Evolution of Horror Movie Posters

Elements of a good and effective film poster

1. Attention
One of the most important steps of making a good and effective film poster is to get the attention of passers-by and encourage them to look. By using one of the films characters or a part of the plot, you can reveal a small part of the storyline while gaining the attention of anyone that views the poster.


2. Iconography
The most effective movie posters are iconic, presenting the themes in the film without totally revealing what it is all about. They usually use imagery, a close-up of a character or a major plot point, to show off the film's plot. Along with an eye-catching design, this can be an effective way to gain attention and create interest. 


3. Interest
Many good, modern film posters use images that put the viewer in the middle of a scene from the film, creating tension and is a good incentive. This is because, in order to find out what is happening in the poster, the viewer needs to watch the film. The Inception poster is a good example of a movie poster that puts the viewer in the middle of a scene. This works best for films that cover unrealistic, fantasy-type films, especially supernatural and psychological.

4. Appeal
Posters need to draw in both fans and non-fans. Some people may have already heard of the movie and plan to watch it anyways, so the poster does not need to appeal to them as much as people who have not heard of it. For example, fans of Quentin Tarantino may have already heard of a film he is making whereas others may not have and so his name does not need to be as large. Usually famous actors names are quite large on a poster, drawing in fans of the actors.


5. Style

Posters need to be consistent with the style of the film. The movies promotional package and the style of the film need to link together. For example, Watchmen uses the recognizable comic book style and draws in fans who were fans of the book. It matches the style of the film and means that it can be used for DVD and other releases.


6. Lasting Appeal
After the film has been released in cinemas, the poster can occasionally  used as the cover for the DVD, meaning that the poster is shrunk down, losing some of the appeal that the original poster did. Therefore, the images on the poster need to be just as visible and clear when they are scaled down to DVD size.


7. Recognizability
The images, fonts and style of the poster need to be recognizable and iconic. Many films nowadays have sequels and most of these continue the same themes through all posters, making it obvious to the viewer that it is a sequel. 

Website deconstruction: Insidious

 

Poster Deconstruction: The Strangers

Evaluation of "First Cut"

Overall, we are pleased with our first cut of our trailer. 

What went well...

Originally we were pleased with the footage we filmed as it was mostly how we pictured it to be. We also like the montage of YouTube clips we have edited together as it portrays how the killer is disconnected from society. We feel the track we had created fits will with the mood of our teaser trailer.  

Even better if...

We still need to research into typography, as the font in our first cut is not finalised. We also have decided to film additional footage in order to break up the party scene and make it look more like a teaser trailer. We also want to include more gore and scary scenes in order to enhance the fear of the film. We are going to experiment with the sound to see what creates the best effect and shocks the audience.

Storyboard

Evaluation of first cut: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products

For our trailer we looked into coulrophobia which is the fear of clowns and chose to base it on this, we therefore researched in to this and how it affects to people in order to know how to use clowns in our film to scare the audience. 

We were inspired by films which use masks to disguise the killer as we cast our killer in a clown outfit, we therefore looked at the films Halloween, The Strangers, Scream and also films with party scenes as we included a halloween party in our teaser trailer

Halloween

We thought this would be a good idea for our trailer as many people are scared of the unknown as so having a masked killer plays on the fact that they do not know who they are or whether they know them. 

The Strangers 

We liked the idea that they could get into the house uninvited and it could happen to anyone ('Why are you doing this to us?' 'Because you were home'). We liked the fact that the characters were uninvited and used this in our trailer as the clown is not invited to the party but still manages to get in.

Prom Night 

We chose to look at prom night as it includes a party scene and also a murder and killing, both of which we included in our trailer.

Project X 

Although the film is not a horror, it still gives us some knowledge on how to film party scenes, and helps us think of ways in which the party can go wrong.

We also looked into other real media texts including TV and the music industry:

Skins

This show is an influence to us as contains lots of party scenes, which gave us lots of inspiration for our trailer. It also gave us lots of inspiration on what some teenagers get up to during parties and their lives that we could use. 

Slipknot

All the members of Slipknot wear masks and jumpsuits which makes them all look uniform. However, this look can make them look scary and threatening. The bands songs have also been linked to several violent and criminal incidents, for example in 2003 a man was stabbed to death but two people. The killers claimed to listen to Slipknot before and after the murder and according to detectives sang the lyrics to 'Disasterpiece' as they committed the murder.