POST 16 - postcards

Before beginning any form of advertisement for our production, each group had to come up with a company name as well as a logo. This task was carried out by the whole group where everyone came up with a few ideas, showed it to the rest of the group, then the best one was jointly chosen.

The name was originally chosen by Liam O’Connor, and then developed on by the rest of the group. Each member revised other company logos in order to gain ideas for their own logo. Eventually, after deciding between all the ideas we had come up with, we came up with one final design which we believed would relate to film production companies, as well as have an appealing and recognisable name for the company’s success.

Film Posters

In order to get an understanding of the way production companies advertise their film, we were set out to discover the conventions of film posters. I analysed three popular and successful films however also ensured they had a similarity to the short film we were set to make; this would help the process of our products as we could use this information to see what attracts the audience and what they audience expect to see.

These three posters are those of which I decided to analyse and help provide structure for the future planning of our film.

From these pictures I can gather that each of them as well as the majority of others have the main character(s) as the main part of the poster, with some including other character(s) of significance it gives the audience an idea of what to expect due to their facial expressions as well as their importance itself.

The backgrounds of these posters contain images which could symbolise what the story is trying to achieve. The colours of these images encourage a representation of the film as dark could resemble scary/horror or even adventure, whereas light colours are more associated with “happier” films. Images I believe are significant of anything advertising a film as they produce a visual image for the audience and help them realise the theme of the film.

The text within each poster is similar. With the main title being enlarged and in centre of focus, the rest including characters and the production team surrounds the title however in a smaller font.

Postcards

Advertising for films such as the above comes at an expensive price, and due to the funding of short films, it is highly unlikely they would be able to carry out such things. This then causes a problem for short films as they are unable to advertise their productions on a similar scale to, for example, Hollywood films as it could prove disastrous for profit success. Due to their lack of funding, short films tend to go for a lower priced version of advertising, postcards.

Film postcards have similar conventions to film posters used for more popular productions. They are a more simple form of advertisement: easily distributed lower costs of production as well as simple forms of production. Therefore as part of our task, we had to design a postcard in order to advertise our short film. To help me design a few possible postcards, I researched a variety of such items analysing a few and taking into consideration the conventions for the majority.

The postcard presented here is one example of a postcard. This however is quite a contrast to the majority of other postcards as it has an extremely simple design. With only two pictures and the company logo, this design doesn’t give much away apart from setting a brief example of the film through mood and tone. Although it also contains a common similarity; the two pictures shown. The greater part of all postcards tend to have pictures either of characters, sometimes whilst acting, or even simple ones of the location as it helps give a visual image and understanding to what the film could be representing.

The second postcard I analysed was for the film ‘On A Life’s Edge.’ The contents of this postcard are a contrast to the first postcard however a similarity to many others. It has a more complex and detailed design most likely set to give a clearer iamge and uinderstanding to the audience as well as come across to their target market as a more developed, improved film. With a bright background contrasting to the darkened image, it has an interesting creation attracting the audience. The postcard also includes several other pictures of a smaller size, possbily attempting to yet again send a clearer image to the audience of the tone and mood set for the film.

A sypnosis is placed on the postcard giving a brief explanation to the films plot as well as a meaning to the film “look at the narrow space between life and death.” This could help the achievement of the film as it encourages the viewer to question the film therefore provides them with an urge to watch it.

Postcard Feedback

In order to decide which postcard would be best, I decided to receive some feedback on each postcard I produced. This was completed by choosing people from our target market and aiming the questionnaire at them therefore increasing the chances of making our production more of a success.

The first question was for them to decide on which one of the postcards I produced was the best one; had the most appealing nature and most suited the theme of the film. The majority of the audience answered with …. This was because they thought it had a different style to those of other similar items, therefore it would have the potential to be more appealing meaning a bigger success.

The next question asked each person what could make my final postcard a better finished item, where again the majority of them replied with one simple answer; to give slightly more detail on the film in order to intrigue the viewer into watching the film, possibly even a pun.