The document discusses a student's final horror film poster created to promote their group's film trailer, "Cloven". The poster includes conventional horror film poster elements like the film title, an image relating to the narrative, a release date, tagline, credits, and uses colors like red, black, and white. The main image depicts the possessed main character and relates to the horror genre. Other conventional elements discussed include the tagline, credits, website address, and how the poster successfully targets its intended younger audience.

1. This is my final poster, which acts as a promotional device
to advertise my groups film trailer; ‘Cloven’. I am happy with
the end result of my horror film poster as I believe that it
uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions
of real media products successfully. My poster includes a
variety of conventional features such as; a film title, an
image which relates to the narrative of the film, a release
date, a tag-line and credits such as a billing block. These
conventional aspects are vital to my film poster as they
allow the page to appear a lot more professional therefore
allowing my film poster to be conventionally effective. I also
believe that my film poster is successful as it keeps to the
conventional colour scheme of red, black and white. These
colours are important to keep to whilst creating a media
product as they work well together, as they highlight and
contrast each other allowing vital information to stand out
easily on the page. These colours are all visually eye
catching which allows all media products to be attractive
and conventionally stylistic.

2. Main Image The main image on my horror film poster, which is of the character Sam, in my opinion
is conventionally successful as it uses and develops the forms and conventions of real
media products proficiently. I believe that this image is conventional as it carries out a
variety of features which are essential when creating a horror film poster, such as;
relating to the genre of the film and revealing a sense of narrative to the audience
which is shown through the key-art of the image. These features allow the poster to
entice the audience to watch the film, which is the main purpose of the poster as it acts
as a promotional device.
This image evidently relates to the horror genre as it shows the character Sam whilst
channelling her possession. This is clearly identifiable from the mise-en-scene of the
image and the characters makeup. The lighting of the image creates a sinister feel as
the sky appears dark and shadowed suggesting that the character isn’t pure. This is a
conventional aspect to a horror film poster image, as there is normally a character
present on the page who is represented as being inhumane, disturbing or victimised. In
this case the character ‘Sam’ is all of these things as she is physically and mentally
disturbed, seen as her soul is being taken over by this evil entity. But in addition to this
she is also victimised, not only is she targeted by this evil entity but she as a result of
her possession is her own enemy. I decided to capture the character in a crouched
pose to make her seem almost animalistic, symbolising that her touch with humanity is
starting to slip away. This helps to represent the genre further.
The blood splatters underneath the characters hand also suggests the horror genre,
emphasising the despair most characters feel throughout the film plot. The blood also
symbolises the violence which is present within the film, this entices the target audience
to watch the film showing that it is a successful promotional device as it achieves what
it sets out to do.
Over all as a result, these key features allow the poster to reveal a sense of narrative,
which is that the character is possessed and the cause of her possession is due to the
prop of the book that she herself is holding. The prop of the book is used to initially
relate to the film plot but it is also used to create a code of enigma.

3. Credits
The billing block present on my horror film poster is a conventional feature as real existing film posters always include credits. This is when a poster
publicly mentions a list of individuals who contributed towards the production of the film being released. The film conventionally states the roles in which
they carried out such as being an actor starring in the film, being a producer/director or being a member of the crew. The billing block is conventionally
positioned at the bottom of the page and takes up around 30% of the space present on the whole page. It also typically keeps to a small, compact font
size so that it has enough space to list various members of the production team. Specific credits within my billing block such as the actors; Ethan Blake,
Ellie Reed, Nadine Powell, Josh Baugh and Joe Pugh are purposely included in order to act as a unique selling point, this a conventional feature to any
billing block as they entice the audience to watch the film, as they’re the actors who star in the film ‘Cloven’. Other credits such as the directors; Luke
Gumery and Josh Baugh feature within the billing block as it is a conventional aspect to include. This allows the audience to identify the directors famous
work that they have achieved before hand, therefore allowing them to pre-judge the success of the film and to decide whether they believe it will be worth
watching.
Over all I believe that my billing block is very conventional, as it includes all these vital features needed in order to achieve a successful media product. I
also decided to add the statement “from the director of evil inside” which is positioned at the top of my horror film poster, as I found out from my research
that this is a conventional aspect to include on a film poster. It is considered a conventional aspect as it states a famous film which the director has
worked on, crediting him for his previous accomplishments. This therefore gives the audience evidence that the film ‘Cloven’ will be a success. It is
positioned at the top of the page, to make the poster look more appealing as it takes up dead space.

