Similarities & Differences Between Horror Posters

From my research I found out that most horror posters consist of a title, dark background, strapline, information of who worked on the film and a main image. The main image will always give an insight into the film and are almost never shots taken from the film. As well as this it will always be

a mysterious image which will intrigue the viewer of the poster. For example: if the main antagonist is on the front cover there face will be obscured but will still give away enough to excite the viewer. The strap line is almost never a quote from the film it is often a statement made which links to the main image this is used to make the viewer ask themselves a question or to make them think and to get the answer they are looking for they will have to watch the film. Furthermore, it can give an insight into the plot too. So, it is used to persuade. In all of the posters I analysed the title was always beneath the main image which allows viewers to see the image first and if they are intrigued by it will look down to see the title name. Additionally, the people who worked on the film are always underneath the title too. This is used to persuade incase someone sees a name they know and are a fan of their work.

I found that not all posters require backgrounds as the poster of ‘The Amityville Horror’ the whole image was used for the cover. I thought this was quite a good feature to the poster as it still reveals the same amount of the film but has a more eye catching effect as viewers will be intrigued by everything on the poster and more horrific features are added. Therefore, persuading viewers to watch. Some of the posters have the director at the top of the posters, some have a strapline, some have based on a true story and sometimes it is left blank. However, in three of the posters something persuasive is always put at the top of the poster. Another difference I have found is that not all of the posters include release dates.

Horror Movie Poster Analysis

Similarities & Differences Between Movie Posters

By researching different genres I found that they all consist of a main image which give in an insight into the film and show the main characters within it. The title is always presented differently. For example: one the 'Point Break’ poster  it is small and to the side but on the poster for ‘Petes Dragon’ it is in the bottom centre. Furthermore, all of the posters don’t have a background they all have a main image which takes up the whole poster. So, they don’t try to keep the film a mystery they want to give away quite a lot to persuade people to watch. Depending on the genre different colours will be used. For example: comedy and family films will have light warming colours as that is the effect those films are trying to get across and draw certain emotions from the audience. For example 'Petes Dragon' and 'Neighbors 2' have the same kind of colour scheme colours like blue are and white are used on both. Additionally, not all posters have the release date as this may not be important enough to fit on the poster.

Movie Poster Research

Premier Night Target Audience Feedback

After premier night of our movie was completed we decided to hand out questionnaires to gain some feedback. The image above is the overview of the responses we received. This will help me when creating my review as I will use all the answers provided to my advantage. This is because positives and negatives have been stated.

Final Film

Audience Feedback For Third Draft Film

 

We completed these changes and released the final film.

Film Draft 3

Editing Draft 3

Myself and Jogesh edited draft 3 together. As well as editing, Jogesh and I also chose the camera angles and shots for the movie.

Voiceover by myself included

3rd Draft Scenes

As I know what I wanted within the film I decided it was best I acted within the film. However, me and Jogesh still chose the camera angles and shots for the film. For example, the thumbnail of the video was a shot carefully chosen by myself and I thought it turned out pretty well.

Ideas For Draft 3

After watching draft 2 myself, I thought we could make a much better movie as I didn't find it as scary as I wanted it to be. As well as this, the acting wasn't amazing facial expressions were bad and at some points the actors were smiling. This didn't help the film as it just reduced how scary it was. As well as this, there was a lot missing as we took a lot out of the film to reduce how much the clown was shown meaning there were many gaps so the plot wasn't clear. Furthermore, it made the film time too short. Additionally, as the film was filmed in the dark the quality was quite bad throughout. So, instead of re-filming some scenes. I suggested to my group that we should just film the whole film again in the light. Therefore, the quality would be better as well as the actors and acting. At first my group wasn't on board with the idea as there was a deadline. However, they all eventually agreed and we decided to film again.

Also, we decided to change some of the plot ideas as we didn't want to show the clown until the end because of the effect it created (fear of the unknown). So, we changed some scenes.

