Making My Film Poster

Film Poster - 5th Draft

Here is the 5th and hopefully final draft of my film poster. Following a survey to my target audience it became apparent that a couple of changes had to be made. Firstly people said that the title was too small, so I have moved some of the small print to make room and now the date  is double it's original size and easier to see.

The other thing that most people mentioned was that the credits were too difficult to read so I changed both the first name and the surname to the same colour. The black font would usually be difficult to read on the grey background which is why I added the red drop shadow to make the text easier to read.

The most common suggestion on how to improve the poster was to work on the hand. I used the cartoon effect to add the black lines to it to make it look like it was covered in dirt, however I think I over used this tool and ended up making it look like a cartoon which it not what I wanted. As I cannot undo this without starting again with the original image (which would take a long time) I experimented with other effects for a quicker solution. I ended up using the water colour tool as this got rid of some of the more dominant colours but still showed up the small details. After experimenting with the levels I think I have found one which has corrected some of the cartoon style of the hand.

I also decided that it would be best to change the colour of the names at the top of the page. Although when I was editing the image the text was clear and you could read it fine, after looking at it on a different screen I noticed that it was not as visible on some more high resolution screens, and so I decided that changing it to a light grey would make it much easier to read on all screens. The light grey also works well with the background and stays within the house style.

5th DRAFT/ w review

In this draft I have only made subtle changes like closing up the gap in the middle and making last minute edits to some of the clips. I think that either this draft or the next will be my final draft. I will re-watch this draft and make and last minute changes if any are needed.

Film Poster - Fourth Draft

In this fourth draft I have added credits to the bottom of my poster. I added in my credits at the bottom of the page and made my production/distribution company logos smaller so that they would fit underneath. I then added an age rating and a Dolby Digital logo. I had to make the date smaller in order to fit my credits on the page, so I decided to re-colour it red so that it stands out more now that it is smaller. It was herd to decide how to  position my credits as they are not centre to the poster, however they are directly underneath the main image. I tried putting the credits centre to the poster but it didn't look right as it was off position with the photo, and so I decided to leave it  slightly to the right directly underneath the image.

Making My Magazine Cover

Magazine Cover - Fourth Draft

In this fourth draft of my magazine cover I have made some more subtle changes. Audience feedback showed that I was missing a website name opposite the issue number and date, as this is a very common piece of the modern day magazine cover. I have added a website for my magazine under the right hand side of the title. Whilst adjusting the position of the web address, I had to move my plug. I decided that it would look better if it were slightly rotated, and so now it is tilted. This is conventional but also helps the effect of the blood splatter. I then went to the bottom headline where I decided to change some of the fonts. My audience research showed that it would be good if the word "horror" were in the same font as seen in the skyline, and so I changed it to this font. I also changed the word "Halloween" as before it did not have a capital letter. I then changed the font of "Halloween Brings" to a more conventional font in order to add variety. I changed the 3rd cover story and changed it from "Plus - John Erik Dowdle reveals all" to "Interview - Sam Raimi on his new project". I changed this because my audience research showed that the first story was too vague and sounded a bit strange! (Dirty minded people!) So I decided that in order to avoid any misinterpretation I would change it and make the article more obvious. I also changed the interviewee to a better known director, as none of my audience who gave feedback knew who John Erik Dowdle was. Having a better known director will help to appeal to a wider audience. I also corrected the mistake that SAW VI hand no question mark, and so I have added one. Finally I changed the colour of the eye of the character in the image so that it was a bit brighter and stood out more, matching the colour of the text.

30 Second Trailer

Film Poster - Third Draft

I have only made small changes in this draft as I have made the date larger and a different font, and made my production/distribution company logos smaller. I made the date a darker colour than before as I felt that although the bright white stood out, it felt out of place in the otherwise gloomy colour scheme, and so to fit in with my genre I made it a more grey colour to match the grave above it. This way it still stands out as it is brighter than the rest of the text, but does not look out of place.

Making My Magazine Cover

Here is a video showing all the different layers of my magazine cover giving some insight into how I achieved some of the affects and how I put my poster together.

Making My Film Poster

Here is a video showing all the different layers of my film poster giving some insight into how I achieved some of the affects and how I put my poster together.

Magazine Cover - Third Draft

This is the third draft of my magazine cover. In this draft I only made some small adjustments which consisted of changing the font on the skyline so that the word "horror" is in a horror font found on dafont.com. I moved my plug up and to the side a bit so it didn't draw too much attention from the main image and I changed the font for the details of the cover stories so that my cover has more range of fonts. I then moved the text in the middle down so that there was not as much empty space at the bottom of the page and some of the text is easier to read as it is now against a different background colour.

