For my evaluation, I am going
to go into detail about why I chose every feature that appears on my DVD poster
and sleeve.
Proposal: We also produced a
proposal which helped with choosing a title for our films, choosing the genre,
deciding what audience it would be targeted at, the summary and content, the
summary of the style and also the legal and ethical issues. We did this so that
we wouldn’t lose focus on what our ideas were able, and also to guide us into
designing them. The original idea within my proposal was that it would be an
action film about two gangs, after more research I changed it to a horror film
about a girl. I feel that this idea has achieved better than my original idea
would because I was able to edit different objects into my poster and sleeve.
On the other hand, with my first idea I wouldn’t have been able to do that
because everything I needed to be in there, could be fitted into the
photograph; for example, the cars could be fitted in there instead have being
edited on. I have achieved better with my second idea because I was able to
edit a pair of eyes into the night sky to give an eerie feeling to the poster
and sleeve.
Layout: The poster is used to
attract the attention of the viewers by using intriguing imagery but not being
too obvious with it. For example, the eyes in the sky move over the page like
they follow you. This gives the viewers the impression that the film will be
spooky. When I took the photo, I deliberately took it so that there would be an
empty place in the sky for something to be inserted.
For the layout on the DVD
sleeve, it uses half of the design of the poster but it has been developed
through the blurb, photos of the scenes and also the special features. For
example, one of the pictures on the back of the DVD sleeve is a warehouse in
colour, and the other is of a house that is in black and white. The use of the
Dolby digital plus logo, the DVD logo and also the 18 certificates prevents my
idea from being copyrighted.
Font: We explored different
fonts and titles using a website called dafont.com. We did this so we had a
better understanding about why a certain font is used for that specific poster
and sleeve, this also helped us with choosing which fonts would be suitable to
go on our own posters and sleeves. The font I chose to use is from the horror
section. I chose this specific font because it matches the eerie feel that the
advert gives you. I chose white for the colour of the font because it stands
out from the rest of the poster, whereas if it was in any other colour, the
audience wouldn’t be able to make out the writing properly.
People: I chose for there to be
only one person one the poster and sleeve because it gives the viewers the
impression that she is a lonely individual; her being alone gives the idea that
she is vulnerable and also a victim targeted by the villain, which is a demon
who’s eyes are in the sky. I specifically placed them above the person because
it makes the viewers think that the threat is coming from above.
The body language of the
person is protected, like she is guarding herself from something that could be
darker than the eyes.
Language: Using “Another Average Day”
as the title, it implies that the victim seeing the eyes in the sky makes her
day normal, as she is used to seeing them, but on days that she doesn’t see
them, that’s unusual as it has been like that all through her life.
Inserting the quote “best
movie of the year!” from the Times gives the effect that it’s more realistic
and that it must be a good film to watch as it was given 4 stars.
Technical details: I used the Dolby digital
plus, the DVD and the 18 certificates to give a more realistic effect for the
viewers and also for legal requirements.
Research: To start off the project
of creating our own DVD poster and sleeve, we needed to do research and come up
with our own ideas through brainstorming. We looked at codes and conventions of
different text types and subject genre. For example, we analysed different DVD
posters and went into detail about how each genre works. This was so we would
know what we all needed to do to produce a poster and sleeve of a high
standard.
Story synopsis: We wrote a story synopsis,
which helped us give our films a background story, which also helped us write
the blurb on the back on the sleeves.
Paper designs: Some students like to make
paper designs of what they would like their poster and sleeves to look like, I
preferred to design straight on the computer because as I started it, I get
more ideas that make it better, whereas if I was doing a paper design, I would
struggle to come up with better ideas.
Skills acquisition: In order to be able to
create our sleeves and posters, we had to learn a range of transferable skills
and techniques through a series of tasks using CS6 applications. We created an
illustrated portrait using illustrator, photo manipulation to create a
"perfect" mode in Photoshop and designing a poster in Photoshop. We
used these transferable skills when making our designs in Photoshop or
illustrator.
For my proposal, I had a
completely different idea than what my finished product is. My first idea was
for my film to be an action one about gangs, but when I started to design, I
came up with another idea for a horror film and decided to go with that, as I
thought it was the better idea.
The second idea has been
achieved and is how I wanted it to turn out. This was with the help if my
friend who is on the poster and sleeve.
My poster and sleeve could
be improved, the layout of the writing looks cramped at the bottom and the font
could be changed into one that looks more like a horror font. Some of the
colours could be made a bit brighter so that they would stand out.
My poster is a lot
different to the one I researched, which was Guardians of the Galaxy. As this
film is and action, adventure and also sci-fi, mine is completely different
with a horror style. On the Guardians of the Galaxy poster, bright colours have
been used, for example, the colour of the girls skin, which is green, is bright
so that it would catch the audience's eye, whereas on mine, mostly dark colours
have been used to give it that eerie look.
Effectiveness
The purpose of a DVD sleeve
is to make the DVD appeal to the audience who it is targeted for. If the cover
looks too immature, some people wouldn't watch the film because they would
think that it wouldn't be very good.
For my DVD poster and sleeve,
I asked my friend to stand on the field whilst I took a picture. The picture
was taken in the day so I put a night sky into the background to make it
freakier. This was so that no part of the poster had a blank space. If a part
of a DVD sleeve has a blank space, for example, before I put the eyes into the
sky, it looked to plain, but after putting them in, it gave my poster and
sleeve character, I also put them there because in the film, the main character
has hallucinations, and the eyes are the main things that she sees.
Sources of information
For me to be able to create
the DVD poster and sleeve, we analysed different movie posters like the
Guardians of the Galaxy. We looked at what audience the film was targeted to,
the context of the poster, the purpose of the DVD sleeve and also the
similarities and differences. As well as this, we also looked at different
fonts to understand which ones would be suitable to go on our own posters and
DVD sleeves.
Production process
<- DVD sleeve
<- DVD poster