Furthermore, feedback from teachers and the target audience helped us make many decisions as some people did say it wasn't that scary and it wasn't good quality.

Audience Feedback Regarding Second Draft

Using social media I sent out my second draft to my selected audience which was 15-20 year olds. They're my target audience because they are more likely to watch horror films and they enjoy horror films for the thrill. The social media platforms I chose to use were snapchat and whatsapp as they are used a lot by my target audience. As well as this, I asked my audience in person too. I asked what they though of it and what could be improved (constructive criticism). As this would help me improve for my third draft.

The feedback I received was quite insightful and generally positive allowing me to make changes for my third draft.

After receiving feedback from our teacher f I realised that it would be very hard to complete the changes and we should just start recording from scratch with new actors. This was because it would be hard to get all the actors together on the same day with good weather. So, recording from scratch with new actors would be less time consuming and more efficient for us as a group.

Editing For Draft 2

Jogesh edited the first draft and I edited the second. As our schedules clashed with each others we were unable to edit together for the first and second drafts. For the editing process I used final cut pro as it's is much better than using windows movie maker. Sony vegas was also an option as I was more experienced with it. However, windows was quite slow and Sony Vegas constantly crashed so I decided to use final cut pro even without the experience.

While editing I realised that the colours of the recording were too bright therefore, giving the film a happy kind of look rather than scary so, I was able to edit this. I made my own effects preset and added it to each clip in the film which took a while but was worth it as it gave the film the horror look. The rest of the editing involved adding each clip, cutting parts out, choosing transitions and sound to put into the film. This wasn't as easy as it sounds and took almost a whole day. I left the introduction and credits the same as draft one as I had an idea for the introduction of the film which couldn't be implemented in time for the second draft.

Film Draft 2

WWW & EBI Action Plan

What went well:

- Scenery: We filmed outside which was effective as it was dark and gloomy which showed the conventions of 'scary' in a horror film. 

- The lighting as good as it was clear to make out what happened in each scene. 
- The use of props such as clown mask and prop box

Even better if:

- In some scenes you can't hear the characters speaking, the sound is not clear therefore we will add voice overs to make it clear to the audience what they are talking about. 

- The fighting scene of Hamad and The Clown - this scene needs to change as it takes away the conventions of a horror film. There are a few scenes that jump and don't follow each other from the previous scenes. 

- When Myles pops the balloon, we should put a pin in between his hands so that it is not obvious that he is popping it. 

- Every scene that the clown appears in, we shouldn't reveal too much, instead of the showing the full character, we are going to show different bits of the costume so that we can build suspense for the audience. 

- Remove the sound of VJ saying 'go' before each scene. 

- We are also going to change the scene when Hamad is ringing and getting into the taxi as it doesn't really make sense. Instead - he will be breaking into a car that is parked on the side.

New Film Plan - From the feedback we received from our teachers further filming will need to take place. The scenes that will be re shot are the last scene of Hammad entering the taxi and here we are planning to implement a further storyline. The second scene that will need to be shot is the clown’s actions. This is because from our feedback the clown was shown too early and therefore was not as successful as thought. By having shots and camera movement of the clown these will be discrete and can be easily edited in to the film. The people required on the day will be Jogesh as he is the clown in the film, Hammad as his scene is the one which will be revisited and Vijender as he is equally responsible with Jogesh in Camera angles/Editing. The duration of this process shall only take 45 minutes maximum as the clowns acting will take 5 minutes. By Hammad’s car scene taking place again several car shots and head movements will take time and planning therefore 30—45 minutes is sufficient enough. The props needed will be the Clown’s full outfit, machete and the borrowed car of Chris (external friend)

Evaluation For First Draft

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

The first of draft of my horror film

I spotted that shot reverse shots were used a lot in horror films as they show the protagonist looking around for the antoganist of the film which creates suspense for the audience, thus frightening the audience which is what a horror film is supposed to do. Therefore, we embedded this feature into our film as we thought it would be quite a scary addition to it. However, we developed this idea by adding a musical box therefore, we used shot reverse shots with a mirror. This added to the horror as you could see the clown in the mirror.

