Poster Drafts

Analysis of a collection of horror film posters

From these horror film posters I have found that there is a very dark tone throughout them all. The dark and often black back ground helps to communicate the genre well. I feel the most effective colour for the title on these posters is red. I think this because the colour red connotes evil and danger again relating to the genre of the film. The red colour also helps to look prominent on the black background of the poster. The scratched and often ‘dripping’ or ‘elongated’ effect of some of the letters in some titles help to create a spooky effect to promote the film.

I believe every image on these images used has been edited to create a surreal or spooky effect. I plan to edit my image on Photoshop, however I am going to use a screen grab from my trailer to do this so the two products relate directly.

The text in these posters often includes come text or a quote that helps to incise and tease the public to tease the film. The also include important information such as the release date, which is often in a different colour, the actors included in the film, and the name of the film. Along the bottom of the posters there are small logos of the production company, I plan to include my production logo which I have created myself.

Plot Synopsis

Before I could continue in the making of my media product I had to distinguish a synopsis to help me story board my trailer. The plot synopsis for The Terror is as followed:

Isobella is a girl who never had the chance to grow up. Her paranormal spirit lives in envy of her older sister Francesca who survived the fatal car crash. Ever since her death, Isobella has wanted revenge on her sister, as she feels she has been forgotten. On Francesca’s 18^th birthday, she celebrates with a group of friends by having a camping trip. Isobella follows and plans to take her revenge whilst alone in the forest.

I didn’t want to give too much away in my plot synopsis because I wanted to keep ambiguity within my project, as I found through my research that many horror films use ambiguity in their marketing strategies and sometimes in promotional material to do well as the potential audience for the film are not aware what the film is about, this could mean that they will see the film because they are curious about what happens.

Logo size and background

Here I have captured the film production logos whilst being show in horror film trailers. I have decided to look closely at the text size and how big the logo is in relation to the trailer screen size as a whole. I feel this research will help create a professional looking beginning to my trailer.

In relation to size in these screen grabs, the production logo is always centred, and it is also the only thing featured on the screen at that time so that all the focus is on it.

Looking at all of these production logos I have found that my favourite,  in terms of how it looks , are the Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema logos. I like the effect of the black and white clouds behind the logo as I think this looks spooky and is conventional of my genre.

Below is two mock up of how I want my film production logo to look in my trailer.

 

 

My production company

 

These are some variations of my film production company logo which I have created. I chose to base my logo primarily around text, as I found from my research that existing and successful production company logos have text as the most prominent feature. To add some colour I chose to use neat and sophisticated lines so that my logo looks professional and tidy, whilst also allowing me to add a splash of colour into the design. I chose a royal blue colour as I feel this will represent my company well as this colour represents wealth and royalty.

I have included my logo as a flat and 2D version on the top image, however underneath this I have used the ‘perspective’ tool on Photoshop to make the image appear to be coming slightly off the page. I am going to experiment using both when creating my film to see which looks the most professional.

Studio Logos

When creating my own logo for my film production company I thought it would be helpful to look at some existing logos. From these logos I can see that every single one includes text, and the text reads the name of the company. On most the text is made to look prominent and stand out from the logo; however in some the text is incorporated into the logo image itself. In terms of colours there is lots of black, blue, red and yellow used. I think this is because it makes the logo very mutual in terms of appealing to a male or female audience. Blue, red and yellow are all primary colours meaning they are a bold and bright colour and I think this is what makes these logos so effective. The lay out and overall look for the majority of these logos is simple and neat, I think this helps to create a presentable image for the film production companies.

The Terror Edit 2

The Terror Edit 1

The Terror - Final Name

Terror
Noun

1. Extreme fear
" people fled in terror
synonyms: extreme fear, dread, fear and trembling, fright, trepidation, alarm, panic, shock

2. a person, especially a child, that causes trouble or annoyance
synonyms: rascal, devil, imp, monkey, wrench, scamp, mischief-maker, trouble maker.

