When making the poster for the project, I tried to keep in mind the designs that I looked at when researching other posters. And also tried to conform to some of the codes and conventions that I saw used in these other posters. Obviously, these are:
- The dominant image being a character, or item, from the film
- The title of the film appearing on the poster
- The names of the actors appearing somewhere on the poster
Although there are more codes and conventions than this, these where the three that appeared on the majority, if not all, of the posters that I researched at the beginning of the project.
The first step when making this poster was to add the dominant image. For me, this is the best way to start because you are able to get a sense of the scale of the poster, and how the other elements should be positioned and sized in relation. As with almost all of the development of the poster, I did everything twice. This was to make sure that I had a look at different layouts for the poster, and chose the one which worked the best.
Here we can see that the dominant image has been added onto the page, and that it fits well without it having to be distorted or stretched. I think that this is a great image to use on the poster because it gives the impression that the character is all alone in the forest, as there is a large space next to the character. This sense of isolation is something that we wanted to include in our production, and is what the whole trailer revolves around. The green colour of the forest behind the character gives the setting an eerie feel to it, and more importantly adds to the impression that the character is all alone in the dark, dangerous woods.
This image works well as the dominant image because it allows for text to be layered over it, without the image becoming over shadowed or blocked.
Now that the dominant image has been added onto the poster, it is time to add the rest of the elements that will make up the final poster. So, the second thing that I added was the title of the film. I decided to add this in at this time because it will be one of the larger things that will be added, therefore allowing to see how much room I will have left to work with, and how much room there will be for the rest of the elements that are going to need to be added onto the poster.
As I have said, I added everything in twice to get two different designs for the poster. This allowed me to see which of the two designs will look best as the final poster for our production.
First Design – Title
The first version of the poster included the title being positioned at the top of the page. Personally, I feel that this doesn’t look good being positioned here because it is too small. The text cannot be made any larger here because it will begin to cover the characters face. Also, because the text is that small, it is being over shadowed by the dominant image some what.
Second Design – Title
This section version of the poster, I think, works far better. The title is now far larger than it was on the first design of the poster, making it more prominent on the page without it overshadowing the face of the character. Also, because the title is at the bottom of the page, it doesn’t take away from the feeling of isolation and danger on the poster.
I feel that the second design of the poster is the best because it keeps the top half of the poster clear, leaving the dark section visible, suggesting that the character is alone.
Now that the title has been added to both of the different designs, I decided to add the names of the actors in the film. There where Callum Henn and Benjamin Haines. As is generally known and accepted, the names of the actors appear at the top of the page. Whether it is a poster, DVD or any other form of media, the general convention is that they appear at the top of the page.
I think that the names of the actors appearing at the top of the page works well. I feel this because, as with the title, it leaves the top half of the page relatively clear, and it still does not overshadow or cover the darkness next to the character on the poster.
I decided to insert the names in this order because I think the names of the actor should always appear over the actor. This way, it is a lot easier to tell who is who and make it easier to recognise the actors(s).
The next step that I did was to add in the Tag Line for the film. After spending a long time trying to think of one that would sum up the film, Michael and I decided upon “Tense? Nervous? You’ll remember this trip.”
The general convention when adding in a Tag Line is that it should appear slightly apart from the title, or nowhere near it. But, because of the nature of the dominant image on this poster, I decided that it should appear quite near to the title. This was to not ‘clutter up’ the poster or make it look too messy and untidy.
First Design – Tag Line
I think that the Tag Line appearing here on the poster really doesn’t look good. I think this because the text is very nearly overlapping the face of the character on the poster, but it cannot be any smaller because it wouldn’t be readable on the poster. I also think that the Tag Line should not be bigger than the title. I feel that doing this would overshadow the title and therefore make it not as noticeable.
Second Design – Tag Line
I feel that this position of the Tag Line works far better than the previous version. I think this because of a number of reasons. The first of which being the fact that the text is large enough to read on the page, as it has not been made smaller to fit in the gap at the top of the poster. Also, the text is now not larger than the title of the film. This is good because it does not overshadow the title, and it therefore remains eye-catching on the page. As well as these things, the text is now no longer in the dark section of the poster. This is something that works well because it does not cover the darkness, and therefore does not ruin the illusion that the characters is all alone and isolated in this forest.
Every poster that I looked at for research included the logo, or at least the name, of the production company and/or any others involved. Because of this I spent the time to create a logo for our production company, something that everyone in the class has now done, Global Productions.
Another thing that almost all movie posters include is the logo or name of the production company who made the film. This is so the people who look at the poster known who made the film. Because this is something that real movie posters use, I have added two logos onto our posters; the one for Global Productions and another company’s logo that I made for this purpose.
I decided at this point to use the second design as the poster as the final version. I made this decision because the second design worked far better, and all of the elements fit better and more effectively on the page.
The logos have been added to the bottom of the page to make the most of the space that was available on the page without using the black section at the top, and therefore taking away from the isolated and eerie feeling of the poster.
I decided to add this part of the poster first so I would be able to see how much room was left on the poster to add the credits in. Also, on real movie posters there will be a chunk of text, usually centrally aligned, showing the various people and companies who were involved in the production of the film. Because we want to have the most realistic poster that we can, I went into Adobe Photoshop and created credits like this to be inserted in the bottom of the poster. This, therefore makes the poster look more realistic, as though it were a real poster.
Now that this final element has been added onto the poster, it has been completed. This is the final design of the poster that we will be using as the ‘official’ one. I think that this poster looks professional and authentic because it both follows and subverts most, if not all, of the general conventions that are seen in horror posters.
Sam Stroud 