Mock Ups

Textual Analysis of a Horror Poster

Film: Strangers
Release Date: May 30, 2008
Production Company: Rouge Pictures
Producers: Doug Davidson, Roy Lee, Nathan Kahane
Director: Bryan Bertino
Actors: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman






























The primary purpose of a poster is to advertise they can be seen all around us in a wide range of places from public transport to magazines. A poster is one of the primary form of promotion for a movie, as well as other forms of media. Although there has been enormous leaps forward in technological development a poster has become a traditional way of promotion for a movie, as it has the power to portray the essence of an entire movie in a single snapshot, and work brilliantly in synergy when accompanied with other forms of promotion such as the use of a trailer.

Instantaneously this poster informs the audience that the movie it is advertising is a horror, this is achieved through many different media techniques and the use of specific images that fit with horror conventions.

Firstly the poster uses but also alters typical horror conventions of dark backgrounds and gory foreground text or images, it uses dark colours to surround the central image in the same way a vignette filter usually does in many horror films this further solidifies the audience belief that the poster is for a horror film and also focuses the viewers attention on the central image which shows two people confronted by three people wearing masks although we are not explicitly told who are the victims and the perpetrator because the audience are familiar with media conventions and are aware the perpetrator is often anonymous and victims are often shown as helpless, it allows them to differentiate between the two without explicitly stating so.

Secondly the font used in the poster is white which contrasts with the black extremely well, furthermore the font and colour could be considered a visual metaphor with the white representing light and the black representing darkness referring to a typical scene in most horror movies where the victim is show in darkness with usually a small light source such as a candle.

Equally the lack of text works just as well as the text that is present an example of this is the lack of
ratings and review quotes which are often present on promotional posters this poster has neither which i think adds to the mystery and horror as it suggests that the movie is too frightening to have ever been watched, this works very well as many people tend to watch movies to prove to friends that they are fearless this may cause people to watch this movie in particular as a measure of how brave they are. 

Furthermore the non verbal communication in the poster works extremely well. i think this is because the perpetrators are wearing masks with prevents any emotion being show and provides a sense of of being in the presence of the unknown which is something portrayed in many horror movies. The use of light once again works very well in synergy with this as it focuses the viewers attention on to the masks worn by the perpetrators.

At the same time there is also a sense of mental instability portrayed in the poster this is achieved through the way the perpetrators are shown stood with there arms by there side in a almost innocent way however are in a situation that we believe could result in the murder of someone. Due to death and innocence being contrasted insecurity and mental instability is portrayed as these are things we would never associate with each other   

In addition the costumes worn in the poster with the exception of the masks appear to seem very natural and normal this adds to the to the realism portrayed by the poster as it provokes the audience to think that what is happening in the poster could very easily happen to them and creates fear which is exactly what horrors are meant to achieve. 

Furthermore the poster provokes the audience to stop and think through the use of unique tag line 'Because You Were Home' the use of this tag line creates a sense of mystery as people think they are safest when at home however this suggests otherwise and creates a sense of insecurity which adds to the viewing pleasure associated with media of the horror genre.

Overall the poster teases the audience by touching on almost every element that makes up a good horror as well as adding new elements unique to this poster alone which when coupled together with each other and create a extremely enticing atmosphere, which when displayed on the poster makes an outstanding piece of promotional media which is more then capable of completing its task.

Textual Analysis of a Horror Poster

FILM TITLE: THE PACT
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2012
DIRECTOR: NICHOLAS McCarthy
PRODUCERS: Jaime Burke, Jamie Carmichael, Ross M. Dinerstein, Sam Zuckerman 

Distributed By: Entertainment One, IFC Midnight, content Film International

This Poster gives very little information about what to expect in the movie. It gives a very brief idea of what to expect to the audience.

Its gives away enough information to tell the poster is to-do with the genre horror. The poster goes all dark and mysterious at the bottom of the poster which is typical as most horror movies have the main image going into the unknown like how it is shown in this poster. As soon as it gets dark nothing else is exposed about the character. This is another way to tell what genre the poster is about; the antagonist is shown but not fully as the creators want to persuade possible viewers to watch the movie.

Also the poster has quotes from a magazine which says "Scream Out Loud Scary" now this gives more credibility to the movie as the media have actually seen the film and actually think the movie is scary and therefore worth watching. that’s the reason the creator of the poster has included the quote, it’s so it persuades the viewers to go out there go to the cinema and watch the movie because the media think it’s worth watching. The movie has also won an award for one of the scariest movies out. This adds more credibility to the movie and gives the possible viewers something to think about as the movie is winning awards for being a horror. This award will bring in more people as well as the quotes from the magazine both about how scary the poster the movie is. This is an excellent addition to the poster and makes it one not to miss.

