The student created a poster and magazine cover to promote their horror film "CUT". The poster featured the killer in low-key lighting to hint at his true nature without revealing too much of the plot. The magazine cover showed the female victim in a sinister close-up to make the audience feel sorry for her while obscuring that she is actually innocent. Both pieces were meant to pique audience interest and lead them to watch the trailer without giving away the full story. The target audience for the film and promotional materials was teens and young adults aged 15-25 from various social classes who enjoy psychological horror and action blends like Saw and The Purge.

1. Evaluation
Part 2

2. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?

3. Section A: what key aspects did you
include in your poster?
I have tried to incorporate the use of our body horror into my poster but also trying
to link into the trailer without giving too much away. I used this slash and cut text
because it links in with the story line the thought of the killer having this
phallic symbol which is the knife it foreshadows events in the trailer.
But also this thought of innocence the expressionist angle of this image is as if we
are looking up at this man not only does this show that he is a killer but also could
connote that he is a good man. The use of the bright light also on the main
character could show innocence which could show that he may not be this bad
character. This adds to our plot twist because it isn’t really what people expect to
see. Finally, the use of the low key lighting around the character could connote the
thought of there being a bad ending.

4. Side by side poster comparison
I found that the Shrooms (2008) film
poster was very similar to mine in the way
that the posters contain dark edges and
then the light to show the bad character
from the films. In the case of my film it
would be the killer but for the Shrooms
film poster it would be the mushrooms.
Although on the Shrooms poster the light
is natural from the moon, mine is more of
a fish eye lens to zoom in and emphasise
the killer and elevate him to an iconic
killer. For instance Norman Bates who is
the iconic killer is psycho. The light could
be used to connote goodness and
innocence but throughout the films you
become to realise that that is not the
case.

5. Section B: what key aspects did you
include in your magazine cover?
In my magazine cover I have used the main image of the female victim from our film ‘CUT’ I
think this works well because the image comes across very sinister and without watching the
film it look almost as if she is the killer. The close up also works very well because you feel
sorry for her because she actually looks rather scary and sceptical. I used the red writing
because this connotes blood and is very stereotypical for a horror film as you expect gore and
violence in a horror film. The use of the low key lighting also works really well because it shows
the dark side of the character and this works well with this image because little do the audience
know that she is actually innocent.

6. Side by side magazine comparison
I liked the look of this total film
poster, I like the way the way the
word ‘total’ is cut out so you can still
see the image behind it. I think this
works well with the close up image
of one of the main characters. I
liked the layout of the magazine as
well. The grey tone of the photo
with the red writing and the white I
think this stands out well, Although
as my magazine was going to be a
horror film I decided to use darker
colours in order to connote horror
and gore. I used a bright image of
the victim of our film as this shows
innocence and makes you think of
her being innocent. Whereas in the
total film poster you can see he is
going to be the hero.

7. Section C:

8. How does your magazine cover and
poster lead into your trailer?
My poster and magazine lead into our trailer because they both represent two of the main
characters. I think they work well because they both show this uncertainty although within my
horror poster it is obvious in that he is the killer. The magazine style I was going for is
something in the likes of empire and total film go for. These are both mainstream magazine
types. Our target audience are teens and early 20’s so we have a very mainstream audience
although we found that we wanted to take this further and actually open it out with having a
larger target audience. I wanted my poster and magazine to allow the audience to want to find
out more. I didn’t want my horror poster to give too much away I wanted to keep it going in
order to allow people to find out the story of the film.

9. What audience were you aiming for?
When filming shots and planning the audience of the trailer we wanted to make a film that
was more open to anyone. We wanted to predominantly make it into an action horror I
really enjoyed The Purge as there was so much action and tension throughout the action of
the film and the horror of it works well and really keeps you connected and wanting to
carry on watching, but when planning the story we found more of a drift into a
psychological horror. A film like saw is a film that is psychological it is one of those films
that when you watch you feel the characters pain so it really gets into your head. We
managed to blend the two together.
When planning we all found that we wanted something that was open to a larger group of
people that wasn’t too scary and gory because from class surveys we found that actually
people would prefer a mixture of genre.
The audience we aimed for were between the 15-25 years of age and this is from mixed
gender this group of people with a social class of D. This group of people would look at
films such as Scream 4. This film has made $63,300, 95 since being released.

10. What audience were you aiming for?
When filming shots and planning the audience of the trailer we wanted to make a film that
was more open to anyone. We wanted to predominantly make it into an action horror I
really enjoyed The Purge as there was so much action and tension throughout the action of
the film and the horror of it works well and really keeps you connected and wanting to
carry on watching, but when planning the story we found more of a drift into a
psychological horror. A film like saw is a film that is psychological it is one of those films
that when you watch you feel the characters pain so it really gets into your head. We
managed to blend the two together.
When planning we all found that we wanted something that was open to a larger group of
people that wasn’t too scary and gory because from class surveys we found that actually
people would prefer a mixture of genre.
The audience we aimed for were between the 15-25 years of age and this is from mixed
gender this group of people with a social class of D. This group of people would look at
films such as Scream 4. This film has made $63,300, 95 since being released.