Drafts for my poster.

Below are three drafts I have created for my film poster. It is important to draw some drafts before creating my final product so I can see what conventions should be placed where and have a rough idea of which layout is the most effective.

1)

2)

3)

I have decided to create draft number two. After looking at existing horror posters I have noticed that a simple but effective picture is always used. I feel that by having a poster of just the mask will create suspense and make audiences want to find out who wears the mask. Masks are conventional to horror films and are recognised by audiences that anyone in a horror film wearing a mask is the “bad guy”. Masks hide people’s identities and this is what scares audiences about them. Therefore I want to create a mystery behind the mask, to scare audiences more and keep them in suspense, which is a convention of horror. I think it is essential for the mask to feature throughout all three texts because it is iconic to the film. I will place the mask on a plain back background so that it stands out as much as possible.

To create a tangible link throughout all three texts I must make sure that the name of the film is in the same font that is used on my trailer. This will be the logo of the film. I created my trailer on Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 therefore I must re create the font on Adobe Photoshop so that it is the same throughout all three texts. The title of my film must be the largest font on the page so that it stands out. Conventionally the title of the film is placed at the top or the bottom of the page so that it does not disrupt the image. I have decided I will place my film title at the bottom of my page underneath my image. I will also make sure that it is central.

Film posters rely on visuals to portray the genre and give audiences some clue as to the narrative if they have not already seen the trailer. The image on its own will not give away many clues about the narrative; therefore I must use a tagline to help represent the film. Taglines are a convention of a poster and become associated with the film. They are usually short and no longer than one sentence long. The shorter and snappier they are the more likely audiences are to remember them and therefore associate it with them film. Several taglines I have thought of for my poster are:

You can run, but you can’t hide!

He is always watching.

Lock your doors.

Don’t look out the window.

Watch your back.

Don’t walk alone.

I have decided to use the first tagline “You can run, but you can’t hide!” because I feel that it gives away the most clues about the narrative; however it does not give away too much. Audiences will associate the mask to be the “thing” you can’t hide from. It is also catchy and not too long. I will place my tagline at the top of the page so that it is noticeable and will stand out; however I will make sure that the font isn’t as large as that used for the title.

I will also create some credits to be featured at the bottom of my poster; this is another convention of film posters. I will place them at the very bottom of the page, underneath the title of the film. The font used for the credits is always faint and does not stand out as much as the rest of the text on the page. The writing is always very small so that it is not clear what it says without looking closely. I will also place the logos of the production companies that produced my film in the two bottom corners of the poster next to the credits.