2. Concert Crime
Genre
The genre of this film is crime because it is about gangs and a kidnapping takes place at the beginning of the film.
It also falls under the action category because it involves fight scenes.
Synopsis
Lil Hacky, the world-famous rapper is walking home from his concert in Newcastle late at night with his
headphones in listening to loud music when two gang members begin to follow him. They follow him for a little
while until they finally catch up and push Lil Hacky onto the ground where he is knocked unconscious. He wakes
up in a dark room tied to a chair and notices he has been drugged by the gang members, he is dizzy and his sight
is blurry and sound is muffled. He can hear the two gang members talking but as his vision clears up they leave
the room. In panic, he attempts to break free from the chair with force. When that fails, he notices a loose screw
on the chair which he uses to remove the rope tied to his hands. As he unties the rope around his legs, the gang
members return to the room. This leads to Lil Hacky fighting for his freedom and he comes out on top by using his
surroundings to his advantage.
3. I chose a Zombieland: Double Tap poster because it is a relatively recent film
which fits the same genre as Concert Crime. The target audience for this film
based on this advertisement is both men and women over the age of 18 of
social grades E-C1 who are into violent and chaotic films. This is shown due to
the fact that the main characters are all holding some sort of weapon therefore
suggesting it’s aimed at an older and more mature audience. The fact that the
cast is a mix of both males and females suggests that the film is aimed at both
males and females and it will features things in the film that both males and
females would typically relate to and associate themselves with. The fire and
smoke in the background further proves that the film contains a lot of violence
with intense scenes including explosions and guns.
The preferred reading of this poster as intended by the producers is that these
four brave characters work together to fight off zombies ultimately causing a lot
of mayhem as seen in the background. However, the audience may react
differently to as intended. The oppositional reading of this poster could be to
do with the fact that all of the main cast are white. This could lead to the
audience rejecting the preferred reading and believing the poster is racist.
Other things such as the fact that the poster features weapons and explosions
could make the audience believe the film is inappropriate because it promotes
violence and crime. Another thing that could confuse the audience is that the
film title suggests it’s a zombie movie but there are actually no zombies
featured in the poster. This is because the audience are expected to watch the
first movie before this one to understand the plot of the movie.
4. Spenser Confidential is about an ex-cop fighting crime with his roommate after two cops were
murdered. I chose Spenser Confidential to analyse because it links closely to my film due to
the fact that it fits the same action/crime/gang genre. The target audience of this film based
on the poster is mainly men over the age of 18. This is because both characters in the poster
are male and they are holding guns which are suitable for more mature audiences. Like
Zombieland, it is aimed at people of social grades E-C1 who are most likely to enjoy
violent/crime films and films that are maybe a bit immature. The use of Post Malone’s full
name in the credits shows that this is targeting people who are fans of hip hop music (at least
enough to know that Austin Post is Post Malone.)
On this poster, the things that stand out are the yellow theme as well as the lowrider they are
crouched in front of. Both of these things can link to gang warfare because the yellow theme
could be a signature gang colour and lowriders are stereotypically used by gangs and criminals.
The poster also includes actor names at the top including Austin Post (known better as Post
Malone) who is a famous hip-hop artist. That genre of music is loosely linked to gangs/crime
due to its history. Therefore, using Post Malone in the film brought a lot of hip-hop fans who
are likely to enjoy a film like this. The tagline above the title of the film implies there’s a lot of
action in the film. ”The law has limits” links to the fact that Spenser is an ex-cop and knows the
law well, while “They don’t” implies that he doesn’t care anymore and is willing to go further
than what the law allows.
The preferred reading of this poster intended by the director/producers is that this is a film
about violence and gang warfare, shown by the guns, cars, colour scheme, and blood on
Spenser’s face. However, the oppositional readings of this poster could be that the film is
sexist as there are no female leads shown in the poster. As well as that, the film could be
considered racist due to the fact that the white character is positioned in front of the black
character. It could also imply that the white character in the poster is ‘braver’ or possibly even
‘weaker’ due to the fact he has blood on his face whereas Hawk doesn’t.
