Kelsie Barrett created a poster and magazine for a horror film. For the poster, she struggled to edit the main image but improved it by enlarging the title and credit block. She lowered the exposure to make it darker. For the magazine, editing images in Photoshop was difficult due to inexperience. She overcame issues by self-teaching techniques from videos. The final magazine follows horror conventions with direct address, colors of red, black and white, and typical magazine features.

1. My Poster and Magazine
KELSIE BARRETT

2. My first draft poster…
My first draft poster follows the typical
conventions of the horror genre as the
main image shows an element of direct
address; making the poster seem personal
to the audience member. It also includes
other conventional features such as a
credit block, release date, tagline and
title. The poster also conforms to typical
colour themes and has the colour motifs of
red, black and white. The colours black
and white create a binary opposition
whereas the colour red symbolises blood
and anger; revealing typical themes from
the plot.

3. Issues that I found…
The main issue I found was with the main image. From the beginning of planning for my poster, I intended
to make the actress’ lips red in order to symbolise blood and anger; making it clear to potential audiences
that she is the antagonist. I struggled to do this for a number of reasons – one being the lack of experience
I had had with Photoshop. This made it difficult for me and made the process extremely time consuming
as I was teaching myself along the way. When taking this picture with the intention to use it as my main
image, I didn’t consider how difficult it would be to make her lips red when her hair hangs over them.
Everyway I attempted to create this look, it looked un-natural but not in a typical horror genre manor; it
make the image look extremely unrealistic.
After I thought I had completed my poster, I looked at the typical elements that an audience member
would look for in a poster; one being the title. I realised that the title was too small and therefore, was
difficult to read especially because of its dark colouring. Due to the title being too small, it doesn’t steal as
much as the audience’s attention as I had first hoped.
The credit block also seems too big, being out of proportion from the title and therefore, stealing more
attention. The release date was awkward to position as the main image is slightly off the centre point
making the release date look unsymmetrical.

4. My final poster…
With my final draft of my poster, I changed a
few elements however, kept to the conventional
features so it is still recognisable as a horror
poster.

5. Justification…
To improve my poster, I extended the title size my using the ‘free transform’ feature on
Photoshop. This enabled me to stretch out the title layer but without having to make the text go
onto 2 lines and taking up un-necessary space on the poster. I also used this on the credit block
to save space as it is a feature on the magazine which isn’t too important, however
conventional. I used this again, with the release date so that it is spread our across the bottom
of the magazine without making the font too big.
I also lowered the exposure on the image which I had originally increased. This made the
overall effect of the poster look darker and therefore, more like a horror.

6. Issues that I found with my magazine…
The main issue that I have found whilst creating my magazine was my lack of experience with
Photoshop. Similarly to creating my poster, I found that simple tasks performed on Photoshop
was taking me longer as I had to teach myself how to use the different functions. To attempt to
overcome this, I watched several videos on YouTube in order to understand different features.
After creating my poster, I had a better idea of what to do but still had some setbacks; one
being the main image. It was difficult and time consuming for me to erase the background of
the main image. However, once I self-taught myself, it became easier and didn’t take me as
long as I had once thought. Another task I struggled with was the positioning of the different
features on the magazine cover. I overcome this by referring back to my initial magazine
analyses to understand the proportions of the different features e.g. the main image being the
most attention grabbing with a form of direct address. Once I understood this, it was easier for
me to play around with the positioning and therefore creating an image which works…

7. My final magazine…
My magazine follows the typical conventions of
the horror genre as the main image shows an
element of direct address; making the poster seem
personal to the audience member. It also includes
other conventional features such as cover lines,
images, title, tagline, lures etc. The magazine also
conforms to typical colour themes and has the
colour motifs of red, black and white. The colours
black and white create a binary opposition
whereas the colour red symbolises blood and
anger; conforming to typical themes of the horror
genre.

8. Justification…
Over all, I am impressed with the result of my magazine. The colour themes are clear and it is
also recognisable as a magazine cover through the conforming to the conventions. The colour
themes create a binary opposition (Levi Strauss) whilst the red in the magazine shows the hatred
and the violence which normally appears in a conventional horror. The main image is also
conventional as it carries a form of direct address; targeting the audience. The issue number,
release date and barcode help it to be recognised as a magazine cover as these are all typical
magazine features, regardless of the genre. The cover lines act as lures for the audience,
making them want to read on from the features hinted on the cover. These cover lines are
conventional as they consist of different fonts and sizes which are usually seen on a published
magazine. The main image is a main focus of the magazine and is also victim to the most
editing on Photoshop with getting rid of the background image and using different filters to
highlight the actress. The slogan for the magazine is slightly overlapped by the main image. I did
this as I see this technique in a lot of iconic magazine such as ‘EMPIRE’ magazine and even non-
film related magazines such as ‘VOGUE’.