Ancillary Task | Research

Research

Website

Having previous experience designing websites for various different subjects, I feel I could make a really effective website for our film trailer "Revolt". I have the necessary software, such as;
 Adobe Flash, Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop.

I have found that a lot of film websites are taken down after the film has finished with advertising and the DVD is finally released. Therefore I have had to look at more recent websites for new film releases within the same genre.

"Non-Stop"

http://www.nonstopthefilm.com/

Non-Stop is the new action film starring Liam Neeson. The website is very good and contains tons of different features. I feel this is a very good site to use as a template for our own because it falls under the same genre and has the same atmosphere attached to it, in my opinion.

The Features it includes are;

• Trailer playing in background automatically without audio.
• Option to turn background music on/off.
• Theme that matches the plot of the film i.e. Airport/Aeroplanes via the use of fonts and layout.
• Social Networking links to share the website
• Option to find and book tickets to see the film
• Different pages containing different content, linked via large buttons.

Here is a video tutorial of navigating around the website;

I feel the integration of social networking i.e. twitter and Facebook, is very good as it is the #1 way in which people communicate these days and the ability to post, share and follow about the film direct from the website is very helpful and an excellent marketing technique. However I don't like the way in which the trailer for the film automatically appears when you go onto the site. As you can see, they already have a button to take you to the film trailer, and for users who are either returning to the site or been lead to the site via the trailer, they won't want to re-watch. This is the only flaw I could find with the website and feel everything else is really good.

The website allows the suer to navigate to other pages with more specific information on the film. The options provided are "Home", "Story", "Gallery", "Trailer", and "Cast and Crew". These links don't always re-direct the user to a different page, but just change the interface of the page they are already on. For example, the "Story" page, just removes all the content of the home page and replaces it with a small "scroll box" in which the user can scroll down to read more information.



I feel this is a good method as the user doesn't feel like they are going from page to page and having to navigate all the way around the website. It also makes the experience feel quick and productitive.

The social network integration is definitely the most important yet accepted factor of any website. When someone visits a news article, online game or even a funny picture, the website they are on will almost definitely give them the option to "share" the content via social networking or  to "Like" or "Follow" there accounts. To see a website these days without this social networking integration, is unusual, therefore i feel it is necessary to add these features into our website and even create our own website presence via Facebook and Twitter.

 

Click these images to be directed to our online networks.

They also include a "Cast and Crew" option, in order to view the bio's of each crew member. I feel this is also a very good feature as it allows the user to really get to know the cast of the film and have more of a relationship with the entirety and emotion of the film as a whole. However, the information isn't presented via another webpage, it is a separate .pdf document.

Poster

One of the most renown ways of marketing a film is via posters. Whether they are stand alone, in magazines, or on bus stops etc. There are a lot of conventions that are almost protocol when designing movie poster. Therefore i am going to go through a series of posters and point out the default design elements that are seen throughout.

The biggest form of marketing a film is by selling it via the Actor/Actress who stars in the film. therefore, as a result, we find that the majority, if not all, of film posters use the face of their protagonist. However, "The Last House on the Left" doesn't use their protagonist as it didn't have a well-acclaimed cast, on it's release. Therefore they didn't rely on promoting the film via the leading actor. This film was released in 2009 and one of the actors is Aaron Paul, who is a, recently, well acclaimed actor. If he was as big on the release of the film, it is very likely that he would be used as a figure to promote the film. i.e. Being starred on the poster along with his name in a large font, just like his recently release, 2014 film "Need for Speed".

The first element that is placed on a poster nine times out of ten is the credits. Obviously, not the entire credit reel is placed on the poster but all the high profile names such as the main cast, directors, producers, editors, composers etc. It is usually a very small and compact part of the poster and usually goes unnoticed at first glance, despite its importance in the construction. It appears to be the same font in each poster, therefore I believe it must be by default. After researching this, i found the font is called "Steel Tongs" and looks really good, as the "Crew roles" i.e. "Executive Producer", "Director", are preset in the font.

Furthermore, another factor of the posters are the titles. Each one uses a font that resembles the film. "The Grey" is a film about a group of people stuck on a snowy mountain, therefore the font has a very cold, icy texture to it.  Shutter Island  uses an eery, detailed font, which also portrays the film. Clean Skin just uses a plain font, that blends in with the tone of the poster via the very bland-grey colour.  the Last House on The Left uses a "spooky"horror font, that has blood splatter over the top. This conveys the theme of the film and is very fitting for the entire atmosphere it presents to the viewer. 

Again, when a film stars a big actor, they tend to use this to their advantage when promoting the film. You will always see the name of the actor listed on the poster as this is usually the best way of attracting the attention of a possible audience. If someone is a fan of the actor who stars in the film, they are likely to go and see it. Where as if they are unaware of their favorite actor/actress being in the film, it will lose views.

One concept that i really liked was the use of poster packs. These are when there are more than one poster used to promote the film, they all use the same conventions but just different images. Sometimes these are released as collectors editions to fans, as well. One that caught my eye was Empire Magazine, very recently released 25 different magazine covers for the new X-MEN film. Although this is for a magazine and not a poster, It still brands the same effect, therefore I wanted to experiment with my own designs to see what I could create. 

Another film that has carried out the use of different posters is "G.I. JOE". In total, they made 8 different posters, each containing a certain character from the film, as well as keeping the exact same design.

There are two different sides to the plot of my film, the rebels and the police. I feel that by creating three different posters, I can have one that portrays the "Police" portion of the film, One the portrays the "Rebel" side of the film and then allows me to make a neutral