Poster analysis 2: Kidulthood

I am going to analyse this poster for Kidulthood, a film with similar themes to our project.

The colours used in the poster are all dark- the setting is almost completely grey and even the sky is dark and cloudy, immediately conveying the sinister tone of the film. The characters are also sitting on a rooftop , perhaps to indicate their precarious position in life and the risks they constantly take by being involved with underage sex, drugs and violence.

The figures in the poster are the main characters. In the centre are the two characters that the film revolves around- putting them in the middle of the poster shows their importance ('central' characters.) The character Becky (3rd from right) is balanced the most precariously on the edge of the roof, reflecting her 'live for the moment' approach and reckless behaviour. The main antagonist, Sam, is positioned at the far right of the image, holding a baseball bat to hint at his violent nature.

The only text on the poster is the title, credits and a pull quote from a review written by Touch magazine. The use of a pull quote is effective because it gives an idea of the kind of movie it is (e.g. this one is 'powerful and moving', so the audience realises that the film won't be a comedy) and also, the five star rating shows that it has some critical acclaim.

All the characters on the poster are teenagers, so one can assume that the main target audience for the piece is also young people, the 16-24 demographic.

As our film is influenced by the grit and potency of Kidulthood, we want to take inspiration from this poster. We like the use of dark colours to convey the subject matter and the hint at violence via the inclusion of a baseball bat. We also find the use of a pull quote effective, and may attempt to utilise that technique.

Location

Now we have settled definitively on our idea, we need to start thinking about where we are going to film it. Given the nature of the film, we feel we need to use gritty locations that convey the bleakness of the character's predicament.

This mood board gives an idea of the kind of locations we want to use. We want to use a setting with lots of graffiti and battered-looking buildings to represent urban decay. A lot of these images also feature backdrops of council estates and tower blocks to represent the lower economic background of our characters. The inclusion of a picture of a fast food joint also indicates this, as the characters are eating junk food instead of nutritious meals, presumably because their family lives are less than traditional.

All that's left to do now is find locations in Peterborough that have these features and can accurately convey the connotations we want.

Mood board

In considering the kinds of shots that are used in teaser trailers, I viewed several in the teen movie genre to get some ideas. Here, I have made a mood board, comprised of shots which I found effective and thought we may be able to take inspiration from.

This mood board consists of shots from Skins, Kidulthood, 4321, Fishtank, Cherrybomb and Garden State, all of which (except Garden State) are British teen dramas. Lots of the shots feature females, and are therefore mainly intended to serve as inspiration for our female character. Some of the shots I found inspiring for angles (such as the shot of the character from below from Kidulthood, in the middle on the far right), some for setting (e.g. the shot at a campsite from Skins, top on the far right, or the shot at the underpass, also from Skins, middle right, second from bottom) and some for the content (like the close up of Michelle's eyes from Skins, top on the far left, or the picture of the girl crying from Fishtank, second from bottom on the far left)

This is another mood board I've made, this time featuring shots from Misfits, Nearly Famous and Skins, all British teen drama series. This time, the mood board has pictures that are more male oriented, serving as inspiration for our two male characters. Shots I found particularly effective include the one of Owen from Nearly Famous crying (bottom far left), the extreme close up of of Nathan from Misfits drinking a bottle of vodka (middle of centre left) and the shot of Nathan from behind brandishing a gun (bottom far right).

Most of the shots on both boards feature dark lighting, indicating the realism and the dark tone of British movies and TV in general. Also, almost all of the shots are either mid-shots or close-ups- this is likely because it would be inappropriate to use establishing shots in a trailer, particularly a teaser, which flashes by exceptionally quickly.

Music- Local Artists

"Music helps set the tone and mood of the trailer. Usually the music used in the trailer is not from the film itself (the film score may not have been composed yet). "

- Wikipedia article on Trailers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_(film)

We have started to seriously consider the music we need to use in our teaser trailer, as we want it to convey something both about our characters and the genre of our film, and our target audience. Thus, we wanted the music to feel 'young' and modern- we thought a rap/ hip hop track would probably get this across the best.

We have found a local artist who produces the kind of music we would like to use, D-Mindz. His song Monster is sung from the perspective of a boy who is destroyed by his love for a girl, with lyrics connoting violence and anger,tying in with the drug dealers.



These are the lyrics of the song:

Monster
How should I feel
Creatures lie here
Looking through the window x2

I'm surrounded by the darkness
And the harder that I try to break free the more it tightens on this harness
I try ripping it, it's so sickening
All these creatures in the carpet I'm living in

You tried screaming for help
But I had my hands wrapped round your mouth, I felt frightened of myself
I had your heart in my palm, I can do what I want
So I tear it apart, what I felt necessary

I turned into something I didn't wanna but you made me so cold
And now I'm sitting here, the record's playing, and no one's home and
Hey, I didn't mean to break your heart
We all make mistakes, I'm the one you'll regret forever, babe

Monster
How should I feel
Creatures lie here
Looking through the window x2

You're my poison, you're the toxic, running through my veins,
You're the puppet master with the strings through my brain,
But then I broke free from your hold
You've never seen a hot boy turn this cold

You wrote me a love note to make me feel better
At the bottom of the page, I found blood on the letter,
At the top of the page was a smiley face sulking,
Man, I never knew a girl so insulting

It's all jokes and laughs until you get your hopes smashed by broken glass
And you're sitting on a cloud still floating past
Til the bullets smoke past and don't you crash,
You could try reversing memories
If you went back a century we'd still be enemies
I hate you, but should I keep that a secret or introduce you to this side of the truth?

