Poster Drafts

After analysing other macro media posters for films such as 'Orphan' and 'The last house on the left', myself and Ferne have come to understand conventions within posters and techniques used to attract specific audiences. We have designed three different posters that we could use in order to promote our film, taking into account our research and its relevance to our own film.


Here is our first draft:








This draft focuses on a main image of the antagonist, which will grab peoples attention as they may feel like the figure is looking at them. The image of Bowe remanis sinister, as the poster will have low key lighting and as his hood is up it hides his identity. This helps the audience to recognise the genre of horror, as a dark colour palette and a mysterious figure are conventions of horror. We would have a dark background and the writing would be in white in order to stand out from the background. The white colour for the text would also reflect the title with connotations of innocence. We also placed 'Coming Soon' underneath the title so that the audience are able to relate this as a film poster.

This draft focuses on a main image of a hand. We wanted to use a hand to represent the girl pleading for help. We decided that as the main image we would put the title on her hand in blood to create a bigger impact. The hand would be in the middle of the canvas to ensure it is clear that this is the title of the film. This approach is a unique way in displaying the title of the film, which will help our poster to stand out. The genre of horror is clear through the image of blood and low key lighting, which are conventions of the horror genre. This will help to attract an audience that is interested in horror films, which are part of our target audience. We will also place the 'Coming Soon' underneath the image of the hand to ensure that the audience are aware that it is promoting a film. The simplistic poster creates a greater impact as people can focus on the image of the poster. We have used a limited colour palette of red, black and white. The colours of red and white are very ambiguous and create alternative meanings of the poster. These colours also contrast with the black background, which has universal connotations of evil and the unknown, which are themes our film portrays.

This draft uses a main image of Sophie who has been beaten and in distress. This is eye catching as it is an unusual and disturbing image to see. This will intrigue people and persuade them to watch the film. This image is also shown in the trailer which will create synergy between the different promotional mediums and build awareness of the film as a whole. The white lies will be in a black font as the image will not be black and this will help the title to stand out more than it is in white. This also creates a juxtaposition with the title as it uses the word 'white' and uses the colour 'black'. This can help portray the sinister aspects of a white lie, which is the concept behind our film. We have also used a tagline to reflect the concept of the film, which also makes the audience relate their own experiences of 'white lies' to the film and may encourage them to see the effects.

All of our drafts sell our film through a main image. This is because it is a horror genre and the images in the film will grab people's attention. As our film is in the micro media we have not used cast as our unique selling point as due to our budget we have not used anyone famous and people will not be able to recognise them.

Draft Poster

Researching A Film Poster

This poster is an advertisement for the film 'Orphan'. The genre of the film is clear from the image, as it is a shocking image of a young girl staring sinisterly directly at the camera. This entices the audience as it is attention grabbing as it feels like someone is looking at you. The child's eyes are darkened, which suggests that she is an evil character as if you can't see someone eyes it is hard to read their expressions and emotions, which suggests she is hiding something. It also isolates her character from other people, as it is not ususal to have black eyes. It is also more shocking as it is a child, which are usually associated with innocence and purity, but from this image we interpret the child as corrupted and can anticipate something bad to happen. This also fits in with the genre of horror as it subverts the 'norm' in order to create fear within the audience. The mise-en-scene of the girl indicates a school child, which reinforces her young age and her expected innocence. The hair is in pigtails with a centre parting, which also emphasises her innocence and youth as her hair is tied back practically and she has no makeup. Her pale skin also contrasts with her dark hair and eyes, which indicates a conflict between good and evil as these colours connote good and evil forces.



The text of the title of the film 'Orphan' uses a font, which is reflective of childrens writing, but can also resemble a scratch, which has connotations of trying to escape and being trapped. This helps to reflect the genre of horror and also reinforces the childs age, which is used to create horror by subverting the audiences expectations of a young child. In the title all of the letters are printed in capital letters, except the letter 'R'. This can indicate corruption, as the form of print is disrupted, which also helps to reinforce the genre of horror. The caption above the image anchors the image, as it reveals to the audience that something is wrong with the girl on the image, which is already suggested to us through the text and image. The caption is printed in capital letters and in bright white lettering, which helps it to stand out, and is placed above the girls head which is important for the audience to notice in a glance the genre of the movie and the story. The white lettering also creates a level of synergy between the caption and the title, which helps to give more information on the main character. This also creates a focus on the image, as the text encloses aorund the image. Another colour repeated is red, which is seen on the scarf on the child and then again at the bottom of the poster in a small caption, 'can you keep a seret'. The repetition of the colours help to show the conflict within the film, as red connotes evil and blood and white connotes purity and good. You could interpret this as a reflection of the different layers within this character and an inner conflict or a general conflict within the film. This caption involves the audience further as it uses a pronoun of 'you' and a rhetorical question. This will make the media consumer think about the film and give them a want to find out more about the film. It also gives the audience a release date, which is emphasised in red to make the audience remember the release date.

