Film poster analysis

We looked at four different posters and arranged them in a order that is most effective, the order went as followed;

We all came to the conclusion that most, if not all, horror posters are dark and they key is not to give too much of the plot away.
House at the end of the street is a pretty bad poster, as it consists of a pretty girl pouting. It would be a bit more effective if she was cut up or muddy/sweaty. That and the figure in the background of the image in the house, which i would assume to be the villain/twist in the movie, is blended into the darkness and the strain and focus to see it shouldn't happen.
Cabin in the Wood was difficult, for me it didn't appeal as a poster or film. It is just a cabin shaped as a rubix cube, with the tag line 'you think you know the story' underneath. Now, i would be confused as to knowing weather this is a horror, action or sci-fi because it lacks information.
However, the Paranormal Activity poster is a lot more appealing, the couple screaming and staring at something across the bed is interesting as it is, yet looking in the direction they are you can see a tall dark image in the hallway which is an automatic scare and so much more effective than the previous two posters.
Although, the Final Destination poster is my higher choice. Due to the screaming face, the to half being human and the eyes are darkened and the bottom half is the jaw of an open mouthed skull, implying its fear. Those who know these films know the plot and that the shattering glass is an excellent reperesentation of the film and what it's really about.

Magazine idea

Empire Magazine template

•   Anne Hathaway - Catwoman
•  Grey/ black background
•  Black/white text

Whereas the empire cover with Scarlett Johansson is extremely colourful ehich would pretty much defeat the idea of the horror genre.


IDEA

• The stance of the older the shoulder glance, back showing
• Maybe a white background(?)
• White nightdress
• Deteriorated hands grabbing her legs from underneath or around her waist
• facial expression to be an evil smile or grin

Teaser trailers (20 seconds)

Woman in Black

1. Music - eerie
   Boom/ pounds sound everytime a new shot is shown
   Shot -dark - shot - dark (edit)
   Conversation music (non diagetic)
   Ident of pictures - start 'Hammer'
   Close up*
   Established shot - the house
   Extreme long shot
   Transitions - fade between shots
   * = first shot of human

The Silent House

1. Ident of pictures
   Boom - (non diagetic sound)
   Camera shutter sound (non?)
   Voice over - non diagetic provide info
   (the only light it the camera flash)
   Angles are tilted - handheld - more realistic
   No music - only scribbling on paper, iftting in with the whole transition
   Lack of footage

Cabin in the Woods

1. Music - pop/punk band
   Light settings - not dark like 'Silent House'
   Close up
   Establishing shots
   Unable to tell it's a horror

VHS

1. Handheld camera - realistic
   Idents
   Diagetic - voices in the car, sound of the engine ect.
   Cut shots - fuzzy, TV screen on with no signal

Poster idea

• The several hands grabbing the body from below, expression screaming
• I could change the background to a white room, or a forest
• The several hands around her could represent the split personalities

This would appeal to me as a customer wishing to view our trailer, though i don't want it to be misleading like Drag Me To Hell was, because it wasn't as good as the poster makes it out to be..

Although a lot of elements from The Ward have inspired our trailer, the poster happens to be just as interesting and eye catching as well;

• The main character is in a ripped and filthy white nightgown, screaming and showing restraint from the hands that have hold of her arms
• The background is black, which already gives off the hint that it is of the horror genre
• The only negative thing about this poster is that remaking something similar would be difficult

Each of the posters i am planning to do would have the same elements i.e, costumes, colour, font size and colour etc.
The one i am leaning towards is the 'Drag Me To Hell' design, because each part of the poster  is what i would want to see in a horror poster, and what i am aiming to include in my own. The idea of hands grabbing the main character downwards - showing dominance which is what would represent her split personalities, and the part they play is what overpowers her and forces her to do things against her own will.

But to include and remake all of this would look a bit unoriginal and the idea would not be my own.

So I'm going to combine the two ideas together, with the main character's back facing the camera, her head glancing over her right shoulder whilst she would be muddy, dressed ripped and her hair wet and draping over her face, the smirk on her face and the hands grabbing either her legs or from behind her waist.
The background would cause a problem, seeing as most of our shooting would be in a forest and a white room, so either of the two would be prefect. Though to find a white room with a simplistic bed and the shadow of the window creeping into the shot would be hard to find, also the fact of her being muddy, ripped and wet in a clean room would not make sense, so the woods would kind of piece it together.

The image below is a possible model idea of what my image would look like, though to remake this without it looking armature will prove a difficult task.

Horror film posters

Magazine cover research

After looking through magazine covers and seeing ones that are overflowing with text and mismatched colours, i came across these; they caught my eyes because they are simple, one image/figure covers with simplistic and neutral colours.
If my cover was to have bright colours then it would defeat the object of a horror film cover, as the horror genre is dark, mysterious and reasonably scary.
I am planning to sort of mirror my cover to the Empire one with Anne Hathaway as catwoman as the model.
The reason being, that the stance is simple yet the colours are dark, also to use this stance would also need a few other touches to accompany it due to the plot of the story.

Script