This document summarizes the process of creating a film poster for a horror movie titled "Enigma" using Photoshop. The poster was designed around a close-up studio photo of a man that was cropped to remove the background. Effects were added to make one eye red and the skin tone red to convey horror elements. Different fonts were tested for the title before selecting one. Logos for the distributor and audio were added along with the release date in red and credits at the bottom. The final poster incorporates key horror conventions while revealing minimal details about the plot to generate intrigue.

1. Final poster screeshots

2. This was the original picture used for the final poster, this
close/mid shot was taken in a studio setting as you can also
tell from the background of the picture. This is a well taken
picture as it’s clear and the lighting is also good, which
showed in the final product with the help of some editing.

3. As I didn’t want to use the studio background on my film poster, I had
to crop out the background. To do this I used the quick selection tool to
get rid of the background.

4. The picture was cropped and once in the process of cropping you can
choose what background you want to have, my preferred background
colour was black. However as you can see in my final product the
clothing and scarf are taken away. I did this using the quick selection
tool again, this time with more focus as you need to get the right bits
cut properly so that the image looks perfect.

5. The background colour of the poster is black. I chose this colour
because I think it links in a lot with the horror genre in terms of all
the action takes place in the night which is dark, so incorporating the
colour black to the background was essential and required. To
change the background colour was just click the fill then change the
colour to black, as normally the background colour you start with on
Photoshop is white.

6. This was the start to my final product, as you can see the
lighting is still pretty clear, and the parting in the middle
doesn’t really look appealing however this was done using the
rubber tool with a bit of fade. However, you do get a sense of
what the final product will look like with the head of the killer
floating as the main image.

7. This was an initial idea with making the face red as I played
with the layer style with the gradient overlay to change the
colour to red as red is a common colour seen in horror films
as there’s a lot of blood including. As you can see in this
screenshot, the middle parting looks more appealing as I
experimented with different rubber fades etc.

8. This is the title of the film, and the font was something that looks easy in
the production of a film poster, however, I found it to be one of the most
challenging tasks, as I didn’t quite know what looked liked a horror font
without it being too cliché. However, I finally one on dafont and once I
got it I had to use the magic wand to take out the background and the
change the colour to red using the gradient overlay located in the layer
style.

9. To make the main image look more appealing to the horror film genre, I
thought it would only be right for him to have one of his eyes red. To do
this also took a great deal of focus as I had to zoom in and use the quick
selection to carefully select around the eyeball after making sure the colour
that was being cut was the one you wanted it to be, for me it was red

10. This screenshot shows how the image was coming
together, as the main image looks more connected to
the background, also the middle parting looks more
intriguing. Also the fact the main image is looking
directly at you, just has some sense of horror about it
already.

11. This is the main image and the title of the film being brought together, as you
can see from the screenshot, they go well together, as enigma means a
person or thing that is mysterious or difficult to understand, which goes well
with horror film conventions as the killers are always difficult to understand
as you never really know why they kill people but when you do if doesn’t
quite make sense and you don’t understand them at all.

12. This screenshots shows you the final stages of the film poster.
Some horror film posters would prefer for their posters to be left
like this with no release dates, however it didn’t apply to me
when I was making my product as I wanted a full product
containing all the film poster conventions.

13. As you can see in this screenshot, the tagline is positioned below the film title, however
it’s quite faint, I did this affect using the layer style with drop shadow. I did this because I
felt like it would bring a sense of horror with things not being seen at the right time. Also
I incorporated the distribution logo of warner bros as distribution logos are always
displayed on film posters to show who represented the film in the distribution. I also
incorporated audio compression logo Dolby Digital which provides sound in cinemas
from 35mm film prints. Finally, the release date of the film is in the colour red to signify
the things that will be include in the film, with the colour red connoting blood. I also
added credits which is essential in any film poster to inform and show who took part in
the film ranging from actors, executive producers, directors, runners etc.

14. This is my final product, as you can see it includes everything
a horror poster needs, as many horror posters are quite
simply and don’t give too much away otherwise it won’t have
a buzz and a lot of people would be put off seeing it as they
can predict what will happen.