Furthermore, we incorporated something new that has not been seen before in horror films. Our last remaining character was able to kill the antagonist ( the clown). Usually all the characters are killed one by one.

Our film conforms heavily to existing horror films but does deviate due to the ending. The clown was the antagonist throughout the film this conforms to existing horror films. As well as this, we used lowkey lighting just like many other horror films. We did this to get the horrific effect, which we need.  Common things such as screams and slow movements were also used to cause the same effect.

How did you find the filming process?

Me & Jogesh together were able to complete editing and camera angles. This did go to plan as we both aided each other where we needed to.

Helena was able to provide us with the right mise en scene as she chose the location  which included lowkey lighting. As well as this, she was able to provide is with all the costume and props needed and considered the positioning in the frames.

The schedule did not go to plan due to weather conditions. We also had to compromise on location as the floor was very icy and therefore, it would have been dangerous. We rehearsed before the film and decided to change the ending via a group decision and feedback from our characters.  Next time our time management could be improved as we wasted a lot of time taking the same shot as the lighting or something else would be off about it. Furthermore, because we had to change location there were a lot of cars coming in and out of the road. Therefore, stopping and slowing down our progress.

Editing the film was quite challenging because we didn’t have enough time to edit properly as we had aqquired footage a few days before the deadline due to people not making it as it was Christmas time and due to the weather as mentioned before. Therefore, we had to use windows moviemaker, which isn’t really great for editing a film. Therefore, this draft actually isn’t as good as it should be.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

My initial questionnaire enabled me to collect information on what our audience liked therefore, we chose our film idea from which horror sub genre was most popular. Also, I found out males aged 15-20 are more likely to watch a horror film as they want to gain the thrill from the films. Furthermore, males are more likely because they are stereotypically seen as strong and brave and to prove this among friends and peers they watch horror films.

This allowed me to make another questionnaire, which was specific to the plot, and sub genre of our film.

Our questionnaires didn’t really change our ideas but in fact gave us more confidence in our decisions. This is because we had chosen the same things most of our audience had only a few people deviated from our decisions. 

How did you incorporate a range of media technologies within the research and planning stages of your film?

As our blog requires a range of interactive ways of presenting our work I have used software and online technology like: YouTube, prezi, powtoon etc..

To make the YouTube videos I had to use Sony Vegas to edit footage of my target audience. Using the software and online technology was fine for me as I am very familiar in using it. However, when rendering in high quality Sony Vegas takes quite a while which nearly made me miss my deadline. However, it is something that can be planned for.

Film Draft 1

Scenes For Shooting

 As The original characters in the film were feeling ill, our filming process was getting slacking and further behind. Jogesh decided it would be wise to replace our initial characters with new characters. Myles and Myself (Clown) were the only two available characters during the filming process. The original two boys and two girls was adapted due to conditions to three boys and one girl. Myles's role stayed the same, Rhia was replaced with Mica, Levi was replaced with Helena and Hammad was replaced with Santiago. The last scene was also slightly adapted as the house in which we was filming in for the last scene was busy. Hence why the last scene was changed into the car scene.

Changes Before The Film

We had to make a few changes before the start of the film as some actors and resources were unavailable. First we had to change our actors as some were ill and it was holding back the recording process. So, we replaced Rhia and Helena with Levi and Mica. As well as this, I decided to not be part of the film. So, that I could help with the camera work. I was replaced with Hammad. Furthermore, the roads were very icy. So,we could not record in the locations we wanted to as it would be dangerous for our actors and ourselves. As well as this, the house scene just didn't seem right as we thought it would be more scary having a car scene. As with the house we had there were many things that were making it less scary like a TV in the living room and furniture which could not be moved. As well as this, on the day we decided to record the house was unavailable. So, considering all of these things we had to make these changes.

Roles within the film

Me: Camera and editing
Jogesh : Camera and editing
Rhia: Sound
Helena : Mise En Scene