Poster production

I started creating my poster by opening a new document in photoshop and drawing a black square over the page to create my background colour. I chose the colour black because I am studying the genre horror and I saw this as a fitting colour for such a 'dark' theme. Also, black is the easist colour to work with if you want to use other colours as well, there isn't a colour that doesn't go with black.

 

The next step I took in creating my poster was taking a screenshot from my trailer that I thought would suit a poster, and editing this image to make it fit the creepy theme I was going for. I edited the image using the filter galery in photoshop, after experimenting with a few different effects I decided on 'halftone pattern'.

  

I then added my chosen title to the document using the font 'corier new'. I immediatly liked this font for my poster, however I felt it should stand out more. This prompted me to experiment with a few effects and colours.

 I eventually added an 'outer glow' and fiddled around with the settings until I felt it suitable for my poster. I think adding the red gave the title a much more sinister look as red is often associated with blood and this fits in well with my genre, horror. I also added an 'inner shadow' in an attempt to blend the red glow into the letters more so that they weren't as bright white. I managed to achieve my desired look eventually by changing some of the settings around.

I then decided that the film title should have a tagline, and the question 'Who would you open the door to?' suited the title and my chosen image perfectly. Because this is only a tagline, I didn't feel it necessary for it to stand out as much as the title, however I did make it the same font.

Next I went onto dafont.com and downloaded the suggested font for the credits. Once I had done this it was relatively easy to come up with enough names for the different credits, and I got a good idea of where and how big they should be from looking at example posters.

Every film has an age rating and this must be shown on most, if not all, advertisements for the film in order to make it clear how old you must be to view it. Therefor next I went onto the British board of Film Classification website and found the symbol for the rating '18' as I think this is the suitable age rating for my film.

I then had to edit the symbol to get rid of the white background. To do this I copied and pasted the symbol into a new photoshop document and used the polygonal lasso tool to cut around the edges of the symbol. I then dragged it back onto my poster and positioned it where I thought it looked best. I also used 'free transform' to change the size as it looked slightly too big when I first added it to the poster.

I then added a date for the film to be released, and decided to make this the same day as halloween as my film is a horror and a lot of people enjoy going to watch a scary film on halloween. I also added a fake website for my film to make my poster even more realistic. Originally I used the website 'www.noescape.co.uk/dontopenthedoor', however after looking at some other examples of film posters, I realised that this was probably too complicated and changed it to 'www.noescapefilm.co.uk'.

At the beginning of my trailer the production company I made up is presented. It is called 'dollhouse productions', there is then a presentation of my other made up company called 'real cinema'. I have added these to the bottom of my poster.

Finally, I added some supposed magazine reviews of the film to the top of my poster with a five star rating from the magazine I have created as part of my promotional package. I didn't think there was enough colour in my poster and this prompted me to put the names of the magazines in red. To create the authentic five star rating, I went back onto 'dafont.com' and downloaded the font 'star things'. This font has a variety of different stars so I tried each of them and chose the one I found most appropriate and professional looking.

Secondary audience research

I have researched films of my chosen genre which is horror. I now need to establish an age restriction for my film and decide what the favoured gender is based on general age restrictions for films of this genre and which gender has found these kinds of films more enjoyable in the past.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.

4-6 years - 0%          Male - 51%
7-11 years - 0%        Female - 49%
12-14 yers - 0%
15-24 years - 69%
25-34 years - 23%
35-44 years - 6%
45+ years - 2%

Based on the statistics it is obvious that anybody under the age of 15 was not taken into account as the age rating for the film is 15. The most popular age was between 15 and 24 which was to be expected due to the nature of the film. This age range, in my opinion, have the most enthusiasm about horror films because of the excitement people this age seek. Horror films provide people with the ability to scare themselves half to death, but also laugh about it. As the age range moves up to 25-34, the percentage of people viewing the film lowers, I think this is due to a higher level of majurity in this age group. These people are less likely to enjoy the film because they are less susceptable to the storys in the films. The gender percentages for this film are fairly balanced for this film which I think is quite normal considering scary films are often chosen to go and see as a couple and therefor the balance would be automatic.

