Questionaire results

We distributed our questionnaires to ten people aged 15 and over, our target audience, below are the results shown in various graphs.

Question 1 - How do you find out about a new film release?

This is an image of the graph showing the results that we obtained, this graph shows that many more people found out about a film through the poster as it has the highest score. This will have an impact on us as we now know what is the most popular therefore we will ensure that our poster is strong, striking and convincing to make the viewer want to see our film, these results were very useful to us as we did not really realise how strong of an impact that a movie poster could have on people, from this we now know that we need to put alot of effort into the poster to make it look convincing, dramatic and effective.
This second graph shows what our target audience like and find most effective about a film poster:

This is a pie chart showing our results, we found that the most popular poster image was a close up shot of the main character, this shows is that viewers like there to be a close up of the character on the movie poster, this will help us when creating our final poster as we will always keep our audience's preferences in mind. So when creating my individual poster I will use a close up image of the character as I think that they are extremely effective and haunting too.

This graph shows which poster that we showed to viewers in the questionnaire our target audience found the most striking. We found that their was a tie between 'Thirteen Ghosts' and 'The Eye', both were close ups, thirteen ghosts showed a face made up of countless screaming faces, I myself found this very scary and thought provoking and so did the audience. The other poster for 'The Eye' was an extreme close up of an eye - this image was strangely realistic it showed an eye looking directly at the viewer - the eye itself was red insinuating blood and violence and made the eye look extremely unusual, I can see why our viewers found this image effective. I will take these results into account as they also back up the last question in which viewers said they preferred a close up image and 'The Eye' and 'Thirteen Ghosts' were both close up images.

This question also relates to the film poster, we had asked our target audience what attracted them the most on a film poster, we found that the image was the most popular by far, this did not surprise us as we knew that the poster had to be visually appealing for the viewer, this is why we will put alot of time and effort into creating a striking, scary and captivating image. The title came second in our results so we need to think of a strong unique title and make it bold and eye catching on the poster, we will make sure that every aspect of the poster is effective as we want it to look as strong as possible.   

This question is referring to the magazine, in our questionnaire we showed our target audience, we found that the most popular cover was the Empire cover for 'The Terminator', the image was a special edition cover showed a close up image with flashing eyes, the cover was very unique and I myself had not seen this being done of a magazine cover before. The cover used a very simple colour scheme, selecting colours that complemented each other well, the colours were black, a vibrant electric blue and red - the colours had a great visual impact as they worked well with the image and the main colour of black. To me I also liked the cover the best out of the three as it really promoted the film well, the image was a close up which I find are most effective and both the image and the colour scheme relate to the sci-fi genre of the film that the cover is promoting. When creating my final product, it will be very difficult to create a cover like the Empire 'Terminator' cover, however it had shown me that close ups have proven to be extremely effective on a magazine cover.

This graph is also about the magazine, we wanted to know whether to create a magazine that relates to the genre of our film, horror this would mean that the magazine would relate entirely to the horror genre, like Gorezone or Fangoria. However after seeing our audience feedback we now know that our target audience prefer magazines that are more genral so their content covers a wide range of genres such as sci-fi, comedy and drama.

Finding this information has been useful to us as in order to meet the needs of our target audience we must think about their interests and preferances, so now the magazine that we will create will cover all genres of film.

This pie chart was to show us what aspect of a film magazine our target audience prefer, we found that the photoshoots scored the highest, this means that the visual aspect of the magazine attracts an audience the most, we will use this information to create our final product as we will ensure that the photos and images used are strong and striking, this information was useful to us as we now know that we must concerntrate on making a captivating image.  

A colour scheme on magazines make them look much more organised, we wanted to find out if the colour schemes have an effect on viewers, the information we found shows that they do, so in our own magazine we will need to make sure that we have a specific colour scheme - for us the colour scheme has to reflect the genre of the film, so we would need to use dark colours like black and maroon to symoblize the dark nature of the film.

This question relates to the trailer that we will be producing, we wanted to know what our audience thought was most effective in a film trailer our results showed that again the viewers found the visual impact of the trailer incredibly important, as the costume scored the highest so we know that we will need to put alot of time and thought into choosing the right costumes for our characters, as I will be doing the make up I will now need to think of different make up styles for Scarlets evil persona that is both eye catching and unique.

As we want the trailer to relate to our chosen genre we want the film and the footage to be scary, so we wanted to know what viewers find scary. In the trailer we were thinking of having some footage in black and white, but we were unsure what our audience would think of this, so we decided to ask them. We found that the audience felt that trailers that were shown in black and white were scary, which is good as we wanted to change some of Scarlets flashbacks to black and white.  

Casting (group meeting)

Within our group we held a meeting to decide who our actress would be, through the summer we all discussed what look we wanted our character to have - we all agreed that we wanted a young character who could play both the innocent mental home patient and the sinister villain.

We looked at various different actresses for the part - their pictures are shown below:

One of these is a member of our group, and we felt that she had the right look for the character and she could also act both parts very well. We also agreed that as she is a member of our group she already knows what we are looking for in both of the personalities of the main character. We feel that she is a good choice of actress as she looks very young and innocent, which is what we wanted the character to look like and using make up we can make her look much older and we intend to use dark, dramatic eye make up to make her look more scary. Looking at horror film conventions there are always female, petite, seemingly innocent ghost or villain. In 'The Ring' the main character Samara, had a big impact on our choice, as having watched the film, we wanted our character to have the same youthful innocence as her. However Samara's character, much like our own, appeared innocent but turned out to be a demonic child who haunted and killed others through the sinister video tape that the film is featured on.

