Evaluation 2.0

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.