The colours used for the title of the title of the poster is also a common use in movie posters as there is always something mysterious on the poster. The way the text is written on the poster and the font used also gives information that the movie the poster is a horror movie. I have personally seen the movie and the antagonist in the movie is also similar to the way its shown in the poster, the antagonist is hidden throughout most of the film and it will give away too much if the face was revealed in the poster because it will no longer be a mystery of how the character looks in the movie.  

This poster is one we may compare ours with not fully as this poster is more of a thriller whereas our trailer and poster will be more of a supernatural approach. We will make it more mysterious and add more in our poster. The Pact poster has got little on it and is hard analyse it as not much is given away.

Textual Analysis of a Horror Magazine

Magazine: Empire
Editor: Mark Dinning
Holding Company: Bauer Media
First Issue: July 1989

Empire magazine is a international film magazine. the magazine covers films of all range from comedy to romance.

A magazine cover has many tasks to carry out and does them so in many different ways.

Firstly the magazine cover can be seen as a promotional tool to promote a movie as it makes more people aware of the movie and this creates a demand for people to want to see it.






























Secondly the magazine cover is in place to entice people to buy the magazine as a stand alone product  and enjoy it for its content with to refer to when deciding on what movies to watch.

In this issue of empire the cover page is focused on the movie Hellboy 2 . The main image is of the central protagonist from the movie. Instantaneously the audience can verify that the cover is for a horror movie this is because of several things within the images used on the cover.

Most obviously the character on the cover who we can assume to be hellboy is shown to be a large character with horns and a red skin, because of this use of the colour red and the size of the character we start to associate him with things we would associate with a horror such as blood which is also red, and raging dangerous animals such as a bull. this use of images to help aid non verbal communication works very well as a stand alone product but as soon as we combine the title hellboy and the character we immediately think of the devil and of sin, which again are things we would associate with a horror movie

Furthermore the font used on the magazine name is altered to that of which it is normal it is covered in fire and is damaged which again ties in very well with what we would associate with horror movies as during the course of a horror the set tends to degrade more and become darker as the story progresses and more evil/gruesome occurrences happen by doing this the audience are provoked to think about how the chaos may have happened in the movie thus making them want to see it which means the magazine cover is successful in its primary role

Textual Analysis of a Magazine Cover

This magazine cover is from the movie "All About Evil" I found this cover when searching for horror magazine covers. This Magazine cover came out more as a horror cover then others as it contains typical horror representations on the cover.






























The character on the magazine stands out the most compared to the text. This gives the readers an image of what they would expect within in the movie itself. The background of the magazine is plain white.
the character is a typical representation of how the victims may look in the movie. In this magazine cover the lady is shown covered in blood from head down. This is a typical representation of a character involved with the use of blood. The top she is wearing looks old covered in a mixture of blood and mud. From whichever angle this magazine is looked at the character will always seem like she is starring at the reader. Also below her eyes is like eye bags but also mascara which is black and shows that the character may have been crying at some point. Other than that the rest of her face is really white but once her hair starts all the dark horrible colours begin.


The creator of this magazine cover uses a clever way of making people read the good stuff about the movie so after they can go and view the actual movie. The techniques that have been used are writing about the artists like "Hollywood’s most talented actress is back". This creates a good impact on the readers as they are quoted to be watching Hollywood’s best artist. The characters name is below the quote in the biggest font on the page of the magazine which they creator has purposely done to make the character seem like she’s the best actor and in some way special.

Nearly all the important information is written in smaller font and in the colour blue. Here the creator has used a clever technique, where once the big text has been read the readers are sort of forced to read the text below to see if they correspond in any way. Most the small writing is to-do with the genre horror, such as "Heroin, crack cocaine and a collapsed lung to a series of grisly shorts in all about evil". Compared to the poster we have actually received more information of what happens in the movie. This text tells us that this movie will contain the uses of all those drugs.

The whole magazine is about horror as everything other then the cast is related to horror. This is the reason why this movie is on this magazine. It brings back more of an audience as anyone that specifically looks for horror movies in magazines will see covers like this at the front. This is a good use of advertisement and will make people watch the movie. There are also strap lines and sub headings which are part of this magazine cover but doesn't have anything to-do with this movie.

The character in this magazine cover could have a representation of both an antagonist or a protagonist.
It is not easy to tell as the character is covered in blood wearing dirty or old clothing with her hair being all over the place.
She could be a antagonist as the way she is dressed and the blood all over her could show that she could have been possessed, or shes lost it and started attacking innocent people.
This character could also be a victim of a antagonist and she has ended up defeating the villain after shes been through some sort of pain.

