Media Studies

1. Further Question
One Evaluation
Poster and Magazine

2. Poster
While I was researching posters for Romantic-Tragedy genres I realised that they all mostly had
something in common, for example most of the posters have the main characters (usually two)
positioned at the top of the page.
I wanted to be more creative with my poster and not use an existing poster as a base to create
mine. However I have been inspired greatly by existing tragic romance posters.
Development: I used Photoshop to do the edits on my poster. I then decided to work on the
finished edited image on InDesign to add the text. I decided to use this programme as I have had
experiences and more knowledge for it from using it in the previous year (year 12).
I really liked the layout of ‘The Last Song’
poster with the two main characters positioned
at the top of the cover- fading into a smaller,
distanced shot of them below. I did this on my
poster however I changed the bottom image
with Joe and Ellie, and Liberty ‘looking down’ at
them from the image of her above. The
positions of the characters on the poster of
‘The Last Song’ is also similar to mine. Joe’s
back is facing towards the camera as he is the
reason for the tragedy of the film, similar to the
male character in ‘The Last Song’.
I have also added a quote at the top of the
cover which makes the two posters alike.

3. ‘P.S. I Love You’ was also another film poster that has
conventions to a Romantic-Tragedy genre and has influenced
me on creating my poster. The image of the two main
characters are positioned at the top of the cover- fading into
the bottom image of the two characters taken from a
distanced shot, next to the large title of the film (similar to
other tragedy-romance posters).
This poster mostly influenced me on the layout of the text I
created on my poster. I decided to add the actors names from
my film at the top of the poster in the same style (red and
black). I liked the idea of having their names in red as it is eye-
catching and the colour matches with Joe’s jacket (giving the
poster a matching colour scheme). The red text also works
well with my poster and makes it stand out as the image
contains quite dark colours e.g. dark greens and brown. These
darker colours also gives the feeling that the film is quite tragic
and not cheerful.
The title ‘BlindLove’ is positioned in the centre at the bottom
of my poster is a large font size. I decided the font colour
should be white as it attracts attention. The fonts usually used
in Romantic-tragedy posters are generally pleasing and light,
such as French script or times new roman, unlike horror
posters that have distorted, large fonts. The colours are also
usually calming such as red, white and other light colours.

4. Target Audience feedback
I decided to ask my target audience for feedback on my poster:
• “You can really see that the poster presents a ‘sad’ romantic film, with the way
the characters and positioned in the photo and the darker colours in the
background (location). I also really like the way you faded the two images
together, it makes the poster look professional and a really creative way of
editing”
• “You can instantly tell that it has something to do with a broken relationship.
This is because you have the male character in both of the photos used with two
different characters. He also has his back towards the camera with Liberty's face
looking sad, which tells me that he is the ‘betrayer’. I am guessing that he plays
with the relationship by having 2 romances”
• “I really like the colours used on the poster and the layout of the text. Overall I
think that the poster looks very professional and I would definitely go see the
film if I saw this poster advertising it. I like the bold red text of the actors at the
top of the cover and follows the conventions of a film poster because the actors
in a film are very important and the audience want to instantly see what actors
are in the film. The fonts used for the title ‘BlindLove’ is also very eye catching
and creative, the fact that it is coloured in white also makes it stand out more.”
• “Overall I really like the whole poster and everything seems to fit together and
work well, however I personally think that the background of the woods makes
the film look slightly scary, however I know that this poster is not a ‘happy
ending romantic film’ so I guess that it did need a bit of darkness in the poster”

5. Magazine
For my magazine I decided to research the most popular film magazines on
the market that would successfully advertise my film. I found that
‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ were the most common film magazines, so I did
do more research into them and look at their magazine covers.
I decided that I wanted my film (trailer) to be advertised by ‘Total Film’
magazines, this is because I preferred their layout and magazine covers
and thought it would work well with my image taken for the cover of my
created trailer on the magazine. They also promoted well known films
such as Captain America, Harry Potter, Kill Bill and many others. I also
really like the masthead of the magazine as it is very bold and would
attract the audiences attention.
The only disadvantage I came across when looking at their magazine
covers where that most of the films advertised were action films, I also
found this an issue with the ‘Empire’ magazine covers. This made it more
difficult for me to look at the conventions of a romance genre film
magazine. However, being advertised on the front page of ‘Total Film’ can
be an advantage as it attracts all audiences and new audiences might be
introduced to this film making it more popular.

6. Although this magazine cover of Sherlock Holmes is a
different genre, I really liked the layout and colours used
on this cover and decided to use it as a base to my
magazine cover. The texts are also very eye catching and
stands out when its on a bookshelf. However I did
change the titles and colours to suit my film genre.
It includes the right amount of text that a magazine
cover should have, for example some ‘Empire’ magazine
covers have too much text on the front covers and
makes it look confusing, taking your attention away from
the film that is actually advertised on the front page.
I also challenged many forms and conventions of film
magazines by advertising other films and adding
subtitles to the cover for other stories included inside
the magazine. This is a clever way of catching the
audiences attention and making them want to look
inside to find out more about their other favourite films.
For my magazine cover I decided to use a
shot that was very similar to my poster
image. This similarity will let the audience
know that they're the same film and will be
able to recognise it if they have already seen
the advertisement of the poster.

7. I have used the same sub- titles for smaller
stories that are included in the magazine
Overall my magazine cover is very much similar to the Total Film cover of Sherlock Holmes. This front cover
has influenced me on how to create and follow the convention of a popular film magazine.
I created my magazine cover using InDesign and Photoshop which is what I also used to create my poster.
Magazine influences

8. Target Audience Feedback
• “The magazine looks professional and draws my attention to
it, I think you have followed the typical conventions of a film
magazine and I would definitely buy it”
• “The ‘BlindLove’ title really stands out. This follows the
conventions of a film magazine as the title of the movie is
normally the most eye catching text on the cover”
• “The colours you have used really stand out and catch my
attention, I also like the way you have matched the colours
together on the cover e.g. Joes jacket matches the masthead”
• “I've always been interested in “Total Film” magazines. Their
magazines are really good and they also have a mass audience
which will make a larger group of audience look at your trailer
for the film”