Representation Synonymous and Genre

In horror films the zombies, monsters, ghosts etc. can be interpreted as metephores for serious disease, death or destiny. In the end the film gives the audience some hope that their worst fears can be overcome.

Promotional package

Genre research

I have decided to study a multitude of horror film trailers, posters and magazine covers in order to give myself a good idea of what I should be creating. The main trailer I will be studying is Paranormal activity (2007) as I want to create a supernatural horror trailer and this film is the perfect example of this genre.

Print analysis reflection

Print analysis

Trailer analysis reflection

After analysing the trailer for paranormal activity 2, I have created a good idea of how my trailer should look if I hope to follow the conventions of the Supernatural horror genre. 

I will use the blue tint on my footage to create the night time vision effect in order to build intensity and terror within my audience. 

Also, I have decided to create similar intertitles to this trailer as they are quite simple and this fits in with the home video style footage as it's not too complex and professional looking.

My trailer will be filmed in short snippets that I will edit together with intertitles slotted in throughout. I think this increases intensity and breaks up the narrative in reflection to how the experience of what's happening in my trailer would feel in reality (confusing and scary).

Trailer analysis

This trailer for Paranormal Activity 2 is a great example of a supernatural horror film trailer. It conforms with the forms and conventions of horror in a multitude of ways. The most striking effect used is the hand held and self set up cameras that create the illusion that everything that's happening was real and filmed by the victims in the film. This creates a much more scary film as the audience will start to question whether it is real or not.

Almost the entirety of the trailer is filmed in the dark using a blue tint on the footage to create a night vision effect. This adds to the intensity of the trailer and conformes greatly with the conventions of horror as a lot of people will admit that they are more scared during the parts of the film where it is night time as this is when the most scary things happen. Also, the low quality, blue tinted footage creates more terror and suspence within the audience because it is not as clear what's happening therefor people are waiting for a shock.

Primary audience research

After creating a questionnaire and handing it out to 20 people ranging from the age of 14-50, male and female, these were my answers:

1. Do you enjoy watching horror films?

17/20 people said yes.

2. What would you like to see in a horror film trailer?

Most people said they would like to see 'things popping up to give you a shock'.

3. What would you like a horror film to be about?

14/20 people said they would like it to be about 'possession/excorisms'.

4. What kind of characters would you expect to see?

15/20 people said 'a family'.

5. What kind of settings would you expect to see?

17/20 people said a haunted house

6. What characters do you think should survive in the end?

11 people said the antagonist, 4 people said the protagonist, and 5 people said the dog.

7. How many jumpy parts would you expect to see in a trailer?

20/20 people said 4

8. What would you expect to see on a poster for a horror film?

12 people said a creepy looking house

9. What kind of sounds would you expect to hear?

16 people said 'demonic sounds', 'loud bangs', and 'screams'.

Choice of Genre

I have decided to make my trailer that of a Horror film. One reason for doing so is that I have access to a victorian house which is perfect for my filming as the environment is that of a typical horror film. The house naturally has a haunted look about it because of it's victorian features and I think this will help me to make my trailer realistically scary.

Horror is my favourite genre because, in my opinion, audiences get the most thrill from watching something that scares them. One of my biggest advantages is that I already have a variety of ideas to film for my trailer in order to scare my audience, whereas if I were to choose a different genre I think I would stuggle to create a successful trailer; I may be stuck for ideas as others do not possess as many typical elements as the horror genre. It is easy for me to create ways to scare people but, for example, it would not be as easy to make people laugh or even cry. Also, my resourses are limited therefor choosing a genre like sci-fi or action would be impractical as I couldn't possibly create a realistic trailer.

I am hoping that choosing to create a horror film trailer will enable me to meet or even exceed the expectations of the audience.

Brief

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer together with:

- a film magazine.
- a poster for the film.