Final Poster Analysis

In our poster we have used a conventional layout by using a central image to capture the audience's attention. We have also placed the text at the bottom of the poster, which is conventional, as in our research we found that the text on the poster is usually placed at either the top or bottom part of the poster. We have also put 'Coming Soon', which is conventionally in film posters so that the audience can identify that it is a film and can lookout for the release of the film. We have also encorporated the production logo and the film certification on the poster to reflect that it is advertising a film.

We have used varied text within our poster. The title of the film was written in blood on the hand of our main image. This is very unusual and stands out, and as it is on the central image it draws more attention to it. This also makes the title of the film obvious to the audience, which is important for them to gain recognition of the film. In our text we have used the same 'scratch' font that we have used in the trailer in order to create synergy between the different mediums of advertisement. In our tagline we have also used a bigger size font on the word 'hurt' to emphasise the themes of violence in our film.

Alternative Poster Option

We have decided to create an alternative option of our film poster that includes our production company logo and our film certification on it. These are some aspects that a film poster ususally has on it and as we have already mentioned we felt that the poster itself was a clear film poster due to the 'coming soon', the tagline and the title and therefore didn't need the logos. We have also put the credits of the people involved at the bottom of the film, which is a convention for film posters. We felt that the logos took away the impact of the image and the poster as a whole, although we have also created this option to fit the requirements of a film poster.

Focus Group

Myself and Ferne gathered a group of people together who were students at Walton High aged between 17-18 years old. We decided on this age range as it is a suitable demographic from our target audience therefore the information we gain is valuable.
The majority of people felt that the hand in the centre was extremely effective, and individual. They felt that it clearly portrays our genre through the scratchy writing and blood, and that it is effective. They felt that the title was clear, and that the red and white colour theme works really well and that everything with in the poster compliments each other, and everything has a purpose and no space is wasted. They felt that the black background makes the hand stand out and makes the poster more striking and eye catching. We showed them the original image and they felt that it looks a lot better with out the writing saying 'coming soon' on the hand. There was a few criticisms, some people felt that the fingers looked computer generated, and the image is a bit too depressing. A few people found that the writing could of been messier, that the word 'hurt' is too big and may create confusion for the audience on what the title is. Some people found that the writing at the bottom is too small and that more members of the cast and information about the film should be added in. Other people felt that the audience may not understand why we have used the image and the relevance it has too the title, or what other advertisements they should look out for in other media. Although these criticisms are valued a lot of things they criticised where things we created on purpose, and many of them didn't understand the difference between a micro and a macro film creation and the effects it has on the campaign. We have concluded that the cast is irrelevant for our trailer as we have no leading actors or actresses, that's why it is very small and many people didn't notice it. The fact that they felt they couldn't work out what the film was about from our trailer was our intended effect as we wanted to create a narrative enigma and therefore make our audience question what they see, creating the 'buzz' before and therefore creating audience gratification. Some people have provided constructive criticisms that we could follow up on, but it was a minority of people who stated these improvements and therefore if we changed it, we wouldn't be pleasing the majority, as the majority said they preferred it as it was.

How We Created Our Final Poster

To create our final design we initially began by using the 'smudge' tool on PhotoShop to remove the 'coming soon' writing on the bottom of the palm as we felt that this ruined the image as it was too weak and it took away from the 'White Lies' impact. We then used a 'magnetic lasso' tool and selected around the hand, we inverted the selection so and then used a paintbrush tool and painted the background in black. This removed any imagery in the background and enhanced the black of the background. This makes the hand stand out more and leaves no other distractions to the hand itself. We then enhanced the brightness and contrast to make the shadows harsh and to make the center of the hand brighter. This again makes the hand stand out from the background as it is brighter. Using the 'scratch' font from 'dafont.com' we create the lettering. The initial lettering is quite messy and so we cleaned it up on PhotoShop using a paint brush tool in a separate document, as the writing was in black and the background was in white we inverted the colours to make the background black and the writing white. We altered the size of the writing by changing the size of the whole image to make it the correct size, we then selected 'Sometimes they' and dragged it over to the document with the image in it. We then enlarged the document again to make the writing even bigger and dragged 'Hurt' over and positioned it in the correct place. We then did the same thing with 'coming soon', opened a new document, pasted it over, simplified the lettering, inverted the colours, filled the letters in with red using a 'fill' tool after matching the colour with the blood on the hand, change the size of the document to make the writing small, and dragged the writing over to the document with the hand in it. For the final stage of our creation we used the 'text' tool and created our production and cast list using 'impact' font, we choose this font as it was simple and easy to read and could be small and still legible. We did this in a separate layer and moved it to the correct position and manipulated the size of the font.

