Film Poster: The Uninvited!

• The colour scheme for this poster is very effective. Having a black and white colour scheme automatically gives a suspicious feel to the film and initially sets the genre so the audience know to expect a horror film. Black and white colours also give a sense of mystery as you don't know what to expect from the film; a typical convention of horror films.
• The bars in the foreground of the shot give the effect of a window shutting something out and linking to the title 'Uninvited' they don't want the mysterious creature to come in. In the background of the shot there is the scene of a haunted woods; a setting which is again typical of horror films. This again links to the creature being 'Uninvited' as it makes the intruder seem as if they are outside maybe being looked at from the victim who is inside on the opposite side of the window.
• The image is very central and is what the audience are instantly drawn to. The image is unidentified as you can't clearly see the face of the person/creature and the audience are left wondering what it could be and what things is it capable of.

Film Poster: Scream

As I am going to make a film poster and magazine front cover to accompany my film teaser trailer I thought it would be a good idea to analyse some and find out the key conventions included in them.

Scream!

·         The main image is very conventional for a horror film poster. It is a close up shot of a victims face looking scared. This type of shot captures emotion and draws the audience into the poster as if the central image is effective they are left wanting to know more about the film. The face of the character is white with no colour and could have connotations of the saying “as white as a ghost” when someone gets scared.

·         The title of the film is ‘scream’ and this is clear to the audience as it is the main/biggest writing on the page and is in a distinctive font. The font is spaced out and in a bold white writing. The audience want to know what the characters are ‘screaming’ about.  The ‘m’ in the tittle has the effect of a spike coming through the middle; this makes the title attention grabbing and memorable.

·         The colour scheme for the poster is dull and dark colours; black, white and a purply/grey.  This sets a dark theme and gives a sense of mystery. The poster has little lighting and the only well lit part is the central image making it centre of attention.

·         At the bottom of the poster there are names of some of the main actors in the film and also the name of the director. This could be a selling point as if the film includes successful and well known actors and directors then it may have high expectations from the audience making them want to watch it.

·         The tag line at the top of a film poster is very important. It gives a slight indication about what the film is about, so the audience can decide if they like the look of the film or not.  “Someone has taken their love of scary films to far. Solving this mystery is going to be murder”  this leaves the audience interested in the film and wanting to know more so therefore it accomplishes its purpose.

Film Trailer: Strangers

• This is my favourite horror film trailer and I am going to use inspiration from this video in my own work. I think this trailer is very successful and captures the mood perfectly. It gives an idea to what the film is about but at the same time doesn’t give away too much.
• The trailer creates suspense with the use of effective music. The spooky slow piano tune at the beginning instantly gets the audience on the edge of their seat waiting for something to happen. The mellow atmosphere of the couple having a romantic meal is sharply interrupted with a loud bang on the door and this shocks the audience grabbing their attention. I think music is the key element in any horror film/trailer and the slow swinging of a rusty old swing is used often in the horror genre, and is used affectively in this trailer as it creates an unsettled atmosphere where the audience don’t know who or what is after the characters.
•  I like the part when the music goes off and you just see a masked man appear behind the woman, this makes the audience want to shout out to the woman to warn her, the audience are engaged and paying full attention. The trailer then picks up pace going into more upbeat, loud music and faster transitions of shots. This picks up suspense and as the music goes off and a loud bang happens as an axe gets hit through the door, this causes the audience to jump as it was unexpected.
• This trailer also has a successful ending.It ends with the woman asking “why us?” and the voice of a masked person repeating the films slogan in reply “Because you were home”. This leaves the trailer with an eerie atmosphere and the audience wanting to find out more!

Genre: Horror

I have chosen the genre of Horror for my film teaser trailer. I decided to choose this genre because horror films are one of my favourite films to watch as I like the suspense they create and how they keep you engaged and on the edge of your seat the whole way through. You constantly have something new to focus on so I wanted to see if I could achieve something of a genre that I enjoy to watch myself.  

“Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers.”

 In my opinion there are two main types of Horror films. Some horror films include blood, gore and violence and others take more of a psychological approach and rely more on the aspect of suspense to keep the audience shocked and at the edge of their seat. I am going to focus on horror films that use the psychological approach and get inside the views head.

Conventions
Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden worst fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. They usually include scenes which startle the viewer and repeatedly involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or person, commonly of supernatural origin entering into the everyday world. Themes regularly interpreted into horror films include ghosts, masked people, werewolves, zombies, serial killers, haunted houses, demons, vampires and curses.

The genre of Horror is so broad I am looking forward to interpreting horror in my own way and producing a convincing teaser trailer which leaves the audience with chills.

Year 13 Media - Brief

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.

Out of the selection on 13 briefs i have chosen to make a teaser trailer for a new film as it interested me most. I studied Media at GCSE and AS level and after focusing on film last year i feel this is an area of the media which i can show my strengths as well as challenge myself.

In GCSE i made a music video which gave me some experience in moving image, which i enjoyed, so therefore i would like to broaden my knowledge and learn how to use more advanced technology involved in moving image.

This brief also appealed to me because it gives the opportunity to make a magazine front cover and a film poster for my film teaser trailer. I enjoyed making a magazine at AS level so would look forward to this aspect of the task and be able to use the skills i gained from last years work.

Evaluation!

Final Double Page Spread & Analysis

This is the final double page spread for my music magazine. I chose to feature my friend Fran Caines in the article as she is the lead singer of a new punk –rock band called ‘Same Thing Different Story’. I thought that this would be a relevant and appropriate feature to include in my magazine as the band is fresh and new so therefore fitting into the “Bands Not Brands” motto my magazine has, and the punk – rock genre of music is relevant to the genre and style of my magazine.

When creating my double page spread, the hardest part was choosing an appropriate colour scheme. I already knew the layout and images that I wanted to use but trying to find the right colours that worked was challenging. I already knew that the image included black and white on the clothing and an orange/wood effect on the guitar and Fran’s hair. Also band logo is in black and white. I knew these colours fitted with the colours I had used on the previous pages of my magazine so I then had to decide on two other colours to use on my double page spread to keep it consistent with the other pages. I chose a gray background because I had already used black on the two previous backgrounds so I wanted a change and therefore chose grey. I then decided on green as the first bright colour. I chose green because it hadn’t yet been used in my magazine and complimented with the grey background. I originally had the three boxes behind the secondary images all in white but I realised this made the page look to plain so I decided to leave one white, have another a slightly lighter shade of grey and the final green to match the strip down article. I finally chose to have the significant writing in an orange colour as coordinated with Fran’s hair and the guitar.

I decided to have a green strip down the centre of the article to break up the writing so it is easier to read and take in, one big block of writing doesn’t look appealing to anyone. I also decided to include a quote from the article as this is common feature that most magazines have. It gives indication the reader what the whole article is about, and if they are interested in that one quote they are more likely to take the time to read the whole article. I chose to use a slanted font for the quote and put it on a white block background and have orange quotation marks around it so its stands out on the page.  

The choice of images on the page is very important; they need to be fun and eye catching. I chose to have the main image as a full shot of Fran holding a guitar and pulling a funny face. This shows personality and will make the reader interested in the article. For the secondary images on the page I used two full shots and one medium shot of Fran, I wanted a variety and not all the same shots. I think the effect of Fran wearing ‘geek glasses’ makes the images look fun and relatable.