I have chosen 'The Terror' as the title for my film becasue of the connotations and denotations surrounding the word 'Terror'.

(Sourced from Google ^)

The definition of the word ‘Terror’ has two main meanings, one being extreme fear and the other being the name for a child who causes trouble. This is effective for my film as the genre is horror/paranormally and the first denotation expresses fear. Fear is the emotion that I want the audience to feel when they see my film trailer so I think this works well. However the second definition of the word ‘terror’ is the name for a small child who causes trouble. The antagonist for my film is a young child who is going to cause all trouble and fear in my film so this also works very well with the name in which I have chosen.

I believe people will read the title of my film and instantly know that it is a horror film, this is effective for me as this could make the viewer’s read more about the film as they will already  guess the genre without even seeing the trailer. Making the audience read more about my film will almost always end up in them watching the trailer, meaning they should then want to see the whole film as a result.

Title Ideas

When choosing my title for my film I wanted to experiement with how it sounded and how it looked to the viewer/audience.
A list of names which I thought of are:

The one

The chosen

The girl

The nightmare

The possession

The chase

The chaser

The revenge

The terror

The Scream

I chose 4 from my list , which I thought were the most effective to experiment with:

The One, The Chosen, The Revenge, The Terror
 

Film Title Planning

When naming my film I need something which sticks into the viewer’s heads and is easy to remember, but also something which is catchy and effective. The name is so important as it is one of the main features to help promote the film. From my research I have found that many effective and successful titles contain one word or a single noun with 'The' in front of the noun. This is a common theme within many film titles and this could possibly be a tactic used by film makers to help the name stick in the potential audience’s minds. Within my research for my films name I came across this website which lists 'The 20 Highest Grossing Scary Movies of All Time'. Link to site

The list of horror films with 'The' in their name or which follow the conventions which I have found are:

• Saw (2) – $87 million

"Saw II" is the most successful film from the "Saw" franchise, which includes seven movies. It starred Donnie Wahlberg and Beverly Mitchell, with Tobin Bell playing the villain, Jigsaw

• Scream 2 - $101.4 million +3 - $89.1 million

"Scream 3" is part of the four film "Scream" franchise. The movie stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox. Arquette and Cox were married less than a year before the movie's release.

"Scream 2" was released a year after the original "Scream" and was directed by Wes Craven, who directed all four films in the franchise

• The Haunting – $91.4 million This late '90s film is a remake of the 1963 film. It starred Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Owen Wilson.

This late '90s film is a remake of the 1963 film. It starred Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Owen Wilson

• The Others – $96.5 million

"The Others" starred Nicole Kidman and was released the same year she and Tom Cruise divorced.

• Scream - $103 million

"Scream" won the MTV Movie Award for best movie and reportedly used about 50 gallons of blood during production.

• The Grudge – $110.4 million

The first in the three film franchise was inspired by a Japanese film and had the same director as the Japanese original.

• The Village - $114.2 million

This film starred Sigourney Weaver and Joaquin Phoenix. It was nominated for an Oscar in the music category.

• The Ring – $129.1 million

"The Ring" is a remake of a 1998 Japanese film. More than two million copies of the DVD were sold in the U.S. during its first day of release.

• The Exorcist – $232.9 million

"The Exorcist" is based on a 1971 novel about a real life exorcism from 1949. Maxim and Entertainment Weekly have voted this film the scariest movie of all time.

• The Sixth Sense - $293.5 million

The highest-grossing horror movie of all time stars Bruce Willis and 11-year-old Haley Joel Osment. It was nominated for a staggering six Oscars, including best director and best picture.
With all of these successful titles in mind I thought it would be best for my title to adopt this approach when choosing and creating my own film title. There are some other aspects I need to keep in mind such as:
Has the title already been used before? As this could bring up copyright issues
Is the title very similar to any existing ones? The public could get them mixed up
Am I following the appaoriate conventions? Yes, as I have basied my research on horror films