All of us what our main character to look very childlike as no one would suspect that she is evil to begin with. when our character is in the mental home we want her to look innocent so no one would know that she is also the murderer.

The second character in our trailer will only play a small part of the villains murdered sister, she will have to be the same age and height as the main character, but as she is only her adopted sister there will need to be a distinctive difference, ie hair colour, for this part we audition two people, one being myself and another was Amy a member of our group, we decided that it would be better for a member of the group played the part as then we know what we want the character to be like (act in the way we want the character to be portrayed, so we wont need to give too much direction) and we will have access to our actresses.

 

            

This is a picture of myself and Amy, we felt that I should play the role of the sister, purely because I am a similar height to our main character and I would be suitable to play a younger character. We now have both characters that will be featured in the film finalised and will be able to film very soon as we have used members of the group as actresses so we will not have any difficulty getting hold of the actresses when filming.

Final Storyline

My team members and I have had many meetings over the past month to discuss our storyline, our storyline has been changed many times, but in one of our meetings we discussed our storyline and planned what exactly will be happening in our film.


The story is based on a young girl who is sent to a mental institution after her sisters death, she knows that everyone thinks she killed her sister but she is convinced that she is innocent. While she is in her cell she has a series of flashbacks of the events that had lead to her sisters death. She becomes increasingly angry and starts to get quite violent, she finds a way to escape the institution and is desperate to hunt down her sisters killer. She goes back to places from her past in hope for clues, her flashbacks become more apparent (this is where the trailer will become more fast paced). She goes to where her sister was killed and sees herself in a flashback, she see's herself killing her sister and realises the truth, this makes her remember everything and she then walks free to carry on killing others from her past.


In our trailer we will only show a small amount of what our film is about as we want to make the viewer curious and intrigued, we want our trailer to be scary so we will need to find a way.

Photoshoot

On Friday the 23rd September me and my group went to Coundon wedge to take the photos for our magazine cover and poster. Before we left we dressed our actress, Shona and I did her make up. We decided that we wanted her to have very dark, dramatic eye make up so I used black eye liner to create a feathered effect, the eye make up is very bold and dramatic and it is well suited to the dark, mad and slightly eccentric style of of villain, I tried many different styles of eye make up using different colours and patterns on the face, as a group we decided which make up design we liked best. We tried many different make up styles and voted on which we liked best for our character, we all agreed that she needed a scary, bold and unusual look. We used make up to make her look paler to give her a ghost like vibe - the black liner would contrast with her skin. We used purple lipstick to make her look witch like and we used a purple liner in her eye make up so that it would go with the lipstick.
We curled her hair slightly to create a messed look as we did not want her hair to look perfect, we also backcombed her hair to make it look more messy and give it volume. We did this because her character is very unusual and mad, she would not have neat hear and she needed to look completely different to the mental hospital patient.
We chose this black outfit to hint the characters dark sinister nature and also it looks quite old, which is what we wanted our character to be as the film will not be set in modern times.

In this picture the character is in the woods we chose this setting as this is secretive, empty and it is near where her sisters murder will take place, so in the film this is where the character will be re-tracing her steps. I like the eeriness of the setting and I think that this background relates to the film making it a suitable image.
This image is a mid shot, we are able to see the character from the head to the waist, I like that the image shows enough of the character for a viewer to make assumptions about her.
The girl is looking directly at the camera to show that she is focusing on something, we wanted the viewer to feel like the character is looking directly at them, which would give the poster a sense of reality. Her head is tilted downwards making her face look longer and making her seem more eerie and strange. Her mouth is open suggesting that she could be talking to us, her eyebrows are creased making her look angry and unfriendly so this image deliver the nature of the character across to the audience.

I think this image is very strong, the girl looks as if she is coming towards us, which would give are poster a realistic, haunting vibe. I think this image is scary because the eyes look so piercing and dramatic, the make up is clearly shown in this image, creating the dramatic eccentric style of the character. I like this image and am considering using it for my poster as I this is one of the more scary images that was taken. I like that this is a close up shot as the characters eyes look striking and it is very eye catching, also her head is tilted making it look unusual and surreal. This pose and image is similar to the shots I have seen of 'The Grudge' character Kayako, who is the ghost and main character of the film, the way she had her head tilted makes her look somewhat evil and menacing. Also a key feature of the grudge character is her dark, piercing eyes, that makes the viewer focus on her ghostly face - this is what the image will do for the viewer and I think once it has been edited it will be an even stronger photograph. I particularly like the lighting in this photo, we chose to do the photo shoot in the day as we wanted the images to come out clear. The lighting in this image is brighter on one side making the hair look white and the character looks older because of this. The photo shoot took place in the woods as that is where alot of the trailer will be set so the setting in our photo shoot had to remain relevant to the rest of the film.

