A2 Media Coursework

1. For the first draft of our poster, inspiration was taken from the You’re Next poster, as the central image
of the masked man in the door created a silhouette figure which gave an effective aesthetic look
making the audience feel like they are trapped. The original design saw the tagline at the top with the
title and billing block at the bottom, which is the most common page design of most posters.
The image
conformed to
existing posters
as it was kept
central which
required a new
photo shoot.
This was an
improvement
over our second
draft of our
poster which had
the image placed
more to the right
and did not look
as professional.

2. For the text, the title was the largest on
the poster as this is the main point we
wanted the audience eyes to look at,
following conventions. We got the font
from DaFont and made it white on
Photoshop to contrast the black
background. The billing block, according
to conventions, is kept small and almost
unreadable, but is a legal requirement so
is located at the bottom in small font.
This was collected from our trailer using
iMovie and the transparency was
increased to draw attention from it in
favor of the other text such as Coming
Soon, which was in the same font as the
title. The tagline was the second biggest,
in terms of size but was in a different
font from the title, to follow
conventions. This can be located either
at the top or bottom.

3. For the title, horror either consists of one word
or starts with the word “the” according to
typical horror titles from our research. This is
evident in horror such as Insidious, Mirrors
which have one word indulging the audience in
the themes and the genre of the film. We
replicated these conventions in our title by
calling our film “Trapped” which connotes our
themes involving kidnapping and isolation. For
the tagline, it is usually kept simple and like the
title, relates and gives more on what the
narrative will entail.
For the Saw tagline, the tagline relates to
the psychological and mind games
included in the film. For our tagline “You
won’t escape” it further emphasises the
themes and narrative given by the title.

4. For the second draft of the poster, attempts were made to
blend the images with the text. The tagline at the top was
blended with a blood splatter to highlight the themes of death.
However, the blood was too vibrant and ended up looking
comical, which was not the tone we wanted to give off. The
title at the bottom was enhanced by being merged with a glass
shatter effect with the killers arm bleeding over slightly.
However, upon further research this feature was found to be
more common on magazine covers as opposed to posters.
For the final draft of the poster,
the glass shattering effect was
kept as this was effective, but the
image was changed as the
integration of the killer with the
screenshot from the trailer looked amateur. The new image was
kept central and in line with the text with the tagline moved to
the bottom. This resulted in the final poster looking more
professional with what integration of images with text were
kept looking effective in creating our tone and sense of danger.

5. The shot was originally framed
slightly to the right and did not
fit conventions as intended. The
second image was shot in a
doorway instead with the light
source behind the killer
creating a silhouette figure.
The shot was now
framed centrally along
with the text creating a
sense of symmetry
apart from the
machete which is what
the audiences eyes will
get drawn to as well as
other standout features
such as the title.
This follows conventions of existing horror posters such as
You’re Next and Friday the 13th, where the killer is positioned
directly in the centre of the poster.

6. From the horror posters we analysed it
was clear that there were trends that
we had to adhere to in order to appeal
to our target audience. The background
was kept black and blended with the
image of the killer looking through the
door. This is common in horror posters
to feature the killer as opposed to the
protagonists as unknown actors are
typically cast. For the mise-en-scene
the killer was wearing all black wielding
a machete which is an iconic prop
emphasising the psychological and
torture element the film has. For the
lighting we had the light source behind
the killer to create a silhouette figure,
similar to the effect used in the You’re
Next poster. This created our desired
effect and we deliberately shot the
main image in a doorway to make the
audience feel trapped and hint to the
setting being isolated and dark.

7. To create the poster a mixture of Adobe Fireworks and Photoshop were used to manipulate
the images. For the final draft of the poster, the images had to be altered and new images
were shot. To make the killer seem bigger we trimmed the top of the doorframe to seem
like his height was increased using the crop tool. Using the spot healing brush the light was
made to fill the whole doorway to remove the blue of the background making the location
seem more remote.

8. For the magazine, there
were conventions that
needed to be adhered to.
We looked at a mainstream
movie magazine to look at
these trends. In Empire it
was seen that there was a
specific layout. This is what
was found:
- Title is located at the top in
big bold font
- Text at the sides typically
reflects the genre of the
film being advertised
- The image used on the
front cover fills the entire
cover and typically bleeds
onto the title of the
magazine
All these conventions were adhered to and all the trends of
a mainstream magazine were adhered to. To improve
however, the text at the sides need to be of different sizes
to emphasise the importance of stories over others.

9. The font was perhaps one of the most difficult things to
perfect when trying to adhere to the conventions of a
mainstream magazine. The text towards the sides
varies in font size and colour depending on the
importance of the article. It also fits around the image
as opposed to the title which the image bleeds over.
There is typically text above the title as well advertising
the key features of the issues. As this issue is released
towards the start of the year we chose to advertise it as
a 2016 preview including all the major releases planned
for the year.

10. For the the title we intended to use a film term
to appeal to the target audience. From
research Aspect was the liked the most by
audience. Typically, disregarding the
minimalistic covers, writing covers the majority
of the page. As well as the text at the sides
there sometimes is a banner running along the
bottom. To fit the overall theme of horror on
the cover, there were mainly horror movies
advertised.
For the text at the
sides it adhered to
conventions by giving
little away and talking
about the features in
the articles such as
interviews and film
award ceremonies such
as the Oscars.

11. To make the magazine look
professional the image needed
to be integrated with the text to
match the interest of the target
audience. The background we
chose was black in order to
blend the image and provide
low key lighting in order to
connote the tone of the
advertised film. The text was a
mixture of red and white to fit
the genre of horror as well as
fitting around the image which
other mainstream magazines
tend to do.
The main image only tends to overlap onto the title but the text is still readable. To
blend the text with the background making it seem more integrated a blood splatter
effect was added which went well with the bloody machete.

12. For the image the shot was framed centrally and taken in
a darkened room with lights directed onto the mask from
below the character. This was successful in creating a
ghoulish effect that blended in with the background well
with a couple of filters used as well.
The mise en scene of the magazine generally conformed to
expectations of our intended target audiences. The black and
red aimed to create a magazine that emphasised the horror
special of this issue. The setting lighting was deliberately kept
dark to fit the theme of the magazine and connote the dark
themes included in the film. The mise of scene also kept similar
to other psychological horror with a mask similar to the ghoul
mask in Scream to create an iconic image for our film.

13. For the manipulation of
photographs a mixture of
Adobe Photoshop and
Fireworks was used. Fireworks
was used to rearrange the
text. The title font was taken
from Dafont so it had to be
painted white to stand out
from the background.
To add to the psychological horror aspect a smoke effect was used in the top right corner
to blend in the images with the background as well as a blood splatter effect to add to
the brutality and violent aspect the film with have. Photoshop was used to alter the
colour of text to darken the text and make it look more like real blood. Overall the
placement and manipulation of photographs were successful in appealing to the target
audience however, to improve, the text would need to be different sizes varying on the
importance of the article.