Kiran's Blog

Photoshop - Construction

I started off with a blank page on Adobe Photoshop.

I then added the photo of myself covering the whole page.

After, i placed another image of Hamish but made it smaller so it appeared as if he was in my head. I decided to do this as it carried alot of enigma and ambiguity.

Next, I used the gradient tool to blend the image of Hamish into the image of me.

I then added the film title 'The Missing' in the conventionally place of existing film posters, towards the bottom.

Afterwards i put the actors name on top of 'The Missing'.

Next I put the billing block under 'The Missing' which is also the coventional place for this.

After that i added the slogan 'Will You Be Next?' at the top of the poster.

I then placed the release date at the bottom.

Finally, I added the production company logo's right at the bottom.

After analysing existing horror film posters, I found that the ‘villan’ is commonly used as the main image. I therefore decided to follow this convention and use an image of the villan character in our trailer, which is the caretaker (Hamish. I also noticed that the images that are used, are mostly quite dark and do not reveal much information about the character or storyline. This leaves this information very open ended, encouraging the target audience to watch the film. To take the photographs I used a dark room and one redhead for lighting. I took several photographs using different camera shots and lighting effects.

The first image I took is a portrait, medium shot of Hamish in front of a black curtain with his back facing towards the camera and his face slightly turned towards the camera. I placed the redhead on the left side of him, allowing the light to lighten up his face faintly. I was trying to give the idea of enigma as although you could see his face, he still had a mysterious look as he had his back towards the camera. After analysing all the images I had taken I decided not to use this one. This is because it did not carry enough horror connotations. Also, as we wanted to keep our target audience in suspense we did not show Hamish’s face in our trailer, and for that reason I wanted to keep the audience in suspense and not show his face on my poster.

The second image is very similar to the first one however I placed the redhead slightly forward so the light was shining directly onto his face and Hamish did not show his face. I did this in attempt to make it more mysterious and not give away his identity, leaving the audience with anticipation.

The third image is a medium/close up of Hamish looking directly at the camera. I placed the redhead directly behind Hamish, allowing a little bit of light to shine through. This worked well as it had eerie connotation because the close up made it intense while the lighting made the image appear very creepy. After analysing all the images I had taken decided not to use this image as it was not as frightening as I wanted it to be.

I then took the above pictures, leaving the redhead in the same position but with Hamish at different angles.

After that I looked at the images I had taken and realised the white shirt was contrasting the horror theme, and so Hamish put a black jacket on top. This worked a lot better as the light came out a lot stronger against the black than white. The first image I took was a portrait medium shot of Hamish with his back towards the camera. I placed the redhead in front of him creating an outline of light around his body. This made the image appear very creative and gave off an ambiguity atmosphere.

This image is very similar to the first one except Hamish’s face is slightly turned towards the camera, so you can see half of his face. This also works very well as it does not give his identity away but leaves the audience wondering who he is and why he is on the poster, as this was the idea I wanted to create with my poster so I decided to use this image.

This image is a medium/close up shot of Hamish facing the camera looking directly at the camera. The redhead was behind him letting light shine through, and therefore allowing his face to be seen. As I was wanted to keep his identity an enigma I decided not to use this image.

I then decided to take this tesgt shot of myself to test if the composition and framing worked better. However i ended up using this image in addition to one of Hamish.

Flatplans & Layout Ideas

Typefaces & Fonts

For my planning I created a mood board of existing horror film poster titles. This allowed me to see the similarities and also allowed me to identify the conventions. This was useful as it gave me an idea of what my film title on my poster should look like. By analysing these I can see the most predominant colours used are red and white. This is because they are both very starong, bold, eye catching colours. Also, the colour red has very strong connotations with the horror theme, e.g. blood, death and anger. In addition they appear to use block, distorted, jagged lettering, this is because this gives the impression that something horrific has happened to it.

I then found the following five fonts which i thought were suitable and followed the conventions to use on my poster for my film title from www.dafont.com.

However after trying them all on my poster i found the following one looked the most appropriate and proffesional.

Audience Research

1. Which colours do you think are the most appropriate for a horror film poster?

- Blue

- Red

- Black

- White

- Yellow

- Orange

2. Which image do you think is most suitable for a horror film poster?

- Image of one of the actors

- Recreation of the scene

- Still image from the film

- Image of one of the film locations

3. What attracts you the most to look at a film poster?

- Image

- Film title

- Production companies

- Actors name

4. Do you think a horror film poster should have a slogan?

-Yes

-No

'The Uninvited' Poster Analysis

This poster carries a huge amount of enigma and ambiguity, as it is very indistinct and vague. It suggests the film is about a trapped young girl who is trying to find something.

This is portrayed by firstly the use of predominantly dark, shadowy colours (grey, white and black) and the misty mood in the background used which represent an indistinct situation. It also suggests it is for a horror film as they emit a spooky and scary atmosphere.