This next image is a mid shot, so unlike the last photo you can see more of the characters body - and what she is wearing. In our group, we wanted the costume for this character to be very over the top, but old fashioned slightly. We chose a black lace dress as we liked the long sleeves that were lightly see through and contrasted with our actress' pale skin. We also thought alot about what the colours symbolise - we wanted both persona's of our character to be opposite, this includes the way that they dress. As we knew that the hospital patient would have a white gown on, we opted for the opposite colour, black. Black symbolises mystery, darkness, the unknown, death and decay - which would suit the villain perfectly, she is a very dark evil woman and the costume hints this to the viewer. In this image she again has her head tilted, we wanted to show her long messed hair, to give her an eerie vibe, like the grudge and the ring's main characters, or, villains. The character hides behind her hair so that we cannot see half of her face, this can make a viewer assume that she has a secret or something to hide. Her smile is less innocent and more sinister, she looks quite smug and mischievous, and this could reflect her mental state as she looks like she had done something wrong, but has no remorse.

I like this poster as it reflects that the character has a secret, she has her finger on her lip as if she is addressing the audience and telling them to keep her secret, using this image would make the viewer curious as to what the film is about, the setting and the character do not really hint much, other than giving the secretive vibe. The setting of this image is again the woods, where most of our trailer will take place, we found the tree, with engraved initials and thought that it could be something symbolic in our film, we liked the sinister look that the engraved tree created as it look quite strange, however I do not feel as if this is one of our more strong photos - as really the tree does not have much relevance to or storyline and featuring this image on the cover would be confusing.

This image came from an idea that I had of doing an upside down photo, because this would be eye catching and it would be very unusual, however I think I want a more complex idea that gives some hint about the film. I think in this photo her eyes are far too squinted, whereas we wanted a wide eyed, shocked look. I like the lighting in this image as it is very strong and makes her look extremely pale and ghost-like, I also like how the place skin contrasts with the black lace costume, making the skin an costume look bolder creating a much stronger impact.
The setting in this images is a field of flowers that we came across in the park, the flowers could signify beauty and innocence, making the image look more visually appealing. The fact that she is lying down would intrigue the viewer as they would wonder what has happened to her, this would make them look twice and make them curious as to what the poster is showing.

                                                                     

  I think that this image is quite unusual and it reflects the characters mental state very well as is looks crazed and the pose is quite strange, I think this image captures the personality of the character as she is crawling on the floor, which could make her seem childlike, or like an animal, which portrays that she is not 'normal'.

The setting again is a field of flowers, which will be symbolic in the trailer as some scenes will be filmed in the fields - this image does make the character seem insane and quite dangerous, however I have chosen against using this image as I want to use a close up image of the characters face.

In this image we see the character from a long shot grabbing onto branches, I think this image looks very sinister, however it does not have the dramatic impact that the close up shots have. I really like the gnarled trees in the background add to the scary eerie effect, and the poppy seeds in the front of the image give this picture a witch like vibe. I like the dramatic look, the angle of the face and the powerful dominant expression, however this image does not give the same strong impact as a shot of just Shona's face.
This is one of my favourite image as the setting really goes with the image of the character, She looks dark, mysterious and very evil, which is exactly what we wanted. I also like the twigs framing the face as it creates the witch like eerie vibe, I also think that the angle of her face creates a more striking look as she is looking down so her eyes look larger and more striking and her face looks much longer, the blue in her eyes have a very rich colour making them bold and striking.
In this image the costume can also bee seen very well and the character looks quite extravagant and grand however the make up confuses us as it is very scary and unusual.

Images for poster and magazine cover

On Friday my team members and I went to take photos for our magazine cover and  poster
these are the pictures that I have decided to use for my magazine

These are the images that I have decided to use for my poster, I will need to chose just one of the images but I have not yet decided.
This first image I was thinking of using for my magazine - I particularly like this image as I would not need to get rid of the background as the trees create an eerie effect, and also I like how the lighting as it is visible on one side of her hair and gives the image an eerie  ghost like vibe. I think that this image is very strong and I like the serious expression on her face - she looks very striking and this image has that scary edge that I was hoping to create, I also like how the costume can be seen slightly - we had put alot of effort into choosing a costume and in the close up images it cannot really be seen, however this image shows of the black lace sleeve of the dress and it looks incredibly effective as it contrasts with her pale skin, the black costume also symbolises the characters evil nature. Also the pose in this image is quite scary as it looks like she has turned around to face us - it is very direct which makes it seem realistic giving it the scary, serious vibe that I was hoping to create.

This was my favourite image as I really liked the mischievous smile as it hints to the characters evil nature. I was thinking of using this image for my poster as it was bold, striking and dramatic. I especially liked the twigs in the corner bordering her face, as it gives the image a very nice touch, it makes the image seem slightly more sinister as it gives a witch like vibe to the model. I like the angle of her face as her chin is downwards her face looks much longer making her look slightly older and her appearance gives off a haunting vibe her smile is very evil looking - however in this image as it was taken later on in the day Shona's lipstick began to rub off so there is a purple outline around her lips which flaws the image.

            This image is very similar to the last, however I do prefer this image as it has a stronger more powerful vibe. In this image Shona's eyes are wider and more rounded making her look more energetic and alive - the roundness of her eyes makes her appear more intense and scary as she is looking eagerly at the viewer which would make them feel curious, tense and slightly uneasy. However as I will be using a left hand third on my cover the text may interfere with the image too much - on the left side of the image are the twigs which I would like to show on the cover but it would be covered by text. However I may still use this image as it is very Strong and effective and portrays the nature of the film quite well, I think this image gives off a very haunting vibe which would make it suitable to use for promoting the film.

