Pre production
In my pre production I created a horror film poster campaign
called darkness. I carried this out on my own. The main figure in all of my
posters will be a hooded figure looming in the shadows.
I researched into 2 posters of the same genre, which one was
a teaser poster, Scream 4, and one was a theatrical poster, the conjuring to
aid me with my pre production. They revealed to me the different colour schemes
that can be used on horror posters. For example on one of the posters it used gloomy
and mysterious colours such as white fog in order to create a very ere
atmosphere and to build tension. Whereas the other used a more common colour
scheme of black and red which red is a colour we associate with blood and death
linking nicely into this genre. This poster also showed me how you can make
colours contrast for effect making the mask of scream look spookier in the
black surrounding. On the theatrical poster it showed me how to make a certain
setting intimidating and spine chilling with making the surroundings lifeless
to signify death along with the use of a noose. Similarly to this the teaser
poster signified the tip of a blade on the mask also using a weapon but
somewhat embedding it within the poster. The teaser also helped me by giving me
ideas on how to successful portray my poster around a main image centring the
mask and making it stand out. The theatrical poster showed me that I could use
other films of this genre to help sell my own by stating that the same people
make it. It also showed me that a billing bloc must be included revealing names
about who does what job in the movie. Lastly it showed me that the title of the
film should be central and also big and bold making it stand out and attracting
the audience and a release date must be included. The teaser poster doesn't
need to include much text in order to keep the audience in suspense. There is a
tag line at the top of the page and a release date at the bottom. Once again
the heading is big and bold in order to stand out. The main thing I learnt from
this poster is you can make things in the text a different colour in order for
them to stand out and separate them from the rest of the text. My research
allowed me to find the codes and conventions for the teaser and theatrical posters.
For theatrical I found out that the codes and conventions were to have a
billing bloc, tagline and the exact release date for the film. For the teaser
poster the codes and conventions were not to include a billing bloc, tag line,
coming soon or can have a date. The main difference between the two is a
billing bloc.
The target audience of my product would be anyone of the age 18 to
25, this is not to say people who are older cannot enjoy my product but it is
targeted at an audience who are more likely to want the thrill that horror
gives them. Also anyone who is a fan of the horror genre.
My audience research helped me with this, it also helped me find
out things like ways best to advertise colours they'd like to see and also what
image to place on the front. I found out that it would be best to advertise in
a town centre so the majority of people will see the posters, to include
colours such as red and black which I also found out through my research into
existing products, another thing I could include a disturbed image or face as
the image on my posters. Lastly I found out that the best date to include on my
posters would be around the time of Halloween to link in with the genre.
My planning for my production was 3 mock up posters to help give
me an idea as to what my real ones would look like. On each mock up I used a
hooded figure but put him in three different positions one of him under a
street light in the distance, one of him in a doorway and another as a close up
of his face which is dark and not visible. I did this to create an effect of
him slowly getting closer trying to add a more sinister touch. I have chosen to
use the hooded figure to create a sense of mystery and there for the audience
will be afraid to see who or what this figure really is. I tried out three
different colour schemes for each to see which would work best and using a
different font on each poster for the same purpose. Three different tag lines
have been used but I have made sure to include the release date on each one
which is nearing the time of Halloween to fit the genre.
Production
In my finished production work I have addressed my target audience
by following the codes and conventions of the horror genre. I have done this to
give the audience something familiar to watch through as if you challenged the
codes and conventions fully they might not twig onto the fact that it actually
is a horror and might not be interested in going watching the film. I have
carried this out by using the main colours associated with horror which are
black and red. The font is smeared blood which is definitely associated with
horror. A sinister and quite mysterious figure has been used not only to follow
the codes and conventions but also to attract the younger generation who are
stereo typically associated with hoods. On the two teaser I created I made sure
to not include a billing bloc, I included a tag line and made the two differ by
on one including the words coming soon and on the other the date.
The strong points of my final production would include the way as
to which each poster reveals more and more information, for example in the
first teaser poster it has coming soon, on the one after that it states the
date the film will be released, and then finally the last poster is a
theatrical poster including the billing bloc. Also a good thing about my
production is as the posters progress the hooded character appears to be getting
closer and closer first off he's in the distance then he's at a door way and
lastly his face is right up close. This collectively creates some sort of build
up to the release of the film. I have made it look more professional by making
the heading in the same font on each poster to show they are belonging to the
same film and used different fonts and colours for taglines and the information
such as billing bloc, coming soon and the release date. The colour scheme used
to do this is the as to that of the scream 4 poster red, white and black.
However my production differs from professional standard in many ways and so
could improve in several different ways. The image could have been more
meaningful, and could have made the audience think more it could have contained
a scene with a sinister appearance and perhaps hidden clues as to what the
actual film will include, like the conjuring poster that I looked at in my research.
Or a scene didn't have to be used the hood could of represented something else
to give the audience a slight glimpse of a clue like the scream poster did with
the mask as a knife. All of these could have been used to give the posters some
hidden meaning. The final improvement I would make to my production is once
again to do with the image it could of been more skin crawling and repulsive in
order to attract more people and think to themselves that they have to see the
film. If I was to do the production again these are the things I'd be sure to
include in order to make it more professional. Overall I think that I have made
3 professional looking posters and am quite happy that I have completed what I set
out to do however like I mentioned there are just those few little things
needed to take it to the next level.