Our Final Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7quWXbb_Cp4

Here is a URL link to our final teaser trailer.

After placing our trailer on the internet we decided to gain further feedback and asked our teachers for their criticisms. They were generally pleased with the trailers outcome but provided some feedback. Here are their criticisms and the improvements we made based on their criticisms.

1. They felt that the initial flashing images of the beaten girl were too short and could be slightly longer but we felt these shot where unnecessary and limited the effect of the flashing images later so we decided to remove these and replace them with establishing shots of the setting.

2. They felt that the pan in the middle of the trailer to the man in the door way was ammature and suggested we either re-shot or worked with this clip. We decided to apply a ghosting effect to make it appear more professional, which disguised the jolt in the middle of it.

3. They suggested a possible change of music, but we had previously experimented with this and it was unsuccessful.

4. They felt that the narrative wasn't clear and suggested using establishing shots. We decided to take photographs of the house (the setting of the trailer) from the perspective of Bowe, the antagonist of our film. We gradually built up the pace of these shots through the beginning of the trailer to add tension. This makes the audience aware that it is set in a domestic setting, this is important as we discovered with in our research that our audience preferred a storyline set in a domestic setting. By including these establishing shots it also gives meaning to the last shots as it explains that someone has entered the house and that is who is at the doorway.

Music- 'The End'- John Murphy

Researching Film Posters

This poster is an advertisement for the film 'Last House On The Left'. Posters need to represent the whole of the film in one image, which is hard to portray and also to attract audiences through them, however they are very effective as they can reach a wide audience and may subconsciously make you want to see the film. I have chosen to research the poster for the 'Last House On The Left', as it has been a great influence during the development of my trailer and i am interested to see how they have marketed through the use of posters.

This films genre is horror, which is evident from the use of dark colours. The background colour is black, which is traditionally a colour associated with bad. This is because black is associated with night, in which your senses are restricted as you can't see as much, which projects the fear of the unknown. It also connotes isolation as at night you are usually alone or asleep, which is potentially dangerous as you are not as aware of your surroundings due to your tired state. This theme of isolation is also highlighted through the the image of the house on its own, which has white surrounding it. The image is taking from a long shot, which helps to show the isolation of the house and reflect the danger of the characters in the film. This illuminates the house from the surrounding blackness, which helps us to identify that it is the only house, which is anchored by the word 'Last'. We can also see that around the house are trees, which implies the surrounding area is a forest. This also brings dangerous connotations as you are not able to see what is in a forest due to the vastness of it, which brings the element of the unknown in it. Also it brings the theme of isolation, as in a forest you are undetectable and alone, which puts you in greater danger. The light is also misty, which represents a fog, which also helps to portray the genre of horror. This is because fog can hide certain things as it creates a disadvantage for our vision, which again brings the fear of the unknown into it.

The text is very large and takes most of the sky up. The font is very classic and easy to read, which is important as if people are walking past the poster they need to identify the title quickly. The use of the white font makes the title stand out, but also helps to draw attention to the image, as this portrays the fear of the film. The word 'House' is featured bigger then the rest of the text and is also featured in the colour red. 'House' may be presented as bigger, as again it is something that the audience can easily identify with, which helps to create an emotional response. This emotional response is created as the colour red connotes danger and blood, which is reinforced by the smearing of the colour outside of the letters, which creates an effect of blood. This helps the audience to feel an element of danger, as you should feel safest in your house. There is also a caption at the bottom of the poster, which imposes a rhetorical question. This helps to give the reader an emotional response, as it uses a personal pronoun which involves the audience and encourages them to involve themselves in the film. Also the use of 'How Far...' implies that the audience will find out the lengths of revenge a person will take, which is part of human fascination and will intrigue audiences. The text also use capital letters which is used to create attention and stand out more as they are block letters. This creates a sense of urgency of the film and helps to reflect the danger in the genre of horror.

The poster gives information of the film at the bottom of the poster as people are least likely to focus on this area. This information features their website, the certificate of the film, and the creators. It interestingly has no release date, although this may not be needed as the poster is just used to reinforce the awareness of the film. The positioning of the poster is very central, which helps to create a surrounding of darkness. This creates a feeling of isolation and entrapment. This poster is very eye catching which is created through the use of colours, the font and the image.

Exploring The Narrative Conventions Of Our Trailer

When myself and Ferne researched into the horror and genre and trailers that are with in the horror genre we found that there were many conventions used to enhance the fear factor whilst watching the trailer. Myself and Ferne tried to incorporate some of these ideas into our trailer so that we could ensure that our trailer reflects the genre of horror.

