Comaprison ideas for poster

When i had taken my images, i found a horror film poster called click. This automaticcally grabbed my attention as the main image reminded me of my own photography. I therefore wanted to use this as a base/ idea for my own poster. following the layout and style. alternations may be made depending on how i i want my poister to be. But overall this was a good 'plan' of a real poster to follow. This enabled me to not forget any key conventions such as institutional logos.

photoshop experiments for poster

Most photoshop experiments were carried out after i took my images for my magazine and poster. This is an extra photoshop idea that i had carried out for my poster. However although the idea of merging two images together was appealing, the photoshop experiment did not turn out as great as the thought. Therefore i didnt merge the images as a final idea, just as a experiment.

mockups of poster

These Mockups were again, as the same process of the magazine cover, helping to act of furthering my ideas of my layout. choosing differnt images and playing text in different areas helped me to understand what looked best and what didnt.

taglines

Taglines are a very important part of a film poster. They allow a single sentence to be put across to the audience which from one read can automatically create tension, suspense and questions among the audience. I created a brainstorm of taglines, as shown above. I wanted to present my ideas as a brainstorm as I have realised that brainstorms help me and force me to fill up the page, allowing me to think of more and more ideas. This is essential to have a large amount of ideas rather than only five or six. I find that if I list ideas, I will not come up with a successful amount, because I am not forced to fill anything. Overall I thought of around 21 taglines, which was a great variety to choose from.

Ideas such as, 'she chose her own fate' and 'the call that changed her life forever' were starter taglines to get my thoughts in gear. I then used general sayings and added a twist. for example 'death was at her call' had been from a saying 'death was at her door' also, 'behind closed calls' I thought of from the saying 'behind closed doors' this was interesting as the call was closed and no one new know was at the other end. I quite liked these taglines as I gave typical sayings a twist that had a direct link to my film. Instead of doors, I used the word calls, as my storyline involves an unknown call, overall taking ideas, keeping them simple but effective. Another twist on a tagline I thought of was 'the calm before the call' which came from a well known saying 'the calm before the storm'.

Having a simple tagline can be just as effective as having a longer tagline. Some of the longer sentences I thought of were, 'A normal night out, ended in pain through one call' and 'what began as a great night, ended with a call of destiny and death'. Taglines such as these were not as effective but I tried to create ideas that involved gave away some of the storyline. If the audience read something like that, they would know a call is the reason of horror.

I thought of the tagline 'How would you trace the call' this was simple and would raise questions in the audiences mind. Other ideas such as 'How would you find out who’s on the other end' came about. I thought these were good ideas for the tagline which had direct links to the storyline and gave a little away to the audience without revealing too much, however the actual sentence, I believe was not worded right and I was not happy with it. After a while after finishing the brainstorm, I had randomly thought of the tagline ' How would you trace the call if death was on the other end'. In my opinion you can’t always force ideas, and the best ones come naturally. I then went to write this down as you can see on the right hand side of the page in the middle, the sentence is squeezed in. I was very happy with this tagline and thought it included mystery and a great deal of suspense, when being read, questions would arise such as what call, how would I trace a call, why would death be at the other end'. The audience can slightly gather that an unknown person is calling but the full storyline is kept at a minimum which is why I liked this tagline the best.

Typefaces for Poster

These are the typefaces I found which I wanted to try using for my poster. Originally i new i wanted to use the same typeface of the title as I used in my trailer. However, after more research into certain typefaces, I found another 8 which are above, I liked some more then the original and therefore wanted to try them out. Typeface number one, two and five are some of my favourites as they gave a feeling as to what the title was. The style of these typefaces are vanishing which is what the word disconnected is but for a phone call. Other typefaces such as three, were not as good to use, I felt like number three looked too scratched up and needed to be simpler. Also typeface number 6 had a blurred effect, like you would see on TV, however I wouldn’t want to use this because my storyline doesn’t involve TV’s, only phones, so I wanted something that would link more to that.

I will try the majority of these typefaces out when making my poster on Photoshop in order to see how it fits in overall. Until I see it visually, I cannot make a decision.

These are the typefaces I found for the tagline. They are very similar to each other in the sense that they are strong, straight and simple. The only difference is I tried to find one a little bit bolder then the other, in this case its typeface one. I wanted a straight and strong looking typeface, but one of which that wouldn’t outweigh the look of the main title typeface of 'disconnected' which is why I searched for thin typefaces rather than thicker ones. Overall these typefaces do the job of attracting the audience’s attention in a very simple, subtle but effective way.