5. From this research I can take away that posters are good for showing the genre and plot of a
film. My competitors have used posters to successfully reach their target audience with
Zombieland making $122.8 million box office and Spenser Confidential making $85 million
box office. Therefore, it is clear that posters are very effective towards people aged around
18 or over and social grades E-C1. This is very close to my target audience therefore I believe
I should also use posters to advertise my film.
6. I created a short survey to hand out to 10 random people that I
thought would be most likely to interact with my film.
Question 1
I asked how old and what gender they were to get a general idea on
whether age or gender has an impact on what films they like. Everyone
who answered was between 16 and 18 and there were 60% male, 40%
female.
Question 2
I asked how they have discovered new films or posters in the past so I
would have any idea of where to advertise my film to gain the most
attraction. Every answer was related to the internet and social media,
so this leads me to believe that posting my posters on a social media
account would be beneficial.
Question 3
I asked what their favourite genres of film were. The most common
answers were horror, action, adventure and crime. This is good for me
because my two film genres were both mentioned at least three times
which means the genres of my film are in somewhat high demand right
now meaning it has more chance of being successful. Horror was the
most popular one though so I could possibly give my posters a spooky
aspect to them. The film itself is supposed to be scary in a way so
horror loosely fits in.
7. Question 4
I asked if they had ever changed their mind in seeing a film they didn’t
originally like the look of. 70% said yes and 30% said no. When asked
why, the answers were mainly due to posters, social media and
friends/family. This gives me hope that posters on social media will
make people want to see my film if they previously decided they don’t
want to. As well as this, I could maybe caption the poster with
something like ‘Share with your friends!’ so that friends and family
share it between each other.
Question 5 & 6
I asked if they liked crime and action films. 80% said yes to action while
20% said no, and 60% said yes to crime leaving 40% saying no. There is
definitely more of a market on the action side of the film so maybe
somehow I can incorporate that into the posters. ¾ people who said
they didn’t like crime films were female, so maybe I could approach the
posters with crime in mind but direct it a bit more towards men.
8. Audience Profile
Psychographics
My film is mainly aimed at people who enjoy films under the action/gang genres.
The watcher should ideally like things such as:
● fight scenes
● mix of fast-paced and slow-paced scenes
● intense music
● jump scares
● some kind of emotional connections to characters.
Demographics
My film is targeted towards:
● people of any race
● people of any gender, although since the fanbase for action films is largely male-dominated the film is slightly aimed towards men, but
suitable for any gender
● people aged 15-24 because statistically 15-24 year olds are the most likely people to watch action films. (Source:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-audiences-2015-11.pdf)
● english-speaking people
Social grades
My film is suitable for any social grade, but mainly targeted towards D-C1 since they are most likely to relate to characters and most likely to
see the film in cinemas or buy/rent it.
9. Ideas for the theme of my posters
This colour scheme feels way
too bright and upbeat for the
theme of my film. I want to
keep it dark and mysterious to
fit to the crime with aspects of
horror.
While this colour scheme is
darker, it feels quite boring and
bland. I want more of an iconic
colour scheme to it rather than
just black and white.
I decided I like this colour
scheme because the red fits
with the action genre as it
relates to violence and blood. I
like the white because it can be
used to stand out from the red.
This is the first font I looked at, but it’s
too cartoony and childish to use in a
crime film. I want something that’s more
serious.
This font is a lot more serious than the
last one, but it feels to medieval and
old-fashioned so I decided not to use
this.
I decided to go with this font because I
think it fits really well with the crime
genre and it feels more modern and
serious compared to the previous fonts.
10. POSTER 1 INITIAL IDEAS
● Red and white theme with Blacklisted font go well together and I think fit the theme of the
film
● Dominant image of Matthew with his hood up looking hidden and mysterious
● Tagline of something along the lines of “Have you seen Lil Hacky?” or “Where is Lil Hacky?”