There is only one images used on this poster which takes up the whole page. It appears to be a young girl looking through a window with her hands and face pressed against the window. We are not able to see her face which means we can not see her facial expression which creates a mystery and suggests, they did not want to reveal her identity and wanted to keep the audience in suspense and she maybe difficult to understand. As she is the only person on the poster and takes up most of the page, this shows that the film is likely to be based around her. Furthermore we are not able to see what she is looking at or trying to find which adds to the suspense and tension. The fact that she is placed behind a window suggests she is being stopped from doing something. As she is leaning and resting her body on the window, we are given the idea that she is trapped and possibly trying to get out of somewhere. In addition the trees and misty background also imply she is possibly in a forest or woods. This is a very stereotypical horror location as they are usually deserted so create a creepy and eerie atmosphere.

‘The Uninvited’ is written in white allowing it to stand out against the dark background. In addition it is the largest text on the page implying it is the most significant. It is in ghost-like typography suggesting the narrative of the film is based on ghosts and haunting. It also looks like it has been written in chalk by a child or from the mist in the background, which suggests the young girl in the image could have possibly written it. Written on top of the title in a smaller font is ‘from the producers of the ring and disturbia’. This would encourage a larger audience as people who watched those films and enjoyed them are more likely to watch this, as they believe it will be of the same quality. The billing block is written in a very small font, and hardly readable implying it is not important. ‘Fear in January’ is also written on the poster, this informs the audience of when the film will be coming up, which adds to the excitement as they will then look forward to this month.

The target audience for this film appears to be teenager and older aged people, possibly 16+. We can see this by for example the colours used, if the film was aimed at children bright and more cheerful colours would be used, such as red, yellow or green. Also, the image suggests more negative connotations rather than positive which younger children would find disturbing and scary. Therefore older people, especially teenagers tend to enjoy watching horror films as they find them very thrilling.

'The Eye' Poster Analysis

The purpose of the text is usually to inform the reader of what is going to happen in the film, or of the enigmas running through the film. However this poster is very limited in terms of the amount of information show and not many clues given about what is going to happen. This persuades the audience into going to see it, as they may want to find out what the story is about and what happens. From looking at the poster we can see the most significant piece of text is the title of the film, ‘The Eye’. We are aware of this as it is the largest text on the page, which is very eye catching. Also, the word ‘eye’ is written in bold, this connotes it is the main idea of film along with the image of the eye. It is also written in black, which allows it to stand out against the white background. The last ‘e’ on the word eye is slightly blurry, implying something is not clear.

Jessica Alba’s name is written on top of the ‘The Eye’, although it is in a slightly smaller font, it is still big enough to read and stands out as it is in red lettering. This is the only text which is written in red, showing its importance and allowing it to stand out against the white background. The colour red also has connotations of pain, blood and anger suggesting it is a horror film. Also, the name ‘Jessica Alba ’may persuade the audience into watching the film as she is a well know actress, and if people have enjoyed previous films she has been in they would want to watch this one. In addition, there is text beneath ‘The Eye’ which is written in such small font, making it difficult to read. This suggests this is insignificant information which the audience does not need to know.

The image is an extreme close up of an eye with a hand crawling out of it. It is fairly big, taking up about half the page, which implies it is the most important feature of the poster. The hand could also be suggesting something if trying to get out of something we can not see. The eye ball is wide open and very diluted, which usually happens when someone is in shock, giving an idea of what the film is about. The hand creeping out of the eye connotes a frightening, creepy but at the same time abnormal idea which shows it is a horror film. It also implies that someone is trying to escape from something but at the same time something is blocking them. The colour of the iris also stands out as it is light brown which attracts attention and the pupil is also dilated. The lighting around the top of the eye is very dark and gets lighter as is goes further down. The colour white is used a lot as it is very pale and creates a clinical and scary atmosphere.

The camera shot is focused on directly one eye rather than two, which emphasises the title of ‘The Eye’ and also makes the audience automatically focus on this. The colours used give the poster a gloomy and dull feel, for example white background, black text and dark shadows around the eye, these are all conventions of horrors film. By using a strong image, the audience get an idea of what the film is about and do not have to absorb all of the other information. However if they do want to find out more information they can watch the trailer or go on the website.

'The Missing' Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RCiqXWlsL4&feature=player_embedded

Production Co. Identification

For our trailer we had to produce a production logo for our company which we decided to call 'HKDM Films'. We came up with this idea using the first initial of each group members name. When researching existing film production logo's,we found that they were usually quite simple and clear for example:

To begin with we produced our logo using an image of a clapperboard from google and then placed our company name on top using Microsoft Word:

However we then got told we were not allowed to use images fromt he internet, so we decided to produce our logo only using text:

After comparing our logo with existing logo's we found our logo was too simple and not eye-catching enough so we decided to change it again and made it bolder allowing it to stand out more:

Sample Typography

To start with, i created a moodboard of existing film titles. From looking at these i can see the predominant colours that are used are red and white. This is because the colour red carries many horror like connotations, for example blood, death and anger. It is also a very strong colour that stands out and grabs attention very easily. The colour white is also extremely predominant as most background colours are usually dark and the white therefore stands out and makes the title of the film very clear and visable,it is also very eye-catching.

I then used the typeface website, www.dafont.com to collect a sample of typefaces from three different catergories - horror, destroy and distorted. This gave me an idea of different types of typefaces and allowed me to play around and see which one was the most suitable.