Attack the Block print media

Alright! For our next project, we are going to be working on media promotion. Specifically social media and print media (movie poster). Our teacher has decided we are going to be promoting 'Attack the Block', a Sci-fi/horror/action/comedy movie made in 2011 by Joe Cornish. 

I will be starting with the movie poster, and first will do some preliminary research and planning before I start my poster. 

Starting with the Original poster, disassembling the key features of the poster without looking at the characters, like color and contrast, can give a good idea of the overall genre of the film. 

Looking at the YouTube video linked below, skip to '1:47' the section labeled 'Action Thriller'. This section of the video focuses on the blue color of posters representing Action films. 

The cool toned color scheme of this poster emphasizes the blue hues the most. The red title letters above the blue poster are the most prominent feature of this poster and what grabs your attention the most. The original poster's color scheme already has a great sense of overall meaning and contrast.  

The color red has a significant impact on the entire narrative of the plot, which is reinforced using mise en scene. "Moses," the primary character, stands out from the other members of his group by wearing a red cap. 

I'll use a blue and red color pallet for the movie poster, but looking at other elements from the main poster that draw attention to the overall plot, is the building and the 'comets' dropping. 

In the film the protagonist Moses and his group are constantly facing one of three "bad guys"; whether it's the cops, the aliens, or hi-hatz, who supposedly runs the block. I want to incorporate these 3 antagonists in the poster, empathizing on Moses and High Hats opposition with each other. 

So far my plan is to have a low angle of the block (the building), Moses and hi-hatz back to back sideways with the comets falling around the poster for the aliens, and the rest of the crew on the bottom near the credits like the original poster. I might also have the glowing fangs at the top of the poster biting into the the red title of "Attack the Block." 

 I want the poster to have the basic elements of the movie, foreboding what's going to happen in the film. 

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Now with starting with the poster, I did research on software's I should use and didn't find one easy enough to use, so I will use Canva. Immediately I figured out that my plan is not going to be as easy as I thought. For starters, it was almost impossible to find a different angle of the building than the one already used in the original poster, and thinking of solutions the only thing I can do is not use the actual building from the movie. 

I looked up abandoned buildings and found this one that had the perfect angle of what I was looking for. The reason for the low angle shot is because low angle shots often are made to show power in an object, making it look bigger both literally and metaphorically, however not always. This is usually the effect given on the audience though. Besides that, the 'block' is  always shown from a low angle shot in the film, specifically in the establishing shot of the building is a low angle to tilt down of the building for the introduction. 

Although this image is perfect for the poster, the colors are obviously very out of sync with the color scheme I'm going for and the time of day the movie is set. As a result, I edited the building with the Canva software to create the following:

For this poster, I want the colors to be emphasized with a lower color contrast. My intention is to make them appear almost artificial, with the exception of the red title, a nearly monotone color scheme. Now that I have an ideal base background, I can start with the comets, which is just an effect I'll place on canva. 

This is how it looks after the effects have been integrated into Canva. I experimented with other designs before settling on the one that is depicted in the picture to the left. In the end, I also included fireworks in the background. The contrast between the fireworks going up and the aliens coming down was something we discussed while discussing the movie, so I decided that would be an appealing aspect to include in the poster since it provides a small amount of context that the movie doesn't take place on any typical day. The fact that the movie is set on Guy Fawkes Night is not just some random detail that the producers threw in. 

This is where my original plan fell apart. Looking for a side angle of Moses and Hi-hatz wasn't easy, and I thought I got lucky with finding a low quality version of the movie on YouTube, but the low quality made it too difficult to draw scenes from. The main antagonist in this film are the aliens, and looking back on it the other 2 are significantly important to the movie, but too much information on a poster can cause it to look overcrowded and too much to look at. 

Another reason I decided to cut the back to back of Moses and High Hatz is because I'm not confident of my editing skills, or the software's I have access to. I want the poster to look good overall, not scrappy and poorly made. 

I've decided I'll have Moses's introductory scene in the front. Finding a photo like that would be easier and putting it in canva will be as well. 

This is the picture, and there's many edited that I could find that will save me the trouble of editing it in the color pallet. 

I ended up finding this one, and placed it at the bottom of the poster, while I will be placing the title in the middle/ the top. The way I thought about the placing, besides convenience of the details at the top, was that the main character's deal is that he runs the block with his gang, he doesn't see an alien invasion coming from the sky. In a way, the comets coming down where he is placed makes sense, juxtaposing him and his main threat. 

Here is what I have currently, the only thing I really need to do is the title. 

I'm doing an eye catching red color with a bold and slightly slanted font, very similar to the original poster.  I'll reflect more on this in my analysis below. 

This is the final poster for the film, time for a self-evaluation. I had big plans for the poster, and different ideas on how to accomplish the main elements of the film in a poster. My lack of mastery with the technical elements of this task made it difficult and hard to strategize. There was a lot of freedom in this task, but at the same time there wasn't much at all. There were many key elements I could've chosen to put in my film, for instance I could've put the full gang at the bottom but I choose not to in order to keep a simplistic message of the main story in my poster. I wanted the poster to hint at all the things the movie's protagonist will encounter, and to convey a sense of foreboding for the viewer. Considering how little known this movie is overall, locating pictures I could use for the poster proved to be more challenging than the editing. Even though it initially appears simple, some analysis reveals important details regarding the film. Although I would have liked to have included more material in print media, I didn't want it to appear overwhelming. Considering my existing skill level, my goal was generous. Though there are some details I overlooked that could have elevated my poster, all in all, I believe I did a passable job. 

The lexical choice of the elements I did put in my poster were well thought through however. The overall color pallet was chosen intentionally to fit not only the atmosphere of the film but the genre as well. The scheme is purposely a saturated-monotone blue color. Everything in the poster was to create some type of background of the film, and I brought forward key elements of the film. The fireworks aim to create exposition of Guy Fawkes day, since that happening is also tied to one of the antagonists in the film, the police, that are on high alert. I've already talked about the juxtaposition taken place on the fireworks and comets, and the comets coming down on Moses; them also being out of his reach in the poster. Now for the red title, The contrast of the blue and red represent the genre, but the color red also stands as a motif in the film. The color red makes Moses stand out from his gang, with him having a different color pallet as his other friends, and the significance of the first moment in the film where he doesn't have his cap on where he's facing one of the threats. The overall composition of the poster creates a semantic field of the meaning after incorporating all elements, although looking basic at first sight. This is my Attack the Block poster.