Construction & Development: Ancillary Task Movie Poster

Katie Wootton

In order to effectively create my movie poster which will be used to promote my trailer, many aspects need to be accounted for as many different features go into the creation of the final product to ensure that its up to the best possible standard. In or der to ensure that I understand the conventions of a horror/thriller movie poster completely, I have conducted research into other similar movie posters at the start of the coursework this can be seen in earlier posts on my blog. From this, I have derived ideas and concepts which I have used and incorporated into my own poster to make it look as effective and appealing as possible this presentation will discuss some of these ideas.

House style

As red and black are typically colours which signify/indicate the horror genre and are associated with death, I decided to stick to this for my house style and keep the house style as red and black. If my background was black and my title was red and black as it would look unappealing to have the rest of the poster consisting of different colours this would lack consistency and look unprofessional. By not looking into too much detail of the poster and just noticing the colours, it is clear that this is a film for the purposes of horror and perhaps wouldnt be appropriate for children. The fact that this can be conveyed so easily means that the house style has been chosen successfully. I also decided to make some of the text on the poster white I did this so that the page wouldnt look overcrowded with the colour red as white breaks up the two colours nicely. Red, white and black go together well and can commonly be found on many horror posters I noticed this from my poster research and so took ideas from other posters. I decided to write the tagline in the same colour as the movie title to show that those two elements go together on the poster this also makes the tagline stand out more than the less important aspects of the poster such as the producers, directors, designers etc as the audience are usually much less interested in this aspect. The rest of the writing on the poster is in white as it needs to be situated on the poster but doesnt need to draw in as much attention as the rest of the writing. The characters in the images are also wearing a lot of red, white and black which happened by coincidence but worked out to be beneficial as they look suitable on the page. Looking at the poster from a distance, the white text and red text stands out extremely clearly from the black background this is important as film posters will typically be placed in areas which are quite a distance away from those trying to read it i.e. on a billboard or on a cinema wall. The background colour isnt pitch black it has elements of grey too which I thought would make it more interesting than using a solid black colour. I used this as a technique to draw in the audience and make them wonder as to what exactly it is that the background image is trying to portray or what the film could be about I think it works effectively as this means that the background image has elements of white included. These 3 colours are the most prominent throughout the entire poster meaning that a house style has been stuck to successfully and appropriately.

Movie Title
As I had previously decided on 'Ascendance' being the title of my film, this was one aspect of the creation of the poster title done with. However, deciding in the physical attributes of the representation of the word was more difficult than this. I decided to choose the font style first in order to do this, I experimented with different fonts in Adobe Photoshop to see which was the most appropriate for the horror/thriller genre. The accompanying screen shots show some of these examples and some of the process I went through in deciding the most appropriate font style for my movie title on my poster all of these fonts are fonts which I had downloaded from external websites. I looked at a multitude of websites to try and find the perfect font and I ended up downloading about 50 different horror and gothic fonts this was quite a time consuming process but I eventually decided on a font called Beware of the Zombies. This font looks as if its been messily and untidily been painted to form the shapes of the letters it looks disorganised and the way in which it has been presented looks extremely appropriate.

As this is a poster and it is promoting the film itself, its important that the name of the film can be clearly seen from qu ite a distance and that it is blatantly obvious what the word says. This is one of the most important aspects of the poster and it needs to be as clear as possible for this reason, I decided to set the size of the font to 73. This is quite large but is typically expected of a poster and so it isnt too large or overwhelming. I think this looks like a really appropriate size as the majority of film posters seem to have used something of a similar size. Deciding on the colour of the font was quite difficult as I was contemplating between red and black for quite a while. However, as I decided to have the background image as something which was black, I thought the font being red would be much more appropriate as it would be easier to read and red on black stands out, making the title eye-catching and loud. However, so that I could incorporate both elements of the colour into the title, I outlined the title in black to make it just that bit more eye-catching. The reason I wanted to use these colours is because theyre both associated with horror and fear a theme running throughout my film. These colours typically indicate the genre of horror/thriller and are commonly seen in posters to advertise movies of this genre this helps establish my film genre very clearly.

Horror conventions
As discussed in the two previous slides, the house style used is one which typically connotes horror as red and black are associated with this particular film convention this is where I have blatantly stuck to standard horror conventions. The movie title is included in this aspect too which are two main features of the poster. The tagline itself reads they thought there was a way out... this indicates that the characters within the film were trapped or contained in some way suggesting that they were held against their own will this idea is a common one typically found in horror films and represents fear. This also adds an element of mystery as it makes the audience wonder if they will find a way out, where they are and how they got there. Another way in which I have stuck to horror conventions is the other fonts which I have used on the poster for example, the font used for directors cut and october 28 2013 these are fonts which stick to horror conventions as they look as if they were written in blood as they appear to be smeared and messy no other font would be more appropriate for this particular genre. The background image used in the poster is a horror convention too its dark, misty and unclear and could perhaps resemble fog. The background image itself is something which could intrigue or interest the audience as it is unclear as to what exactly is actually being portrayed within the picture. The words director s cut situated below the movie title are also a horror convention this is done in many horror posters as directors will typically add to or shorten the length of the film with extra scenes. For some reason this appears to be common in the horror genre but is also done in other genres; on the whole, this makes the poster look more professional as it seems realistic. The image I used on my poster includes characters looking scared, threatened and vulnerable these are all emotions associated with the horror genre and it makes it clear that these characters are victims within the film. Victims are something which the majority of horror films contain, furthering the use of horror conventions within my poster.

