The aim of this reflective blog, is to go over my design decisions throughout the different assignments that have been involved with creative futures as a module. Starting with my film poster and ending with my showreel, each decision I made was based off of industry research and personal preference, but I also had my future and career direction in mind.
The first task I faced when starting the creative futures module, was surrounding the film poster, for my short film, ‘ACE’. I had not decided on that name as of this time, but never the less I had to start thinking and researching on the kind of posters I thought were impactful or meaningful to me. This decision was split into multiple aspects of film poster design, the first being the style of poster I wanted to go for. I was doing some digging into the styles of posters in films that I liked, knew or recognised. Some that came up were as follows, ‘Mean Streets‘, Martin Scorsese and ‘Jaws’, Steven Spielberg. These posters are seen below.
These films posters are all examples that have stuck with me since my first sight of them, due to them all being so effective. The poster design for ‘Mean Streets’, by Martin Scorsese, is an effective one because of the style in which it has been made. This is minimalist, silhouette design, using basic shapes to create what looks like a series of buildings in a busy, smoky city, only to realise that the message conveying the title is in the poster itself. A revolver pistol is taking the place of one of these buildings, and instead of smoke due to polluting or fog, this is from a smoking gun. I love the idea of replacing an element of an object or scene with something out of the ordinary, but still making it fit in with the overall poster layout. Using what’s out of the ordinary as some from of foreshadowing. In this case, Martin Scorsese uses the smoking gun to speak to the audience and tell them that it isn’t called mean streets for nothing, even showing a woman in the window right next to the barrel, maybe even showing a possible victim of this weapon. In my case, I would love to take inspiration from this design through the same idea of foreshadowing with an object that replaces something that should usually be visible in the scene. For my design, this was going to be the in the smoke trail of the Jet. At the end of my short film, ‘ACE’, our protagonist is transported back to reality from whatever dream he was having. In this ending scene, a heart monitor noise is audible, which matched the tone of the missile lock alarm in the cockpit of the jet, before waking up. My idea is that, I will replace the normal smoke trail of the jet with the pattern of a heart monitor. Therefore, foreshadowing the fact that our protagonist didn’t make it out scratch free.
The next example I was looking to for inspiration, was the poster for ‘Jaws’, by Steven Spielberg. This poster has given me inspiration when it comes to the flow of the eye in the poster. Upon first looking at it, you are drawn to the highly contrasted, blood red, all capital lettering that makes up the title. since there is nothing but white space above the title, the eyes are forced down again, landing on the raised hand of the naked lady. The eyes are there forced down once more, due to their being still only white space above the lady, to the blue water. This is where the eye is forced to lay on the contrast of the shark, leading to the teeth in the shark’s mouth. The curved positioning of these teeth bring the eye upwards again, back to the lady. Which tells us that the the shark is moving up, towards her. The effectiveness of this poster is therefore brought about by the use of contrast and the flow of the eye from top, to bottom and then back up again. This is something that I intend to use in the creation of my short film poster. Using the capital lettering of the title, contrasting with the empty colour of the backdrop on the top of the poster, It will direct the eye to the title first and then down, away from the empty space. This will lead them to the contrast of the jet in the sky, allowing them to see the continuation of detail contrasting the sky behind the jet, which is the heart monitor pattern. The length and direction of this heart monitor pattern is flowing downwards, as it represents the smoke trail of a jet to the human eye. Therefore, the pattern brings it downwards to the contrast of the mountainous silhouettes, giving the audience a hint at the terrain, and due to the colour of the mountains, maybe even a location in which the film is taking place.
The next thing I needed to concern myself with in the creative futures module, is the physical display materials I would use for the end of year show. I needed to figure out what props were out there that I could use to enhance my display, but not distract from the film and other materials laid out on the desk around the monitor. To me, this stood out at accessories or item which point towards flying as a profession. These would be items that also would count as accessories towards a regular, commercial pilot, and also perhaps an air force pilot. After some researching, I discovered that one thing which is present as a symbol amongst flying is your wings. These would come in the form of a badge and is seen in both air force and commercial flying. An example of these are seen below.
More item which associated with pilots were flight logs and stripes, there were referring to their uniform’s stripes. I have a good friend who I currently attending flight school to be a commercial pilot. When I asked him for help with providing any sort of props, he provided me with all of the above. I attained a set of pilots silver sings, a flight log book, a flight chart manual and uniform stripes. These would make my display pop with accessories that complimented the film’s theme. I also wanted a cover for my displays desk, to make it match somewhat with the colours of kaki or tan, like in the desert terrain where my film takes place. It would also relate to the visual of war or military, once again matching the theme. This problem was solved by purchasing a camouflage cover, which is used to hide in a shooting den or hut when hunting in forests. When spread out, it reaches 1.5 x 2 metres in size, making it perfect for the size of the tables used for our displays in the university rooms. Some pictures of my display with the props added are seen below.
Airway Manual, with Flight Charts inside, and Stripes from a pilot’s uniform.
Pilot Logbook and Wings badge.
CV and a paper cut-out which resembles the 8 x 6 inch artbook and where is will be displayed.
For my CV and showreel, I was focused on being careful about what pieces of work I would want to display first, for any potential employers. Part of this decision was to show my projects that I completed at GRAHAM group, over my placement year. This was so I showed the most professional work first and also showed the fact that I completed many projects, that were of very high value to a company which is largely successful and established in the UK, Ireland and Europe. I then decided that my final film material should be shown first in the showreel, instead of the GRAHAM projects. This is because I personally believe that my final film, ‘ACE’, is the best looking work I have produced so far. Putting my best work first, visually, is the most important aspect of completing the showreel. This also insures that Unreal Engine work is shown before anything else, this attracts the eyes of specific employers who want to see any technical and visual skills when it comes to Unreal Engine, which would match perfectly to my desired career direction, as I am interested in virtual production the most and Unreal Engine has a massive part to play in that sector of the industry.
The artbook was, to me, an important part of the end of year show display, giving visitors a chance to delve deeper into the work behind my final short film. I used it as an opportunity to showcase the start to finish of assets and, more importantly to me, a look into the process which allowed me to use metahuman animator with my own, scanned, facial expressions through motion capture in the form of the ‘Live Link Face’ app. I did this by showcasing a screenshot of the metahuman performance editor in unreal engine, with a specific frame being shown in the take which matched the facial expression I was making for the animation to track. I then showed the finished result of the facial expression when processed, used on a metahuman and rendered, on the right side of the two page spread. Completing multiple page spreads showing this process in the book was important to me, as it shows the visitors and potential employers where my interests lie. Therefore, choosing the material to be shown in the artbook was very much geared towards my aspired career direction, linking to one of my career interests that I mentioned in my CV, motion capture.
Overall, My time completing the creative futures module has been extremely useful, helping to identify the career path I would want for myself and learning how to gear my industry facing materials towards the employers that I would have the desire to work with one day. Giving me skills and knowledge on how to best present myself and how much effort really needs to be put into something like a CV, film poster, showreel or artbook. All things that I would have paid less attention to in the past, are now at the forefront of my mind when it comes to the Film making pipeline.