Our Photoshoot

Here are a selection of our images that we took on our photoshoot. To create the blood on the hand we used fake blood, and black eye shadow to emphasise the shadows to make the image more striking. We experimented with flash on and off to see the different effects it created. We also experimented with lighting with in the room to see how this effected the image. We decided that the most effective was when we turned the light off in the room and left the flash on as it lit the hand up and made everything around the hand dark and emphasised the shadows. We experimented with different positioning of the hand and using another hand to hold the hand to see if it created a scarier image. We decided that the 'coming soon' wasn't effective and planned to get rid of it once we began to edit them on photoshop.


We decided that this image was the most effective as the positioning of the hand looks as if its coming to wards you. It fill the majority of the shot and is centered therefore making it eye catching. The area around the hand is dark and therefore means that it will be easier to edit. The lighting has worked as the flash has reflected on some of the writing making it stand out and the shadows will be easily enhanced. We plan on enhancing the brightness and contrast to make it more shocking, and we would like to remove the 'coming soon' writing as we feel that it is not effective.

Idea Development

After choosing our initial idea as design 2, we decided to develop it further and create alternative ways in which we could construct this poster. We used photoshop to create a realistic draft of each poster and changed certain aspects to see which one we thought would be the most successful.











In this draft we have changed the text of the tagline by placing 'hurt' underneath the rest of the text, which creates a greater impact. We have also placed the 'Coming Soon' in red, to emphasise the theme of violence and blood. This also creates layers of white and red, which helps to reflect the contrast of innocence and violence shown throughout our trailer. However, we felt that the placement of 'hurt' crowded the poster and took away the impact of the whole tagline.

In this draft we have kept the tagline the same size and haven't emphasised the word 'hurt'. This still gives a big impact, however, we felt that this didn't draw enough attention to the violence in the film. We also felt that by having all of the tagline on the same line, this created a bigger impact and didn't draw the attention away from the image.

In this draft we have kept all of the writing in white and kept the word 'hurt' in a bigger size. This is to emphasise the theme of violence, in which we think works well in anchoring the image of the hand. However we felt that the 'coming soon' appeared more striking in red, which is important in order for it to be identified as a film poster.

In this draft we have placed the word 'hurt' underneath the rest of the tagline, to draw an emphasis on the theme of violence. However as we previously mentioned we felt that overall it took away the impact of the tagline as you had to look at to many sections to read the whole sentence. All of the writing is in red, which we used to emphasise the blood and theme of violence in the poster. However we feel that it doesn't make the tagline stand out, as there is too much red on the poster.

In this draft we have changed the placement of the word 'hurt' and moved it underneath the rest of the tagline to draw emphasis on the theme of violence and struggle. However, we felt that it took away the impact of the tagline, as your eyes were attracted to too many places, which meant you didn't absorb the information. We kept the tagline in white as we felt that it stood out from the rest of the background and reflect the innocence in the film as well.

Draft Poster Feedbacks

After producing initial design ideas on Paint, we showed our class what we had designed in order to choose one idea and develop it further.

First Draft
Our peers felt that this draft gave away too much information, as in the trailer you are not able to see the man's face, whereas in this image although it will be dark, it still will show too much of the man's identity. This will diminish the narrative enigma and mystery created in our trailer. They also felt that whilst it was a striking image, it didn't stand out as much as the second draft and in comparison was 'boring'.

