Evaluation - 1A) Film poster and magazine

*Audio on Film Poster/Magazine*

Transcript

Here is my film character based poster. My poster shows a lot of postmodernism, breaking away from conventions established in the gangster crime film genre. First is that my main protagonist or model is a female, which is rarely seen on gangster film posters. Normally males have the leading role. I subvert from the way gangster films portray female characters as an erotic object, an example of this can be Gangster Squad where Emma Stone is wearing a red dress and seems to be submissive. In my poster, Chantelle is wearing a jumper and most of all it is a close up shot, focusing more on her facial expression rather than the body. I also subvert the conventions of film posters having my model stare away from the camera rather than look towards the camera. The language is pretty basic and straightforward.

I was influenced from existing gangster film posters, where the image has a black and white tint over it or effect. In American gangster, the poster is edited to be full black and white, which made the image and text stand out. By looking at other gangster posters I decided to make my image use the black and white tint would make it seem more genuine, having that old fashioned and traditional look.

For my layout design, I looked at existing character based film posters and found Conan.  Here you can clearly see where my inspiration for my film poster would come from. It states the name of the character, film title and release date. I however subvert from the conventions of the placement of text for the film poster. Film titles are normally found in the middle or centered in this area. You can see that the placement of ‘the bonsai tree’ is to the top left and the actor’s names can be found near the bottom of the page which should be at the top. I did this in order to avoid covering my models face, separating the text from the main image itself.

For my film magazine, I took a mid shot of my 2 models which was influenced from Total Films magazine covering The Adjustment Bureau. These 2 models are close and holding hands which can help to establish what kind of relationship they have. In my magazine, my models are back to back and are facing away from each other. I did this in order to establish that there is conflict between them, which relates to key themes of gangster films, which is family feuds, internal family problems.

This also suggest the character status between the siblings, as he is the male and is looking upwards which shows he has more authority and power, whereas chantelle is a female looking downwards which can represent she is the oppressed and has less power. Marcus on the left is wearing a white shirt with a black suit. His clothes are the typical conventions of gangster attire however he is Japanese.

Chantelle is wearing a kimono, her hair is tied up and has makeup. Even though she is second generation, she does not appear to be westernized but within our film trailer she does wear her own attire. By having traditional Japanese clothing, this establishes the culture of the characters. This subverts the traditional gangster character conventions, which are often Italian or American such as the Godfather.

For the background, I included Kanji font, which is Japanese. This can help audiences know what kind of culture that our film is based upon and the traditions that I am trying to represent. I followed the color schemes of red and black which most magazine companies use. The masthead was not covered by my models and made sure that my mast head can be clearly seen. Magazine companies such as total films use its models to cover the masthead and which I did not want to do.  The sell lines and headline are near the bottom of the page, only having a few one liner sell lines near the top. This was to also to not interrupt the main image and that covering a few areas would make the text less readable.  

Having a Japanese gangster film with other many films in my sell lines coming such The fantastic four or Jurassic world, I am introducing the Asian culture into the western culture, trying to bring in something new.