Textual Analysis of a Horror Trailer

Movie: The Strangers

Year: 2008

Director: Bryan Bertino

Production Company: Rouge Pictures

The Trailer for The Strangers uses several techniques ranging from the use of sound to the way lighting is used to create a successful horror trailer it does this by using these techniques in the following ways.

Firstly the trailer makes brilliant use of running pace for example, the initial pace at the start is normal and sustained for the first several seconds of the trailer but then very slowly speeds up to a pace which is still normal but slightly faster than that which it followed this starts to create the idea of  something bad happening, as a general rule of horror is after the acceleration of pace there is always a following scary moment. However in this trailer the acceleration portion of this common chain of events is slightly altered and shortened due to this the moment of shock is slightly earlier than anticipated and therefore catches the audience off guard.

Secondly the trailer makes extremely good use of dark and light as the light is like a metaphor for a safe environment and just when the audience feel comfortable in that environment they are brought out of there comfort zone into the dark which is extremely effective in keeping the audience on the edge of there seat. As well as the use of light as a metaphor it is also used extremely well to focus the viewers attention on specific aspects of the shot being seen for example at the the 1:08 (1 minute 8 seconds) marks there is a close up shot of the female in which her facial expression is one of great fear to emphasise this and to get the audiences attention to focus onto this the surrounding area in shot is very dark and the little light in the shot is focused on the character to emphasise the fear she is feeling.

In addition another thing i believe this trailer does really well is the choice of shot used to create the perfect atmosphere, such as the use of a establishing shot at the start which shows the house to be alone it a area we would associate with a typical horror such as the Texas chainsaw massacre. Another aspect in which i think camera shots are used very well is during shock moments in the trailer where a long shot is used to show the people on there own followed by another close up shot to show facial expression and fear.

Furthermore the trailer utilises the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound very well as it completely follows horror music convention for example the first sound we here is a very simple recurring melody which is often associated with the exorcist theme tune which made having a melody such as the one used in the exorcist (Mike Oldfield-Tubular Bells) a must for a horror film. As well as the use of  non-diegetic sound the trailer also make excellent use of diegetic sound an example of this is the sound of the swing moving, this sound is very good in creating tension as it is repetitive and the swing is associated with children which have built a reputation of being vulnerable or demon like in horrors. Another use of sound in the trailer which i think is really good is the vinyl record which jumps at the end of the trailer and speeds up in unison with the pace of the video i think this works really well because as it speeds up the audience feel they are coming closer and closer to a scary moment which cannot be escaped which adds to the atmosphere of the horror.  

In addition i believe the success of  the trailer for the strangers is due to editing aspects as without this the above techniques would not be able to intertwine and allow the trailer to shine as a media piece . Firstly the use of quick cuts throughout works really well with the fast pace of the trailer as they both increase in speed leading to a climax if this didn't happen the trailer would be no way near as effective because a fast pace alone would not have provided as much depth leading to a duller trailer.Furthermore the editing works really well with the sound an example of this is between the 00:30sec and 00:50sec mark were with each new cut the sound of the swing starts again this loop works really we'll together because when the only sound being heard with each new cut is the same sound of a swing rocking again and again the result of this is that it gets the audience on the edge of there seat as it is the last thing you would expect to see which adds to the idea of the ''unknown'' which is often associated with the horror genre. Finally editing is effective in convergence with the lighting used as it allows the sudden switch from a shot were there is lots of light which naturally makes the audience feel safe and then instantly contrasting it with one of darkness which can completely throw the audience.

Overall i believe the trailer for the strangers is a very good one for several reason such as the fact that it keeps with almost all horror conventions, also it uses all the techniques stated above but does in convergence as to create one smooth piece which reflects horror in a perfect light, furthermore the addition of mask gives a ''classic horror'' feel which i think many people from an older age would like and be familiar with and therefore would want to see the movie this makes the trailer very successful in my eyes as it goes away from the stereotype which states only teens watch horrors. 

Poster Construction Part 2

This is closer to what we are looking to achieve, this is without the necessary writing at the bottom however this is the colour scheme we decided to go by.

Here we have the poster which was almost bang on to what we decided to do, because when we where planning and decided to include a hand and eyes and various other things. With a vine style creepy look.

One of the main criteria of a horror poster is how it communicates well with the audience. Although it is only one of the poster what the audience can see from the poster may decide weather they watch the movie or not.







