Jade Matthews documents the process of creating promotional materials for a school horror film called "School Secret". They went through several iterations before settling on a magazine cover design. The final design features a large ghostly face, moon through trees, and clouds over an edited photo of the school setting. It also includes promotional text and advertisements for other films in a red and white color scheme against a black background. Jade is happy with the final result which captures the chilling and supernatural atmosphere of the horror genre.

1. Constructing my ancillary
texts
Jade Matthews

2. My initial idea for my
poster consisted of four
pictures taken from our
filming placed over a
picture of the school.
The spooky edges
added a supernatural
look however the white
background made it
look less sinister.

3. I changed the
background to a
mixture of blacks and
blues which blended
well with the pictures I
used. I was much more
happy with this product
but I decided to try
some other ideas as I
felt that it did not give
the chilling horror
image that is shown in
my trailer.

4. The next idea I had for my poster was
to use the face of the male villain. I
took a picture from behind the scenes
during filming. I edited the eyes to
make them more sinister and I placed
a snapshot from filming of a
whiteboard with the word “leave”
written in fake blood over his face
with a low opacity level. In the
background is a picture of a corridor
from a school however it is not my
own picture. This seemed very basic
and the fact that not all of the images
were my own made me rethink the
idea.

5. To amend the idea I had previously , I
increased the image of the ghost’s
face to make it more intimidating. I
also moved the “leave” picture to the
bottom which made the whole poster
more clear. Next, I changed the
background to a picture of some trees
that one of my group member’s took.
After making all of these changes, I
was still unhappy with the final
product as I felt that it was still too
simple. So I decided to start again,
completely from scratch…

6. To begin with, I used the burn tool to distort the colour of the ghost’s face
as well as change the eye colour which gave a supernatural look rather
than keeping it mundane. I extended the mouth and made it wider, as well
as blending it to match the background. This makes her seem less human-
like and it will later connote secrecy which links to the title of the film
“School Secret”. I used many different tools to create the look I was happy
with. I researched how to do some things but not all of the tutorials were
helpful so I experimented with anything I could find and decided whether
it suited the idea I had in mind.
I took a picture of
our female ghost
immediately after
doing her make up
and my aim was to
transform her
completely through
the use of
photoshop.

7. The next step was creating the
credits. This took a little bit longer
than expected because I wanted to
replicate a professional poster as
much as possible. This meant that I
had to test out different fonts, sizes
and styles. On top of this, trying to
include all of the key information
meant that I had to research what to
include and how other posters
presented it. Every detail is essential
when creating something with
precision. I capitalised all letters but
the name’s have a larger font size
than the titles of our roles.

8. I then duplicated the picture of our
villain’s face and cut our various lines
around her face with the eraser tool.
The idea of suffocation was kept in
mind as the title “School Secret”
represents the idea of keeping
information to yourself and the
restrictions this has. Next, I placed
this on top of the original picture but
at a slightly lower position so that
you can see her skin underneath.
This makes it seem as though the
thing that is suffocating her is not
visible. This was done because
secrets can not been seen and that is
what is torturing her.

9. Next, I came up with a small quote to put
which captures the audience and hints at
the storyline slightly. My final idea was
“Stick to the rules or suffer the
consequences”. The rules indicates the
strictness of the school, suffer connotes
what the characters will go through and
consequences suggests that people are
most likely going to die because they have
not done what they are told. The title of our
film had to be capturing so I used a dark red
and spooky font. I included the date that
the film is planned to come out as well as
the “restricted” logo to imply the age range.
Also, I included our production logo “cold
blood productions” is the name our group
came up with for our film company.

10. The line through the title was added
later to represent the idea of the
secret being broken. I repositioned the
picture, enlarged it and blacked out
the background because I feel that it is
more chilling to see the face without
any background as it takes away any
aspects of humanity. I also got rid of
the date and put “coming soon” to add
more suspense. Lastly, I moved around
the writing many different times until I
was happy with the positioning.
Overall, I was very pleased with my
final outcome and I feel that it is the
best I could have done.

11. This was my first draft for my
magazine analysis. I was happy
with it but I decided to reposition
things to make it seem more
intimidating. One of the big
changes I made was enlarging the
images. By doing this, you
immediately feel more fear as you
feel as though the ghost is really in
your face. I also changed the two
advertisements for “the bye bye
man” and “a cure for wellness” to
my own advertisements using my
own pictures.

12. The first thing I did was put
the setting of our film (the
school) at the bottom of the
magazine. I also edited the
picture using black and white
filters and feathering. I chose a
black background to
emphasize the features that
will go on the magazine cover.
Also, darkness is a key
convention of horror.

13. I then added a photo that I
took of the moon through
some trees. The branches
created a pattern over the
moon which made it suit the
horror genre and it indicates
the time of day. The fact that it
is set in the night implies
danger and the idea of ghosts
coming out at this time.

14. I then put a picture of some
clouds over the top but I
decreased the opacity so that
it is only faintly visible. This
sets a scary atmosphere to
support the supernatural
events that happen in the film.
The more obvious clouds
surround the school which
places more emphasis on the
setting.

15. I decided to use the picture I
edited for one of my first
poster ideas. I smudged and
blended the costume he was
wearing to add a ghostly
effect, I changed the colour of
his eyes to make them more
demon-like and I sharpened
key features to place a bigger
emphasis on them such as the
eyes and the mouth.
Original picture

16. I then added writing to make
the magazine look more
appealing. I used white and red
to contrast with the black
background and to abide by the
codes and conventions of
horror. I used different styles of
writing to make it seem more
attractive and to emphasise the
title and “free”.

17. I used Photoshop to edit some
pictures to advertise “other
films” taken from my
photoshoot. Also, I have
included some of the features
from the magazine.

18. This is the final product where I
edited small details and
rearranged some of the
pictures and titles as well as
adding a barcode and small
details such as date, price and
website.