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1. FMP Evaluation
Luke Headland

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research
• My primary research greatly influenced my final three posters as well as my trailer.
Researching the posters helped me come up with ideas and what styles / materials to
use when creating my own posters, for example what format, textures and fonts I
should use that would fit the style of my project. The posters I researched were very
minimalistic, for example the Saw franchise posters, which is what I was going for with
my own posters, as well as showing that minimalism , can still convey horror and have
an impact on the viewer. Some of my own posters were a lot like the ones I researched,
however I did find myself changing ideas and having my posters different from the ones
I researched. The research still had a big influence on the posters I decided to change
however, as a lot of the same layouts and materials were used such as textures and
fonts. For example I was originally going to make a posters similar to a Saw V poster I
researched but changed the idea, the new poster I created however still was heavily
influenced by the Saw V poster, as I had used a similar format as well as materials, e.g.
textures, that the Saw V poster had. The main problem with the research is that as I was
researching, I wasn’t completely sure on what my product was going to be about. This
lead to me changing a lot of ideas after I had researched and planned out my posters
that were influenced by my research. For example one of my researched posters
showcased a mask lying on the floor. I was originally going to do a poster very similar to
this but changed my mind later on in my planning and decided to go for a different style
all together. My questionnaire analysis was very helpful, as I found out what particular
kind of content my audience wanted to see in a horror movie poster. For example, one
of my questions was ‘Do you think minimalism is good’ and 70% of my audience said
yes, hence why most of my posters are minimalistic.

4. Research Page 2
• One strength I gained from my questionnaire and interviews was I was able to
understand what type of content my audience wanted to see in my product. In my
interviews, I asked the question ‘do you like about horror movie posters’ and one of my
responses was that ‘movie posters should look creepy, and I like the simple ones’. This
really helped me understand what my audience wanted and I was able to implement this
into my production work. All of the products that I had researched were parts of
different films, yet they all had similar qualities. I think that the products I researched
were going for the ‘less is more’ effect, which is what I decided to do with my posters. I
implemented a lot of things like colour, shadows / darkness, textures (grungy / scratchy)
and disturbing imagery from my research into my own products, not just with my
posters but also with my trailer. One thing I think I should have done is spent a little
more time researching trailers for horror movies and how they are made, as I think I did
not spend enough time looking into it. I believe this would have changed the outcome of
my trailer as I would have been educated more on things like camerawork, lighting and
also cinematography, which are very important for making trailers and for making them
stand out to an audience. Another thing that I believe would have helped my product is
perhaps looking into more posters, particularly horror, as I believe that the more
products I have researched gives me more options and ideas for creating my own
posters, and this could have changed the outcome of my final products and perhaps
made them better. I do believe however that my researched greatly impacted my final
products for the better and gave me a lot of ideas as well as fresh new once, whilst at
the same time using what I had researched to help my product get better.

5. Planning
• I believe that my planning was very successful, particularly my pre production, as I had created a lot
of things, such as a story boards, call sheets and shot lists, that helped me a lot when filming my
trailer. Creating the story boards helped me the most as I had something to look to when I was
filming my trailer, and was able to make sure I wasn’t filming anything randomly. It also gave my a
clear view on what I needed to shoot and in what order, and I feel that without my story board I
would have found it a lot harder to film and decide which characters I should have in a specific shot
or where it will be filmed etc. Having a schedule also helped the production of my trailer, and the
making of my posters as I knew what I was doing each day and what time I had to do it. One other
way in which I believe my planning was successful is from my initial mind maps, planning out what
was going to be done and when, for example how I was going to edit a particular photo in
Photoshop and what tools I would use. Strengths and weaknesses of my pre production stages
were that a lot of my scheduled tasks were fully complete on time, like my posters and trailer
editing, however as for the disadvantages, I did not fully plan for how I would set up my camera for
the night shots, and a lot of them came out low quality because of this unfortunately. One thing I
should have done is researched camera settings for shooting at night then my night shots would
have looked a lot better. Minor disadvantages of planning were that I was not always able to rely on
the people I needed to help me with production, for example I wanted to create one of my posters
but my model was unavailable so I had to wait another day. Also, a lot of shots that I had planned
did not always go to plan, and I had to change some scenes of my trailer as some of the shots that I
had planned were either too hard to shoot or had some technical problems. An alternative to this
however was by creating new scenes that I had not originally planned to do, but they were kept in
the same continuity of the rest of my trailer. As for my style sheets, they helped me decide which
colours and textures worked well for darker images, and I did implement a lot of these elements
into my final product whilst changing them to fit my images / posters, e.g. making the textures or
colours lighter or darker. Filming locations were luckily not a problem, and I was able to get all of
my clips filmed in the placed I wanted them to be filmed, and I was also able to obtain all of the
props / costumes I needed without a problem. I did however unfortunately have problems with
getting actors, as a lot of the people were unavailable so I had to compromise when making my
trailer, which eventually cut down the runtime because a lot of scenes I could not make.