Monster
How should I feel
Creatures lie here
Looking through the window x2

Take a little bit of heartbreak, a little bit of vodka,
I'm still in love with a bitch called karma,
I got my nails so deep in her flesh,
If I ran, I could rip the heart straight from her chest,

And it's lust with neglect,
I just wanna f*ck you, girl, I don't need your respect
And my attitude is very ugly
And trust me, you wouldn't dare to love me

It must be the drink, it must be the scars,
It must be the girls I find in bars
But I never seem to find the right one,
Somebody dial 911
I hate you, I hate you
I hate you, I hate you
Forever, babe

There is a lot of violent imagery in the song ('But I had my hands wrapped round your mouth, I felt frightened of myself', 'I got my nails so deep in her flesh, If I ran, I could rip the heart straight from her chest') which its in well with the theme of our film.

Webpages

As the third part of our project, we need to create a webpage for our film. I have looked at the webpages for films in the same genre.

Kidulthood (2006)

http://www.tuftweb.com/kidulthood/

This is the homepage of the webpage for Kidulthood, an important film in the teen-drama genre. It is mainly comprised of a large e-poster promoting the DVD release of the film, but at the bottom are tabs such as 'About Kidulthood,' 'Press,' 'Soundtrack' and 'Forum', giving fans of the film a chance to interact with one another and critics of the film a place to post their opinions as well as giving the fans the chance to download songs they heard on the soundtrack. The element of the interactive would make the website attractive to teens, who are the main target audience of the film.

Cherrybomb (2010)

http://www.cherrybombmovie.net/

The homepage for the film Cherrybomb is slightly more basic, probably due to the film being more low budget. However, what is has that the Kidulthood page doesn't is links to social networking websites Facebook and Twitter, allowing teens to connect with the film and share information about it with their friends easily. I think this is a good idea, and one we should utilise on our webpage.

Fish Tank (2009)

http://www.fishtankmovie.com/

The homepage for Fish Tank has both links to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter (as the Cherrybomb site has) and tabs with information 'About The Film', 'DVD Release' and so on (as the Kidulthood page has). This, in my mind, is ideal- when we create our webpage we would want to combine information about the film with links to other sites so that fans can share our information with others.

Posters

"When analysing a poster, you should consider the following broad questions before you start to focus on the details:

What are the main colors used in the poster? What do they connote?
What symbols are used in the poster? Do you need audience foreknowledge to decode the symbols?
What are the main figures/objects/background of the poster? Are they represented photographically, graphically, or illustratively?
Are the messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal, or both?
Who do you think is the intended audience for the poster?"

- http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/Blockbuster/posteranalysis.html

As part of our project, we are required not only to make a film, but a poster and a web page as well. In this post, I am looking at the conventions of a movie poster and the ways in which they are used to attract an audience.

I am going to analyse this poster for Skins. Although it is a TV series, not a film, this poster conveys a kind of darkness that would be ideal for our film. Having a prior knowledge of the series (this poster advertises the second season) I am aware that the girl in the picture has also been embroiled in a love triangle between the boy in the bed and his best friend. However, just from looking at it, you can see that she is vulnerable- both from her make up, which is smudged as though she has been crying, and the fact that she is in her underwear, leaving her exposed. She is also wearing ripped tights, perhaps implying a negligence toward herself. This situation is similar to our character.

The picture is comprised of half naked couples, all kissing or posing in a sexually suggestive manner- only the girl and the boy in the background are not, symbolising loneliness and alienation of a kind. The room is also in a dishevelled state, with the wallpaper hanging off in chunks, which might again represent the state of mind of the girl in the poster. Although foreknowledge isn't particularly necessary to understand the main aims of the poster, those who do have it can understand more quickly the reason for the state of the room and girl (her boyfriend had been hit by a bus in the previous season finale.)

The colours used are all dark- mainly grimy browns and greens. Along with the dishevelled state of the room, this would seem to indicate a grittier setting and implies that the content of the show will not be very picturesque, something we also want to convey in our poster.

This poster does not use the technique of a tagline- it relies on the image to give the impressions it wishes to convey. The gratituous amount of flesh on show indicates a more adult target audience. The show is aimed at the 16-24 age bracket, and the poster, with it's depiction of young, attractive and half naked people fits in with the conventions of this.

Thoughts about shots

This is one of the last shots from the 2003 movie Thirteen. The scene represents the girl, who has escaped from the pressured lifestyle she had previously been involved with (not quite a violent gang, but a rebellious, drug using crowd) letting go of all the negativity in her life up to that point. She is on a merry-go-round (holding on to her childhood innocence?) and screaming, venting her frustrations at the life she chose.

I think a similar shot would make a good opening to our teaser trailer- it would represent Cassie's character ridding herself of the drama that has been surrounding her.






The other images capture some of the tone that we hope to emulate in our work.They include teenagers, mostly lone shots to capture the feeling of isolation, and including a lot of smoking to show their disregard for social taboos and laws, but also some shots of them together to represent their camaraderie.