This document discusses the key aspects of a student's horror film poster and magazine cover that were designed to promote a psychological horror trailer called "Lullaby." For the poster, the student used a close-up image in black and white to create an unsettling and eye-catching design. References were made to other horror posters to achieve a similar ominous atmosphere. The magazine cover was aimed at an older, more sophisticated audience by featuring the director rather than characters. References were provided to demonstrate targeting this demographic. Connections were made between the poster, trailer, and magazine cover to show how they worked together to promote the film while appealing to different audiences. Examples from other films were referenced to support the

1. EVALUATION: PART
TWO

2. SECTION A: WHAT KEY ASPECTS DID YOU
INCLUDE IN YOUR POSTER AND WHY?
In my poster, I wanted to reflect the atmosphere of the „Lullaby‟ trailer by
using chiaroscuro and an expressionist angle. The main image which I
used was a picture of me playing the ghost. It is a close up image because I
wanted it to be dominating, eye-catching and create a claustrophobia that
would make audience members feel uncomfortable. I feel that close up
images do that well as it is almost like the image itself is invading on the
viewers personal space forcing them to feel on edge. The most unsettling
aspects in our horror trailer use deep shadows as we noticed a lot of other
horrors (as seen in „The Grudge‟ poster below) use this technique and it
adds to the eerie atmosphere. The low key lighting in my poster clearly
connotes the “horrere” („to shudder‟) idea. The font I chose for the title
„Lullaby‟ is broken up and quite faint, I think this not only adds to the
overall image of the poster but reflects and connotes the life of the
mother, the life is gone, but she is still there in spiritual form. The overall
colour scheme is black and white because I think they are very
conventional of horror films and posters and, although there is no use of
bold colours, I think it is inviting and mysterious and makes people want to
watch a psychological horror film.
This poster for ‘The Grudge’ is a
good example of a close-up
poster, and one which uses largely
monochrome with just a little colour.
I feel intrigued about the poster and
find myself wanting to watch the
film. I wanted to achieve this with
my own poster but decided not to
use colour, especially red, as in my
eyes it shouts ‘blood’ and ‘gore’
which isn’t a part of my
predominantly psychological trailer.
This is my own horror
poster. Although it is
more close-up than
‘The Grudge’ and uses
a lot more white colour,
it has a lot of visual
similarities such as a
female antagonist
being used on the front.

3. SECTION B: WHAT KEY ASPECTS DID YOU
INCLUDE IN YOUR MAGAZINE COVER AND WHY?
Knowing there are a few different types of horror magazines, I decided to
go for one with a more upper-class audience. I thought the best way to
visually achieve this would be to use a sophisticated, yet conventional
colour scheme. To have the main image as a picture of the director – albeit
looking rather pale and eerie - rather than a character in the film. This, I
think makes the magazine more technical rather than focusing on primarily
just the scariness of the horror genre. The image I used is inviting and eye-
catching, and also with the black background and blood splattered font of
my title „Horrere‟ – meaning “to shudder” in Latin. Looking at other
magazines, I noticed that the cover lines are sometimes styled specifically
to the theme of the horror.
For example, this alien cover line from the „Twilight‟ “Empire”
Cover has a green, gungy style to reflect what it is
representing. On my poster, I‟ve tried to create this effect but
by using a smaller range of colours on my overall front cover
as I think that using similar colours throughout would be more
appealing to my upper/middle class audience.
The specific colour
scheme I tried to
create is also used in
this issue of ‘Empire.’
The colours red and
white stand out
against the black. The
only other colour used
is the gold, to connote
My
magazine
cover

4. SECTION C: HOW DID YOUR POSTER TIE INTO
YOUR STYLE OF TRAILER?
The poster which I created ties into the trailer as it is a close-up shot of the
ghost looking at the camera which victimises the audience. I chose the shot
because it is very similar to the jump scare in my trailer as that has the
same impact on the audience. Where the ghost is seen in the trailer, the
lighting is always low-key and this is another feature I wanted to use in my
poster. The darkness of both the trailer and the poster are very typical
conventions of horror, it makes the audience a lot more afraid than if the
image/footage was shot in bright, ambient lighting.
The image to the right is the poster for ‘The
Woman in Black’ and the photo on the left is a
screenshot of the trailer. Although not
identical, they have the same theme of a
dark, shadowy atmosphere and the title in a
similar layout. This is the kind of thing I wanted to
achieve in my own poster, by using ideas created
in the trailer to synergistically link the whole
advertising campaign together.
My poster (Lullaby) shares similarities to ‘Shutter’
as the main images both have a low,
expressionist angle and a claustrophobic close-up
angle which evokes a eerie mise-en-scene;
reminiscent of psychological horror films. The
make-up was a really important part of my horror
poster as it shows the character well and strongly
shows the character is a villain, this is shown as
well in the ‘Shutter’ poster.

5. SECTION D: HOW DID YOUR MAGAZINE COVER
TIE INTO YOUR STYLE OF TRAILER?
As I said before, I wanted my magazine to be of a more mainstream – almost upper class - audience,
whereas the film itself has a more varied audience of younger people and those who watch other
psychological horrors such as „Paranormal Activity‟ and „The Conjuring‟. I did this by using an image
of the “auteur” rather than other typical horror magazines (such as „Scream‟) that use a picture of
either the ghost, monster or victim. This way, more sophisticated film fanatics (such as fans of
“Sight and Sound” and “Total Film”) would be interested more technical details about the editing
and cinematography used in „Lullaby‟. I also wanted to do this to test my abilities, to see if I could
transfer a mainstream film into a sophisticated, expensive horror magazine. I feel that it works
visually and also works as a magazine structure, while further legitimising the mainstream appeal of
psychological horrors (seen with the massive financial success of „Sinister‟ and „The Conjuring‟).
‘Total Film’ is the existing magazine
which I feel mine is the most like. It
has a simplistic look yet it shares a
high price like mine. It also shares
a similar psychographic audience
of mainstreamers who enjoy
psychological horrors.

6. SECTION E: WHAT AUDIENCE ARE YOU AIMING
FOR?
POSTER: The poster is the product which people would see on the street, so it would have a similar
audience to the trailer itself. 15-30 year olds, both genders a social class of C-D. It would be
aimed at a similar financially lucrative audience to films such as „The Woman in Black‟,
„Insidious‟ and „Paranormal Activity‟.
MAGAZINE: To show a different skill set, I made the magazine cover for a higher A-B social class
audience. The magazine focuses more on the directorship of the film. The typical age group for
the magazine would be perhaps 25-50. The readers of the magazine would be typically
psychological horror film fanatics because of the level of detail and film terminology that would
be inside the magazine.
The trailer, the poster and the magazine front cover come together to sell the same film, all of which
help to raise awareness of the film and both the trailer and the poster sell the antagonist. She is
on the poster, and is predominant in the trailer and is the last shot of the trailer, which most
viewers will remember the most. Most horror films succeed selling the bad guy which is why
I‟ve chosen to do this on the trailer and the poster. The magazine differs as it sells the film in a
classier way by using the director as the selling point. This is because it is aimed at a different
audience, the other products are aimed more at mainstreamers whereas the magazine is for
more professional, higher class film enthusiasts.
Click the image above to watch the sin city trailer
The ‘Sin City’ poster, trailer and magazine
front cover is quite similar to my products as
the trailer and the poster have a visual link
and the magazine cover is slightly different
as it maybe is attracting a different
audience. Like my poster and trailer, these
both use low key lighting and have a black
and white colour scheme to it.