These are the typefaces I found for the credits. Below you can see I have researched and looked at examples of typefaces on posters, even the Credits, which are just as important as the main typeface of the title on a poster, credits tend to typically take up the bottom section of the poster, so the typeface can’t be too bold or thick, as the text may be hard to read. Below you can the typeface of the credit is mainly tall and thin, or has been squashed together to look it. Typefaces two, three and four are all thin, and I wanted to try a thick typeface to see how it would look, which is why I also included typefaces one and five.

flatplans for poster

Thes Flatplans have been made to give me starting point for my layout. Layouts like these have been caefully considered through my research and analysis of posters. The typical layout of a film poster i found if is where the credits are placed at the bottom of the poster, the image in the centre and the title, taglines and other text can vary.
i have created a few flatplans, all varying certain aspects, but still keeping with the main conventional layout.

Analysis of Poster- Jennifers Body

Typeface
The typeface for a poster is an element which can represent the film genre or target audience. In this particular film poster a varsity college typeface has been used, and this strongly highlights the target audience. This known typeface is seen to be used in American colleges and high school and college when representing sports such as American football, baseball and cheerleading. This typeface is used for the main title, as well as the tagline and staring names along the top of the poster. As a result clearly signifying that the target audience for this film is young people aged 15-23.

Image and other links
Typically of a film poster, there is one central image. This image is the visual communication for the film to represent itself to the audience and this image will most likely become an icon for the film. The image has been taken in a Mid- long shot, showing the location and central focus. The location within the image is in a classroom. This is obvious as there is a blackboard and a school desk, which is placed at the centre of the image with a girl sitting on top of it. The blackboard has the words `Hell yes’ written at a diagonal angle in parallel to the characters head. Because of its positioning, the audience would look at this writing then look at the girl and make direct links between the two, maybe forming an opinion that the girl is hell.
This not only makes a direct link to the text written on the board and the character, but also the wording of the text is extremely significant. The words are in capitals which signify dominance within the image. In terms of the actual word, hell, this can be seen as a direct convention to the horror genre.
Hell has many connotations such as fire, sin and the colour red. This colour is shown in the image as well as the text. Red is used for the shoes and top of the girl which in one way could represent her femininity, but in another way could again link to hell, death and sin.
Overall the costume of the character in the image gives off a significant amount of sex appeal. The costume consists of a mini skirt and strap top, with red heels. This outfit is feminine, however to many can be seen as slutty, which highlights what kind of character will be in this film, as well as what audience type is targeted, in terms of looking at the image the age of 15-20 still applies, but we now get the sense that this film is aimed towards more of a young male audience.
The character is holding one prop in her hand, books which again represent the fact that she is in education. Her body language is quite flirty and womanly, as her legs are crossed and she’s slanted back on the desk, which can show her openness and confident personality. Her facial expression is of a slight grin; however the position of the girl makes it hard for the audience to see the full face from a front view. In terms of the position at which the girl is faced, it seems to have been purposely done to add mystery. We see the girls face from a side view, of which she is only slightly facing the camera, however her full face is kept out of the shot and this could draw attention to the fact that she has a split personality.
In terms of the characters hair and makeup, it again is very feminine; her hair is down and curly which can add to the sex appeal.  

Another aspect of this image is what the girl is sitting on. We see her sitting on a school desk, however if you look closer to that desk on the left side, you are able to see a hand coming out. This is a considerable aspect of the image as it subtly conveys the horror genre. From the use and position of the hand we can gather that she is sitting on someone that she has trapped in the desk, The fact that they can fit in the desk means that the body has either been broken up or squashed. The position of the girl sitting on top of the desk so openly highlights her dominance as a female character, which can be a countertype compared to most horror films, where the females play victims.

Text and layout
In terms of text, the colours used on this horror film poster are red and white, whilst the colours in the image are similar; a faded green to gray colour is used. These colours are very simple and in many ways can symbolise the characters personality. For example, the red can highlight the sin and evil in the girl, whilst the white is used to underline her angelic, innocent side.

In terms of the layout, it’s of a typical film poster, with the credits placed at the bottom and the title of the film placed just above the credits.

The text of the tagline reads `she’s evil...and not just high school evil’ This tagline can work well to draw the target audience in. If the audience see the word high school, they are able to relate to it.  High school evil would refer to being a popular mean girl, playing pranks, making fun of people and being vain and arrogant. The tagline clearly states that this character is not just these things, but she is generally evil.