Lucy Cadogan created a poster and website for a zombie horror film. Through research of existing horror movie posters and websites, she identified conventions to follow to make her products look professional. For the poster, she used a close-up fist breaking out of dirt, dark colors, and text identifying key details. Based on feedback, she lightened the background and moved the tagline. For the website, she used a dark header, included pages for photos, trailers and summaries, and added social media links, following conventions of existing horror movie websites. She used Photoshop and Wix to construct the poster and website, allowing her to manipulate images and create an online presence.

1. By Lucy Cadogan

2. Final Website Homepage Final Poster

3. In what way does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
For my ancillary tasks I created a website and a poster, through research I was able to find conventions that would make my
product look professional.
The main feature I identified for the poster was that zombie horror movies use a close up image of a fist, for my product I followed
this convention making it appear that the fist was breaking out of the dirt. In all the posters that I analysed the background links to
the location setting of the film, for example cockneys vs. zombies references London as the London eye is falling off the hand. I
followed this convention buy having my hand break out of the ground in the woods however I should lighten the image to make the
leaves more obvious.
I also found that the most common colours used on horror movie posters are black, white and red. Used red to symbolise danger
but also make the red text stand out the most, so the release date and title were in red. The colours clearly indicate the genre of
the film and paired with the image the sub genre can be identified easily too.
All existing movie posters have a section of small text at the bottom identifying the director, actors, producers, etc. I followed this
convention to make my product look like existing media products. At the very bottom of the page I also included social media
references and studio logos to make the product look authentic but also follow the convention of modern movie posters.
I went against the form of having the tag line above the title or at the bottom of the page by placing it under the title however to
improve the tag line I should increase the size to make it stand out more and move both the title and tag line down.
Websites had less common conventions and in the growing age of technology the older websites look dated. I found that The
Conjuring had the easiest to navigate and neatest layout so I used that as my main inspiration following the traits of that website.
The conjuring website used a dark header and copy of the poster at the top which contrasted the white background of the rest of
the page. I used Black banner and white background for my website to create a neat professional quality.
I did follow the general convention of including a page for picture, trailer and summary. Some websites gave links to buy tickets, I
followed this convention to add an interactive element to my website.
All websites now give links to other social media pages, so I set up accounts on various social networking sites adding a multi-
media platform that creates a community for the audience.
Final Poster trailer Lightened to make obvious

4. What have you learned from audience feedback?
Through peer feedback of my website I changed the gallery I used on my
website, I previously had blocks of images but swapped it for one the
changed the images when clicked on, to make the page more interactive,
giving the page anew depth. It was also suggested that I should remove
elements of the home page and space the remaining items out to make the
site neater and easier tot use. I also increased the size of the trailer on the
page to make it standout more and remove extra white space form the
page.
After the feed back on my poster I move the tag line from the bottom of the
page to the top of the page to draw more attention to it however to improve
the tag line I should increase the size slightly to make it bolder. It was also
suggested that I darken the back ground as previously you could see more
leaves and trees, I darken the whole background but also made the edges
the darkest to help the image fade out but keep some element of the leaves
in the middle. However if I were to improve this I would lighten the middle
section more to make it clear that it is woodland to link it to the idea of
location.

5. How did you use media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
To complete research on existing products I used the search engine
Google, I found examples that enabled me to find convention to follow ,
making my final drafts a higher standard.
For my poster I used Photoshop, which had a variety of tools that enable
me to layer text and images. Photoshop allowed me to manipulate the
background brightness, which I dimmed to link to the genre convention of
dark backgrounds. Using Photoshop could also crop the image of a fist and
cut the background allowing me to past the fist behind the bottom section of
the poster but above the top layer. I also coloured the fist to match the
colour make up used in the trailer and create a distressed look to the title
and release date.
To create a website I used the website Wix, the site was easy to used and
help me create a professional website that is live on the Internet. I selected
a template and modified it, personalizing this images, text and they way
that they were presented on the site. I also had the opportunity to link social
networking sites to the website. I used social media in the construction of
my product as it acted as a way to present my ancillary tasks but also
conformed to the convention of both tasks.