This is the final image that I was thinking of using - I like this image as it is an extreme close up, I really like the empire cover promoting the dark knight, as the extreme close up of the joker gave the cover image a very scary sinister vibe and I thought the use of a close up shot would engage the reader and I thought that it looked extremely effective. This close up I feel has a similar impact as it allows the viewer to see the face of the villain up close and really shows of the dramatic make up. I particularly like the angle of her face as it is titled downwards making the eyes look bigger and more dramatic and elongating her face creating a much more flattering image. The hair in this image is very messed and she has her hands running through her hair as if to suggest she is distressed, by doing this she has made her hair look more volumed, which helps portray the villains over the top eccentric style very well. The expression on this image is also very gripping as she is smiling slightly making her look very evil and slightly mischievous, so overall I think that this image portrays the personality that we wanted to get across to the audience.

Setting and props

In another group meeting we have discussed where we will film the scene for our trailer, we planned carefully what each scene will contain and where it will be.
For the settings for our film we will need to film in various different places, as our story focuses on a mental home patient we will need to film the actress in an empty white room and we will need to have her walking down a long corridor when she enters the mental home. We have decided to film this scene in the corridor of a nearby church.
When are character escapes the mental home she will be walking down an alleyway, which will be easy to find.
Also when our character has flashbacks they will be of her and her sister in the park so we are looking to film some scenes in a nearby park.
In one shot the character will be walking through some poppy fields to the place her sister was murdered, and we already know where the poppy fields are so this should not be difficult.
Our character also has a flashback of her sister being murdered, this will take place in the park and we have already discussed where we will go to film this scene as a group.




The places that we need to film in are;
- a corridor
- an empty plain room
- a park
- poppy fields
- an alleyway


In our film we will not need many props other than a murder weapon, for this we will not use a knife as this would be dangerous and we don't think that this would be very suitable to use in our film. Instead we have decided  to use a baseball bat as a prop, or murder weapon. This is because it would not come across as obscene as it would not really be something that is violent or associated with violence.
Instead of using the bat we have now decided to use a crowbar as it looks much more sinister and it would be a more realistic murder weapon for Scarlet, below is a picture that I have found of a crowbar which looks exactly like the one that will be used for our trailer.

Costume and make up (mise en scence)

For our film trailer we will look at various costumes to make our film look dramatic and realistic, as a group we will all need to agree on costumes that we think would be best suited to our character.
As our character will have two different personalities, we needed to think of two completely different looks. For our first character or 'personality' who will be in the mental home we wanted to stick to horror film conventions (such as the ring, the grudge, and the uninvited) and have her wearing a white dress, as this will give the character an innocent but ghost like vibe. Over the summer my team members and I went to a vintage store to look for costumes, we wanted something that was quite old fashioned, in the end we chose a simple rough silk dress, the dress was mid length and reminded us of a typical hospital gown, which we quite liked. The dress looks very child like, and very old fashioned so we felt that it would suite the role of a mental home patient very well, and it would also reflect the innocence of our character effectively. For the make up for this character we want to keep it quite simple, we want her to look pale and drained with red bags under her eyes to make her took tired and stressed, for her hair again we will stick to horror film conventions and make it blunt straight.

For the second character, we wanted something completely different, our costume colour choice was black, as it would portray a dark, sinister, evil character well. For this costume we will use a black lace dress, which gives off a Gothic vibe, under a netted black skirt. This will create a dark Gothic, witch - like look and this would be perfect for the character who is the villain, or murderer.

For the make up we will need the character to look much older so we will use quite alot of make up on her as our actress is young. We have chosen to make her face look as pale as possible to make her look scary and ghost-like, we will also use dramatic eye make up - mostly black to contrast with her pale face, we want her to look evil and quite crazy so we are going for over the top make up and big hair. My main inspiration for the make up came from looking at the poster for black swan.

Audience research: Questionnaires

As part of our research we will need to find out what is popular with our audience, we will need to find out what our target audience (15years and over) like about horror films, trailers and posters. This will help us to meet their needs through our own poster, magazine cover and trailer.

To do this we will need to produce a series of questionnaires and distribute them to people that are in our target audience.

As a group we held another meeting and thought of questions that we could ask our audience, this is the first questionnaire that we have devised, asking our audience about horror films and trailers:

1. How do you find out about new films that are released?

Trailer

Poster

Magazine

2. Do you find black and white horror films scary or hard to watch?

Scary
Hard to watch
Other............................................................................................................................

3. What attracts you the most to a horror film trailer?
Music/soundtrack
Costume
Title
Actors
Setting
Storyline

4. Do you like captions/ phrases or text throughout the trailer?
Yes
No

5. Do you think a voice over has a big impact on a horror film trailer?
Yes
No

Questionnaire 2 -Posters

1.What attracts you to a film poster?
Tag line
Strong image
Colours
Title

2. Does the film poster have an effect on whether you go to see the film?
Yes
No

3. What do you find more frightening on a horror film poster?
The setting
Collage of images
Long shot of a human body
Close up of a face
An object

4. Which of these posters do you like best?

        

Questionnaire 3 - Magazine

1. Do you like to buy a film magazine that focuses on a specific genre or do you prefer a more general film magazine?

2. What do you like your film magazine to feature?

Articles

Interviews

Photo shoots

Insider information on films      

3. Do you like covers to have a specific colour scheme?

Yes

No

4. What features on a magazine attract you the most?

....................................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................................

