Final Magazine Cover

Here is my magazine cover finally finished after lessons of hard work and a lot of changes! You can see that I have done a Little White Lies cover and I have tried to keep to most of the rules as I have used a close portrait of the main character in a distorted, arty edit. I have also kept the background minimalist except for a brick wall and the film title in graffiti - I have done this to link my magazine cover with my poster by using a similar background and text. I have also reduced the opacity of these to blend with the background, and make the title more subtle like the other Little White Lies covers.

Magazine Cover Photoshop

After playing around with a variety of different effects in photoshop, I decided to use the 'Poster Edges' effect as it gave the photo of Tyler a glossy and slightly animated effect. With this, I was able to play around with the strengths on the effect to alter the detail and edges that made it seem like a poster. I thought this effect would work well in the Little White Lies style as it distorted the photo in a similar arty way to some of their current magazine covers.

    

I then used my original brick wall background from my poster to create synergy between the two pieces. With this, I created a layer of purple to lay over the brick background, which I could then change the opacity of to blend the two layers. This then created a faint background that suited the Little White Lies minimalist backgrounds to avoid distracting from the main feature of the character portrait.

I then made a copy of the Little White Lies sticker from one of the original magazines and layered it onto my cover. Here, I made sure that I put the sticker at the centre of the top of the cover, in the center to match the positioning on the Little White Lies cover. With this, I then had to enlarge the photo of Tyler so that I could position him lower on the cover to make room for the sticker to ensure it didn't cover too much of his face.

On the Little White Lies covers the title of the film is displayed subtly on the cover. Taking this into consideration, I used a graffiti creator online to write FRANK in graffiti across the brick wall behind Tyler (Frankie). I thought this worked well as it kept with the theme of the original magazine and highlighted some of the themes of the film, creating synergy with the poster and trailer.

After looking closely at the Little White Lies stickers on the covers, I noticed the issue numbers,date and price above the magazine title. With this, I found a similar font and added the text to suit my cover, using a date to match the releasing of my film from my poster and trailer.

After getting some feedback on my current progress, I had a suggestion to try a smaller font for the graffiti to have all the letters fit on one side of Tyler's head. I tried this and used more text on the other side of his head to complete the 'Talk To Frank' phrase. However, I think this took the subtlety away from the title and didn't blend as well with the rest of the features of the cover.

Initial Magazine Cover Sketch

Here I have done a very basic initial sketch of my magazine cover. I have chosen to do a Little White Lies cover and so wanted to keep my ideas simple. This is a drawing of Frankie (main character) that I would like to distort to give an arty effect similar to those on the Little White Lies covers. I then want to layer it over a brick wall to create synergy with the locations used in my other media products, with possibly some sort of graffiti to hint at the title and themes of the film. I will also include the Little White Lies sticker at the top, center of the cover developing on the forms of the existing magazine covers.

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Arty Effects

In todays lesson I have experimented with some of the effects on photoshop. Here I have used a photo of Tyler (Frankie) that was originally taken for my poster. I think this close up of the character could work well in the Little White Lies style as most of their covers feature an artistically altered close up of the main character.

Which Magazine?

Empire is a big blockbuster magazine which features a lot of mainstream, franchises. Although Empire often change the colours and style of the cover to suit particular genres, I don't think it would be suitable for my film. I think this because FRANK is a low budget film with a niche audience that Empire would not appeal to.

Sight and Sound is a film magazine mainly for art-house films and usually features the director on the cover rather than any of the main actors. Although I think main character Frankie is important in my film, this idea could also work with an image of the director (me) to differentiate from my poster and trailer. This magazine would be a suitable option for my film as it is a low budget production with a niche audience.

Little White Lies is another art-house film magazine that usually features a portrait of the main character on the front cover. The colouring and features of the photos are often altered to give the cover a striking, arty effect. I think this could work well with my film as although the film is about two brothers, Frankie's character is clearly dominant over Nathan, and the portrait of him on the cover could help portray his importance. I think the style of the Little White Lies covers would also compliment the fact that FRANK is a low budget film with a niche audience.

Total Film magazine is similar to Empire in it's audience and layout. The magazine usually features big blockbuster films, with the main characters featuring on the cover to help identify some of the themes and possible storyline. Although this could work as I have two important characters in my film, I don't think Total Film's audience would suit my film as it is not a franchise or mainstream film, and has a niche audience and gritty storyline.

Studio is the first online womans film magazine. The magazine usually features a glamorous photo of actresses, rather than the characters. Although I like how this gives the audience the opportunity to see the actors behind the characters, I don't think this would be suitable for my film as it does not target specifically for women. I believe doing this would not reach the films true target audience as it would not highlight the fact that it is a low budget film with alternative themes and a niche audience.

