Print Production Research

Film Billboard

Film billboards are a form of promotion, these can be promoted in several different places such as buses, billboards and around the a cinema area. A billboards aim is to give information to the audience such as release date, a dominant image and the title with the exception of any well-known actors. The title is the largest piece of information on the billboard as this is the most important. The title is in capital lettering to attract attention because without this the audience would not know the name of the film to go and view it. The text is a relevant font to the genre of the film such as 'You're next' is a slasher horror and the text looks like marks of a knife or scratches. The images on the billboards are very minimal, they consist of a main character who is a popular actor/actress or a image of interest in the movie. I have included examples of both conventions such as the main character in 'The others' being Nicole Kidman and a image of interest being the spiral hypnotizer which is included within the film SAW. The image of the paranormal activity is someone prayer showing religious views attracting a very diverse audience to normal as religious people do not like the thought of the devil and evil around them. The release date is equally as important as the image, this is because it promotes and sells the product, without the release date the audience would not know when to go see the film. the date is emphasized by being in a different colour to the rest of the information ot being in a different view of syntax. From these posters, immediately the audience can see the genre of the film being 'horror'; this is shown by the dark colour of the poster being grey or black alone with red. The colour red is very popular for the horror genre as the connotations are blood, evil and represent the devil. The visual syntax of a billboard consists of the elements being off centre. This means the title is seen first, then the date, the image and finally the tag line or famous actor/actress which is in order of importance.

Film Magazine

Each of the mastheads are large, bold and capital font. The empire masthead is usually red but the gold colour used is eye catching and matches the connotations of “Empire” which are that of power. The colour of the "Empire" changes due to the cover which shows the connotations of the genre of the magazine for example, the green and black for the dark/evil characters. The masthead is always located at the of the page which makes it noticeable because it is one of the most important features of the page as it is what the institution wants the audience to recognise and remember. The headline being a different font to the masthead also make the uses of standing out. The majority of images are closeups of a main character or character of interest. The fact that the images are either a close up or mid shot allows the audience to see the characters facial expressions and body language. The images are mostly from the film which will make sense to the audience who have seen the film however it gives hints to the narrative of the film to the audience who have not seen it. The use of main characters and popular actors on the front cover will attract the audience to the magazine as film lovers will recognise the character  and be attracted. Most of the cover lines on the front cover fit to the genre of film on the cover or the actual film itself referring personally to the audiences needs. The use of pugs separates certain information to the rest of the cover lines, this information may be important to the magazine such as '25th birthday issue' or it can refer to the main film on the image for example 'The dark knight rises//the verdict'. The visual syntax is highly important on a magazine cover as the main things need to be in the eye of the audience such as the masthead, headline and the image.The image is what first draws the audiences attention as it takes up the majority of the page. This is followed by the masthead and the headline which are both equally important. The coverlines, taglines and pugs follow afterwards as they are less important and are therefore smaller on the page and less predominant. the house style colour are very contrasting such as the white and red and green and black this compliment each other to stand out and draw attention. The colour scheme is consistent therefore looks professional. The barcode is usually very small and is at the bottom of the page or at the back page being invisible.

Film Posters

Film posters are very similar to Film Billboards; their purpose being to advertise. Posters can be promoted in several different places such as magazines and around the a cinema area. These do not give much information as the billboards as a film poster only contains the title, a dominant image, a famous actor/actress name and some may include additional information such as a tag line, other actor/actresses and credits. As the genre I am looking into is horror then the colours should be very dark and in these examples the posters agree with that. The main background colour is black or grey giving the connotations of being unsafe and giving an eery effect. The text has to be easily read by the audience as this is important to the audience and is white which is contrasting and easily visible. The lighting of the image is also very dark being either a shadow or took with low-key lighting which gives the representation of the character being in danger. A third colour is usually used in most posters for additional connotations and information to stand out, in most horrors this is red orange giving the connotations of danger, evil, blood and anger. The images are very dominant and are mostly close ups this shows the facial expression of the character which in this case is scared clearly giving the audience the impression of the genre of the film and who it is suited towards. However the image on 'the uninvited' is mysterious as you cannot see the facial expression of the character and it is unknown to who this character is and if they are good or evil which makes the audience feel uneasy. The layout of film poster's are very minimalist centered as all the information on the poster is equally important.

DVD Covers

All DVD cover's feature a blurb on the back, this is to inform people of the general story line. There is also a tagline included for example on the Jessable cover the tagline is 'A secret from the past, a curse from the grave' this is a eye catching for the audience and intrigues them to think 'what happened in the past?' and 'who is in the grave?'. Most DVD cover's contain either a 'Special Features' or a 'also including box' this influences the audience to buy the DVD as it contains scenes that they have not seen before. The images on the back cover consists of scenes from the movie, these contain the main characters and a key scene or scenes that was included in the trailer, this images represent the genre of the film. DVD covers must contain the bar code, credits and the bbfc rating and any other additional information such as running time, the distributor and the production company. The layout of the DVD cover's are all pretty much the same and a kept very simple, the visual syntax is easy to follow starting with an image or tagline, following by the blurb, then another sequence of images and the additional information. This is ranked in relevance of the film and what will attract the audience the most. The house style is consistent throughout the back and front of the cover, this being two colours, both of these examples have used red and white. The white contrasting against the dark background being black and grey in these cases and emphasized text being in red showing important and standing out to the audience. Giving the connotations of 'evil' and 'blood' representing the genre of the film.