The document discusses the student's planning for the layout and design of their movie poster for their film "Perception". They considered conventions from thriller film posters in their research, such as placing the title in the lower third along with the release date. For their poster, they chose the font "Disoluta FFP" to display the film title "PERCEPTION" in a fragmented style reflecting the distorted reality portrayed in the film. They also selected the tagline "what you see isn't always the truth" to hint that the audience's perceptions may change over the course of the film and not reflect reality. In future planning, the student will look to visually represent key themes of the film like drowning, the deteriorating
2. The Layout
• When thinking about the layout of my
movie poster, I looked back on the
previous research I had partaken in so
that my memory was refreshed with the
conventions of thriller film posters.
• From my research I found that there is
one structure that tends to be followed
but is altered to fit the individual film
poster.
• For example, the film title is placed in the
lower third along with the release date
and sometimes the film credits. The tag
line tends to be placed within the top third
of the poster and the image takes up the
majority of the page with all the important
information placed over it ensuring not to
obscure the central focus of the image.
The Tag Line
Central Image
Film Name
3. My Layout - Title
I came up with the name ‘Perception’ for our trailer which Chloe and I both agreed
would be a suitable title for our film. The title of the film is much like the brand or logo
for a product so I want to use the same font that we used in our film trailer for the film
poster and magazine. I found a font called Disoluta FFP which I intend to use and it will
look something like this:
PERCEPTION
It is a simple logo but it links well to the themes of the film. This is because the
fragmentary and distorted feel created from the thicker outline on the bottom is
reflective of the distorted reality that Bea lives in as she thinks her boyfriend Justin is
trying to kill her. It can also be reflective of the fragmentary perception of the audience
who from the trailer, may be lead to believe that Bea is the victim and Justin is the one
trying to kill her however if they were to watch the whole film, their perception would
change as they find out that Justin is the one that is in danger.
This is another reason why I came up with the title ‘Perception’ as it is not only Bea’s
perspective of Justin and life that changes but also the audience’s.
4. My Layout - Title
Before I came up with ‘Perception’ as our film title I also had some other ideas that
could have also been suitable.
The first name was ‘Delusion’. The definition of delusion is as follows: an
idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality or
rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.
Similarly to ‘Perception’, ‘Delusion’ links to the theme of individual interpretation but
is a lot more harsh in suggesting that the the film surrounds mental illness. Although
this would give the audience a clear idea into the narrative of our film, I thought it
may be too obvious and not leave enough to the imagination of the audience from
watching the trailer.
Other names I thought about included, ‘Error’, ‘Drowning’ and ‘Misconception’ but in
the end I decided that Perception was to be the best at explaining the theme of our
film in an enigmatic way.
5. My Layout - Tagline
A film tagline is used by marketers and the film producers to advertise their film to audiences
by creating a ‘buzz’. It does this by summing up the plot or themes within the film to clue
audiences into what they can expect. From this perspective, the tagline has a similar function
as the title of our film as both will give the audience an insight into what they can expect the
film to be about.
At this point in time, my initial idea for a tagline is “what you see isn’t always the truth”. The
verb “see” I felt was important to include because of the importance Bea places upon what
she discerns to be real. “See” can mean to perceive with the eyes and notice visually which is
what Bea does as she does “see” Justin killing her but she is not able to separate illusion
from reality. Hence the use of the abstract noun “truth” as the truth is constantly being
twisted and changed until Bea cannot differentiate the truth from lies. “Truth” is also
reflective of how Bea cheats on Justin and keeps it a secret from him. By her hiding the truth,
she unleashes a self-inflicting suffering onto herself which she believes is caused by him.
By using this as my tagline, I am subtly hinting to the audience that when watching the trailer
and looking at the other marketing designs for the film such as the poster, they to should be
aware that their perception of the truth may not be what is reality. The deep and twisted
meaning behind the tagline I have come up with is reflective of a psychological thriller film as
it plays on the cerebral and intellect of my audience.
6. What I want to show
through my poster
Theorist Roland Barthes argues that audiences, “look for signs to help them
interpret the narrative”. This is something that I have considered throughout
my planning and throughout the production of my trailer so far as I want to
make sure that every colour, shot and mise-en-scene choice has been made
to push the narrative forward and give my audience hermeneutic (enigmatic),
proairetic, semantic, symbolic and cultural codes that will give them enough
insight to know what the film is about but also make them want to see more.
Back when I was planning my film trailer, I thought about the five themes
that I wanted to get across to my audience which were:
1) Drowning/Water
2) 2) Deterioration in Justin and Bea’s relationship
3) 3) Schizophrenia and Hallucinations
4) 4) Bea’s mental state deteriorating
5) 5) Death and danger
In my planning over the next week I want to think visually and creatively as to
how I can display these themes to audiences whilst using Roland Barthes
codes.