5. Which of these covers do you like the most?

  

                                           Once we had finished writing our questionnaires we printed then and distributed them to a group of people in our target audience, we will collect and record the results in order to obtain the information we need to create our promotional package. Here are pictures of what the questionnaires looked like once they were printed. We felt that it was extremely important to include pictures in the questionnaire as we wanted our target audience to be able to look at existing products that they felt were effective in promoting a media product (film). Using visual examples such as pictures would enable us to look at typical conventions and get others opinions on what was visually appealing about them. Also we did not want to have too many questions as we did not want to bore our target audience, if we gave them too many questions then they may not have given genuine answers due to boredom, we kept the questionnaires short and to the point, only asking the more crucial, important and relevant questions.

Film characters and Actors

Minute meeting

As a group we held another meeting to discuss what we were looking for when choosing actors, as our film will centre around the life of one character in particular, we have all agreed that only one lead role will be needed for our film.
As we have looked at a variety of horror films we were able to look at the kind of character we wanted, we need a female character, who would be able to pull of palying two compleatly different roles. We decided that we would follow classic horrir film conventions when choosing a character, like in 'The Ring', 'The Grudge' and 'The Uninvited' we will have a young looking character with a very innocent face, to show the nature of the character well. We need our main character to look very child-like and sweet, so we have chosen to use  Shona because we feel that she is best suited to the character and she is able to act very well.
Also our lead character will be playing two completly different roles so we will need to be able to make her look different by using dramatic make up and styling her hair to make her look more sinister and dark.
We have changed our storyline slightly since our last meeting so we will also need another girl to play a small role in the trailer, she needs to have some similarities to the charcater as our main characted will have re-occuring flashbacks of her sister who she thinks has been murdered We will need to find another young looking girl to play the sister.
Overall we are very happy with our chosen actress as we feel like she is very well suited to the role and knows what to do in terms of playing different characters as she is aware of what we need both roles to come across as.
We are now able to look at costume and make up to suit our actress and the role.

Horror film magazine covers

 This is a slightly older empire cover for 'Hannibal', the cover is dark and mysterious as we can only see half of the characters face he looks evil and he is looking directly at us giving the cover image a striking scary edge. Red is a very bold and noticeable colour on the cover, this matches the red in the characters eye - it is very un natural and surreal and represents the characters evil nature and thirst for blood.
Also the quote 'What's cooking' relates to the film and has a very sinister sound to it. It is written in bold white font so it contrasts with the black background making it stand out more.
The content of the magazine, in this issue, focuses on horror and relates to the film that it is promoting. The article presented at the very top of the page is in bold yellow separating it from the rest of the page - however the article still links with the nature of the film being promoted.
The masthead links in with the colour scheme as it is in bold red and at the top of the page so it still remains the focus, so that the readers know what they are buying. Overall I think that the magazine promotes the film very well as even the content of the magazine relates to the film, the main focus is on the film and this is reflected through the strong, striking, sinister image and the colour scheme.

This is a cover for entertainment weekly promoting Sweeney Tod: the demon barber, a remake of the classic musical. Although this film isn't necessarily classed as a horror it does have a strong element in the film as I personally find the storyline quite scary. The colours on the cover blend well with each other the grey background is dull but relates to the colourless time in which the movie was set. The masthead is in a bold blue font at the top of the page making it stand out and catch the readers eye. I particularly like the image on the cover, it is sinister and scary - the make up shows the character with an extremely pale face making him look drained and ghost like also there is red under the eyes which makes him look more human, but tired looking. The expression on his face is menacing and angry, making the character seem like a villain - his dark hair is messy but full of volume making him seem slightly eccentric. His costume is very old looking reflecting the time where the film is set. He wears black showing darkness and sorrow, which is the general nature of the film. The actor name is also written in bold letters - as it is a popular actor it may encourage people to buy the magazine or see the film in which their favourite actor is starring in. Overall I think that this poster promotes the film quite well as even the background and colour scheme relates to the film, for example the use of red could signify blood hinting the gory nature of the film.

This is the cover for Scream 4, for the magazine entertainment weekly the cover is kept very simple - there is not much text, putting an increasing emphasis on the striking image. On the cover we see the mask worn by the killer in the 'Scream' movies, as the movies are very popular, people will know what the film the magazine is promoting as a person wearing the trademark mask.

The colour scheme is black, white and red, the character on the front has a ghostly white mask, and a black hooded cape - the black is symbolic of darkness and evil, white usually portray innocence but in this case it shows an eerie ghost like vibe that the character carries.

The deep red background has a sinister feel as the red could represent blood - hinting the gory nature of the scream films and the famous bloodthirsty killer that is present in all of the scream films. The masthead is in bold white font across the top of the page also remaining a main focus as the magazine name is of great importance also the word weekly is engraved into the letters of the masthead in black contrasting with the bold white font of the masthead making it stand out even more. The poster focuses mainly on the film as on the right side 'Scream returns' is in large bold font and and underneath is a list of the magazines content that relates to the movie being promoted, this includes interviews with the cast.

