Poster Photoshop

We chose this image of underneath a fly-over to be the background image of our poster because it is a prominent image which is continually seen in our trailer. This makes the image part of a recurring theme between our poster and trailer. 

In photoshop, I increased the brightness and contrast of the image as the original was too dark meaning the viewer would be unable to see certain parts of the image.

I then added the title of our film, 'Straits', using the same typeface from the trailer (Nova). Although not used in our final poster (bottom), I experimented by bringing the lamp post in from of the title. I did this by reducing the opacity of the title layer in order to erase the parts in front of the lamp post. I also added the billing block at the bottom of the image which was also originally made for our teaser trailer, again using the same typeface to ensure continuity. 

These two images show how I used the 'magic wand tool' to select the appropriate parts of the production companies' logos we used. By erasing the background parts of the logo, the images looked more professional and were able to fit better on the poster in general.

I then added reviews to the upper part of the poster in different font sizes which conformed to the conventions of film posters we researched. I reduced the opacity of the reviews in order to make the title stand out more by making them less visually prominent. 

I also added the tagline of our film, "Where do you run if you can't run strait?". I chose to split the tagline into two parts and placed the two parts above and below the title, again conforming to some existing film posters in the urban drama genre. 

I was eager to emphasise the two vibrant blue areas of sky towards the right and left areas of the background image. In many film posters of the urban drama genre, a vivid colour is often used to break up the often dark and gloomy background image. By selecting the two areas of blue sky in the original background image, and by altering its brightness and contrast levels, I was able to accentuate the small yet striking parts of blue sky, adding general aesthetic to the poster.

I then added the line "This summer debts will be paid" at the bottom of the poster, under the billing block. This tells the viewer approximately when the film is due to be released but also ties in with both the urban drama genre of our film and the basic plot of our film.

I also rearranged the billing block so that it was more aesthetically pleasing and so it allows other images and texts to fit better. 

This is the original image of our film's protagonist which acts as the main image of the poster on top of the background image layer. 

I again used the 'magic select tool' as well as the 'background eraser tool' to carefully remove the background of the original image. The protagonist's hood was made less bright by reducing the brightness and contrast levels as in later stages of the poster's production, it was interfering with the tagline which was a very similar colour to that of the hood in the original image.

The images show how the title of the film, the tagline(s) and the main image of the protagonist were altered in size to properly fit the area of the poster. I also rearranged the layers so that the image of the protagonist was in front of the film's title but still behind the lower part of the tagline. This gives the poster more depth and also conforms to the conventions of a film poster of the urban drama genre. 

The film's 15 certificate, made on photoshop with shapes, was added to the bottom right hand side of the poster. 

This is an image of our final poster for our film. 

I added the Facebook logo and the film's promotional Facebook web address as social media links to the film.