Possible Magazine Cover Photos

Whilst we were out shooting for the magazine cover photo, we tried an array of poses and places so that when it came to the decision process we were not short of choices. Here is a selection of the images which we captured, all with good and bad points.

In this photo there are a number of good points, for instance there is a strong focused expression on each of the girl's faces which depicts their peace of mind and how determined they are in getting themselves out of the situation which they will be immersed into. The girls' proxemics also displays how strong their friendship is. They look like a barrier of resistance which is effective in showing that our film will feature an event that will split them up.

The downfall of this picture however, is that we felt that as there is a lot going on in the background that it could possibly detract from the girls or the text which will be later put on. Furthermore, the shadow on the middle girl's face does not look professional and it is distracting when trying to look at the middle girl's expression.

In terms of location, as a group we preferred this background, we felt like it was a compromise as we knew that we wanted the cover to be placed outside but we noticed that a convention of Total Film was to have a solid or gradient background. This shot shows a block colour however, still outside. In addition, having further analysed magazine covers of the specific film brand we are adopting,  it was confirmed to us that we were not challenging a convention of Total Film as some of their covers feature backgrounds which have relevance to the plot. The significance of this shed is that during the film there would be some action revolved around the middle girl hiding from behind it. Moreover, the scratches on the shed and the girls reinforce the intertwining of youth and the country. 

However, the aspects which we did not like about this photo is that the scratches do not look accidental, also the frame is off balance as there is a gap between the girl on the right and the edge of the shot. 

This is one of the immediately discarded shots, due to the sunlight streaming in from the top of the photograph and the issue that all of the girls are focusing on different things which does not make them look as united as other shots did. Besides the negatives, this photo does work on one level - there is sufficient room for the Total Film title also the girls fit into the frame nicely. 

Once we looked at the shots taken, whilst on set, we knew we preferred the setting and we thought of experimenting with various poses and positioning, this is one of the experimental shots. I think this one is particularly effective as their position (coming closer to the camera) looks very interactive and enticing, however, this picture does not show the middle girl to be the protagonist and two of the girls have their bodies facing to the right of the camera whereas, one of them is towards the camera. Overall, we did not feel that it made them look like a really close-knit group of friends. 

We feel like the positioning of this one is a big improvement on the others as the three of them look really close, in addition, the stance that the two girls at the front took show that they are equal to each other and that they will endure the same experience, unlike the girl placed at the far back. The cons of this image however, is that there is a misplaced blue item of some description on the floor in the bottom left and the image shows too much of the floor, we wanted to use as much of the shot as we could displaying the three characters. It is for those reasons we did not find this one 100% effective.

Lastly, when evaluating this image we felt like it worked in terms of showing that the film is going to be centered around the girl in the middle and that something will happen to her friends. The dirt on the central girl's jump and not on the other two can illustrate that she will become more involved in 'the chase' of the film and therefore reinforces my latter point of the middle girl being central to the plot.We also felt like there was the right amount of spacing left above the girl's heads for the mass market film magazine title, also their facial expressions and body language depicted that of worry and readiness to run.
Overall, we chose this one as it had relevant connotation to our film and we immediately favoured this image admist the rest. The only disadvantage is that the wind swept the girls' hair around which you would not see on an official magazine, unless intended. Also it is a little distracting. However, after discussion we came to the conclusion that between us we have knowledge of how to eradicate all of the little anomalies on Photoshop.