Poster: Preliminary picture analysis

The Pitch: Update

During a production meeting, we decided to have a prologue in our trailer in Polish. The conversation will be a flashback between the "godfather" and his father which will have a considerable impact on the audience understanding his background and why he is why he is.

We have also brainstormed several other movie title names and have pondered on having a title as a Bible reference because of it's religious effect which we missed out in our initial pitch although it being an important convention in gangster movies. 

The names we have contemplated are;

Sons of Adam

Covet

Poster: Inspirations

I plan to take and infuse elements from the following 2 posters. I thought the split between 2 characters was extremely effective and a good visual concept. I plan to do something similar to this with Jason on the top split with his brother Jake on the bottom.

I thought pictures inside words was very different and unlike anything I had researched and would be a unique element to add to my poster. I plan to have the title of the movie in the middle of the two characters with the head boss or "godfather" character inside that text. This will show how the "godfather" has split the siblings apart.

Magazine Front Cover: Masthead Experiments

I wanted to use basic 'sans serif' fonts for my magazine masthead as I think the aesthetics in these basic, classic fonts used in Empire Magazine and TotalFilm and very appealing and is suitable for a movie magazine. My favourite out of the 6 fonts is the 'Breamcatcher' font as it is similar to art deco front and reminds me of the luxury and opulence of the 1920s and old hollywood films. This relates to my film as I am trying to represent this exact opulence in the lifestyle of mob members in gangster films.

Magazine Front Cover: Inspirations

I was inspired by the following 2 Empire Magazine covers. I took a liking to these as they were mid shots with the character looking face with a black or bare background so the attention is specifically on the character. I thought it was interesting that the shots were able to convey the sort of character they are without giving too much away.

The cover implied the character is very destructive, possibly extremely violent and loathsome character due to the masthead being in flames, the character completely red and glaring at the camera.

Although this isn't a movie cover, it is simply to the 'Hellboy 2' cover in giving us an insight into the main character.

I want to use this concept of portraying a character without giving too much of them away.

Magazine Front Cover: Pencil sketches

I am considering having a mid shot of our main character Jason in professional "wall street wear" with a cigar in his mouth and a stack of money in his breast pocket. In order to differentiate from a business man I have placed a gun in his trouser band to show that the kind of business he gets up to isn't legal and is highly corrupted and potentially dangerous. I have kept the layout fairly conventional and simple.

Magazine Front Cover: Planning Sheet

Audience Research: Vox Pops

Audience Research: Questionnaire Analysis

I first began by stated in my questionnaire that it intended to accumulate audience opinions on certain narratives and conventions as well as finding my target audience and tailoring my final products to them.

I attempted to gather information equally between males and females but the majority of feedback actually received was from females. This information already shows that my information gathered may be biased as females are the most unlikely demographic to watch gangster films and are usually not the main target audience for most films in this genre.

The feedback from the second questions also posed a challenge as a staggering 69.23% from my audience research do not watch gangster movies as it didn't appeal to most. Looking at individual responses I can that females mostly didn't watch these types of movies. 2 respondents in particular noted that the violence wasn't to their liking which is something to consider when making my final product.

No respondent provided an answer for any of their choices however too very famous gangster movies were mentioned (The Godfather & Goodfellas) which are one of the many films we will try to channel in our final products.

Cinematic techniques such as point-of-view, pan and slow motion shots are preferred amongst my respondents which are all technically aspects we plan to incorporate into our trailer.

We considered having a black and white only trailer but this idea may be reconsidered upon analysing this genre research as 66.67% of my respondents would prefer a contemporary film over era or black and white.

The feedback from this question confirms the need for the tumultuous relationship between the brothers in our final product as 100% of respondents feel this would interest them.

My respondents feel a male dominated cast will not exclude female viewers but some have raised that it would if sexism is portrayed or if it comes across "too masculine" then the female audience would find it hard to relate. The respondents would commented on the looks of the male cast cannot be overlooked as many male dominated films do include actors that would bring in female audiences because of their looks which I believe is important to remember. 

The trailer had the highest average rating as the marketing feature that would attract them to the film and is the reason why the main emphasis must be on the trailer and perhaps leave the ambiguity to the magazine front cover and poster as this research is evidence it doesn't hold the same magnitude as the trailer does in drawing in an audience.