HORROR TRAILERSEVALUATION ANALYSIS

PART TWO

BY ALEX DALTON

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Section A:One of the key aspects within my poster is the main signifying cover image. The main villain of my trailer dominates a large proportion of the page, using a close up, straight on shot. The villain has direct mode of address with the audience, helping to convey her threat and power. The technique is also used within other posters such as The Exorcist (right).Unusually the villain is female, which we would normally expect to play the victim. However it works well with the female having long, straggly, dark hair with a contrasting pale face giving her a gaunt and creepy look. The darkness around her eyes connotes her being dead and her crimson red lips stand out, suggesting blood, gore and danger and also adding visual power to her image. Another beneficial side to using a female villain/antagonist is that this strongly suggests to an audience that the genre of the film will be a psychological horror rather than a gory one which typically features male villains.My colours have a consistent theme throughout my ancillary texts

and main product, this helps in tying them all together as part of one advertising campaign. The main colours consist of blacks, whites and reds. Not only are these the stereotypical colours which areused in horror posters, but they carry particular connotations to our target audience. The black background gives a classy and elegant edge yet still signifying the horror genre. The use of white in the text allows it to stand out from the dark background; often the colour connotes perfection and implies this about the film and the poster. As with The Exorcist poster I wanted to create an iconic villain, but one that we do not normally expect. There is almost a feminist feel to the film, having a powerful – yet deadly – female killer. The writing used within my tagline ‘The past will come back to haunt you’ also gives a strong indicator about

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the narrative of the film and its psychological and ghostly plot twist. The font I used for the ‘Coming Soon’ text has been manipulated and blurred to make it seem more supernatural as well as adding in another font which is different from the other pieces of text. I have added a slight texture behind the black background to add a further indication that the film is about paranormal events. The iconography of my poster highlights important areas of the film, with the main picture establishing the film’s plot mixed with a striking design that will grab an audience’s attention immediately.

I was trying to replicate a horror magazine which was similar in style to tasteful magazines such as ‘Sight and Sound’. I used generic features of a film magazine such as a pull quote, where the director says this is his ‘best creation yet’. This was intended to entice an audience into wanting to read more, whilst also pushing the “auteur” of Lullaby.

When looking at my magazine cover for the invented “Just Film” based on the real-life magazine “Total Film.” I chose the main cover image to be a smart casual photo of the film’s “auteur” enhanced by a slight skull effect on his face. This represents a more upmarket kind of horror magazine, aiming at a more cultured audience than fanzines such as “Scream”

The font for my magazine title is slim yet bold and sans-serif to represent its more chic style, however I chose to use a more intrusive font for ‘Lullaby’ to make the title really stand out on the page. The font type Viper Nora is slightly distorted giving off an eerie vibe about the film. It has missing pieces, once again reinforcing the unsettling narrative of the film. I chose to use three types of font in order to give visual interest to the magazine cover, but also not to overload it with too many different fonts. The mid-shot of the director also shows his body language which lets the audience identify with him and the focus on his eyes gives them a personal connection with the film.

Continued…Once again I included the generic colours which are also in my poster to keep consistency and to fit into the horror genre and the style of Lullaby. The use of vibrant red attracts an audience’s eyes instantly. Although bright colours are not generally used within the horror genre the intensity of it offers many meanings such as danger and brings the red text to the foreground of the poster. An example of these typical colours being used within another poster is in The Last House on the Left (below left).

Here you are able to see how the word ‘house’ really stands out from the rest of the poster through using a contrasting red colour. The smaller pieces of text within my cover for Just Film are red as this makes them stand out when next to the larger white text. Other aspects within my magazine cover include incentives and buzz words such as ‘exclusive’ and ‘plus!’ this really pulls an audience in and is a generic feature used in many other magazines. Another magazine which also does this is Empire (right), alterating main headings with sub-headings to draw the audience’s attention to the cover.Creating a coherent advertising campaignBoth of my ancillary products merge well together alongside my trailer.

They all offer a consistent look in the particular style I have chosen. The genre of my trailer is a psychological horror which is aimed at a younger adult to middle aged audience. The use of colours are regular throughout all of the products, the fonts are quite simplistic yet sophisticated and get the sub-genre of psychological horror across to the audience. I tried to make the layout of both ancillary products clear and not too messy, focussing on the film and what is being advertised. As the trailer is primarily psychological, I thought it would be most appropriate to give it a certificate of 15. Lullaby does not contain excessive gore or harsh violence so our psychographic audience was predominantly mainstreamers interested in such successful horrors as Sinister and The Amityville Horror, which both made over $60 million worldwide.