Final Poster

Poster

Posters are marketing strategies used by production companies such as the Warner bros top raise awareness and keep people cognisant of newly released films, which as a result increases the circulation of a movie resulting in a production company attracting increased revenue. Moreover, in relation to my general production the creation of a poster was an obligation as it allowed me to use another form of advertising, in contrast to the internet. A significant distinction between my magazine and poster is the use of colour, magazines during my research seems to be colourful, but my poster was directly linked to my trailer which is associated with evil, so I decided to use black and white by changing the contrast on Photoshop to generate a strong bond between my main trailer and poster; the grey suggests to the audience that the trailer is associated with darkness and isolation which is a connotation of black and moreover a paradigm of horror.

In contrast, to my magazine in which the masthead is conventionally at the top of the page, the main heading in this text is placed in the middle of the page in bold, black and white writing, to make it bold and as a result outstanding, moreover this idea was gained from my style model Scream in which the posters heading is allocated in the middle, which is complemented by the splash line placed at the top of the page stating `someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far. Solving this mystery is going to be murder’.

The image in the text is a copy of the image on my magazine front cover; this is because I wanted my target audience to experience an element of continuity, additionally I believe that the more times that you see an image, the more the image becomes familiar which supports the theory of desensitisation, I used this technique to prey on the mind of the reader, which would encourage them to visit the cinema. The image of Sam a vulnerable character who is also the final girl theory by carol clover, as the image of Sam is in a medium shot it was essential that I didn’t place any texts over her eyes as her eyes depict her emotions, granting the audience to relate to the poster, the candles under her face represents hope, which implicitly could be a struggle between good and evil.

Another convention that I noticed from my research of horror posters is the credits which is usually placed on the bottom of the poster to illustrate the process of production, this can be seen as a marketing tool for big movies such as Avatar, as the production team includes renowned celebrities such as David Cameron which would attract a larger audience. As I used scream’s poster, as my style model, I decided to implement the producers under the main heading, which was also used in the poster for `kick ass’. Furthermore, the smaller writing is of the cast such as the main producer the editor and costumes.

Horror posters conventionally have a age rating, as a means if regulating, who can digest a movie. Consequently, I embarked upon this technique and gave my horror trailer an age rating of 15 after deliberating with the BBFC; the 15 age rating is not due to the violence but the psychological effect that it may have on children, as the fear of the evil spirit could result in them copying scenes such as the case of Jamie Bulger. Furthermore, my poster hass used Warner Brothers, Lionsgate and Dolby Digital logos to give the poster more authority and allow the audience to find out the production company for future references.

I also embedded taglines for example `the highly acclaimed new supernatural movie straight from hell’, to create suspense and as a consequence, encourage them to watch the trailer and enticed to watch the movie. Finally, I also implemented the website address so that the viewer could gain information such as the viewing times, how much etc. Generally, the ancillary task was significant to a substantial extent, as a advertising tool for the main product.