A2 media transition project

1. Media A2 Transition Project

2. My Chosen Director
• After researching all of the directors on the list we were given, I
decided to look at a film directed by Stanley Kubrick.
• Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter,
producer, cinematographer and editor born on July 26th 1928 and
died on March 7th 1999, aged 70.
• He started out as a photographer in New York City, and taught
himself all aspects of film production and directing.
• He was well-known within the film industry for braking new ground
in cinematography, including using innovative visual effects and
scientific realism in ‘2001: Space Odyssey’ and the use of a
steadicam in ‘The Shining’.
• While some of his films were controversial with mixed reviews, such
as ‘Paths of Glory’ (1957), ‘Lolita’ (1962) and ‘A Clockwork Orange’
(1971), most of his films were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes
or BAFTAs.
• He is considered one of the ‘great masters’ that America has
produced.

3. My Chosen Film
• I looked at all the films directed by Stanley Kubrick, I decided to use
‘Lolita’.
• Lolita was released in 1962, and was Kubrick’s first attempt at a
black comedy. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name
written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1955.
• Plot Summary: Humber Humbert, a divorced British professor of
French literature, travels to small-town America for a teaching
position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with
Charlotte Haze, his widowed landlady, whom he married in order
that he might pursue the woman’s 14 year old flirtatious daughter,
Lolita, with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, but whose
affections shall be thwarted by a devious trickster named Clare
Quilty.

4. The Original Poster
Main tag
Title of film (in a line.
different font, size and
colour to tag line to
show the difference
between the two).
Red heart shape sunglasses
and a red lollipop are both
used on the poster image
because they are featured
throughout the film and help
show the personality of the
main character.
Age certificate for the film
(18 and over).
Film credits including the main
actors and actresses, director and
producer.
The original film poster for
the 1962 black comedy used
one simple extreme close-up
of the lead actress Sue Lyon
as the title character Lolita.
She is wearing her heart
shaped sunglasses and
eating a lollipop, both of
which feature repeatedly
throughout the film. The
main colour used in the
poster is red (glasses,
lollipop and lips) which is
often associated with danger
and danger is a key theme in
the film. Because there is no
background the red stands
out against the pale skin
colour.
One of the first things I did after deciding
on the film Lolita was to research the
original poster or posters used when it was
first released. I found that there was one
main poster used.

5. Re-makes of The Film & Their Posters
• Whilst researching the film I learnt that there had been several re-makes.
The most well-known of the re-makes is the 1997 version starring Jeremy
Irons, Dominique Swain and Melanie Griffith that was directed by Adrian
Lyne. I had to take into account the poster used for this film when
designing mine.
Cast of the film
Quotes/reviews
Film title
Two main
characters.
Red used on the
title/main characters
name to suggest
danger.
Red heart sunglasses used
throughout the film and
featured on the original
poster.

6. Original Trailer
• I watched the original trailer for Lolita several
times once deciding it was the film I wanted to
use. The trailer was a clip of continuous short
shots of the lead character from the film. The
shots used gives the audience an insight into
the kind of character she is and her
personality. To help me with my poster, I took
screenshots of most the scenes used.

8. Poster Ideas
After looking at the
original posters and
trailers used for the film
when it was released in
1962, I found some
images of things I might
want to include in my
modern-day version of
the poster. A lot of the
images are based on
scenes used in the 1962
trailer, and most them
have the colour red in
them somewhere. This
is because the original
poster included a lot of
red, and it is a colour
often associated with
danger-which is one of
the key themes with the
film.

9. First Poster Ideas
• To begin with, I created a few different poster
designs (either without images or with images
I found on the internet) to see what sort of
design/outline I could for the final poster.
They started off quite simple, and then by
adding things and swapping and changing
other things I found a few designs that I liked.
This helped me a lot with the creation of a
final outline/outlines for my poster.

10. The main tag line of the
film.
The title of the film in a
font I found online.
An image I got off google that
resembled a scene/image from
the original trailer.
Film credits that appear on the
majority of modern film posters.
A plain red background
because the original
poster focuses on the
colour red.
This was my first real attempt at creating a film poster, which is why it is very
simple and basic. I hadn’t really researched what modern film posters look like or
thought much about how it should be laid out. I also didn’t really make use of the
photoshop and fireworks programmes available to me which resulted in a boring
and simplistic design.

11. Two of the main cast of
the film.
The main tag line of the film
in a font I found online.
The main image of red heart-shaped
sunglasses that are an
iconic part of the film.
Critics reviews/comments
about the film that I got off
google images.
Film
credits.
Awards that the film/cast has
won.
After doing a lot more research into current film posters and things that they
typically include, I came up with this design. There were some elements of the
first poster that I wanted to include, for example the theme of red running
throughout the poster and the film credits. As well as this, by researching I
found that a lot of modern day film posters don’t actually include any people,
just objects that feature heavily in the film. I also found they the majority of
them include reviews/comments from film critics, and awards that the film or
the cast and crew have been nominated for or won.

12. Final Designs
• After making a few different mock ups, I came
up with two main ideas that I would eventually
choose from. I decided that I would either use a
close up of my model or a long/full body shot of
her lying down. I created one basic
design/outline for each idea.

13. This was the
design I was
going to use if I
decided on a
long/full length
shot of my
model. I
arranged all of
the text on the
poster on the
left hand side of
the page so that
the image could
go on the right
hand side.
Acting
credits
Space for the
full length
image of my
model
Awards won/
nominated for
Main tag
line
Quotations
from critics
Title of the film
Film credits/billing
block

14. This was the design I
was going to use if I
decided on a close
up photo of my
model. It has mostly
the same stuff on as
the other design I
created, but
everything is more
centred because the
image would be
placed in the middle
of the poster.
Acting
credits
Main
tag line
Director
credits
Film credits/billing
block
Quotations
from critics
Age
certificate
Film
title

15. Photographs
• I took a lot of different types of shots of my model from various
different camera angles, but these were the most successful one
that I thought were most suitable for the poster.
• I knew that if I used a close up shot I would most likely delete the
background, so for these photos I tried to find a plain background.
• For the long shot/full length shot I just used my garden as the
background because I knew I could use Photoshop to edit the grass
to make it look better.
• One part of the original poster that I wanted to keep was the
sunglasses. I couldn’t find any heart shaped sunglasses so instead I
just used plain red glasses.
• I told my model what kind of photos I wanted and the personality
of the character, and showed her the original posters and trailer.
These helped us decide what her make-up, hair and clothes should
look like in the picture.

17. Image Editing
Once I decided on a design and an image, I had to edit them to make them
work together properly. I decided to use the design for the close-up but with
a full length image. I wanted to use the grass as a background for the poster
but I couldn’t stretch the image to make it fit across the whole poster without
stretching the model. Instead, I used photoshop to edit another version of the
same photo. I used the clone stamp tool to delete part of the model and
replace it with grass. This meant that I could simply use 3 separate photos to
create the grass background rather than stretching one.

18. Final Poster