Improvements on Final Typography

After the evaluation of the trailer using comments from YouTube, it was mentioned how we could make our typography more creative to grab the audience and create a much more gritty sense to our trailer.

I decided to make it more interesting by using a paintbrush tool on Photoshop at different opacities. 

 

I felt this mirrored gunshot splatters and blood against the typography. I needed to make sure that this typography did not over power the poster and make it look crowded.

 

This is our groups final typography.

 

Website Production

First, I uploaded the trailer to the website. I then had to make this the right size to fit across the whole screen.

I created the bottom bar out of a production company and added text of a film that was relatable to ours, plus I added another production company that I found common on other urban drama sites.

I added social media buttons and placed them in a vertical way to make them more visually appealing and accessible to the people on the website. 

Adding the tagline and the links in a darker place on the website made it stand out. I kept to the colour scheme that was on both the trailer and the poster. 

After having difficulty placing the text directly onto Wix.com I added it onto the time lapse and then positioned it where I wanted it to be. 

I then re-uploaded it on the website. When the trailer is finished, it will be placed below the title.

Final Time Lapse for Website

This is the final time lapse that we created, we chose this day to film as the skies were brighter, after adjusting the tripod and camera to where we wanted it to be.  We set the camera up for 10 minutes and filmed in a stationary position. I then edited this on Final Cut pro, by speeding up the clip, so that is plays in 1 min 36 seconds. 

The minimal movement from the trees is effective as we will place our trailer on top of this video when it is placed on our website. 

Overall, we are happy with our time lapse that got filmed, and this will go on the website. 

Final Typography Creation

After previous typography that I created, the group decided we needed a much more simplistic typography in order for it to not take over the entire poster or interfere with background images. I then found this tutorial on YouTube that allows letters to be linked together. I knew this would be challenging as it's advanced level Photoshop. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmamAfsWik&safe=active

I had to create a reasonable sized background, and to follow the tutorial I needed to have Photoshop open on one side of my mac, and the tutorial on the other side to ensure I didn't mess any steps. The tutorial is not a step by step guide, but is in fact a sped up tutorial of what I needed to know. This meant the tutorial would be even more challenging to follow.

I started to create text on my screen that was Arial Bold, and 250pt however after applying 'free transformation' this allowed me to enlarge the text even further, but I realised it couldn't be so large as it would take over the whole poster. I then placed the letters together so it would be easier to link them. 

The magic wand tool allowed me to overlap the letters, something I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for this tutorial. I then placed them equally over one another, so that all the letters can still be identified. 

I decided to change the colour scheme so that the white font would stand out on the background more than the black font. 

I then tried to create a shadow effect between the letters as on the tutorial however this proved to be very difficult which was annoying as this was the effect that I wanted from the typography. 

 

I then made a layer of all the letters individually, this allowed me to create another layer of the letter D, I  then improvised and made this a different colour. This still differentiated my typography but also I feel like it meets the urban drama conventions. 

 

This is our final typography. 

Poster Ideas

These two posters are the sources of inspiration for our own. I specifically chose these as inspiration due to the picture(s) that they have used within the website.

 

Shank

 



Shank uses the same picture for their poster as well as their website. Making their image and the characters that are featured recognisable  on different sources of media. The image has been manipulated in a way that looks like a swarm of people are chasing after the protagonists. From the stance and angle of the characters, this therefore creates an action film-like feel of the urban drama genre. From the image we can see the 'sky' and when we look closely, we can see that the sky is not as it seems, it's actually in fact the characters of the gangs that feature within the film. A common convention of film poster images for Urban Drama is that the iconic city - often London - is featured within the background. It may be effective to have this image faded out, so our main focus is on the characters. The dark colours that the 'army' of gangs are seen in is also effective, making it feel as if there is a barrier between them and the rest of London. 

Sket
 

Again we can see the characters that are features within the film are shot at a higher angle the main protagonist. From their clothes we can infer that it's an urban drama and they are of a lower class. The genre is also seen with the estates - most probably in London - that are manipulated within the background. These flats are of dark colours and blend in well to the darker sky which connotes a dark atmosphere with the film. This is juxtaposed with the pink and bold typography that is used within the film's title. Due to the use of the pink and the reference of the derogative term 'Sket' we can tell that the film is referring to women in a bad way. Usually pink would make the audience infer a happy atmosphere, but from the typography it appears the text has been manipulated to make the pink look dirty, and blend into the wall behind it. The protagonist is focused down the right hand side as we see a close up of his face, showing the lack of expression on first glance, but anger when you look closer. 