4. Tag-line
The tag-line “something was disturbed” is a conventional feature present on my film poster, as it relates to the
narrative of our groups film plot by representing the idea that the character Sam has been corrupted by an evil entity,
which is the main cause of the disturbance. The tag-line also links in with the main image present on my horror film
poster as the character is portrayed as being possessed and psychologically tormented. This is easily identified by
the negativity of the mise-en-scene and the characters makeup, which makes her look bruised, unhealthy and evil,
which connects to the idea that she is experiencing disturbing changes, physically and mentally. This is also a
conventional aspect to include, as I found out from my research that most film posters typically correlate the image of
their film poster to the tag-line.
The tag-line is also conventionally designed to create a code of enigma, so that the film poster accomplishes what it
set out to achieve as a promotional device and entices the audience to watch the film. In this case I believe that my
tag-line is very conventional as it creates mystery of the unknown, the audience are intrigued to find out who or what
was disturbed? I also decided to use this statement as my tag-line, seen as most film posters conventionally include
one of the intertitles present within their film trailer as their tag-line so that the poster shows a clear link between them
due to promotional reasons.

5. Film Title
The title for our film is very conventional as it relates to the
narrative of our film plot. The title ‘Cloven’ has multiple
connotations as the word Cloven means a split or division into
two, this therefore represents the sudden change of the character
Sam who’s personality almost splits into two after her possession
has taken place. It also represents the idea of her soul splitting
into two separate entities; one which is evil and one which is
pure, that was present inside the old Sam.
The word ‘Cloven’ is also closely associated with a Cloven hoof,
this is a hoof which is split into two toes. Examples of mammals
that possess this type of hoof are cattle, deer, goats, and sheep.
In folklore and popular culture, a cloven hoof has long been
associated with the Devil. Over all I believe that our film title is
very conventional as it is closely linked to the narrative of our film,
as it represents the character Sam as being the Devil. I also
believe that it is a conventional feature as it creates a brand
image for the film, this is based upon its Celtic style of font which
also correlates to its narrative.

6. Other features
I decided to add a website ‘www.clovenmovie.com’ which is situated below the billing block, to show
that the film being promoted is multi-platform. This is a conventional aspect as many posters include
the website address of the film in order to act as another promotional feature. I also added the website
to further the audiences interaction with the film which a conventional aim for any successful media
product.
I added other features to the poster such as company logos as this is a common feature present on
most real film posters. I did this in order to make my horror film poster appear more realistic and
therefore professional.

7. Experience
The aim of my main image is to catch the
audiences eye and make them feel a sense of
fear and distress. This is so that the audience
evidently recognise the genre of the film ‘Cloven’
successfully.
The image is also designed to create a sense of
mystery so that the audience are intrigued to find
out more. The image represents the scene in
which the character Sam’s possession occurs by
the presence of the book this allows the audience
to have insight of what the film will entail. This as
a result creates a close relationship with the
narrative of film as it is the main focus point of the
plot.

8. Target Audience
The clearly outlined horror genre and the
model of the character ‘Sam’ both support
that the target audience age range of the film
would be 17-22 seen as most people of that
age favour horror films, this is evident from
my target audience research. The model also
reflects our target audience age range seen
as she is a late teen herself.
I believe that the content present on the page
which suggests the horror genre, would
predominantly target younger people as this
genre isn’t typically associated with older
people. I believe that the poster over all
suggests that the age limit would be around
30 years old.

9. Conclusion
• Over all I believe that my horror film poster is conventionally
successful as it follows the conventional features of many real
existing media products. I identified the typical layout of a horror film
poster by carrying out research into real media posters, this helped
me to design and to develop a conventional product as a result.
Initially I wanted to include as many of the codes and conventions of
film posters as I possibly could on my own product, this would
therefore ensure that my over all product would appear successfully
professional.
• In order to achieve this I decided to take specific conventional
features from existing posters that I was inspired by and apply them
to my own personal product.

10. Posters I was inspired by…

11. I was inspired by the image of this poster,
as I liked the idea that it shows the main
character within the location in which the
film plot was set. I tried to achieve this
exact same representation by placing the
character ‘Sam’ in the location in which she
became possessed, this is why I included
the prop of the book to add to the narrative
of the location. I was also influenced by the
fact that the sky is darkened or shadowed
as it creates a sinister feel and allows the
audience to identify the genre of the film
immediately. The sky also creates pathetic
fallacy as it represents the mood of the
character, seen as he is possessed.

12. I was inspired by the content and text
featured within this film poster, as I
believe that it successfully targets it’s
audience through the use of credits. The
line “from the producer of Paranormal
Activity and Insidious” allows the
audience to identify that the producer
has made previous accomplishments,
this therefore gives the audience
evidence that the film will be a success. I
decided to feature this on my film poster,
as I believed that it would make my
media product appear conventional and
therefore effective.