1. In what ways does your
media use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
Film poster

2. Main Image
 The main image of a film poster is a typical convention that is centre
point on the poster to attract the audience and grab their attention.
Looking at similar posters the general technique used is the
character/characters take up the majority of the space with a small
amount of text. In my poster I wanted to also create this design and
layout to ensure that it will be what typical audiences are used to
seeing on other film posters which would influence the success of it.
The main image on the poster is conventionally the main character
or lead role that is played within the film that leaves mystery to the
audience and allows them to figure out what the character may do
or have happened to them. The image that I used for my poster is a
mid-shot of the main character looking slightly away from the
camera to leave that innocent unknown feeling to the audience.
Although general film poster use characters with direct address to
the audience to captures the audience’s attention I wanted to
challenge this by not using direct mode of address but still have the
full focus on the character.

3. Background
 With the research that I had done on looking at existing film posters
they very rarely used blank white space as the background. As I
noticed this was a typical convention to fill this space with a
background that relates to the storyline of the film I wanted to make
sure that I did this on my poster. As the film is called ‘Scratching the
Surface’ I decided to put scratch marks on either side of the
character this is to continue with the storyline and give that sense of
mystery to the audience of what the scratches may unveil etc.
Alongside the scratches I accompanied this with a dark background
that was darker at the bottom and lighten up moving up the poster.
This links with the typical colours that you would generally find for
the horror genre. Continuing with the scratches on the poster as I
did on the magazine front cover maintained the consistency of the
link to the ‘scratching’ of the main title of the film. Although different
scratches were used it still enabled the audience to understand
what they were.

4. Mise En Scene
 The camera level of my main character used on the poster was of
eye-level, this was to attract the audience’s attention to the main
image. Although the character is of the younger age the eye-level
could suggest how powerful she could be against the audience
leaving mystery to the audience. The make up of the character was to
a lower standard because I was able to edit her although I did put
some darker eye shadow on her to make her look fierce but when
editing I made the character brighter to stand out against the
background which took some of this effect away of the makeup used.
The positioning of the character is of her looking over her shoulder,
this creates an intense feeling towards the audience because it is a
unique position for a young child to be standing in which challenges
the normal conventions of how a young child is used in a film like this
being typically used whilst playing. The editing shows her being
brighter than the background which I wanted to create her to stand out
and be the main focal point for the film poster which I thought that I
was successful in achieving.

5. Main Star Credit
 The main star credit I positioned along the top of the film title. I
wanted it to be positioned here because it was central point for
the audience to see almost instantly the main characters within
the film. Some of these which would have been popular
characters entice them to watch the film as they have been in
previous successful films. Looking at similar film posters this is
what I have found most of them do which uses the typical forms of
conventions of film posters.

6. Production Team
 After looking into other film posters it is a typical convention
that I noticed having the actors and actresses featured on the
poster as well as the production team like the director etc to
also be included in this. Having this on my magazine I
wanted to hopefully gain more audiences because of the
stars they may idolise who are in the film. I wanted to use this
because I understood this was a convention that is always
used and makes the film poster look professional and
realistic.

7. Production Company
 All the film posters that I looked at every one of them had the
production company included somewhere on the poster. I felt
this was a convention that also needed to be used to show
their importance as well as benefitting the film trailer. It also
allowed the production company a base for advertising which
could give the audience something to research about who
made the film and more background information if they
wished.

8. Mode Address
 In other successful film posters it was clear that a convention
used was direct mode of address. I suggested this was used
to attract and grab the audience’s attention making the poster
interesting and draw them in. I decide to challenge this form
by not have the main character looking directly the audience,
I felt as I was using the horror genre it connoted mystery in
which I wanted to create this feeling towards my main
character as well as showing innocence as she was a young
girl.