Second Draft
Everyone thought that our second mock idea would be the most successful film poster. The reasons they said for this was that it was an unique design that would grab people's attention and stand out the most from other film posters. This is important in order to attract an audience to watch the film, instead of them watching competitors films. People also said that our genre of horror was extremely clear, which is important to portray a story and attract people who are interested in this genre. By using conventions of a horror genre such as blood and low key lighting we are able to attract audiences that are engaged by this genre. People also said that as the title is on a hand it creates mystery as that is the only feature you have surrounded by darkness, which makes people question what is happening. As the title is in the middle of the page it stands out, which makes the title memorable. Although people did say that they think there should be more blood surrounding the hand to create a bigger impact.

Third Draft
Our peers believed that this draft also gave away too much information, as whilst the image is shocking and striking, it doesn't leave enough mystery to entice an audience in. They believed that if you were presented with this image you are given the climax of the film and receive the same emotion as if you were too watch it, which defeats the object in promoting it. They also stated that by using this image we would ruin the narrative enigma that we created in the trailer. As we used this image in a short flash, the audience were not completely aware of what the image was, which created a mystery and a want to find out. So by presenting this image we are diminishing this effect and ultimately not achieving our goal of attracting an audience.

Final Decision
Myself and Ferne have decided that we are going to develop our ideas for our second draft, as this received the most positive feedback and everyone voted for it as the best idea. We also thought that this would be the most successful idea ad our feedback has encouraged us to develop it further.

Our Inspiration

Myself and Ferne were inspired by this poster due to its simplisty. It has a single image, and the key colour is red. The image fills the page and everything around the image is black. There is no production logos, just simply the title. This creates a narrative enigma and leaves the audience questioning what comes next. It doesnt rely on quotations, or captions to define its genre, as you can see through the image that it is a horror film. This shows how a macro media has used a simplistic style and we have taken inspiration from this.

Final Poster Feedback

After completing our final poster, we presented it to our peers in order to gain feedback on any final changes.


Our peers said:

• They thought the red nails worked effectively, as it projected a scary image of entrapment and also the colour of red connotes the colour of danger and blood. The red nails also help to present a feminine character, which helps to narrate our storyline.


• The title of 'White Lies' stands out on the poster as behind the title it has a bright colour palette. The title is also in the middle of the page which clearly shows that it is the title.
  
• The 'Coming Soon' was in red, which links it to the title because of the colour of red. This worked effectively as it drew your eye to the title and to the phrase 'Coming Soon', which helped you to instantly recognise it as a film poster.


• The background is black, which our peers thought was effective as it made them question what was behind the hand. It also helped to create a sense of uncertainty and a fear of the unknown. It also intrigued people into the poster, which will entice them to find out more by watching the film.
  
• They also commented that the genre of horror was very clear due to the motif of blood, the colours, the tagline and the image.


• There was a narrative enigma, which intrigued people into the storyline and and attracted them to the film to find out more.
  
• They liked the fact that 'hurt' was bigger then the rest of the tagline, as it drew emphasis to the theme of violence and made them want to find out what happened.
  
• They also liked the heavy contrast in the image as it made the image more defined, which attracts the eye to the poster. It also highlights the main theme of violence and emphasises a struggle.

• They also like the colour palette of the poster, as the only colours featured on the poster are white, black and red. They liked the simplicity in the colours, however they felt that these colours created a bold impact on the audience as they contrast well and also reflect the themes of the film.

• They felt that the bruising and the blood on the hand were created well and looked very authentic. This also emphasised the main themes of violence, as people associate blood and bruises with danger.

• Our peers also stated that they thought our poster overall looked very professional. This is important to create a higher status for our film and to ensure that people can relate it to the macro media. This is important as it will encourage people to relate our film with macro media and encourage them to see something that they think will be of a similar quality.