Slides

Last updated 08/10/2012

Introduction

This wiki page aims to inform you of how to produce slides for the LCD screen and pre-show slideshows, including functional organisation, best practices, and design requirements. Please note that the information in here will be subject to change. You will be informed of any changes via the mailing list. If you have any questions, please contact the Marketing Officer: marketingofficer@filmsoc.warwick.ac.uk

Please read this page carefully, as we cannot use any slides which do not adhere to these guidelines. Please do not edit the "Organisation" or "Basics" sections without the permission of the Marketing Officer, but do feel free to add to the Tips section, especially if you find a useful resource.

Organisation

The Marketing Officer will decide how to assign slides before each term. This will be distributed via the mailing list.

Please aim to make your slide and send it to the mailing list for comments at least two full weeks before the film being advertised is shown. This leaves a week for changes to be made in response to feedback, and then the slide can be put in the slideshow a week before the showing. Marketers who repeatedly fail to submit slides in time may risk not being allocated slides in the future.

Please bear in mind that we work to a professional standard at WSC – slides which do not adhere to the highest standards cannot be used. If you would like a personal training session on how to produce the best quality slides, this can be arranged with the Marketing Officer, though if you make sure you follow all the guidelines below, you should be fine :)

For every slide you finish, you will be rewarded with one free film credit. This will be assigned to your University ID card so you can use it at one of our showings. If you complete five slides in one term, you will be given Crew status for the whole of the rest of the term, up to the same week number of the following term, which allows you and a guest to get into all the films for free!

Slide Basics

Slides are static (i.e. non-animated) images, which must be exactly 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels tall. You should save your final slide image as a .png file, or a high-quality .jpeg, but make sure to keeps the editable source of your file (i.e. the PowerPoint or Photoshop [etc.] file you used to make the slide), so that changes can easily be made.

You should not place any text or logos within 50 pixels (approximately) of the edge of the slide. This is partly because the edges can get cut off by the cinema projector, and also because the cinema projector can cause images to be slightly blurry towards the edges. Background images should go all the way to the edges, though.

Every slide must contain at least the following:

-The title of the film, preferably the official logo used on posters, etc., if possible. Make sure to remove backgrounds from logo text using whatever image editing tools you are comfortable with - I like the Magic Wand tool in Fireworks, for example. Ensure the edges don't end up jagged and there are no artefacts of the background. For most films, it is fairly easy to find high-quality logos using Google Images. If you are having difficulty locating a high-quality logo, try checking the Publicity Drive. Failing that, recreate the logo by finding a matching font and using gradient fills, bevel, etc. to match it.

-The day and time(s) of the film showing(s). The day (e.g. Monday), times in 24-hour format (e.g. 18:30 and 21:30), and Week number should be included. Do not use a full date (e.g. 13th October) UNLESS it is a special event like an AllNighter. Check with the Marketing Officer if in doubt. It would be great if you could style your font to look similar to the font/style used in the movie’s title, or if you could otherwise theme the font according to the genre of the film.

-Warwick Student Cinema logo. This is available in white or black by default and is included in the slide resources pack linked to at the end of this document. Feel free to modify the colouring and styling to suit the film if you want, but please do not modify the shape or design of it. The size of the logo should be 266x295 pixels (width x height) if space allows (if using the PowerPoint template, the logos are already the correct size), so that it is consistent across most of the slides, though you can shrink it if you’re having trouble fitting everything in. Use a drop-shadow effect to make the logo stand out better against bright or busy background.

-Sponsor Logo (currently KPMG). This comes in white and blue variations. White should be used in most situations, but if the background is particularly bright then the blue variation can be used instead. You should not modify the colours of this logo or any aspect of its design. Again this is a standard size, 263x102. This should only be shrunk as a last resort. You should try to include text saying “Sponsored by” immediately above the logo and centrally-aligned to it. The font “Century Gothic” in white is normally used for this, though again you may use an alternative if you think it would suit the style of the film better. The size of the font used here should be such that the text results in being about 80% of the width of the logo. This font is included in the pack linked to below, but is included by default with most Windows versions. Use a drop-shadow effect to make the logo stand out better against bright or busy background.

-Relevant promotional logos. WSC runs numerous promotions such as “Free films for members”, “Oscar Tuesdays”, “Midnight Screenings”, etc. If the film is a part of one or more of these promotions, you must include the appropriate logos – common ones are in the pack; if you need one which isn't included then ask the Marketing Officer to dig it up for you.

-Some imagery related to the film. Normally this will be in the form of a high-quality, high-resolution still from the film which fills the entire background of the slide, but feel free to be creative. Again, Google Images makes it really easy to find high-quality pictures - you can set it to only find images sized 2MP or above which is the correct size.

No logos or text should ever overlap! Try to make sure everything you include is aligned to something in some way - for example aligned to the edge of the slide (with the 50px margin of course) or centrally aligned above/below or next to other elements. Don't ever have logos just floating around in random parts of the slide for no reason. You'll normally be able to fit the WSC and sponsor logos in the corners.

Other things you may optionally want to consider including if there is a suitable empty space to fill are:

-The names of any well-known actors or directors in film

-A brief description of the film, ONLY in the case of obscure, less-well-known or foreign films. Slides will only be shown for 15 seconds at a time so this should not be more than approximately 20 words.

-Any awards the film has won (again, usually only needed if the film is less well known)

-Anything else at all that you think the audience should know! For example, country of origin if not UK/USA, or language used if not English.

If you are uncertain on any of these points, please don’t hesitate to ask the Marketing Officer.

Handy Tips

-You should never stretch or scale an image up from its original size, as it will become pixellated and reduce the quality of your slide. You can set Google Images to search only for images larger than 2MP, and these should be sufficiently large for full-background images.

-Any text which is smaller than font size 12 will be difficult to read.

-Adding a drop-shadow effect to logos and text can help them to stand out better against busy backgrounds.

-Use What The Font to identify fonts used in film logos, you can then search to find that font or a similar one to use for the day/time text,=.

If you require any of the resources mentioned in this page (e.g. starter pack, logos) please do not hesitate to contact the Marketing Officer at marketingofficer@filmsoc.warwick.ac.uk.

Thank you for your help!