I have analysed these covers to help me with ideas when creating my final magazine cover. I think it is important to look at existing media products to look at typical conventions that are used to promote the genre of horror. I particularly like the symbolic colour schemes used on the magazines - I like how they are gloomy and mysterious and promote the genre through colours like red and black which symbolise danger and mystery, which portrays the nature of the film to viewers.

Meetings

Meeting 1

As I will be working in a group to produce the film trailer we will need to have a series of meetings to discuss the storyline, genre, setting, costume, characters soundtrack and orders of the trailer.
In our first meeting which was held on the 20th of August we discussed what genre we were going to do, we decided to do a horror film trailer as we felt that we would be able to produce an effective trailer suited to this genre.
We had an idea, having watched a documentary on multiple personality disorders, to base our film on someone with a mental disorder, our initial idea for the disorder was either a character with multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia. Out first storyline idea was to have a young girl with many different dangerous personalities that she was unable to control, the film would look at her trying to find who she really is.
However after further discussions during the meeting we decided that this would be very complicated to produce a trailer on and the storyline may not fit in to the horror genre.
To help us come up with ideas we looked at many horror film trailers such as 'The ring', 'The Grudge 1, 2 and 3', 'Orphan', 'Dread' and 'Paranormal Activity'. Looking at these trailers we noted that most of them start of slower and get faster and more frightening as they go on.
Having looked at these trailers we found that out storyline was missing the scary element that all of these films had. From this we decided that our storyline needed to be refined.
After further discussion on our storyline we decided that we should base the story on a murder or trauma that the girl has seen that has caused her to go mad, with this in mind I suggested that the girl should be the murderer.

Thursday 8th September
Meeting 2

At the start of the lesson we had a short meeting to discuss the specific genre of our film, we agreed on the genre of psychological horror, as our film will make the viewer think alot and it is based on mental illness. We also decided the rating of our film, we chose to make our trailer a 15, as it will not contain violence or be too gory, we wanted to aim our trailer at people of around 15 years and over because we did not feel that our trailer would be suitable for younger people as they may have found it confusing or scary.
This was our first media lesson of the term and we were able to discuss our storyline with our teacher, who suggested that our storyline was quite confusing. With this point in mind we decided to change our storyline.
Later in the day my team member Amy and I discussed the storyline further we refined our storyline to make it less confusing, deciding that the mental home patient goes to hunt her sisters murder, after having flashbacks of the events leading to her death, she escapes the mental home to find the murder and then later discovering that she herself killed her sister. Her mental state gets worse and she will then murder more people.
We now have compleated the plot for our trailer and can begin filming once we have told our team member Shona about the changes that we have made to the storyline.

Research: Film posters

For the second part of my research I will look at movie posters, to help me come up with ideas for my own poster. Over the summer I have been looking at many different horror film posters and analysing what it is about them that makes them interesting, mysterious and visually appealing. For me I feel that the posters that promote films have a strong affect on viewers and I want our final poster to be captivating and intriguing for a viewer, which is why I have carried out a very detailed analysis of posters promoting my chosen genre of horror.

This is a poster for 'The Strangers' which is a film about a couple whose home is invaded by three strangers who are trying to kill them. The film overall is very frightening as it has an eerie sense of reality. The film was based on a true story so I think that this makes it seem more scary as it makes us think that this could happen to anybody, which I this creates a genuine sense of  horror' as it puts viewers on edge.

The poster advertises the film very well as it shows the couple sitting next to one another with their backs turned to us making us feel oblivious to who they are. We then see three masked strangers standing over them, looking down at them, they are all wearing scary masks making us feel both curious and scared as they are unknown and mysterious. What makes the poster more chilling is that the masks they are wearing are very scary on their own - the masks are ghost like, the two girls are wearing doll-like masks portraying a sense of youth and innocence and they are all dressed like everyday people we see on the street making us feel paranoid and insecure.

Also as we look further down into the poster the picture fades into darkness - showing fear and mystery. Also the title is a bright luminous white against the black - which could be foreshadowing as the light could signify heaven and the colour black against it could signify death and decay.  

 This is another poster that I have found effective, the film is called Silent Hill, and is another horror film so it relates to my chosen genre.

I like the irony of this poster, it looks very busy and slightly confusing as there is a lot to look at and take in.
In one image we see a woman with her hands on her ears as if to block out a loud piercing sound - which is ironic as the title of the film is called 'silent hill' so we would imagine the poster to be simple like the simplicity and 'peacefulness' of the title. Instead it is busy and loud so the title and the poster contradict each other.
The title is in the middle of the poster so that we are instantly drawn to it. It is bright white and misty giving the poster an eerie, ghost like vibe .
The images overlap each other to show that all of the characters could be linked in some way, all of the look frightened and disturbed suggesting that the is something in the film that is truly terrifying making us curious and eager to see the film.
Also I have noticed that all of the characters look frightened except for the little girl in the top left corner. This could suggest that she could be evil or their could be a secret behind her, linking to the mysterious vibe we get from the rest of the poster.

This poster is for a the horror film 'Dread' the film is about three students working on a school 'project' to find out people's greatest fear. However one of the students has an ulterior motive a begins an experiment where he makes his friends fears come to life.