15 Second Trailer

Magazine Cover - Second Draft

In this second draft of my magazine cover I have added cover stories to the sides of the page. I added one underneath the plug and two on the left hand side so that all the space was filled and it has a sense of symmetry. I also added a headline between the banner reading "EXCLUSIVE!" and the film title "Vengeance". I put a summery of the article "Behind the scenes of this Halloween's biggest horror hit" and a quote from the article underneath. This is very conventional as seen here in an example from "TOTAL FILM". Here they have put a quote above the film title followed by a summary underneath. I preferred to have the summary above the title as it looks better as it means that the title can take up a larger space at the bottom of the page making it stand out more. I have taken quite a lot of inspiration from this cover as you can see I have put my cover stories in the same places and used a similar overall layout. This is mostly due to the fact that this cover has a similar main image to mine which takes up the centre of the page, leaving room for cover stories around it. I liked the idea of having the main story going over the torso of the actor as it means that you can still see the face and outline of the body clearly but you don't have lots of empty space in the middle of the page  where the writing could be.

In my next draft I will experiment more with the layout and add a wider range of fonts so that I have a more diverse cover. 

Film Poster - Second Draft

This second draft of my film poster shows some noticeable changes from my first draft. Firstly, I took some audience feedback for my first draft, and this highlighted some issues. Firstly it was apparent that the main title didn't stand out enough. My audience told me that the text needed to be brighter, so I made it a brighter colour but it still wasn't standing out very much from the rest of the poster. So I decided to try adding some light behind the title, This bright section on an otherwise dark poster immediately draws the audience's attention to the title. It was also apparent that the background was not dark enough, and so I decided that to make it more simple I would make the background clouds a darker colour and get rid of the trees in the background, as they were only cluttering up the poster. I then added a couple of small silhouetted trees where the original trees were and used the blur tool to make them appear far away. These more simple trees didn't mess with my house-style or take up too much space, drawing attention away from the main image. I also changed the colour or my company logos at the bottom as the research showed that the bright white colours didn't go well with the rest of my poster as no other bright colours were included. I decided to make them the same colour as the title to make them fit more within the poster. 

In my next draft I will add the last  missing pieces such as the titles at the bottom of the poster and the release date, as well as maybe some reviews. 

Magazine Cover - First Draft

This is my first draft for my  magazine cover. As you can see I have started to edit the main image and background so that the colours work together. I started by removing the background from the original image. I then edited the image so that it had smooth edges so it was not obvious where I had removed the background. I then started to work on colour, making the characters eye red and making her red hair a more vibrant shade. I then went on to editing the background where I used the airbrush tool to create the grey texture effect seen on the background. I felt that this added more depth to the image rather than having a plain colour background. I then added my title "REVIEW". I chose the appropriate font style and experimented with colours, but I eventually decided on having the text transparent and the white background as the outline for my title. I thought this made it stand out more than just having the text in white. I then used the bump map tool to make the title seem as though it is printed on to the textured background. This added more depth to the title and makes it look more professional. I then added an issue number and release date below the title, as this is seen on magazine covers or any genre. I put the issue number as 666, as it is a horror edition, and the release as October 2015 as this is the month that my film is released.

I then added a banner at the top saying "The heart stopping horror issue". I took inspiration from the popular film magazine "Total Film" as this magazine often adds a banner at the top describing what is included in the issue, usually to do with the genre of the films featured within.

This cover for total film is advertising the film inception, which is a psychological thriller. I took inspiration from this cover as it uses many of the same colours as my own cover. In my next draft I will add more text at the bottom of my page, similar to this example from total film. I will add text between the words "exclusive" and "vengeance" and add some on the left hand side too.  

Film Poster - First Draft

This is the first draft of my film poster. As you can see it is not yet finished as I have yet to add elements such as the credits at the bottom of the page, and the main title still needs  some effects adding to make it blend with the rest of the poster better. However I think that I have made a good start to the poster. I have added grey clouds to the background to make the mise-en-scene more gloomy, fitting in with my genre conventions. Looking at my research I would say that my poster still has to be darker, but I have set a good foundation to work off. In my next draft I need to edit the colour of the grass to make it less vibrant. I will also add the names of my stars at the top and edit the title more.











MAKING THE FIRST DRAFT

Looking at my research and my planning I decided that I was going to use a grave stone as the center piece for my poster. As the plot of my film centers around a girl who has come back from the dead, I thought that the grave would be very effective. I started by taking some images of grave stones. I chose this one in particular as it has some very interesting textures and colours, which make it look old and slightly eroded.


This first image is good but I didn't end up using it as there was too much empty space around it which I had nothing to add to. Too much empty space makes for a boring poster.

This image was too close up and left no room for text either above or below it, which is what I had planned to do.

This one was taken with anticipation to add all of the text above it, but when I started putting my poster together I decided that there was too much room above it and I would not be able to fit it all with text, but if i did run out of room I would go back and perhaps re-consider this image.

This is the image that I eventually chose as I felt that it has just the right amount of space around it for adding text, but yet still close enough so that the audience can make out the smaller details.

