes about the film and its content. The almost feautreless background adds much more depth to the photo. The focus points on the photo gives it significant impact, with both his fierce features, primarily the eyes, drawing you into the picture, with his outstretched hand grabbing the viewers attention, and making the audience want to read on. Another aspect is that the text seems to be placed behind him, giving it a varying depth of field, and so creates the illusion of a 3-D cover.

Film - Clash of the Titans (2010)
Genre - Action, Drama and Fantasy
Made by - Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.
Evaluation - Like in other magazine covers, the photo is focused on exceptionally powerful poses, with little action in the background, instead using it to focus on the foreground, and so the character.  The layered text, also makes the character seem to be moving towards you, and although the pose is slightly intimidating, it will also inspire the audience to read on.

Film - The Hobbit (2011)
Genre - Adventure, Fantasy and Journey
Made by - Warner Bros.
Evaluation - This cover presents a much lighter genre of film, primarily given across by the birght background, and the happy face of the character. This cover also uses a foreground illusion, making the photo seem to come off the page, making it much more attractive. The background contains very little action, with more small features, introducing the area shown within the film simply, but also effectively with the cloudy, overcast background, and the character in front.

Film Trailers

The Science of Teaser Trailers:
A 'Teaser' Trailer sets out to introduce, excite and entice a films prospective audience. At the same time, 'tease' the audience, and whet their appetite for more of the film, and so get them to view or buy the film on release. Unlike a theatrical trailer, a teaser trailer is significantly shorter, and relies on word-of-mouth to increase exposure. A teaser trailer comes before the theatrical trailer, which is played in Cinema between two to three before its scheduled release. Teaser trailers generally air more on television or ‘TV spots’, due to their much shorter length, as air time is exceptionally expensive.

The Aims of a Teaser Trailer:

A teaser trailer aims to give the audience information about the film - what the story is about, who the stars are and what type of genre it will be. Genre is one of the most important aspects of film marketing, because a consumer's decision as to if they will pay to see a film, rests on if they have previously enjoyed viewing the genre. When an audience views a trailer they immediately begin to break it down to analyse what genre it is. In example, if we see dark shadowy figures or hear scary music, we immediately assume 'Horror', whereas images and bright colours assume to be targeted at children. Occasionally films can be released as a hybrid, a mixture of more than on genre, and may take longer for the genre to be decided by the audience.

How to make the audience go and see the film:
The main was to increase interest in a film is its marketing campaign, to increase exposure to the film. A marketing campaign must also show us how the film is different to others of the genre: the USP (Unique Selling point) that sets it apart. This is what separates each title from one another, and makes them different. The USP could be a variety of different things: a unique mix of genre - such as a Musical Western; it might be a distinct aspect, like innovative special effects (Avatar set to release in 2009), it could also be casting an actor out of type - i.e. an actor known from action playing a serious emotional role. The USP is important for the marketing of a film, as it sets it apart from potential rivals, and so is often the main feature of it's advertising campaign.
The Features of a Trailer:
Trailers are not to be classed as 'Mini-FIlms', but snapshots of an overall film. They are a genre in there own right and have several conventions:

• they highlight the 'best bits' of the film, the very sad, funny, action-packed or bizarre.
• Showcase the film's stars
• some visual images don't stay on the screen long enough for it to be recognised by the audiences
• conversations berween characters usually comprise one-liners
• dramatic camera-angles may be chosen to show events or characters
• action is intersperced with credits on screen
• vioceovers are used to tell the story and give credit information
• masic plays an important role in creating atmosphere
• title may not appear to the end
• trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
• montage of different feelings 

Research into Movie Posters

In this section I am not going to focus on specific genres, more upon the set-up of a shot, and what other content may be included.

Film - Toy Story Three
Genre - Family Animation
Made by - Disney Pixar
Tagline - No Toy Gets Left Behind
Evaluation - Toy Story Three is a perfect representation of a simplistic film poster, immediately giving you an idea of the film. A major criticism is that the poster does not include the name of the film, instead relying on past audiences of the older films to recognise its distinct type face. The type is easy to read, both blue against black, and white against black, with bold type allowing for quick easy reading. An important feature of the poster is the release date, giving the user exceptionally valuable information, which some other posters miss in favour of other information.

Film - Avatar
Genre - Action, Sci-Fi and Adventure
Made by - Twentieth Century Fox
Tagline - There is not yet a tagline released for this film
Evaluation - Avatar is another example of a simplistic poster, focusing more on the revoloutionary 3-D cinema to encourage sales. Although the name does not take up as large an ammount of space as other posters, it makes a dramatic point against the alien's face. Another aspect is the white light across the face reflecting in the type face, making it seem to fit in more. The information along the head of the poster 'From the Director of 'Titanic'' is another aspect of sales, as Titanic is one of the highest grossing films of all time, is placed specifically to encourage interest. The poster does not include a release date, but gives a website in the bottom left, relying more on the photos effect to get people interested. The contrast between the blue of the face's skin and the black featureless background increase the posters dramatic effect, especially the yellow of the eye, making it a strong drawing point.

Film - Alice in Woderland (Remake)

Genre - Adventure, Fantasy and Family

Made by - Walt Disney and Roth Films

Tagline - You've got a very impotant date

Evaluation - The essential part of a remake poster, is to immedietly make the consumer both release it is different, and understand why it is so. Alice in Wonderland was released as a series of four posters, all using exceptionally bright, almost overpowering colors, to reflect the films almost 'psychedelic' atmosphere. The type face also shows the sinister atmosphere of the film, with the sharp, pointed script. The almost strange, contrasting colors makes the poster exceptionally eye-catching, giving it a benefit not only to attracting audience, but also summing up the idea of the film. The poster also features a relase date, letting the user know immedietly when it is to be released. Another aspect of the photos is to show them as portraits of characters, with their names above, giving it a unique portrayal of a film poster, whilst introducing the consumer to the primary characters.

Other Posters in the series were:

All of the posters were exceptionally sinister, showing Burton's take on Caroll's already sinister story, which was missed in the previous Disney film.

Film - Star Trek 2009 (Remake)
Genre - Sci-Fi
Made by - Paramount Pictures
Tagline - The future begins
Evaluation - The poster is made primarily of two separate photos, over laid on one another, one in black and white and the other full colour with the type set on to it. As Star Trek is another remake, the poster has to set out to sell the new style of film to differing audiences. The type face used is exceptionally reminiscent to previous Star Trek films, but also fairly in tune with sci-fi styling. The colour photograph immediately shows the impressive special effects used and so, entice people to watch it.

Design Brief

Our Advanced Portfolio in Media consists of a promotional package for a new film, with a genre of our choice, which much include a Teaser trailer, and one of the following:

• A website or hompage for the film,
• A film magazine front cover, featuring the film as primary content,
• A poster for the film.