Here's a rough sketch that uses inspiration for these posters as our own. The film's title, slogan and other various pieces of text are of a draft and may not be our final text that we use. 

I liked the idea of having the protagonist on the side of the poster to draw attention to the poster. I used the golden rule and by having his hate pointing this way, the next thing we see after the image is the text LDN (draft) and our eyes are diverted down the poster. We can then as an audience take more in. The iconic London/estate background is featured within the background and I want to manipulate this in a way that makes it blend into the sky, like many other posters for Urban Drama's have. I liked the idea of having a shot with a car with its headlights on targeting the protagonist as this gives an insight that there will be a chase scene with this, creating lots of tension. 

Editing Post

 After placing the clips within their places in order to make the trailer effective, I decided to tidy the clips up to make sure that they were stable, and to make sure that the quick transaction between all of the clips was powerful.  

 

This shot with the flats was a 10 second long clip that had to be cut down. Filming on the tripod and panning the camera combined to make the image a bit shaky. Therefore I cut down to the 2 seconds where the clip is stable. For added effectiveness I stabilised the image more on Final Cut, making a more professional feel. 

 It's vital to detach the audio and delete it, as we will not need this once we have fully edited our music correctly and combined it with the voice over. By having various sounds that we caught when filming such as talking, or passers by would make the trailer ineffective for it's purpose.   

For one of the clips I felt like it needed speeding up. As an amateur of Final Cut, I took to YouTube to find a simple tutorial to aid me. The tutorial was very effective and I was able to experiment with different speeds to find out which speed wasn't too fast for the audience to realise what the clip was. 

  

After playing around with different speeds. 4x the original speed looked unprofessional and wouldn't make the audience be able to see what flashed up upon the trailer. I settled for 2x the speed as this allows us to see the train moving along quicker than it is, creating an anticipation for the rest of the trailer.

  

 

My final piece of editing was with our sound track at the end. I shorted the originally 4 minutes 11 seconds song to the designated 1 minute. However at the end of the minute, the artist is midway through a sentence. I shorted this by half a second, and decided a dramatic sound that signalises the end of the trailer is the best way to overcome this problem. Therefore I looked through Final Cut's sounds and found that Air Pressure Blast was the most effective one. By speeding this up, it creates a more compelling ending. 

Film Poster Inspiration and Roles

• Mollie will be manipulating the title that includes selecting the correct typography that will be effective for our urban drama.
• Ella will be taking many pictures as we film with her camera and selecting the most efficient image.
• Shay will be manipulating the image that we will select so our genre is obvious to the audience.
• As a group we will come together to add the specific details to our film poster. 

Inspiration from previous film posters (include the conventions that are met)

Mollie

• The dark colour scheme used connotes the genre of the film, and the red makes the poster and film seem dangerous and connotes blood.
• The golden rule is used as Shank's typography is very structured, allowing the eye to go down to the characters that are recognisable from other films, and then we  go back up to the tag line.
• It's effective having a poster that is horizontal, as many urban drama posters have this common convention, allowing them to recognised, as it's of the minority of posters that are horizontal.
• The text has been manipulated so the gap in the A features a character with a clear knife in their hand. This clears up any misinterpretation about what 'Shank' means.
• By having the manipulated text, this relates to the film's tag line that is used, making the film's main plot known to the audience.
• The large amount of people in the background are very dark and dismal, and the main protagonists are running away from them, reflecting an element of action within the film.
• The sky has pictures that have been manipulated into grey and white, like dark clouds over the characters, but on a close look, we can see that these are characters within a picture. 
• A common convention of Urban Drama film posters is that it will often state the previous films that the directors/producers/distributors have made (or helped to make). In many poster's the critically acclaimed Urban Drama's Kidulthood and Adulthood are mentioned, grabbing the audiences attention. If they liked those films, they will enjoy this film.

Ella 

- this poster shows many conventions of the urban drama genre and stays very close to the stereotypes around it.

-The main focus of this poster is the picture that has a red film over it in the brain part of the protagonist s head. This connotes many things to the reader. One of these is that because it is a red film used it lets the audience know that there maybe blood shed in the film. Due to this image being in the back of the head it also may connote the violence in this film is physchological to the protagonist in the poster.