One of the main conventions we used from the horror genre is the impact of cut transitions. All of our transitions within the trailer are cuts, which are used to build up a fast pace and to also increase the tension for the viewer. Also because of the fast pace created it disorientates the viewer as the story is unfolding quickly and then stops suddenly, which encourages the viewer to watch the film afterwards. We have also Incorporated still flashing images to break up the footage, which shocks the audience and leaves a lasting impact of a gruesome image. The inconsistency of the trailer reflects the corrupted storyline of the film and makes the audience feel uneasy.

Another convention that we saw was popular whilst analysing horror trailers was the use of captions. We therefore decided that we would use these within out trailer. We have used a font that resembles scratch marks to portray a feeling of entrapment. By using captions it again disturbs the consistency of the trailer and again reflects a corrupted storyline. As our trailer is fast pace and disorientates the viewer, the captions help to explain what is going on and to refocus the audience. The captions also involve the audience and evoke a feeling of empathy with the main character by asking a rhetorical question and also using the pronoun of 'you', which helps the audience to feel attached to the film. It also is a direct approach of captivating the audience, which demands their attention.

Low key lighting reflects a dark and sinister storyline, and makes the audience feel like they don't know whats going on. If we had filmed in high key lighting our trailer wouldn't of had the same effect. This was a common feature that we saw in a lot of trailers to make the audience feel uneasy- for example in 'The Orphan' most of the footage is filmed in high key lighting, but there is a shot of the girl standing next to the parents bed, and there are flashes of light where you can see her then it goes dark again- this leaves the audience not knowing what is going on. Myself and Ferne took inspiration from this and decided to film our entire trailer in low key lighting, this is most effective when the camera pans round to see Bowe at the doorway as you cant quite make out his face. By using Low key lighting for the footage and high key lighting for the still images it makes the photos stand out from the footage and have more of an impact on the audience.

We have used a female as our victim for out trailer. We feel that by doing this we can appeal to a wider audience as females feel that they can relate to her and males want to rescue her. This relates to the collective identity theory. Females feel that they have something in common with the leading character and therefore feel more involved with the trailer. This was our intention as through our initially research we discovered that most people enjoyed trailers that they feel that they could relate too. Conventionally women are presented as victims and the audience will have a collective knowledge of this, which makes our trailer relate to macro media. We have subverted this theory at the same time by using a female as the heroine of the storyline, as it is Sophie's sister who rescues her at the end of the film. In macro media men are represented as the dominant gender, which is a convention that we have included. Our male antagonist is presented as an evil dominating character this stereotype makes the male audience feel like they should be the hero and rescue a female in distress.

We have used a slow, sinister soundtrack. This is a common convention for a horror trailer, and is what the audience will be expecting. Some trailers use slow music that builds up, usually with string instruments as they can sound very soothing but can also sound very screechy. This is representative of the duality of humanity, as horror ,more modernly, explores the dark psychological aspects of humans. We wanted our trailer to bare emotional attachment, as the music is very slow and minimal it puts the focus clearly on the image, which leaves the audience fixated. The music also has a piano in it that plays few notes repeatedly, this is disjointed as usually a piece of music would flow and notes would be played together, whereas these notes are emphasised greatly by being put on their own. This also represents the isolation of our protagonist Sophie, who is clearly distressed and left on her own. The slow pace also helps to slow down the heart rate of the audience which makes them on the edge of the seats waiting for something to happen.

The mise-en-scene of the trailer follows conventions of a horror trailer, as we can instantly see blood and a bruised face whilst Sophie is tied up. This make up needs to be so dramatic in order to attract attention and shock the audience. This also helps to provoke an emotional response from the audience which is coupled with the music and the captions. As this is a teaser trailer the audience only have around a minute to a minute and a half to digest all of the information presented to them and be attracted to see the film. In order to maximise the audiences response we made the make up very dramatic and shocking so that the audience are aware of what the film is about instantly.

Another convention we have used is the ending footage of our main character, Sophie, crying and asking Bowe not too hurt her. This is often seen in horror trailers, as after the title or ending logo, a piece of footage is played to leave a lasting impact of the film in the audiences mind. This is seen in the film 'The Orphan' where the young girl jumps our from under the bed sheets, which is ultimately meant to shock the audience and leave them with their heart beating. This will encourage them to see the movie after the trailer. We wanted to use this technique and convention in our trailer as we feel it is important to leave a lasting impression of the film. Our footage was of Sophie crying, which is the first time we see her talking and her image at the same time, which helps us to piece her as a whole character, whereas before we presented only her image or her voice. The lasting image of Sophie as a whole character makes the audience want her to be safe and see what happens to her, which will encourage them to see the film after the trailer. Also because she is crying, it also provokes an emotional response from the audience, which is built up throughout the trailer.