Lydia created three horror movie posters for her final major project. She took photos of a classmate and edited them in Photoshop to look scary, applying effects like red eyes and pale skin. She chose a red, black, and white color scheme to convey blood, darkness, and contrast. Lydia researched successful horror movies and analyzed an existing poster to inform her taglines and design. She received feedback from classmates that her posters looked professional but the font could be improved. Overall, Lydia enjoyed the process of researching, designing, and receiving feedback on her three horror posters.

1. Evaluation of Final Major Project Lydia Cooke
For my final major project I first decided to create a horror movie trailer, I looked into other
horror movie trailers to start creating my own ideas and thoughts through searching other
successful ones. I accessed these trailers by using YouTube, there were a number of trailers I
researched and one particular trailer caught my attention. This trailer was for the filmOuija,
this horror film was released early in 2014 and was highly successful in many ways. The
trailer contained all the conventions of a horror movie trailer, and this is what I originally
wanted to achieve. I also completed primary and secondary research on this idea, and did
plenty of prep work to create this trailer. However this final major project idea soon came to
a close after I decided it would be best for me to create something a little less time
consuming, as I didn’t have much time left to complete it to a professional standard. I did
not manage my time correctly and this left me in a position where I had to change my entire
final major project idea. As I conducted a lot of research into film, and the horror genre itself
I came to a conclusion it would be a good idea to create a number of different horror movie
posters. I created three posters for my movie; I stayed with the idea of my original horror
movie. My movie was called Afflicted, and was based upon the tale of Ouija. I thought I’d
use the same idea as my previous work as I enjoyed this idea, and thought it would be
appropriate and save time coming up with another different idea.
I used a Canon professional camera to take photos of one of my class mates for the horror
poster I was about to create. I took around 40 photographs, and to support this I created
evidence by producing a number of contacts sheets that I created on Photo Shop. These
contact sheets included each photo that I took, and line each one beside the other and
helped me decide which ones I wanted to use as part of my final major project. Finally after
consideration of the photographs I chose three to use for three separate photos. I chose to
create three posters as this shows variety, and allowed me to present and show all the skills
I have to create a professional horror movie poster. I allowed me to show my technical use
and skill on photo shop and also using equipment sensibly such as the Canon camera itself.
To create my posters I used a piece of software that was professional, and appropriate for
this project. As this piece of work is for my final major project I wanted to achieve the best
quality and professionalismas I could. I used Abode Photo Shop, which allowed me access
to a variety of editing tools that helped me achieve the horror look to my posters. I took my
own landscape photographs of one of my class mates and made her have messy hair to
achieve rough, scary look. I also made her wear a grey top, as grey is a dull, lifeless colour
that is a good connotation of horror. Photo shop allowed me to edit her face, and make her
look extremely different, and scary. I used the paint brush tool and selected the colour red, I
then changed the opacity to around 6% and coloured over her eyes. This editing technique
helped me achieve a real look, her eyes looked blood shot, I also edited another poster with

2. the same effect however made the eyes look more white, to achieve a possessed,
paranormal look. The second effect I decided I preferred the most. I used this editing
technique on a number of elements on each poster, or example changing hair colour too
look darker, and more scary, I also changed the skin colour to make her look extremely pale,
and lifeless. I changed the lip colour to a light blue, to achieve a dead look and many more.
Another editing technique I used would be adding the grain affect. I applied this affect to my
first poster, I achieved it by clicking on edit image, edit texture, add grain affect. I found this
affect easy to use, also adding a freaky, spooky feel to my poster. One of my favourite
affects I added was to my final third poster, I made her eyes look completely white, I rubbed
the pupils out completely so only the whites of her eyes are showing. This created a
supernatural, possessed look which is exactly what I wanted to achieve.
As I wanted my posters too look professional, and real I created tag lines for each one, to do
so I researched a number of successful horror movies and looked at their famous tag lines.
Dawn of the Dead tag line was this "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk
the earth." Another was Halloween “The night he came home...” Both these tag lines are
just one line, and very simple yet have an effect on the audience reading them. I wanted to
create the same chilling effect on my audience, so I came up with three different taglines on
each of my posters. The best one I made I think is the following “The nightmare is only just
beginning’ When I was creating my poster I looked at a number of different already
published ones to generate ideas of my own. The one I came across that caught my
attention was The Devil Inside, this poster had an elderly woman who was a possessed nun
as the main image, and contained surrounding relevant text. This was the poster I used to
generate my final poster ideas from. I did lots of analysis of this poster and talked about the
text, imagery, type face, colour scheme and conventional elements included. This helped
me bring my poster to life.
The colour scheme I chose to create was red, black and white. These colours were
significant to the poster, and an important decision to make when creating my poster as the
colour’s used create the mood, and tone of the poster itself. I chose red as it connotes
blood, gore, anger and it’s also a deep bold colour. The audience can easily relate this colour
to the horror genre and this is one of the reasons I decided to use it. I also chose the colour
black as I connotes darkness, emptiness and mystery. It is also again a deep bold colour and
can easily be used frequently in advertising. Finally I chose white, as it contrasts towards the
other two colours. White connotes calmness, relaxation and it also creates brightness on my
poster, this colour will draw the audience in as it stands out so much. I personally think my
colour chose is perfect for what I am trying to achieve. When creating my poster I had to
consider where to positon the image and text. I considered the Guttenberg Principle, as I
previously was taught this in another class. I applied this theory to my poster.
I created a group chat on Facebook and added people from my class to review the final
images I presented as my horror movie posters for my final major project. I simply asked

3. them to tell me what they think about the poster on a whole, and does it meet professional
criteria. I asked them to comment on the image itself I used, also the editing techniques,
text and positioning of text and images, also if I gave the audience horror conventions to
recognise and relate to. I received a mixture of responses that helped me realise what I
achieved and what I did not achieve. I added 6 people to this group chat and received a
piece of feedback from each one. One piece of feedback I received stated the following ‘the
title of the film is good; however the font use could have been better. You could use ‘Da
Font’ and download a better font for the title.’ I completely agreed with this feedback, as I
wanted to download a more appropriate font for the poster however did not have the time
to do so. I used the tools I had to the best I could. I also received a different piece of
feedback which stated ‘Each poster looked professional, and very real. I liked the edits that
were applied to the girls face and how her eyes looked supernatural’ I was very pleased to
receive this information as this is the type of view I wanted to create for my audience;
supernatural, paranormal look to my posters. The third piece of feedback I received was also
positive ‘I like how you have included a review of a film magazine; it creates a sense of
realismto your posters’. After reading through all my feedback from my class mates I came
to the conclusion that I am happy with the work I have completed, and hope I achieve a
mark that I am happy with. I have taken time to create all of my work, and took time outside
of college to complete all my work to a good standard. I will use all the feedback I have
received to improve or recreate this project in the future maybe.
To conclude my final major project it has been an enjoyable and hardworking time for me,
and has also helped me achieve a great outcome. I have completed three horror movie
posters that look professional, and also very scary. I have conducted lots of research on my
ideas generation, and also behind each element of my poster including imagery, text and
conventions of a horror poster. I have completed a full analysis of The Devil Inside which
helped me bring my poster to life and help me generate my own ideas. I have also used a
piece of software that is often used by professionals on a daily basis to create various things,
which was photo shop and shown the skills I have when using this software.