This picture is used for the hand which is coming out from the ground beneath the grave. My research showed that this is an extremely common convention of horror film posters, using hands either coming up out of the ground or on someones face. Either way there are a lot of hands featured in film posters! So I decided to add one coming up from the ground beneath the grave as there  is a handy dip in the ground beneath the headstone where I could easily add it. I started by removing the background and shadow so that only the hand was visible. I then re-positioned the hand so that it was at a straight angle and added some effects. Looking at my research showed that the hand should be dull in colour with exaggeration to the contours and lines. To make my image look like this, I selected the "cartoon" tool which adds subtle yet noticeable lines to the dips and lines of the hand, and also a grainy texture to the skin. I then used the pain tool to add some blood stains. I used the eraser tool to place it behind the grass from the background photo to give the illusion that it is popping up out of the ground. I also added a shadow behind it to add more depth to the image. Without the shadow the hand looks as though it is on the grave rather than in front of it.

TEXT
Choosing a font for the text to go on the grave was difficult as I wanted it to be in an old English style font in order to fit in with the old grave stone. However, most of these fonts are very thin and so I could not achieve the desired chiseled in effect that I wanted to get, as I wanted to try and make the words look as though they were engraved into the stone. Here are some of the fonts that I experimented with:

After having no success with these fonts, I decided to move on to a bolder font. I looked in the "Horror" category on "dafont.com" which provided me with lots of different font styles. In the end I opted for the font seen below as it was bold enough to use for my effects, but also older looking at the same time.

To add the text and give it the desired effect I had to use different techniques creating shadows and editing the text. This helped me and up with the chiseled in effect for my font. Here is a tutorial showing the technique that I used to create this effect.

Photos for Magazine Cover

Here are the pictures that I took for my magazine cover. I took pictures of both of my main characters in front of a clear white background so that the images were easier to edit.

This first picture shows the protagonist with her fists up as though she is fighting. I thought this would be fitting as my film centres on her defeating and fighting off the evil antagonist, as seen in my trailer.

 This image shows a more sinister pose, as the character has her head down but is looking up at the audience which is conventional of an antagonist in a horror film. This pose makes the character look suspicious and having eye contact with the audience is not a normal convention, so it unsettles the audience which is the effect I want it to have.

However, in this image my actress is smiling slightly so I didn't use this image.

This is the image that I chose as I feel it had the most effective pose and unlike the image above her face looks more straight, giving her a more creepy look.

This pose was intended to show that this character is the intelligent helper for the main protagonist. The way she is biting her glasses and staring off into the distance makes it seem as though she is in deep thought. Also she is holding books which the audience would assume to be her research as seen from in the trailer.

However I don;t think that this image would work well for my cover either as it does not fit in that well with the genre as the character is innocent and does not look as though she is out of a horror film.

I liked this image as it shows the innocence of the character. Having her hands crossed on her chest shows that she is remaining contained within herself and may not have the confidence of the main protagonist. However I decided not to use this image as I didn't think that the pose fit very well for the cover of a horror edition of a magazine.

This pose was a good idea but didn't work out as I had planned. Having the hand in front of her face was meant to make her look as though she was holding up a hand to say stop, connoting her stopping the evil character from the film, however the way she is holding her hand makes it look more as though she is hiding from something, which is not what I want to connote to my audience, and so I did not use this image.  

This is my second favourite shot as I think that the pose is typical of the horror genre, as though the character is is hiding from something. However when I uploaded the image to the computer I noticed that the characters hand is in focus and not her body, which is what I wanted. This would look unappealing if it was used for my magazine cover as making it bigger would make the focus look more noticeable, and it would look sloppy and unprofessional, so unfortunately I can't use this image.

Magazine Cover Layout

This is my first layout idea for my magazine cover. I like this one the most because it uses a similar layout to existing products. The magazine cover below shows an existing product with a similar layout to this one. I think this layout shows the information well allowing enough space for the main image and headline, as well as cover stories. The only thing this layout does not have is secondary images.

This layout is similar to the first but has the film title higher up where it will catch the attention of the readers more easily. Having it in the middle means that it will be one of the first things that the audience sees, which is good as the aim of the magazine cover is to advertise my film. Although good, this layout does also not leave room for any secondary images, which may be an issue.

Finally this layout is similar to the second one but this time allowing room for secondary images. Although these take up the space of two cover stories, these images can have writing on them leading into other stories, so they can have the same info as cover stories, but with an image. I have also added a footer on this draft as I felt like this could be a good thing to add just to add some extra information about what is included in the magazine.

Magazine Cover Research

Poster Ideas

For my ancillary text I have to create a poster which will be distributed along with my trailer to advertise the film. I started drafting some basic ideas on paint where I could draw my ideas freehand and come up with some basic outline ideas for my poster layout and design. I started by drafting where the title, picture and other main elements of the poster would go.

As my film is about the antagonist coming back from the dead, one of the ideas that I had was having a graveyard as the setting for the background with one grave sticking out in the foreground with the film title engraved into it and a quote from the trailer. Or I may put just the quote engraved on the headstone and have the title just above it.

Film Poster Research