● Background should be something that fits the dominant image, somewhere dark and
mysterious where people wouldn’t normally be - maybe an alley or some sort of
abandoned building or something
I set up a focus group of 3 people to ask what they think of my poster ideas and I will use this
focus group for all 3 poster initial ideas.
I asked my focus group what think about these ideas and they said they found them compelling
and intriguing. They said it fits the crime genre well and the tagline is a good way of gaining
attraction to my film.
Dominant image (main character,
hood up, can’t see face, lowkey
lighting, covers full page)
“Coming to cinemas” (red/white,
Blacklisted font)
Release date (white, Blacklisted)
Title (red, Blacklisted font)
Tagline (white, Blacklisted)
Billing block
This flat plan challenges typical codes and
conventions for action films by hiding the main
characters face in the poster. Most action films
won’t do this because the main character is
always a big deal and wants their face to be
recognised.
11. 1. I started by looking through
all the photos I took of Matthew
that were saved to my SD card
and decided on this one.
2. Next, I cropped out the
background from the picture
with the quick selection tool.
3. I found a free-to-use picture
of an alleyway to use as the
scenery of the poster, to make it
look eerie and suspicious, and I
put both this and the picture of
Matthew onto a new A4 canvas.
4. I began to play around with
what it should look like, and I
ended up adding a black bar
using the rectangle tool beneath
the picture as a place to put the
title, some text and a billing
board.
12. 5. I also added a drop shadow
and inner shadow to the picture
of Matthew.
6. I added the title of the film
using the Blacklisted font and
added an inner shadow to make
it look nice.
7. Below the title, I added text saying “Where is
Lil Hacky?” to create suspense about the film
and used the Blacklisted font again.
8. At the top of the poster,
I added some text showing
the release date of the film.
The release date is in a
bigger font than “Coming
to cinemas” because it
needs to stand out more.
9. Finally, I found a billing
board online and added it
to my poster at the
bottom.
This was my final result.
14. POSTER 2 INITIAL IDEAS
Dominant image (main character,
powerful pose to show dominance)
Title (red/white, Blacklisted font)
Release date (red)
Billing block
This flat plan mainly sticks to typical codes and
conventions of action films by using an image of
the main character that shows dominance and
power. This is typical because usually the main
character in action films is seen as powerful and
superior.
● Continue the red/white + Blacklisted font theme because the more I use that the more
people will associate it with my film
● I want the dominant image of Matthew to show some sort of dominance, as if the posters
are progressing after each one just like a film would
● “Where is Lil Hacky?” tagline
● In my initial ideas for the first poster I explored a couple options for a background including
an abandoned building which I want to be in my second poster because it links closely to
crime and action
I asked my focus group what they thought about these ideas and one pointed out that I could
maybe remove the “Where is Lil Hacky?” tagline to fit with the poster progression thing I’m
doing, which they liked. They said there’s no point in asking where Lil Hacky is because at this
point in the film where he has dominance and power that question is irrelevant. Therefore, I
decided to remove the tagline for this poster. Another person mentioned that maybe I could add
a weapon of some sort to show power and violence to fit the action genre a little bit more, since
my posters so far have been mainly sticking to the crime genre.
15. 1. I started by my second poster
by finding a picture of Matthew
from my SD card, and decided
on this one because it gives off
powerful energy, so I cropped
Matthew out of the background
using the lasso crop tool and I
added a royalty free gun image
in his hand to show power and
violence. I got a lot of audience
feedback on the gun about the
size and position of it until I
finally decided on this.
2. I began the poster by finding a royalty free image of an
abandoned church and I pasted it onto an A4 page on
photoshop. I resized it to make it fit on the the page how I
wanted it to.
3. I pasted the picture of Matthew onto my poster and put him at
the bottom of the page since his legs were cut off. I also added a
drop shadow in the blending options to make it blend in a bit
better.
4. I then added a rectangle using the shape tool at the
bottom to fit in the billing block and release date so I
moved the picture of Matthew up.
