By Benjamin Haines

POSTER CONSTRUCTION

STEP 1

My first step was uploading the image that we wanted to use on my computer from our IPhone. We then opened the image up in Photoshop and started playing around with same ideas we had but they didn't’t work , I will go into more detail about this later on. Me and my partner know what direction we wanted to take this image to make it represent the horror genre to the audience and so that the audience can take one look at the poster and know exactly that our genre was horror.

The Original image

STEP 2

The next step for me was playing around with our models eyes as we were going for the girl being posset look. We tried a number of different colours for the eyes including black and gray but finally decided on red we went for red eyes because red the colour connotes danger, death, hell and blood. I think this works well as the audience will be triggered to look at her eyes as they are quite bright compared to the colour scheme around and behind her are dark colours. W e got the red eyes by using the quick selection tool and highlighting her outer eye we then picked a colour from the colour selection down the side of Photoshop. We also made her pupil blacker by using the same tool. We did this really outline and bulk out the redness on the outside and also to make the model look more scary and really fit that horror genre picture.

The tool we used to highlight the eye and a screenshot of me changing the colour of her eyes

STEP 3

The next step after the eyes was changing the skin tine of our model me and my partner wanted to change the skin colour because it gives off more of a horror look and also it represents again with the red eyes that she is possets and clearly not very well and signifies evil to the audience members. We done this effect to the skin by using the sponge tool, we could select any colour we wanted to and we went with gray because it gives off that authentic effect with it not looking to fake by us picking black or a really pale white it just did not work because it made it look to un realistic but with gray it fitted well on to the tone of the skin and make it look realistic.

This is the toll we used and here is a close up of her skin and a medium shot of her so you can see the skin tone from a distance

STEP 4

The next step for us after touching up our model with some effects was to make the tree on the left side be blurred out to an extent. Me and my partner felt like we needed to do this to make our model be the center of attention and the first thing the audience eyes sees when they look at our poster. We blurred out using the magic wand at first to select the tree and then went to filter at the top of Photoshop and clicked on the blur option, then onto lens blur this wont blur it so much but just for the audiences point of view so it look more realistic than fake. We then chose the percentage we wanted to and we picked %50-55 so it was half way and not that blurred out but enough so the audience can still tell that it is a tree.

On the left is a screenshot us us selecting the tree and choosing the lens blur option and to the right is the tree before we blurred it out with the effect.

STEP 5

After we had finished with all the editing on Photoshop we looked back at the image and thought that something was missing. We thought that it needed something else to represent the horror genre more so we looked at a couple of ideas and came across some claw marks and we thought that we could put them on the tree to represent to the audience more that our character on the poster is evil and also to convent to the audience that our trailer has action scene in it. We then edited the claw marks as they were black and wanted them dripping with blood and we did this by changing the colour to red and making the inner glow a black so it looked more like real blood and we changed the angel of the claw marks to place them on the tree to make it look like they were in bedded onto the tree.

As you can see the black claw was the original image then the bright red claw and then the claw on the tree was the finished production.

STEP 6

The next step was to take the photo shopped image that we had finished editing and opening it up with InDesign to start adding our title, slogan, release date and credits at the bottom. The first thing we di was download some horror fonts that we could play around with and use. After this we went straight in to putting the release date and me and my partner agreed on making the release date as ‘Coming Soon’ we did this to keep the audience members guessing on when the official release date would be and to make them do more research into our film or trailer. For the font of this we had a couple ideas but decided to chose the font with the dripping blood to again connote the horror genre and to also try to give it the effect of the writing was on the wall and the blood dripping was dripping down the wall. The colour for this was red again this connotes blood or danger and also makes the release date stand out with the black/gray background.

On the left was our first font that we chose and the right is the one we finally went with for our final piece.

STEP 7Step 7 was to find a font for the title of our trailer and movie and decide on where we want to put . After deciding on a font that fits well with the meaning and the layout of our poster we went on the the placement of the title we did not know what to do with it . Our ideas was to put it down the side of the tree but that did not work our next ideas was to have it at the bottom but we did not want to block out our models dress with the blood stains on so in the end we went with it being at the top and I think it works well at fits in to out layout of our poster that we all ready had before we added in the title we decide to chose the colour of the title by linking it in with her dress and shows some connection with the main character and the title of the film. Also the colour white stands out with the dark background.

The title we finally agreed on and used for our final production.

STEP 8Step 8 this was to create the tag line that went along with our title. We needed to pick a font and also what we wanted it to say. First of all we found the font we wanted to use , the font had a bold style about it with parts of the word missing to give it that scruffy and dirty look this will represent to my audience that it is not a pleasant film and also with some of the words fading away the audience can connect to that because in the film the antagonist takes her victims one by one in the film and it is shown in the trailer as well. The colour we chose for the tag line was the same gray colour as our main character skin this is because it fits well and does not over power the white title in-between it . Also it has a connection with the main character with it being the same colour as her skin but tells the audience that the words of the tag line mix in with the main character and shows that they are apart of each other.

Our tag line on its own and our tag line in the final production in between the title.

STEP 9The next step was to add n the credits, me and my partner looked at other horror genre poster to see what they put in the credits and where they placed them on there poster. Most of the posters we looked at the company has placed them at the bottom and since we had space there we placed our credits there. Therefore we are following the conventions of real media industry's. Also we looked online to try and find a template of what goes in the credits on a poster and also to see what font would best fit the comical credits from other horror genre posters. We decided to make the colour of the credits white but not as white as the title we did this to make it stand out from the dark background and we made it less white because we did not want our credits to become the main convention that our target audience look at . Because we had our characters white dress at the background of where the credits where going to be going we added in a black outline to the font of the credits so that it did no clash and so you can still see the writing. We also found out that most companies that produces the film and poster also add in there companies logo so we created one and used it as well.

Above is how the credits came out on our final production. To the right is the template that we used.

STEP 10

Step 10 was all about tiding everything on our poster but for example brushing up on the eyes to make sure they looked good , making sure all of her skin was covered in the gray tone and putting everything in high quality so we got it to the best quality that we could to print of and it it on our word press. I think that our final production of the poster came out really well and I am pleased with it. Also we have got some good feedback from our final peace as the audience members like the way we have made used of the claws and how we have interpreted the title with the tag line

The final product of our poster. If you wish to look at the other two ancillary's please check out my blog by going on to Word press and searching

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