Teaser Poster for Split

Poster Research

I realise I've already started developing my own ideas for my poster, but I thought I should look around for any conventions I could spot...

 

  

Although these are both 'teaser' posters, they are dealing with established franchises - they are well known enough for them to be able to play with how much they give away and still maintain public interest. The Superman poster is a good example of this - all that is shown in his logo. There's no need to give away who else is in the film, or any of the plot, or anything at all - because the fact alone that it features a figure as well known as Superman is enough to get people noticing it. 

So, because my film isn't an established franchise, I'm not too sure I'd have as much creative license with making a teaser poster. 

 

However, as you can see in the teaser poster for Cloverfield above, a catchy enough image could be enough to get noticed. The Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline in the midst of destruction is an almost controversial choice of poster image since the 9/11 attacks - it would definitely get attention. However, it does show that even a film that potentially would go without notice can tease the audience.

Editing

 

Sooo, after filming, I had to sort through all the footage. The image above is taken from just one folder... So you can imagine, I did a lot of sorting. I put it all into Adobe Premiere Pro,

  

and then used the markers to isolate the bits I wanted and drag them onto the timeline.

 

I then cut each individual clip down to about a second (as you can  see on the timeline), in keeping with the fast paced nature of a Thriller trailer. This way, my trailer would be following a number of Thriller conventions, such as the fast cuts, the surrealism, and having little actual indication of the plotline of the film, such as I found in my research.

The music I used in the trailer I found on  

www.freeplaymusic.com 

  

Freeplaymusic is a huge database full of uncopyrighted music. Pretty much perfect for A-Level projects... So, since having to abandon Bob Dylan's Beyond Here Lies Nothing, I found another song - 'Disorder'.... In the end, I think it ended up sounding better than my original choice of song. There's no lyrics to confuse with the action going on onscreen or the message, and it also seems to give it a more grimey feel.

 

Additionally, to keep with the conventions of a trailer I took a print screen of the green approval screen seen on most trailers... However, I realise this claims the film has been approved for American audiences, but I said earlier my film would be British-made. Considering that my film would most likely also be independant - ie, not avliable in most American cinemas, probably (it's hardly a blockbuster) - then this is a bit of a muck-up on my part... If I were doing this properly, I'd have the proper rating screen. Anyway, you can see this at the beginning of the trailer, for conventions-sake.

The guide the narrative of the trailer I made .jpg images to put into the timeline. I tried to make them as simple as possible, because the audience as to read them quickly... 

eg:

  

  

 

And then I spread these out between clips of both normal-Dan and alter-ego-Dan.

Additionally, at the end of the trailer, I used .jpg's again to display the title of the film... 'Split'. The name Split was (I'll admit) pretty spontaneous. However, it's simple and, I think, effective enough to get the message across - that Dan has a 'split' personality.

 

 

To show the two sides, I made two different images with the colours inversed. I then added them multiple times to the timeline, and cut them into different lengths - to give them impression of switching between the two - reflective of the battle between the two personalities, hopefully.