1. In what ways do your media
products use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
2. Film poster
My film poster for “Say your Prayers” both conforms
and subverts from the typical film poster of a real
media product. As shown, it conforms to the basic
components of a poster such as a title, credits,
production logos, actors’ names, main image (usually
main character/s) and the common film font Trajan.
All of these are essential to making a poster and
each has a use for the purpose of a poster: to appeal
and promote a film to a targeted demographic.
The titles of the film have been kept similar to many
other film posters simply because I think it is easy to
read thus noticeable from a distance on a bus stop
wall or even the side of buildings. I also decided not
to change the colour from white since that the titles
needed to contrast its background; I wanted the
titles to stand out.
3. Credits and Production Logos
Credits have also been kept similar to real media
examples such as film posters I’ve analysed like Final
Destination 5. Even when analysing other genre film
posters like Project Almanac, I noticed that the form
of a boxed set of names and job roles were best left
as it was. This is one of the aspects a poster I could
not change artistically and had to conform to since all
examples I saw did not change much in form.
Production logos did not change much and I had to
conform to how they were except for changing it to a
monotone colour since it was usually made to be
small near the credits at the bottom of the page.
Production logos were more of an acknowledgement
and signalled to the targeted demographic that the
film is official and made by a company they trust.
Over the recent years however, social media apps
logos were also placed next to the production logos
advising to look for further information to socially
media platforms of the movie.
4. Image
• I decided to conform to the way main images are in
film posters. Since that “Say Your Prayers” is a film
made out of any franchise, I needed a way to appeal
to the audience with the story and the character
before they have even seen the film. Most films with
acclaimed directors and franchises in the horror
genre would appeal straightaway simply by a logo or
any other symbolic images representing the film
such as the Final Destination poster which uses a
skull. My film poster could not follow the same
pattern since no one yet knows what the film is
about just by a symbolic image. On the other hand,
my poster could appear as if I am promoting the film
through the main actress; as if she has had many
other horror films hence her presence on the film
poster.
• The most significant way I subvert real media
examples of posters is that I don’t use a tagline. This
is due to the title of the movie being “Say Your
Prayers” which I think is a tagline in itself. Taglines
are often a one liner with a question or an action the
target demographic must do or think about. The
language of the film title itself I think automatically
gives a unique selling point to the poster.
5. Lighting
The lighting on the main character on my film poster comes from
the back to create a luminous outline of her and shines a ray over
her shoulder. I thought this would signify a metaphor that
whatever haunts them in the film actually could be found just by
turning around and realising the answers was just always
moments away. The light symbolises the answer and their way
out; both a part of God giving reference to the film’s title and also
to what haunts them as ghosts and apparitions are mostly
pictured white.
The inspiration for the light ray came from an artist Kyle Lambert
who made the Super 8 poster. The colours he used are very dark
and mysterious; creates the atmosphere the film and this helps
bring characters forward. The most noticeable aspect for me
however, is the backlight that comes from the upper- middle of
the poster with its light rays spreading from a white to blue line
across the main character's face. This light I think represents the
discovery of a situation of object that has bewildered the main
characters.
The main character wears glasses to show that she is the smartest
of them all and that she is the most likely character to figure out
the horror they face. She also wears a winter jacket showing what
time of the year the film is set in. This matches well with the blue
tone of the poster to show a cold, dark atmosphere having the
backdrop of a church under stormy skies. All of the mise-en-scene
of the poster conforms to introducing the character like most new
films do to show what kind of characters will act in a certain
genre; this subtly reveals part of the plot such as who finds out
what and who can survive best.
6. Film Magazine
My film magazine overall conforms to the real media
products. The layout is very similar to a magazine case
study I analysed featuring The Woman In Black. I also
took inspiration from a film magazine featuring
Batman vs Superman because of the strong impact it
had visually.
The masthead of the magazine originally was blue
however it had many similarities to the film poster.
Like The Woman In Black magazine, I decided to use
red a main colour scheme since it represented the
blood, gore and violence horror films exemplified.
This was a contrast to the blue, cold winter I wanted to
show in my film poster. The inspiration of Batman vs
Superman magazine was the capital letters that made
it stand out. Even though it was an action film, I liked
the idea of showing a horror film to be just as bold in
terms of mastheads. The masthead’s font by itself
represented what type of magazine it was and it ideal
to have the targeted demographic audience
introduced to a new, bolder font like those in action
film magazine. I had conformed to the way mastheads
are used and yet I had subverted to specifically what
horror film usually had on magazines.
7. Image
The main image for the film magazine has the three
characters of “Say Your Prayers” in the same emotion as
the main character in my film poster. They all look to the
distance as if discovering something all wearing the
same cold, winter jackets they wore in the film trailer.
This attire matches their story of being outside filming
for their project. Again, I use similar lighting placed
behind the characters to communicate the same
thoughts of the mystery of their hauntings to be right in
front of them yet they don’t acknowledge it.
A common trend in horror film magazines was that
there were iconographies of the supernatural. Since
that the main focus of the film is hauntings based on
religion, I found it appropriate to add crosses and
candles in the background of my film magazine.
In both cases of my film magazine and film poster, I
always took photos from below eyelevel to make them
appear taller and stronger making them memorable to
the targeted demographic. This was also much more
cinematic in that it looked much more dramatic. This
was also a common trend I saw in all visual promotion
of films in general.
church Interior
Candles Below eye level picture
