This document summarizes the process of creating a movie poster for the psychological thriller film "Hatched". The creator started with the base image and edited it in Photoshop to enhance details and give it a neon look. They then added the title in a font matching the sinister theme. Based on feedback, they tweaked the title to make it stand out more with a red outer stroke and drop shadow. Later additions included a tagline in red font, a rating, billing block, and release date to further promote the film. Each change aimed to increase the promotional value and make the poster more attractive and professional.

1. Mitchell Frost

2.  After undertaking detailed research into real life film posters
to find out what I needed to include and what worked well
and what didn’t, I then moved on to producing my own poster
for ‘Hatched’, in order to eventually add more promotional
value to ‘Hatched’.
 This presentation will be built up gradually as I will document
changes I make to the poster from the start to end and
explain why I made the changes. Progression of the poster
will be documented in this presentation.

3.  This is my main base image for the poster. I first took it to Photoshop in
order to touch it up and make the image a lot more interesting. I used the
Outer glow option and the neon filter to bring out the edges of the image
and therefore enhance the detail in the image. With ‘Hatched’ being a
psychological thriller film, I feel that the ‘electric’ look that the neon filter
gives to the image is perfect and connotes danger and shock. Additionally,
the framing of the shot means that there is lots of potential space to place
titles, billing block and tag lines etc.
Original image Edited image

4. Next, I looked at adding the main title of the film to the poster. I liked the look of
the October Crow font as I felt that it matched the sinister theme of ‘Hatched’ and
complemented the main image. With the outer edges of the main image glowing
white, I was sure to make the title white too so that the colour scheme flowed and
was integral. Initially I felt that the title looked good with no adjustments made to it
however after gaining some feedback from family, friends and teachers, I soon
realised that the title needed tweaking to make it stand out more. I used the outer
stroke in a red colour in order to hint at blood and therefore themes of violence as
well as a drop show to ‘bring the title off the paper’ and stand out, so that the
audience remember the name.

5.  I have now added a tag line, which will help to increase the
promotional value of the poster by encouraging more people to go
and see the film. The red colour of the font is again to connote
blood and violence. I have added a large drop shadow to the text to
ensure that the text does not ‘get lost’ in the background and stick
out of the page, to be seen.

6.  I have now added a rating to the poster. I saw the large amount of
empty black space as a chance to place some promotional features such
as a rating from a large well known media corporation in order to
encourage the audience to watch the full film. The rating also helps
make the poster less boring and adds another dimension to it, meaning
it is more attractive to the eye when placed in places such as bus stops
and underground trains.

7.  The next stage was to add the billing block. This is an essential feature of
film posters and something I could not leave out. I placed the billing block in
the place which is most typical of real life film posters, at the bottom. I used
the universal font SF Movie poster to create the billing block as without this
font the poster would look amateur and un professional (potentially leading
to a reduced audience).

9.  One of the last things I did to my poster was add a tagline-’He’s watching you...’ I
added a tagline after realising that many real life posters utilise them and noticed that a
tagline could be effective for building hype for the film and therefore increasing its
promotional value. Additionally, I added the release date and made this a different
colour to the surrounding text as it is more important and something that the audience
is more concerned about. With the tagline only being small in size and under the title, it
means that it takes for the viewer to analyse the poster in depth, I feel that this is more
subtle and professional looking.

10.  After taking my research and all feedback in to account, I finally had a final poster.
With each tweak and improvement throughout the production of the poster
leading to a poster with the highest level of promotional value for ‘Hatched’. By
creating a successful poster, I feel I am now one step closer to producing an
overall successful promotional package for ‘Hatched’.