5. I downloaded a billing block template to fill
in myself and give credit to everyone involved
in the production.
Source: http://www.tipsquirrel.com/movie-
poster-credit-template-for-photoshop/
16. 6. I experimented with text for the title of the film. I initially chose the Blacklisted font with a white and red theme. I
chose the Blacklisted font (source: https://www.dafont.com/blacklisted.font) because I liked it in the first poster I
made and using the same font across multiple posters would possibly make people recognize that they are the same
film because fonts and colours are more memorable than names sometimes. I experimented a bit more and decided
to add a glow to ”Crime” because I felt like it didn’t stand out enough. As well as that, I moved the words closer
together to make ”Crime” overlap “Concert”
7. The last thing I added was the release date. Since I really liked the
red with white glow on the “Crime” text I decided to use it again for the
release date, but make it smaller and put it above the billing block.
18. POSTER 3 INITIAL IDEAS
● Again I want to continue the white/red and Blacklisted font theme
● I want another picture of dominance of Matthew, maybe with his arms crossed
● The background should be outside to show freedom as the final poster, at night time if
possible to fit the crime genre
I asked my focus group what they thought of these ideas and they said that the progression in
the posters has paid off well and they like it. One mentioned that I could add a weapon again like
in the last poster, but I turned this idea down because the point is that Lil Hacky is free and
doesn’t need a weapon of any kind anymore. Apart from that there wasn’t a whole lot of
feedback for this one so I decided to stick to my initial ideas.
Dominant image (main character,
arms crossed)
Title (dark red, Blacklisted font)
Billing block
This flat plan sticks mainly to typical codes and
conventions for action film posters. The
dominant image is the main character with their
arms crossed which shows some sort of power
and superiority which is normally how the main
characters of action films are intended to be
viewed.
19. 1. I started by
creating a new A4
Photoshop
document to make
sure it’s the correct
dimensions.
2. From my flat plans of the
poster, I wanted a picture of
Matthew stood confidently to
show no fear in him. Until I get the
picture, I decided to use a
silhouette of someone stood there
for now. I also found an image to
use as the background.
3. I used the quick selection tool to remove the
background and added a stroke to it to hide the white
outline on the image.
4. I added a title to the poster, using
the same red theme with the
Blacklisted font as I used on the other
2 posters, which will help the audience
recognize the film. I went a bit off-
track here from my flat plans and
decided to separate the title above
and below the silhouette. I slightly
adjusted the silhouette’s positioning
to make this work.
5. I used a billing block template,
filled it out and put it at the
bottom of the poster. I decided
not to use the black background
to make it look a bit cleaner and
take up less space on the poster.
6. I decided to move “Concert”
behind the silhouette as well as
moving everything down a bit
because I wanted to add actor
names at the top of the poster. I
moved Concert behind the
silhouette because it makes
“Crime” stand out a bit more
which I like. I did this by moving
the layer of “Concert” beneath
the layer of the silhouette.
7. Finally, I added the actor names at the
top of the poster. I continued using the
blacklisted font and I experimented a bit
with the layout and colours before I
decided on this, which was achieved
using drop shadows and outer glows:
21. FINAL POSTERS 1, 2 AND 3
I asked for feedback from my focus group on all 3 of my posters, and these are the notes that stood out to me most:
● The colour scheme in the words “Concert Crime” are inconsistent. It’s all red on the first poster, white then red on the second, then red
then white on the third.
● The third poster doesn’t have a release date.
● The release date is hard to spot in the second poster.
● The second and third poster don’t have a tagline unlike the first one.
They also mentioned things based on reception theory:
● An oppositional reading of the film could be that it’s
racist or sexist due to the only character being a white
male.
There really isn’t a lot I could do about this though because
the poster is the main character in the film.
22. FINAL POSTERS 1, 2 AND 3
I decided to keep the first poster the same because from my feedback everyone seemed happy with the poster as do I. However, I decided to
add a tagline to the second and third as well as a release date, and swap the colours around in the text on my third poster to match the second
one. Here are my final designs.
