Final Film, Posters & Review

Our Short Film - On the Brink

Our Posters 

 

Our Film Review

 

Final Little White Lies Review

Final Poster Designs

We have decided as a group and with Marion that we are going to put through each of our poster designs for our film as four of them are at a high quality standard that are worth submitting through as part of our coursework. Each poster conveys different meanings and messages, however, in the correct way to reflect and support our 5 minute short film; On The Brink.


Since posting our draft posters on the blog we have come together to dicuss what we like and dislike about eachothers and helped eachother to improve. Over all we have only made minor changes to our poster such as: sizing, font and dusting up all the edges to make it look a higher quality. 

Nathan Wilkins' Final Poster

Emily Ferguson's Final Poster

Harry McHale's Final Poster

Neve Walder's Final Poster

Final Poster Analysis - Harry McHale

DRAFT VERSION

 FINAL VERSION

The poster design is based around a screenshot from our short film of a extreme close up of the protagonist. The facial expression doesn't suggest anything that would spoil the film as such. He has a subtle look which means the audience could foreshadow that he is concealing or hiding something like he is in the actual film.

The other half of his face is partially hidden which creates enigma but also makes the poster eye-catching and stand out which is equally as important as film posters are used as a form of advertisement. The typography has a almost stair like effect in terms of alignment with the 'b' in brink having a diagonal cut through it. This represents the edge of the cliff which he stands on in our film.

The poster is done in grey-scale as this is used in various posters that want to give off a mysterious vibe. The lack of colour is another way of making the poster stand out.

Conventions of short film posters are included here such as the awards and nominations from film festivals that support/raise awareness. One of the changes in the final version was making the festival awards and nominations smaller as most short film posters are more focused on the poster art rather than the advertisement of film posters. Various details at the bottom of the poster were made smaller in the final version as these are not important for our target audience.

Reviews were added to the top to attract people to see the film. I didn't use star reviews as I felt this is more common in feature length film posters and I wanted to create a poster which was distinct from generic film posters.

One the aspects which had positive feedback on is the poster's clever design however a point to consider is that the poster doesn't reveal a lot of about the film and from an initial analysis: I will keep it like this as it creates enigma and makes the spectator have to guess what could happen in the short film.

Final Poster Analysis - Emily Ferguson

Media Language

Representation

Audience

Narrative

Genre

The composition of my poster design focuses prescisley on the main protagonist of the film. Glen Ferguson who plays John in On The Brink who is positioned to the left of the poster suggests that the film is going to explore into this main characters mind due to the facial expression he is expressing, as if he is suffering or is depressed. This then helps reinforce the powerful narrative, being social realism and drama. The themes that are delivered through this poster capture and engage spectators making them question John's situation and the perception of happiness. Our main actor's facial expression symbolises his character deep in the film where we begin to find out his personal struggles with life and himself. His frown and darkness under the eyes creates frustration and sympathy for John, making audiences wanting to watch the film.

The colour of my poster kept to colour rather than black and white as I felt it would represent this film in too much of a heavy and dark way. Therefore, the lowered saturation and heightened brightness is there to generate a slightly faded effect to the image to create a certain mood. I wanted to generate a mood of spine-chilling feelings, as this faded light colour resembles the chilling and shock value twists that are imbedded in our narrative. If I made this image too contrasted and dark I believe this would have given too much away with the choice of image, therefore designing the faded colour reflects Johns unclear vision of his life, therefore using this colour scheme it contrasts well with the plot of the film which in turn manipulates spectators to create more effective shock and surprise. 

When looking at my poster for On The Brink I feel as though I have successfully targeted our intended audience for our film which was 15-25 year olds. The poster expresses many social realism genre elements and conventions which I feel will attract people within that age gap to watch our film as they has experienced issues or struggles in their life in which they can relate to the image used. For example, our main character John's facial expression truly extinguishes that he is suffering from some sort of mental health illness, or even just reveals that he is hurt and depressed. These emotions can be transformed in a way of attracting people who have or are experiencing similar moments in their lives. This allows this audience to relate or produce empathy as they may no of someone who wanted to take their life. This poster represents a middle class status through the use of mise en scene micro techniques. John's shirt and jacket creates social assumptions such as it represents his middle class character, however, a deep hidden message from this and the film is that no matter how wealthy he is, money can't help his depression and addiction, indicating that money cannot bring you happiness, only kindness. 

Poster - Audience Feedback

For our audience feedback on our posters we asked Kellie, aged 19 which is in our target audience for our short film. This allowed us to understand an idea on how this age group will interpret our short film and what they believe the posters reflect about the film before even seeing it.

On the Brink Film Review - draft

One in four people will be affected by mental health issues in their lifetime. John falls firmly into that category, more so than his family realise. On the Brink explores the escalating distress of a father who appeared so exuberant as he welcomed his daughter and partner into his home at the very beginning. These two, Rebecca and Alfie, have travelled from Derby to visit for the night, and reveal their “special announcement”. The essence of John’s character is sculpted through Rebecca’s understanding of her dad. This relationship is the focal point of the short film, with her siblings (what were their names again?) going under the radar.

Brilliantly played by Glen Ferguson, John’s emotions are portrayed through strikingly intrusive camerawork and complex editing. The painfully upbeat music being blasted out from downstairs only increases John’s agony as he tries to escape the busy dinner table by going to the bathroom. One of his many mental battles appears to be with drug use, as he consumes these illicit substances at the unlikeliest of times. Hidden behind the mirror, the concealed placement of the drugs seems to reflect aspects of John’s secretive personality. Rebecca is the one person John allows in to his secluded mind, with even his wife Jenny yelling “I don’t know what to do!” when he appears missing following his trip to the bathroom. Leading the search for her father, Rebecca, unbeknownst to how long she has to find him, rushes to the nearby church hoping to discover the truth.

Director Nathan Wilkins uses flashbacks and voice-overs to dig inside John and Rebecca’s heads. This aligns us with both protagonists to educate us of their past and make us fret over their near future. The Morgan Freemanesque voice-over made for an ending that forced every hair on my arm to stand in unison.

The clear switch in genre is an interesting twist on short films like Mathieu Ratthe’s Lovefield, where instead of beginning with a Thriller, we end up with what feels like one. The intro is reminiscent of a Rom-Com, with its overly merry characters, and Alfie flowing straight into conversations with people he’s never met. Things soon take a turn for the worse, with John’s mental health suddenly exposed.

Despite the slow beginning, which was presumably intentional to demonstrate the calm before the storm, the film bursts into life when the family divides in a bid to find John. The gripping finale is enough to make you want to hide behind your popcorn, yet your eyes will be fixed on the screen for the beautifully distressing scene. The stunning setting, exceptional acting and thrilling soundtrack come together to put us all on the brink.

Ratings:

Anticipation – 4 – On the Brink is unique hybrid twist with lots to get excited about.

Enjoyment – 3 – Though a bit slow to begin with, it’s riveting in the end.

In Retrospect – 4 – Overall very powerful and thought provoking.

LWL's Review Template & Planning - Neve Walder

LWL's Review template and planning - Nathan

I have created a review template which is set up to meet Little White Lies' conventions. Our review for On The Brink can now be inserted into this template.

LWL's Film Review Template & Planning - Emily Ferguson

This screen shot reflects my work on planning for the review template. I have used precise measurements which are exact to the most recent film reviews from Little White Lies. I have annotated my template on a word document to show evidence of my planning and structure for my template review.

Little White Lies Template Design - Harry McHale