These are examples of already existing horror posters which stick to standard horror conventions by using colours associated with horror i.e. red, black and white . They stick to horror conventions also by the frightening images they have used to promote the film.

Layout/placement
To ensure that my movie poster looks realistic and professional, the layout and placement of all the items is important so that it looks clear, readable and organised. Also that it follows the same layout of other pre-existing film posters. For this reason, I researched into other film posters to see where all of their items had been placed. I decided to put the images of the characters from the film within the centre of the poster so that they were the focus and central aspect of everything the poster was about this image is one of the most important elements of the poster and so it had to be situated somewhere where all of the audience would have no problems seeing it. I put the title of the movie on top of this image but made it so that the characters within the image could still be seen clearly and were not getting cut off by the movie title its important that the audience see the same amount of both elements. The title itself is quite central to the page too as the audience need to be sure of what the poster is promoting. Following the movie title I have placed the words directors cut to show that these two pieces of text go together this shows that the film being promoted is a special version of the original film and so this should make the audience interested in wanting to see it as theres something unique about it. I placed the tagline at the very top of the page so that it could draw in attention and that if people read from the top downwards, its the first thing they will see and so will be interested in finding out what the film is about. Situating something at the top of the page like I have done here is helpful in the way that it makes a very bold statement. I decided to put all the information about people who worked on the film at the bottom of the page this includes information like the director, producer, costume designers etc. All of this information is written together and in a small block of text below the title this is done in this format on almost all movie posters and so I decided to stick to the standard conventions of film posters in general here. Following this I included the release date of the film which is 28 october 2013 with an image to state that its only appropriate for those aged 18 and over. All of this information is placed at the bottom of the poster as its not as important as the information include at the top this means that the layout of the poster has been devised in such a way that its aim is to attract people into wanting to watch the film itself rather than knowing all o f the details about it.

These are examples of pre-existing film posters which have a similar layout or placement of items to my film poster.

Editing Photos
In order to use the photos which I used on my cover, I first had to take and then edit these photos. I directed my models/characters/actors/actresses to appear as if they were vulnerable, sad or innocent within these shots as theyre playing the role of the victim within the shots. I think this went well as the final images make them seem as if theyre scared which is extremely appropriate for my poster as its conveying the horror genre quite well and the role in which they play in the film. I took t hese photos fairly easily I just had them all stand in front of a blank screen in a hallway and look directly into the camera so that they can connect with the audience. I then had to edit these photographs. The first step I took was editing out the background of these photos so that only the characters were shown this made it easier for me to incorporate my own background into the poster I did this by using the marquee tool and then dragging the background to a separate layer within photoshop so that the two elements were separated and that I could save the versions that didnt have backgrounds as photographs which I could then use to further edit. I then decided to edit the photos themselves this included airbrushing and touching up the skin of the characters so that it was more clear and looked more professional. Clarity in photographs is important so that the facial features of the characters can be clearly identified. I didnt do that much editing on the images of the characters as the photographs I took were already quite good b efore I started the editing process. I also added a slight outline/glow to ensure that the characters stood out on the poster as they re a central aspect on the page and one of the most important parts of the poster. For this reason, I also ensured that the size of the final photographs were adequate so that they could be seen from a distance and take up half of the page but werent overwhelmingly large so that they took up too much of the page I think the size of the photographs have been made to look quite appropriate and effective. I kept the editing process relatively simple but I think this looked more effective as images on horror posters are typically done in a simplistic way with not too much detail.

Design Aspects
Rather than having the images of my characters just placed on a different coloured/patterned background, I thought the general design and appearance of the poster would look much more interesting and appealing if I incorporated some more design elements for this reason, I decided to incorporate some words which can be heard throughout my trailer into the background for example, shocking or scary quotes that fit the horror genre which I have used throughout to convey elements of my storyline. In order to do this, I wrote whatever word or sentence I wanted to appear in the background in white writing and in the same font style as seen throughout the rest of the poster. An example of a word or sentence used is you cant escape your past this is captivating and keeps the viewer of the poster interested and reading. I then changed the opacity of these words to 20 so that they were barely readable and looked as if they hadnt been placed there and were just naturally occuring they are still able to be seen however due to the fact that the background is black and theyre written in white this makes for an appropriate and effective contrast. I placed the words and sentences randomly around the poster so that there wasnt much organisation there; this looks very effective as Ive placed w ords on top of the characters images too so that they werent situated simply on the background and managed to look connected with a ll the aspects in the poster.

Overall Appearance & Feedback

Deciding to choose the features which I have chosen was quite a straightforward job as the poster itself is quite simplistic. There arent too many elements to it and so it doesnt look overcrowded or unattractive on the whole, me and my peers think that it looks quite professional and successful in terms of its purpose. For example, I decided to choose those pictures as the emotions displayed on the faces of the characters are the expressions they use within the trailer itself, thus, these images give the audience an insight into what they can be expecting from the actual trailer. I think that throughout this presentation, I have fully justified the choices for the aspects I have decided to include in my poster. I have decided to obtain some feedback from peers to see whether my final design could be improved and what aspects of it went well this feedback is shown in the next slide below: