First Draft - ANCILLARY TASK MOVIE POSTER

Fullsize: http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/3535/helfposter.jpg

The idea of the poster was to present the main characters in a mysterious light, whilst also being able to convey the notion of the narrative taking place in a school. This was slightly problematic right from the off-set, the idea of school isn't exactly a frightening one. Schools generally represent normality, education and an area of work. We wanted to be able to accurately depict the idea of the school so the horror elements within the narrative can have a more in-depth effect to the audience, due to the fact the environment doesn't contain any fantasy or out of the world elements. This is what we tried to achieve with this photo.

However there are certain elements which could be worked on. Using exif data (data stored within a photo whenever it is taken, we can see various elements of the photograph. I will be explaining the technical aspects and why the problems that are in the current poster have occurred, and what I will do to better and solve them in the next attempt.

Exif data is stored in the photo and shows us numerous elements. Ranging from the camera used down to the colour encoding and even the date (Only shows date inputted on the camera itself, so it may be wrong). First I want to talk about the lens. I used a 28mm lens since at the moment it is the lowest focal length I had. Ideally I would've used a 16mm wide angle in order to take up more of the walls surrounding the subjects in order to give the photo more depth. This would allow the characters to stand out further and be more centered within the frame. It would also give me more space to work with when adding elements to the photo, such as titles and extras. However wide angle lenses are out of my price range, so for my next attempt I will be using the same lens. This brings me to my next point which would be the exposure time and ISO. Exposure time is a term that describes the way a photo is taken, which is essentially a shutter moving from a closed to an open position to expose the sensor. The longer the shutter is open, the more photons and light are absorbed by the sensor, therefore in dark environments, such as the environment the photo was taken, in order to get the perfect exposure the shutter speed would have to be slower. I didn't have a tripod on that day so camera shake was a bit of a worry, however there is no visible shake or distortion in the photo. Since I didn't have a tripod I had to make a compromise; ISO is another term for sensor sensitivity, i.e how much light it takes in. If an ISO is very high, the sensor will take in more light, as you can see in the image above the ISO was set to 6100, which is almost the maximum ISO. However there is a drawback, high ISO leads to alot of noise in the photos. This is clearly visible, not only does it make the photo look unimpressive and lack detail, in a way it completely ruins the immersion the audience may have when viewing the poster. Most cameras have native ISO, when a camera is used at it's native ISO the image quality is generally the best the camera can offer. I will use ISO 100 at my next attempt in order to get more quality out of the photo. This means that I would have to increase the shutter time so the photo can be exposed perfectly, so it will require the subjects to remain very still for a considerable amount of time.

Another issue with the photo is that school corridors are generally plain and unexciting or appealing to the eye. Apart from choosing another environment, I will have to add various photoshop effects in order to make the photo appealing, but not over do it so the realistic and grounded elements of the film are not mistaken for fantasy and imaginative ideas.

--Elias