6. Time Management
• I think that my time was managed very well, and I believe that this was greatly
influenced by my time planning e.g. having a time schedule. Thanks to me research and
experiments, I was able to see how long creating my posters would take, as I had
already created a poster in my experiments, and my research helped me with the ideas
for my trailer and posters, so that meant I didn’t have to spend time thinking about
what style of trailer and posters I was going to make with things like styles, costume and
colour. I was able to get most of the things I wanted done on the days I had planned
without problems, as well as getting the images for my posters taken and edited in
Photoshop. One problem I did have however is that sometimes I would not always have
the people I needed for certain days, for example I sometimes didn’t have someone to
film or model for a poster, this caused days of different work to overlap but I was still
able to do all the work that was missed on the previous day, as I now had people I
needed to help me. As for hardware and software, I luckily had no problems, although I
did have back up ideas like creating two Photoshop documents with my posters in case
the main one crashed and I loosed all of my work, because there was no issues, this did
not effect my overall time when creating my product. One other minor time problem I
had was with one of my posters. I had not had the chance to make one of my posters in
a week, so I ended up creating it shortly before the deadline but luckily I was quick
enough to complete it. I do find it unfortunate however that I did have to rush the
poster as I did not have a lot of time to get it complete. If I had more time to produce
my work, I think I would have gone back and refined a lot of my posters in Photoshop
by making sure they are as clean as possible, as well as making sure that there are no
errors in the editing. I also would have filmed some extra scenes for my trailer, as there
were actually a lot more scenes that I wanted to film but didn’t have the time to, or I
ran into technical difficulties when filming them.

7. Technical Qualities Poster 1
Both of these posters are very similar
in multiple ways. Probably the most
obvious of the two is that they both
feature an image inside another
image. Both of these posters have
images blended into a character on
the page. The images inside of the
characters tell the viewer a lot about
the nature of the film, and what
content it holds. Another similarity
that these posters have is the plain
white backgrounds behind the
characters. The fact that the
characters are on white backgrounds
helps them stand out more, and every
detail about their face is visible.
When creating my own product, the
software I used (Photoshop) allowed
me to go through and darken or
brighten shadows or light I already
had on the image. For example if I
wanted the shadows darker, I would
use the levels tool to make them look
more black.
Both of these posters also use similar colour connotations throughout.
For example the Star Trek posters primary colour is blue, and the Chains
poster has an orange / brown primary colour. Both of the lighting on
the posters are very similar, when I took my photo, my ISO on m camera
was around 1600, as I wanted my image to look bright, especially the
background.

8. Technical Qualities Poster 1
Both of these posters are very similar
in the fact that they are minimalistic.
They both have a very similar layout,
featuring a disturbing looking face in
the dark. Bot of the faces are also half
covered by darkness which adds a
suspense element. Both of the
images are also surrounded in
complete darkness, and the only
thing visible is the face / mask. It also
appears that both of the faces in each
poster are staring towards the camera
in a very menacing way to highlight to
the audience that these characters
are likely the antagonists of the films.
Both of the characters are looking
directly at the audience to show a
sense of power, and give an
uncomfortable effect towards the
audience, making them feel like the
characters are staring right at them.
The titles / text layout is also similar in both. The Alien poster does not
feature an official title as it is a teaser poster, whereas the Chains poster
does. The colours are also very grungy in both the posters and contrasts to
the genre of both the films. The colours on both of these posters are also
very deep and unnatural looking, and give a sense of rotting / gore which
could be highlighting the theme of the films.

9. Technical Qualities Poster 1
These posters feature the characters
faces very up close and personal
towards the camera. They are also
positioned as if they are looking straight
at the viewer. Both of the faces in these
posters are also blended into the dark
background, as if the faces were coming
out of the shadows towards the viewer.
The faces in both posters are very
unnatural and extremely disturbing
looking. The fact that these faces are
unpleasant highlights the genre of the
film is likely horror. The fact that no
distinguishable human features are
behind the mask also adds to the
suspense. The camera angles are a lot
like the previous posters, they are
looking towards the audience to give a
sense of power, letting the audience
know that they are superior and in
control. The fact that the camera is so
close to the faces highlight the idea that
these characters are coming for the
audience and getting ready to attack
them.
The text layout is also very similar on both posters. Each poster contains a
billing block along with the title just above it, and the colour scheme
remains the same throughout both of the posters, yet the poster on the
left appears to have a stronger colour tone, as if the vibrance has been
turned up on the image to give a more unnatural colour effect.

