The document describes a movie poster design. Photographs were taken of characters in costume against a plain background and would be cut out and composited onto another background. The characters' faces are shadowed to conceal their identities and create intrigue. The poster uses a sinister house from the film set at night with some lights on to add eeriness. In Photoshop, the characters were cut out and placed on either side of the poster with the house in the center. A black and white effect was used with red highlights to draw attention. The poster follows horror film conventions to intrigue audiences about the storyline through its visual codes and composition.

1. POSTER EVALUATION

2. I photographed the two characters of the
same identity, using the same costume to
give the sense of similarity between them. I
took the photos on a plain background as
they were to be cut and added onto a different
background. The characters had their head
titled downwards in order to create a
shadowed face and conceal their full identity,
creating enigma making the audience
question who they are, and why there are two
of them.
For the background, I used the house the
film is set in and took the photographs in
the evenings while there was a slight
darkness to the house. The lights on in the
house add an eeriness when the
characters cover the other houses, as not
all the lights are on and it makes the
audience wonder what is going on. The low
angle adds importance to the house and
makes it seem overpowering and lets the
audience know something bad takes place
here.

3. I used photoshop to create my poster,
cutting out each character to be able to
paste on top of the background to create
two half profiles on either side of the
poster. I used a landscape format to create
double page spread poster, as I feel it
works better with the house and the two
characters as there is more space
longways to create a successful
composition, with the centre third being the
house and the two outer thirds being filled
with the profiles. I used a black and white
effect as I feel is neutralises the colour
palette making it easier to use an effective
colour scheme of black, white and red.
I used the rubber tool to uncover the colours of the windows and the sky in the background of
the house to add more dimension and create an effective look to the house to make it stand out.
I used a paint tool with a reduced opacity to go over with windows to create a red tint, making it
more unnatural and sinister. This intrigues the audience to wonder what is happening in the
house, and creates enigma. The two characters create a suggestion of the storyline when
combined with the tag line, and makes the audience want to know more from enigma created by
the dark profiles with concealed identity, and the sinister house in the background. I used a red
text to highlight certain words on the poster, as well as linking to the red in the windows. The
highlighted words enforce the dual identity and again make the audience question what is
happening. The title is placed at the top of the poster, using the same font and glow effect that I
used on the magazine cover. The title of the film links to the image of the house, and further
creates questions about the storyline. The tag line is separated into two parts with an ellipse,
which leads the viewers eye to each side of the poster, emphasising the two sides of the
identity.

4. My poster follows the conventions of using
the house as a sinister and scary setting,
and emphasising this in the poster. In
“The Last House on the Left” poster, the
image is black and white, with a backlit
house in the bottom centre of the poster.
The lighting makes the house look more
mysterious and unnatural, making it the
focus of the poster. The colour scheme is
black white and red, with the red used to
highlight “house” and edited with blood
type splatters, connoting murder and
violence showing us that it is a slasher
film. The use of colour, setting and the sky
is similar in my poster, with an effective
style of using red to create impact and
black and white to create a dark and
atmospheric poster.

5. The similarity between my poster and “House at
the End of the Street”'s poster is the use of the
house in the background with the character in
the foreground at outer third. In the House at
the End of the Street poster, the house is used
with a unnatural glow of yellow and purple in the
sky, and also in the windows of the house. The
colour scheme is quite unconventional, as many
horror films use reds, browns and blacks for
slasher films, and blues,whites and blacks for
supernatural horrors. The use of these colours
creates an eerie atmosphere and draws the
audience in through the contrast of colour.
There is also a strong vignette, making the
edges of the poster dark, as if there is a small
light in a large dark room or area, which is also
reflected on the lighting on the girl's face. Her
direct eye contact creates a connection with the
audience, and we can see the fear in her eyes
which shows she is the victim and is probably
the last girl. In my poster, there is a similar
layout and composition, with the title heading
being at the top and the billing block at the
bottom, and the attention on the centre and
outer thirds where the house and characters
are. I feel this layout is quite effective because
there is a lot to look at, hinting at the plot
however still maintaining enigma.

6. Form this poster you get a sense of the
characters and that there is a dual
personality included, and from the
iconography of the low bowler hat and the
shadowed identity, the audience can identity
the villain character type, from the
conventional character types in Propp's
character theory.
Through the iconography of the colour red,
we can tell there is danger in the house and
in the storyline, making the audience want to
know what is going to happen.
I have encoded meaning in the poster by using visual codes such as colour and mise en
scene, and textual codes like the juxtaposing title as a it is usually common phrase describing a
stereotypical wholesome girl. This is twisted by using it as the title for our horror film, because it
links to the girl that is part of the villain's identity who is causing him to kill, as well as the girls
who move in next door to the killer who are being followed and stalked by him. Another use of
text to encode meaning is through the tag line, which is play on words.
I have also made my poster look more conventional and professional by adding a billing block,
which contains information about the directors, actors and production companies. This adds a
finished look to the poster. I also added a date for the film to be in cinemas, as it is important
information that needs to be added to the poster in order to let the audience know when they
can see it.

7. Form this poster you get a sense of the
characters and that there is a dual
personality included, and from the
iconography of the low bowler hat and the
shadowed identity, the audience can identity
the villain character type, from the
conventional character types in Propp's
character theory.
Through the iconography of the colour red,
we can tell there is danger in the house and
in the storyline, making the audience want to
know what is going to happen.
I have encoded meaning in the poster by using visual codes such as colour and mise en
scene, and textual codes like the juxtaposing title as a it is usually common phrase describing a
stereotypical wholesome girl. This is twisted by using it as the title for our horror film, because it
links to the girl that is part of the villain's identity who is causing him to kill, as well as the girls
who move in next door to the killer who are being followed and stalked by him. Another use of
text to encode meaning is through the tag line, which is play on words.
I have also made my poster look more conventional and professional by adding a billing block,
which contains information about the directors, actors and production companies. This adds a
finished look to the poster. I also added a date for the film to be in cinemas, as it is important
information that needs to be added to the poster in order to let the audience know when they
can see it.