- Another thing to look at in the brain of the protagonist is that the picture being shown is actually of two children, one playing with a gun. This shows that his childhood was obviously not very good and so it caused him physiological harm. Having a bad childhood conforms to a major convention in the urban drama genre. Also by having a gun in the picture it links to the red film over the picture again implicating blood and death.

- the light on the facial features of our protagonist also shows the audience that the film conforms to another major convention that the protagonist is a bad guy trying to be good.

- apart from the brain part of the protagonist there is a dark colour scheme to the poster. this show the audience that the film maybe dark and dangerous. it also connotes the genre of the film as being an urban drama.

- All of the text is in the middle of the left hand side of the poster meaning the audience has to look around for the name of the film forcing them to look at the whole poster not just the name.

- the tag line 'you only get one shot at life' links the whole poster together. By using the word shot it's emphasised and confirms the ideas of violence, guns and death within the film.

- the actual typography if the text is white with little black lines through it. This could be interpreted as a jail bar effect implying that the film maybe be centred around or include prison in some aspect. Although I think that the colours are more significant than what the lines actually mean. By having the white text (innocence) being cut through by black lines (death) it shows the audience that maybe death and bad experiences are what is holding the protagonist back.

Seyi

• Shifty moves rather far away from general sterotypes that are used with urban drama film posters
• The colour scheme is the main aspect that moves away from the conventions of urban dramas, yellow rarely connotes anything sinister or law breaking as the colour is too bright and catchy for the eyes, so this doesn't match the usual posters which use a dark background to show the danger surrounding the protagonist.
• The I in shifty is the part of the title that stands out, the I stretches all through the poster and this has a subtle effect; it separates the two characters but it is less blatant as the I is behind them.
• The tag line gives the viewers a brief insight into the storyline, "24 hours to deal yourself out" is effective as it puts a time limit on the amount of time they have to 'deal themselves out', the phrase deal yourself out can be interpreted in some sort of drug deal way.
• Finally, the poster uses reviews at the top to reinforce the merit of the critics comments.

Planning Montage Shots

Speeding Car

• Long angle shot the we see a car chasing through an estate. Needs to be dark and a quiet area.
• High angle shot from the left side of the car so we see the driver chase ahead.

 Drinking 

• Group of people at a mid angle on the table full of empty bottles. Main portagonist in centre. Friends/girls on the left and right. In the mums 'flat'. Photos on wall of family turned around.
• Ariel shots of bottles, zoom in. Or pan around them from a medium angle.
• Jump cuts from bottles/drugs/gang.

Graffiti Walls

• Low and long angle of the wall. Piece of graffiti that represents the struggle. Illuminated at night.

Police Cars

• Panning of a speeding police car through streets of London.

Mum with head in Hands 

• High angle shot (diminishing her), sitting on a single chair with the family photos around, one in her hand, slumped over, depressed.
• Close up of a tea falling down her face.

Production Companies used in Urban Dramas

There is an extreme rarity in production companies that produce urban dramas but in this post I will evaluate a few and evaluate the best one for our trailer.

•  Revolver entertainment are the production company that generally produce urban dramas such as kidulthood, adulthood and shank. The typography of the production company doesn't really signify anything about the genre of films that they would produce which is a good thing as it makes the range of films you can use this production company for many different type of films.
• This would be a perfect production company to use due to their previous record of films that they have produced.

•  Surprisingly I noticed universal have produced a few urban dramas, but some of the bigger ones such as 4.3.2.1 and Green street hooligans. Universal studios have a very big reputation to uphold with the films that they put out, which is why using universal as a production company for our trailer would be risky as the overall effect of the trailer would be diminished if the quality of the trailer doesn't match the reputation of the production company.

• This is an extremely small production company , the company who produced bullet boy, as a small production company they are always using their films to boost their reputation in the film industry. 
• Just like revolver entertainment their typography etc. doesn't indicate anything about the films they would produce which is a positive as the amount of films that you could use this production company for is limitless.

• IFC is the production company used for fish tank, this is also an extremely small production company but due to the fact that it produced a successful film this would be a good production company to use.
• The typography within the production company's logo is another basic one, this means that this production company isnt for urban dramas as such and is more flexible, this is another good aspect as this means it is very flexible in the amount of genres of film this could be used for.