One thing you do not want to do with a poster, is cover it in blood and gore, this is just to typical, you give away that this movie is just a blood fest, although 30 years ago this would have caught attention, audiences want to see more than that now.
Horror movies have moved from that, now horror fans want to see story, mystery, see where things go wrong and what comes of it. This is much like Toderovs theory, and equilibrium where everything is fine, a dis-equilibrium things going wrong, then a new equilibrium to see how things end up after the manic.
I don't mean horror should no longer contain blood, because they're needs to be some in horror, however the supernatural side is much more appreciated now days.
Another key thing is, you don't want to make the poster offencive in any way, for instance in The Omen, the original film they had references to Christians and Muslims in the film, however they made sure they where not offencive. What we are making is not in any way offencive however this is a very important point.
The way you attract their attention is also a very important point. Do you plan to shock them, have an eye catching colour scheme, make them laugh or have a familiar face for them to recognise and then take interest.
With horror i don't think there are any posters which use humour or many familiar faces to recognise, tag-lines and basic scary images are what are used in this day and age, for instance the paranormal activity films, they consist of a camera freeze shots with dimmed lighting, these alone have become established and now every ones knows the poster form far off, even though it is so basic. The tag-lines are important, also the quotes of what people have said about it, they are usually reviews with powerful language which add effect to the whole poster and theme.

Poster Construction Part 1

Lots of research was done for the creation of our poster. We used Google images to look at and annotate as many film posters as we could. The more posters we saw the posters were more so then not very plain.

the colour choices where the most important thing on the poster.

They have included:

• A quarter of someones face
• Short Tag-line
• Quoted opinion

So with a simple few things they have created a very effective poster. Last year ours was very different in the sense that we had lots going on and the colour scheme. However this year we plan to do the opposite, we pan to have a light colour theme with very simple images.

Clothing

From the beginning we decided to have all clothing blacked out, or something very close to black, we thought this would help with the genre. After shooting the first few scenes and editing them, slowing them and adding lenses. we saw that this idea would be best, all blacked out clothing.
However as we continued to meet on set, we realised that having all black was good but there wasn't much we could do with it, so that's when we decided to change one of the characters clothing, Hassan, and by something as simple as changing what he is wearing, we where able to add 3 more scenes which we thought of on set.
The type of clothing he wore was not very significant however it was the colour that made the difference, as the colour of his clothing, showed that everything was not all scary to begin with, and to contrast this analysis of the clothing we plan to film a social scene involving this form of clothing.

This is the lighter set of clothing chosen for Hassan to wear, this
helped lighten the trailer and helped us add more to it. 

Media Lesson Plan

This lesson we are largely working on the poster, last year we created a poster which was very professional and caught many eyes as a very detailed and high quality piece of work, this year we intend to do the same.

This was the poster we created last year, as you can see with the writing and logo placed central to the image, the writing at the bottom which through research and daily life, you see on the bottom of every film poster, the few light colours which we have chosen to stand out on the overly dark colour choices throughout the poster. 

With the poster we are now making, we are giving it the opposite colour scheme, the poster is going to be very light, so light that images will be submerged in it, by doing this it gives the film some mystery as well as coming across clearly as a horror. 

This is going along with the trend of the trailer, the trailer we are creating this year is full of action, but has moments in it that suggest eeriness, intrigue. 

Trailer being like this along with the poster gives a good match and direct correlation with the film, this gives a very professional image, place this together with the details of the trailer such as the unique transitions  and we should have something of a high quality in the end. 

These are some of the pictures we took on location, we researched long and hard for inspiration because many movie (horror) posters which you come across are very similar. We hope to create something very different, instead of having someones face, someone you can then say is in the production, we have decided to have no recognition, have anyone's face, the only things we plan to have on the poster are a hand coming through the ground, with an eye overlooking, however all these images as i said are going to be contrasted with the background colour so you can see them, but they are faint. 

We took a range of images, these that are above and also close ups of eyes which as mentioned are going to be in the poster. 

Now they are uploaded we can alter everything, from the colours to the sizes. This is what we are currently doing. 

Media Lesson Plan

This lesson we are going to plan and create our after effects, we have put the bits of film we have together and now need to think of tag-lines and add our unique transitions where they are needed.

We are in mixed minds currently weather to have a blank screen with tag-lines or have the lines over scenes which are playing. 

We are currently using the after effects programme on the Mac computers however, we feel that with the experience we have we are going to make our own, we have seen and used the ones provided by the programme and feel that they are good, however we can come up with something better, similar to our transitions, more unique.

Last year we researched many other media pieces and saw that people had used all the things available by the programmes, this year although we could do this, we intend to do something a bit different, our genre is horror but we are looking to create an after effect that is not only works well with our production, but also gives a strange different effect, unique. 

Although we have a pro version of the programme available to us, this is going to be a challenge as between us, nine of us have done it before, we have to allocate time for things to go wrong and not our way so we do not cut into other time allocated for other things.