10. Aesthetic Qualities Poster 1
My first poster is very unique and something that I
personally have never done before. I really like the idea of
a subject on a white background whilst still having the
shadows on the main image, so there is a contrast
between black and white. I believe that my audience will
find this appealing, as it is something relatively new and is
a different twist on horror movie posters, as these styles
are usually associated with genres such as Sci-Fi. Blending
images into images is something that I rarely do, and I
used this opportunity to do so, as I thought leaving the
back pure black would feel empty. The image on the
subjects back is the main antagonist of my project, where
as the subject on the white background is also the same
antagonist, just younger. I chose to do this because my
project is about how the character ‘Leatherface’ became
a killer, so I thought it would be a good idea to have the
same characters in one poster, but they are of different
age. One thing that I don’t particularly like about this
poster is the fact that I had some troubles on where to
but the title and other text. I decided to put some text at
the bottom of the image on the black background, and I
wanted to put the title on the white background. Putting
the title on the white background was a little difficult as
there was not a lot of space and I didn’t want the title to
look to small, but I managed to make it work.

11. Aesthetic Qualities Poster 2
I really like the way my second poster turned out. I think
that this poster is perfect for the theme of my project
and is very minimalistic, but still disturbing. I really like
how most of the image is surrounded in darkness and
the face is just barley visible in the middle. I also like the
way the darkness / shadows consume the main image. I
believe this leaves a lot up to the imagination, as the
face is not fully visible. One thing I also did was use the
darkness to hide specific parts of the face. For example,
if the brightness and exposure is turned up, you can see
an eye behind the mask looking straight into the camera
at the viewer. I feel like the dark tone of this poster will
please my audience, as they will recognize it as a part of
the horror genre, not just from the darkness, but the
main image as well. Another thing I am happy with
about this poster is the title and subtitle. I really think
the fonts work very well a long with the dark, grungy
texture masked onto the text. I also think the dark,
golden like colour works very well with the whole
image, as I believe it contrasts to the nature of the film,
very dark, dirty and gritty. One way in which I think the
image could be improved is by perhaps showing a little
more of the right side of the face, as I think it would
definitely add to the creepiness and also give people an
idea of what the face looks like.

12. Aesthetic Qualities Poster 2
I had a lot of trouble deciding what my final poster would
look like. I went through multiple different ideas and could
not decide on one. I eventually decided to do a poster
similar to one in my research. I love how suspenseful this
poster is. The mask is very close to the screen, which gives
an uncomfortable feeling when viewing it, along with the
fact that there are no distinguishable human features
beyond the mask like a mouth or an eye. This should
appeal towards my primary and secondary audience as it
gives a disturbing feeling, which is what horror fans look for
in horror movie posters, specifically my audience. Another
thing I like about this poster is how dirty / disguising the
mask looks up close. It is likely to leave the viewer feeling
uncomfortable, as it looks extremely unpleasant and
something that you wouldn’t want to touch. The fact that
the mask looks so much like a human face is also very
disturbing, as it also adds to the fear of the unknown,
leaving people wondering if it is actually a mask or
someone's face. One thing I don’t really like about this
poster is the colour. I think I should have given it the same
colour scheme as my second poster as I think it looks
better. I also like it when products stay in the same
continuity, and don’t look too different. I also think I should
have kept the same title design from the last poster and
added it onto this one.

