For my coursework I decided to do print which included creating a DVD
cover, a main campaign poster and a teaser poster under the genre horror. I
conducted primary and secondary research to see what people wanted to see in a
horror film. I analysed popular horror posters, such as ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Insidious’
and ‘The Last Exorcism’, to give me ideas of the codes and conventions of
horror sub-genres. I analysed many posters and took the layout,
typography, tag line, colours, design and images used on board to help me get a
better understanding of a high quality campaign. Through primary
and secondary researched I found out all I needed to know to make a frightening
horror poster for both males and females in their teenage years. I
researched into the fears of teenagers and the way psychological horror films
trick the mind into being scared. From the book ‘Horror films’[1]
it said that ‘Psychological: Perhaps one of the most terrifying of monsters,
the psychotic killer is based entirely in the real world’. From this I found
that the exploitation of a true story creates the most discomfort. I then
researched into the background of Longleat which I could base my narrative
upon. I conducted a focus group aged 16 to 17 and I used two boys and two girls
to make sure I received equal feedback. I referred back to them throughout
the whole of my project.
When researching ‘The Last Exorcism’ I discovered that the distributers
campaigned on 'Chat roulette’, which isn't something I could use so I
looked at the conventions on the poster instead. I found that the typography
was the main focus and stood out massively. An insight into the religious
aspect of the film was seen through the enigma codes of the images used. I also
found that the same colours were used on each campaign so they all linked
together. Similarly the Insidious poster has a bold typography and used a child
as their main focus. The boy on the poster is in fact the main character and
with reference to Prop's Narrative Theory the iconography of the poster let the
audience see's he is the villain. The primary colours are mainly dark, as
this is a convention of a horror film, but the bright red in his shirt matches
the red in the typography that makes the poster stand out and creates a sense
of equilibrium. This red also signifies danger to back up the point that the
boy is evil. From this I decided my poster would have a little boy as the main
focus and a dark colour scheme with my typography standing out.
My favourite piece of research was the questionnaire. I gave out 50
questionnaires to my target audience of 15 to 22 year olds to help me to get a
better understanding of what teenagers are looking for. I decided on this
target audience as I am 17 myself and can predict what teenagers are looking
for in a horror film. My questions ensured that I would have a rough idea of
what I should put on my main campaign poster and DVD cover to get the attention
from my target audience. I used my findings to create my image. I found that
the majority preferred the DVD cover 'Shutter' as it was darker and therefore
looked scarier. The sub genre psychological was in the top three favourites
that helped me to make a final decision on the sub genre I would use. The
majority who answered the questions were males aged 16 to 18 who were in
current college education. The demographic category helped me to narrow down my
target audience to the C2, D and E category. It is more likely for a young and
more unskilled male to watch a horror film than someone who is in the A, B and
C1 category. They will appreciate the narrative of my script and the
mise-en-scene of my campaign more.
In order to write a script in the correct way I had to do my research. I
researched the codes and conventions of a general script to give me an idea of
the layout. I analysed the screenplay 'The Grudge' by looking at the
characters, the location and the mise-en-scene to do a script breakdown. I used
the layout as a guide to follow. When writing my script I had to make sure it
was appropriate for my target audience. I researched the appropriate language
of a generic horror film with the age rating of 15. I found that strong
language and sexual references were a common convention. To make my characters
relatable to a teenager based audience I looked into the characters in the film
‘The Cabin in the Woods’. There are five main characters who are labeled as the
‘athlete’, ‘whore’, ‘scholar’, ‘virgin’ and ‘fool’. These are American stereotypes that an
audience picks up on in any type of film. These conventions of these characters
helped me to define the mannerisms of my own characters.
My first task in the making of my campaign was my typography. I looked
online to see what was a popular style of psychological horror and
came across the film poster for 'The Ring'. It inspired me as the font looks
like it is written by a child, that then creates an enigma code for the
audience. As my film is based on a supernatural child I wanted
a similar style font. At first I used PowerPoint to type my
typography but that didn't give me the best result so I decided to go straight
onto Pixlr.com. I used the brush tool to experiment with creating my own
typography so it would stand out more. Eventually I got it just right as
Pixlr.com turned out to be the better software. My typography changed
drastically multiple times but even my focus group agreed that the end result
was the best result and using white made it effectively stand out.
From my research into the semic codes of psychological horror films I
found that the main colours were blues, greens and greys. Although the colour
red is a typical semic code of a horror poster I discovered that it is mainly
used in the sub-genre slasher, action, body and zombie. I knew I had to
incorporate the colour somehow as it goes really well on black which I knew
would be my background as it is an instant denotation of the horror genre. My
first mock up poster resulted in being too dark and didn't stand out. The
images I used looked like photographs which isn't a convention of a poster. I
took the feedback, which my focus group gave to me, on board. During the making
of all of my mock-ups I used Pixlr.com which is a great manipulation software.
I used the filters and adjustments well in order to completely transform an
image in ways I never though I could. At the start of the project the software
was sometimes confusing, however I quickly picked up how to work it and it
suddenly became easy.
I kept to a time plan to ensure that my
campaign would be completed in an achievable time period. My pre-production
work was planned early on with a time plan and was easily achieved. For my
production I made sure I had my images early on in my project and made sure
they were ready for lessons. I also devoted time at home to edit and complete
areas of my work and had them available at both home and college. When
comparing my work to a professional campaign such as ‘Insidious’ the finish
could be better. The images I used were edited to the point where they began to
pixelate. A downfall of all three pieces of my coursework is the pixilation.
Pixlr.com was an easy photo manipulation software to understand and gave me
multiple tools to work with such as the lasso tool and colour adjustments.
Using the colour tool I could have a consistent colour scheme throughout all
three pieces. I also used the same typography on each campaign which shows the
sub-genre well. I think my typography is a strength as it stands out and gives
the ghostly effect I am after. My teaser poster is minimalistic and can be
compared to the ‘Insidious 2’ teaser poster. At the bottom of the poster I used a hash tag
which is well known on twitter and my target audience can use that to find more
information on the film. My teaser poster is simple and effective and stands
out with black, white and a cold green being the main colours. If it was to be
out on a billboard I think it would be most effective.
My main poster could be improved as the eyes
don’t look very realistic. By drawing around them in white paint it makes the
whole poster stand out more, however they don’t look very professionally done
up close. I think my tagline is very effective and creates an enigma. Similarly
on my DVD cover it is slightly pixelated. Although I saved my images as a PNG
from the amount of editing they pixelated. If I had a chance to do it again I
would be more careful with my images. For my overall finished product I feel I
achieved what I was hoping for. From my first mock up to my final posters I
progressed massively and I feel my sub-genre comes through in the typography
and colour scheme and my tagline encourages the audience to watch the film.
Word Count - 1615
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