Film Poster Research reflection

In my UK film I have decided to pursue marketing a biopic of the late Alexander Mcqueen a fashion designer who's renowned for being one of the most avant-garde and controversial fashion designers of all time. I wanted to base my UK film on mcqueen because I feel his work and achievements are an important part of british history, and his story needs to be made aware to much of the population that aren't aware of who he was and why he was so influential. Upon creating my poster I wanted to grasp a feel for the types of films made in the UK and the style in which they gravitate towards. I have found that the majority of the most successful british films are either drama’s, comedy’s or thrillers. Often referring to past events. This being another reason why basing my film on alexander mcqueen would be a good idea. Once I had done an amount of research into understanding the UK industry and the target audience, I felt it was important to start looking at the designs of the top film posters and why it made them successful. One poster that I particularly found that I could use as a major influence in my design is, The King's Speech. I feel the combination of graphics and text works really well to give the audience an understanding of what the film is about, but in a very subtle way. The same technique I want to use in my design. The whole point of a film poster is to essentially sell the film but also give an insight into what to expect. This means I not only need to describe what the films are about but how it will be told, so it is crucial that I include the cast on the poster but also an important image to captivate the audience. Unlike a US poster a UK poster has a simplistic style so I feel I need to use a maximum of one image in front of the poster. Either of Mcqueen himself or something related to his work. E.g a skull, or hologram. I feel the colour palette and style of the poster should not only keep within the target audience to the film, and what is used in other UK films but keeping it relevant to the ongoing brand of mcqueen. I feel a monochrome style with classic fonts could work very well to ensure this. For my US film poster idea I have decided to do an action, drama, directed by and in the style of the coen brothers. The film is based in 2030, Trump is still in power, and has won the trade war. Russia, China, and North Korea combine forces to invade America and it's all about how the Americans have to adapt to reclaim their homeland. The title subsequently being, ‘How To Invade America’, I thought it would be fitting for the title to almost be a joke in itself. In the research stages I looked heavily into what types of films are the most successful. I found that action, comedy and franchises are the most popular genre of films. I decided to take the action comedy route as from my own knowledge, films like Fast and Furious and jumanji, starring actors like The Rock and Kevin Hart are extremely popular, however I wanted to pitch a film that could be, in the future, considered a cult classic, like previous coen films. Once I understood the premise of what I am going to base my film on and the genre it will be, I decided to look at film posters that relate to it. In my research I found that the colour white and red is used heavily in classic comedy films. This is something I want to try and emphasise in my poster, however I feel It would be more fitting to use the colours of the USA flag. I also found that photographs of actors play a heavy role on the poster itself, a stark difference to the UK posters just having one photograph or graphic. However, this is something I want to include on my poster in a grid like format. In my research into US film posters I also noticed almost every poster uses very bright colours and a bold font to draw attention. The design is very busy and maximised with collages. I want to use this idea of bold text on my poster as well in fitting with the actors' photographs around it.