Ancillary Task: Film Poster

A film poster is made to advertise the film and appeal to the target audience. Our film poster has three eerie looking pictures, enlarged on the front. These pictures immediately connote the genre of the film and this will be attractive to an audience that like thriller/horror films. The film website at the bottom is in red which also connotes the genre of the film, as red in this context symbolises blood and danger. Our production logo is in the left hand corner which also is a sudden signifier that our 'company' will make other thriller/horror, as the logo contains a knife with bright red blood on the knife which triggers typical eerie stereotypes in the target audiences mind. On the poster there is places where the audience can get information about the film such as the website and Facebook page, so they can become involved with the film and updates about it. This also will enable more people to hear about the film and look at the website, watch the trailer and see what it is about. We have put a Miramax logo on as they are a well known production company for making thriller/horrors and they have a great reputation. When people see this logo they will associate it with other good films they have seen, produced by this company which also makes people enthusiastic to watch it.

By putting reviews and large stars at the top of the poster, this lets people know critics reviews about the film and as it says four stars, this makes people think its an excellent film and likely to watch if have a great review.

Our poster has dark, shaded colours also to highlight the thriller/horror genre as it is a common convention in their posters, as the film contains dark and eerie content.

Our Production Logo

We wanted to create a subsidiary production logo that represented our thriller/horror film trailer. We came up with 'Blade Productions' as the name of our production logo as we wanted the audience to become aware earlier on in the trailer that it is a thriller/horror genre. We felt that the audience will become aware straightaway after looking at the production logo of what our film is based on; which is violent and contains events in which characters are killed in disturbing ways. This is a common convention for a horror/thriller films, the knife however connotes more conventions of the horror genre in comparison to thrillers where more guns are used.

Below is the production made on Macromedia Fireworks programme:

The red use of colour for the blood effect connotes danger and violence; this suggests to the audience that the film is based around people being hurt and their life being at risk by a mysterious killer. The image of the knife used in the production logo suggests that the characters/victims in the trailer will be brutally tortured and killed. The use of the drain indicates that the girls have no way of escaping, the use of black in the drain connotes  mystery and death indicating that the trailer brings up questions in the audiences mind of what could happen to the three victims and whether or not they will be able to escape from the psychotic killer. Also, the black connotes the fact that the audience are unaware of who the killer is, intriguing them into watching the film at the cinemas for the motives of the killer for hunting down the three victims in particular. The fact that there is a high key low contrast of use of lighting around the plug hole with blood dripping down, indicates the future of the victims in the trailer suggesting that they don't have anywhere to hide and are trapped underneath the plug hole. This indicates that the victims could be confided in small spaces and there is no way that they can get away from this nightmare. As the victims are three girls the plug hole could represent the vulnerability of the girls as they are seen as easy target from the killers prospective as they won't be able to fight back and defend for themselves, suggesting that the killer sees their life as being worthless and he is pouring any traces of their memories down the drain.

Our production logo can be compared to the Miramax production logo; this because our subsidiary production and Miramax have similar conventions, in that when one looks at the two production logos, there is a theme of horror/thriller in both logos. In our subsidiary logo we have created a more obvious illusion of blood and violence which is more representative of our trailer which helps generate the idea that our trailer is a horror/thriller.

Rough Cut Analysis

How to improve our rough cut

When presenting our rough cut edit to the rest of the class they gave us some positive feedback such as a good variety of shots. However they also told us that we needed to improve both our sound and our main title. Our sound so far consists of continuous music which seems fine, as well as sound stings which we need more of and to improve the timing of. They are significant as they emphasise the fast sequences of shots; creating a greater impact. Also they told us we made need a voice over or maybe some more dialogue, to help with narrative exposition and also to create a break in the music. The music at the end of our trailer is too sudden so we need to make it gradually more dramatic towards the end instead. The font for our main title needs to be changed as it does not fit with the themes in our trailer or conventions of the horror/thriller genre. 

Adding a few more shots to estbalish the narrative is further needed, for example, shot of newspaper clipping and flashback of us at school laughing. Also a scary voice to do the voicover the titles to also establish the narrative further. However feedback was highly positive and many key features of our trailer was liked such as effects, flashes and sound stings.  By changing these I believe our production will dramatically improve and obtain a high grade.

Rough cut edit

Return rough cut from Emily Jesson on Vimeo.