13. Audience Appeal
During the production and planning of my project, I implemented a lot of specific things that my audience both primary and
secondary finds appealing in horror films. My questionnaire results helped me decide what kind of content I should add to
my project to make it look good, as well as appeal to my audience. For example, one of my questions on my questionnaire
asked my audience ‘what is the most important feature that horror movie posters have’. My audience both male and female
chose that having creepy / disturbing imagery and a scary atmosphere is the best style for horror movie posters, so I took
this feedback and created two of my posters with the use of disturbing imagery and a dark tone, (my 2nd and 3rd posters)
with the help of certain Photoshop tools such as levels and curves, as this is what my audience felt is the right style to
create effective horror movie posters, and should hopefully appeal to the younger audience specifically my primary aged 17
– 24 male and female. Another way in which I believe my product has appealed to my audience is that all of my posters are
very minimalistic. Another question on my questionnaire was ‘do you think minimalism is important for a horror movie
poster?’ and 70% of my audience both male and female answered yes, so I decided to go for a minimalistic style for all three
of my posters, as I also believe that minimalism is more effective when it comes to horror movie posters, and most other
styles, for example, posters with big bright colours and a collage of different images on the screen do not fit the horror
genres poster style. My interviews also provided a clear result on the fact that my audience prefers minimalism for the
posters. On my first interview, one of my audience members claimed that ‘My favourite type of movie posters are the simple
ones, and the ones with creepy images. I think it is important for horror movie posters to look creepy’. This once again links
in with my research as well as my own products, and backs up my audience research that horror content such as this is
appealing to young adult audiences, as I went for minimalistic and creepy styles for my own products as well as the
products I researched. This also backs up the statement that my audience prefers minimalism in horror movie posters,
which is why I feel my product greatly appeals to them, not just the posters but the trailer too. Simple ways in which my
product appeals to my audience is the fact that it is a violent horror movie, which will appeal to most adults / young adults
in the horror community, as well as the fact that my product is targeted at those above the age of 17, preventing younger
people from watching it. Horror movies appeal to both male and female audiences, and I feel that my product delivers on
the basics that people are use to seeing in horror movies, such as violence, suspense and jumpscares which were created by
quick moving camera shots and sound effects. These contents are appealing for all genders.

14. Peer
Feedback

15. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
– 'The posters were my favourite part of the product, I really like how
dark and scary they look. I also really like how they all follow similar
patterns such as colour, and style. I thought the trailer was very well
edited and was very cinematic with good shots. I also like how
perfectly timed the music and sound effects were, and I think it made
the trailer look more professional.'
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
• 'I think that the third poster could look a little more different as it does
look a lot like the second poster, and I also think that you could have
added some more characters to the trailer.'

16. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– 'I really liked how scary the mask in the posters looked and I also liked
how different the first poster looked compared to the second and
third. Another thing I really liked about the posters was how
professional and how they were high quality. I also really liked the
overall dark theme the posters have, as well as the dark and light
theme with the first poster.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
• 'One thing I think that you should do next time is have the third poster
have the same colour pattern as the second, as well as adding some
different character into the trailer.'

17. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
– 'I think that the trailer was very entertaining and had some suspense
to it, and I also really like the music to it because I think that it fit with
the overall theme of the trailer which was terror / horror. I think that
the posers are very good and well made, and I think that they also fit
the theme of the project, because they are very dark and grungy.'
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
• 'I think that you could have spent a little extra time on the third poster,
and you could of perhaps made it a little different from the second one so
it could stand out more.'

18. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer
feedback?
– I agree that my third poster could have been a little better, as I do think it
does look very similar to my second poster. I also agree with the fact that
my third poster could have stayed in the same continuity as my second
poster, with the same colour scheme and fonts etc. I also think that I
should have tried to add some different characters to the trailer, as it did
only focus on one person. I think that this would have made my trailer
seem more realistic.
• What do you disagree with from your peer
feedback?
• There is not much that I disagree with, although I do think that it is good to
have different fonts and styles on different posters to feel as though there is
more of a variety and they don’t all look completely the same.

19. Peer Feedback Summary
• Overall, I agree that I should have perhaps kept the third poster in the same
continuity with colours as my second poster, because it would give the idea that both
posters are a part of the same film, as well as the fact that I think it looks a lot more
professional and organized. I also think that I could have added some more
characters to the trailer, as I think it is important to have as many characters as
possible in a trailer, so the audience can see who is in the film. I like that my
audience liked the editing in the trailer, with the music and sound effects, and I am
also happy with the fact that my audience liked the styles / tone of my posters and
thought it fit my project. If I were to change my product, then I would act on my peer
feedback as I feel that I have been given good and helpful feedback to try and make
my product as good as possible. One way in which I would improve my products next
time is by familiarising myself with the camera hardware and understanding what
setting to use when shooting at night, I could achieve this by looking up tutorials
online. I feel like for the most part my planning was good, however I do think I
should have spent a little extra time planning my trailer, as I spent most of it planning
my posters. I could have planned how I was going to shoot specific night scenes and
what camera setting to use, which would have improved the quality of the night
shots and the overall trailer as most of it was shot at night.