After looking at all of these different magazines, I have decided to do a cover for Little White Lies because I like its different approach to presenting the characters with it's arty, alternative aspects. I also feel that this would be the best option for me as it is an art-house film magazine which would help highlight the fact that FRANK is a low budget film with gritty, alternative themes and storylines and I believe the magazine would appeal to the appropriate, niche audience.



Final Poster

I am very pleased with my final poster! I feel like I have kept to the teen drama genre by using the background of the brick wall and graffiti. I think I also managed to portray the dominance of Tyler's character, Frankie, through the positioning of the characters on the poster.

Poster Photoshop

For my poster I started with a background of a brick wall to help portray the themes and genre of the teenage drama. Here, I changed the opacity to lighten the colouring of the wall to make it seem less animated  and make sure it wouldn't distract from the main features of the poster. 

After selecting the most appropriate photos from my photo shoot, I used the quick selection tool to cut out my characters so that I could layer them onto the brick wall. With this, I then used a gaussian blur around the edges of the images to soften them and added some shadow to make it seem as if they could actually be in front of the wall.

I then considered using the same font as my titles in my trailer as the film title on my poster. However, I thought a simplier, bold font would work better as I wanted to make the poster look professional and I didn't want to distract from the images of the characters. 

After asking for some suggestions on how I could make my poster look more proffesional, Mr Go suggested that I edit some sort of text or graffiti into the brick wall to make it seem like it was spray painted on. With this, I found a colourful image of some graffitied tower blocks that I thought would contrast with the colouring of the wall and would help represent the background of the two brothers. I reduced the opacity of the image to help it blend into the wall so it looked like it was actually part of the bricks.

I then chose a similar font to use for the release date which I layered on top of the characters to make it stand out. I also used a bright white to contrast with the darker colours of the characters' jeans and the brick wall. However, I have made sure that this text is smaller than the main title so it doesn't distract from it. Using the same font, I created credits for the poster with the different actors, director, producers and production team names, which I positioned under the release date like many film posters.

Here, I needed to fill the empty space above the title. I decided to have some kind of reviews or award logos here to give my poster a professional feel. I then copied a series of film awards from an existing film poster and used the magic wand tool to get rid of the background colour so I could layer it on top of the brick wall background.

Finally, I realised I hadn't included any actors names, so I thought I should add these in as my final touch. I thought the most appropriate place to position these titles would be under the main film title. Here, I used a subtle font to blend into the background but made sure it was still legible. I positioned it to the left side of the title to make sure it didn't touch or cover Tyler (Frankie) as this could have looked too crowded.

Initial Poster Sketch

Here is my initial sketch for my poster. I have included the background of a brick wall to create synergy with my trailer, and to highlight the edgy and urban themes of the film. I have positioned Tyler's character (Frankie, main character) in a higher position to Jack, and to have Jack (Nathan) looking up at his brother to draw focus on him. I would like to use a similar title font to the one used in my trailer, however I am going to do some research into several different fonts. After looking at existing posters, I would like to include the credits at the bottom of the poster, underneath the release date, and film awards at the top of the poster.

Character Photos

These are some individual photo's of the characters that I took yesterday after arranging this with my actors. I had Jack and Tyler pose seperately in a range of different positions to get various different shots and angles of the characters. As Frankie (Tyler) is the dominant character in the film, I took more photo's of him so I could try different positions on the poster to help portray his importance in the film. I made sure to take these against a blank background to make it easier for me to cut around them in photoshop. Here I have chosen some of the best photo's out of the ones I took and I am going try cutting end editing some of these over the weekend, ready for Tuesday's lesson.

Test Photos

Whilst I was filming I took several photos of my actors as I was thinking of possible ideas for my trailer. I liked the idea of them sitting against a brick wall as I thought it highlighted the urban aspects of the film. However, as the lighting is not great in these photos I might be able to cut out the characters and layer them onto a different background image, such as a wall covered in graffiti. However, as I am not very confident with Photoshop, I am going to have a practice at doing this in today's lesson with some of these images. If this proves too difficult, I have arranged to meet with my actors on Thursday 29th November to take some more photos of the characters against a blank background.

I liked the positioning of the characters in these shots, as Tyler (Frankie) is crouched higher than Jack (Nathan) to show his importance in the film. When retaking these photos, I would like to use a similar positioning of the characters to focus the attention on Frankie. With this, I might have Nathan crouching down, looking up at Frankie standing up.

Here I have taken individual photos of the characters to cut out in Photoshop. With this, I will then be able to layer the characters onto an urban background image like the original brick wall. I have positioned the characters like this so that I can put them together to make them face each other. As Tyler (Frankie) is crouched higher than Jack (Nathan), it will look like Nathan is looking at his brother, but Frankie is gazing off at other things, showing his dominance in the relationship.