The poster does not give away much about the film, so it really does make the viewer think.

Overall I do like the simplicity of the poster as it keeps the main focus on the girl sitting in the corner, she looks very disturbed so it makes us wonder what has happened to her.

She is sitting alone from what we can see, however the walls get darker the more further away the are from the girl which could suggest that something is lurking in the darkness.

Also something that I particularly like about the poster is that the title is apart of the image - the work DREAD is written on the floor leading up to the girl, in what seems to be blood - making us this of death and it makes us wonder whose blood is it? Also the poster is black and white - which seems very dull and depressing but also sinister and serious. The film has a strong element of mystery making the viewer curious and intrigued would thus encourage them to watch the film.                                                                                               

This is a poster for the psychological horror 'The Return' I really find this poster effective as it is very realistic looking this poster looks as if there is actually a persons hand in the eye of another person - giving the impression of being trapped or imprisoned in another persons body. The eye of the person looks ghost like as it is very pale and 'icy looking', also the eye has no iris making us curious as to the reason behind it, also the eye is clear to show us that their is a hand trapped behind it. The eyes are often described as the ' windows to the soul' so it could suggest that the film is about someone who is possessed as that would mean that they are trapped in their own body. As the poster is very eerie and has lots of meaning it leaves alot for the viewer to think about but it does give clues - such as the misty colour and the empty eyes that the film is about a ghost. Also something I have noted about all of the horror film posters is that they have a sinister tag line, the tag line for the return is ' THE PAST NEVER DIES. IT KILLS.' this tag line is short but makes us think so much 'the past never dies' makes us think of memories and our pasts, but then it ends with: 'it kills.' This gives the tag line is sinister scariness, as it makes the reader think about what it could really mean - the word kill instantly makes us think - fear, pain, death and murder which insinuates that this is what the film is about.

This is a poster for an upcoming horror film, Rosewood lane as I myself watch a lot of horror films and have not yet seen or heard about this film I could really focus on what it was about the poster that made me, as a viewer, want to watch the film.
What attracted me to this poster was the strong, striking
image, the golden eye was the first thing that made me notice the poster - if we look closely you can see that there is a figure reflected to us in the eye - we can see an entirely white silhouette, it does not look human and it makes us curious as to what the figure really is. Also we see the furrowed eyebrow so the character looks angry and menacing so we wonder whether the face we see on the front of the poster is really a villain. Something that caught my eye was rather than being able to see the characters skin, we see a newspaper collage making the eye stand out more and making it look surreal. Also the newspapers could hint something to us - my first impression is that there is a crime or murder that has happened - hence the newspapers being put into the poster suggesting that it is of importance within the film.
The face on the cover is dark and mysterious we cannot see the whole of the persons face makings us curious as to who this person is. Also half of the poster is white showing innocence, purity and peace but then half is dark - black and grey, these colours are visible where the character's face is - showing evil, darkness and mystery - another hint that the characters whose eye we see could be a villain.

This is a poster for the movie 'psychosis' a psychological horror, I particularly like this poster as it is very unusual - the tower of hands I think are very effective as it looks scary and sinister, we see the hands surrounding the large old house making us curious about the importance of the house. I think when you look at the house and the hands surround it you instantly think - ghosts and a haunted house. Also we see a woman's head at the top of this mysterious house - it all looks very busy and confusing and there is alot to take in. The image in the poster is colourless, which draws us to the title placed at the bottom in bright red - the colour contrasts with the background so our eyes are drawn to it instantly, also the colour red could be symbolic, red means blood or danger so the colour red could symbolise warning and trouble.

The misty background looks dreamlike so it could reflect nightmares or imagination. The poster is very creative as it uses lots of visual effects it does leave alot for the viewers to think about as it creates an illusion of hands reaching out and grabbing this woman and it makes us wonder why this is. To me I find that movie posters are more effective when they make the viewer curious and intrigued which I think makes the viewer want to find out what the film is about giving them a strong interest to go and see the film.

This poster is for 'A nightmare on elm street', this poster is very dark and mysterious - the film itself is very popular as the first film that introduced the nightmare killer Freddy Kruger was released in 1984, since then there have been 9 films based on the character and this poster promotes the 10th Freddy Kruger film which is a remake of the first film.

I like this poster as it focuses on the character - many horror film fans would recognise the villain straight away as he is wearing his trademark hat and jumper.The poster does have an element of mystery as the mysterious face is hidden behind the hat so we cannot see the persons face making us curious. Although the poster has a very dark background we can still see the face very clearly - the face is burnt

I like this poster as it is scary by only showing one character - the poster is simple but still effective and has a big impact of the viewer.

Also I do like the tag line ' Welcome to your new nightmare' it sound inviting - it is welcoming the viewer but then the word nightmare adds a twist making the viewer aware that the film is scary and hinting that the film could have something to do with nightmares.

This is a poster for the silent house, which has not yet been released this poster is quite busy and confusing - which contradicts the title as 'silent' would make us think peaceful and calm - but this poster is the opposite. In this poster we see a face covered up with the Polaroid photos of a woman's face - we do not know if the person in the photo's and the person that is being covered by these photo's. We can assume that they either are the same person or that they are linked in the film. The woman in the photo's looks dazed and confused and she is looking at something that we cannot see making us curious as to what she is looking at. The poster makes us curious as it doesn't give anything away. The most striking thing about the poster is that it is blood splattered - the only thing that links the photo's to the person behind them, are that they are both splattered with blood, this makes us think that they are in fact, the same person.

The splattered blood makes us think that there has been a murder - it hints death, pain and gory violence. The person in the back is wearing white making us think of innocence but then this is questioned as we see the blood stains on the white top -  this makes it seem that this person is the murderer, or it is their own blood, or they have witnessed a murder.

For me the initial response that I get from the poster is that a person has been framed for murder (the white colour shows their innocence). Or that they are being hunted by a killer and they are trapped in an abandoned house - hence the title 'The Silent House', if they were trapped in an abandoned house no one would hear the screams meaning that the house is soundproof to others so in other words, silent.

The title 'Real fear.In real time.' makes us think - what is real fear, and what does it mean by 'real time' - this tag line sticks is the viewers mind as they will try to uncover the meaning of the tag line - which makes them curious about the film, this will make them more encouraged to see the film.



This is the official movie poster for the uninvited I like this poster because it is scary and realistic, in the background instead of it being one plain colour we see a grey misty forest putting us on edge and creating a mysterious vibe. We also see the faded images of other characters they are in black and white and they blend into the Forrest making us feel like they are all linked or trapped in this place. Also because they are not in colour and fading into the mist they do not look human or 'real' so it suggests to us they they are dead and are in fact ghosts - the poster links in perfectly with the film as it creates a sense of mystery and makes us feel unstable - like the character in the movie, hinting to us about her mental state. Also the two girls at the front stand out as they look more 'human' as they are in colour, the fact that they are holding hands suggests about their relationship and makes them seem vulnerable to the viewer.

 The long haired girl is looking uneasy as she looks away from the camera and she seems frightened and unsettled, making her seem like a victim. The costume the girls are wearing reflects their innocence as white is a pure colour, it also makes them seem quite angelic and ghost like, which could also suggest that they too are ghosts.

If you look closely at the long-haired girls dress there is a blood stain on her dress, showing that she may have died and the way she is standing looks as if she is walking towards us showing that she may be the 'uninvited' persons that the title refers to.
Also another thing that would catch the viewers eye is that behind the long haired girl their is a woman with her arms folded looking at her in a menacing, disappointed way. Also she is folding her arms suggesting that she is being defencive and unfriendly making us feel uncomfortable and making us think that this woman is the villain.
The title of the film is written at the bottom, it is slanted and slightly blurred written in bright white making it contrast with the background and instantly stand out. The way the title is written looks mysterious and ghost like suggesting to us what the film is about.

This is the movie poster for an upcoming film 'One Way Trip'. This poster caught my eye because it was very unusual and eerie. The poster itself is very dark and mysterious. I like the setting as it is in the dark wood which gives a scary vibe to the poster - I really like how the gnarled tree branches stretch from the corners of the poster to create a border, which I think looks like a door way, this poster really makes you look close to be able to take everything in, what I found very effective was the open  mouth at the back of the poster, at first I did not spot it, but I think that it looks extremely scary and effective, the mouth looks as if it is screaming which portrays fear, however the fact that a woman is standing in the centre looking as if she is emerging from the mouth could show that she is evil and the mouth could symbolise her victims screams. The mouth looks like a cave which could hint that the characters are lost of trapped, and the setting could have a relevance to the rest of the film to show that the characters are lost in the woods and are being hunted. The woman in this image immediately catches the viewers eye, she wears a white dress which makes her seem innocent, but then we see that she is holding an axe and what appears to be a human head which completely contrasts with her innocent image. The poster is both scary and intriguing and the title 'ONE WAY TRIP' makes the viewer curious as looking at the image and the title we could assume that one way trip means that the people never return from the trip. The title is written in bold white which makes it stand out against the dark page but also creates an eerie ghost like presence. Also the masthead is very effective as it reads 'losing control is just the beginning' this hints to insanity, which I think puts a viewer on edge, it confuses us and it really sticks in our minds, this is perfect because it makes the viewer curious which will increase the likeliness of them going to watch the film.

  

                                                                    

                                                                               

 This is the poster for newly released ' Dont be afraid of the dark. This is one of the few posters that I have seen that does not have a main image, this image only shows text, which I think is both intriguing, effective and reflects the film well. The title of the film is the main focus, it is written in a bold calligraphy font, which makes us think the film is set or based on the past. Also I think that it gives off an old fairytale vibe, the background looks like old writing paper making the poster look like the cover of an old storybook, and the title has small sketched images attached to it, the text looks like branches and if you look closely there is a small creature perched on the 'R' of the word dark, which shows us that this creature has something to do with the film, what also catches a viewers attention would be the arm emerging from the 'K' we see that the arm is reaching out to something if you follow the arm we see what appears to be small crushed teeth, the teeth are very small so we assume that they are children's teeth, which immediately made me think of the tooth fairy, making me think that the film would be about the tooth fairy or creatures that take teeth, this is backed up when we read the sinister tag line 'Even fairy tales go wrong' which made me assume that the film is a twist on a classic fairytale - perhaps an evil tooth fairy (the old book-like text and background, the teeth, the tiny creature all hint to this). So I think that this poster promotes the film well, it does not give away the storyline, but it does give us enough hints to make us very curious.