Another aspect of the pre-production process was the drafting of our movie magazine and poster. This involved creating drawn samples of what our magazine and poster could look like. As a result, we had to look at common conventions for horror film posters as well as horror magazines. From this were able to create our drawn drafts as well as explain the reasons for our choices. As well as our drawn drafts, we also had to look at real media text examples of magazine covers and posters. Consequently, we chose aspects of the real media texts that we liked and explained why. Following on from this, we created a range of digital drafts for both our magazine and poster that demonstrated the various layouts we could possibly use. The drafting stage also included taking draft photographs that exhibited the camera shots and angles we may use. Lastly, from all this we created working drafts of our magazine cover and poster which helped us to experiment with Photoshop skills and techniques.
The first magazine cover is called Horror-Fest. The tagline reads "The UK's No.1 horror informer". We chose the title because it suggests that this magazine is where people who share the interest of horror films come to update themselves. The tagline boasts of the magazines positive reputation for delivering all things concerning horror. The main cover-line is across the page directly underneath the masthead. The positioning of the main cover line was done so that the readers can easily identify the main feature of the magazine. The main image is a close up shot of the main character of the movie, The Omen. A mix of images and cover lines can be found in the left third of the magazine cover. This is so readers can see what is featured in the magazine whilst it is on the shelf as well to attract readers.
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The second magazine is called Gore-Hoard. The title is quite rhymable and therefore makes the title easy to remember for readers. The tagline relates to the title of the magazine which means to compulsively store gore, it reads "The world's No.1 place for your horror fix!". The main image is located in the left third of the magazine cover. It is a close up shot of the Chucky doll from the movie Child's Play. The purpose of the location of the image to to attract readers as they will be drawn to the visual of the main image. The main cover line is opposite the main image. Some of the letters are distorted. This relates to the movie which is the main feature of the magazine, the distortion of the Chucky doll who is suppose to be a child's toy but is in fact a killer. The cover lines are beneath the main cover line with a mix of images.
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The third magazine is called Blood-Flood. We used very stylised typography for the masthead to attract readers as well as rhymable words to make the title memorable. The tagline reads "The only place for the latest in horror!". The main image is directly below the masthead. It is a wide of shot of zombies from the movie World War Z. The main coverline runs across the main image. A puff is located at the bottom section of the left third. This will attract readers as competitions and prizes interest readers. Two sets of the film reel designed coverlines and images fill the bottom section of the magazine.
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The fourth magazine is called Twisted. We used messy, scratch-like typography for the masthead as we thought this matched the title perfectly. The tagline reads "The birthplace of all things horror!" suggesting that horror originates from this magazine, therefore it is the best choice. Below the masthead is a mix of coverlines and images concerning features in the magazine. Below that are a few coverlines. One of which is located in the left third. The main image is an extreme close up shot from the movie Dawn of the Dead. The main coverline is at the bottom of the cover in front of the main image. The placement of the main coverline could have been in another located as it does not stand out. However, the typography of the main coverline does attract attention.
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The fifth magazine cover is called Horror-Mania. The typography resembled Gothic styles. We thought this fitted the theme of horror very well and was a unique design. The tagline reads "Delivering the best for all things horror!" The main image is directly below the masthead. It is an action shot showing the main antagonist; the shark in Jaws. The main cover line is next to the main image and placed to look as if it is being eaten by the shark. This is a humorous addition to the context as well as the action of the coverline. A mix of images and coverlines are located on the left third of the magazine. Another coverline is at the bottom of the magazine cover, underneath the main image.
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The last magazine cover is called Gore-Fest. It's title is similar to that of our first magazine cover. The purpose of this is that we wanted to sample different horror related words with the combining form "fest". The tagline reads "Your one-stop horror hang-out!" The alliteration in the tag line makes it memorable as well as laid back and engaging. A puff is located at the right hand corner of the magazine. The purpose of the puffs location is that it is at the end of the masthead, so readers will see it one they have finished reading the title of the magazine. The main image is directly below the masthead. It is an extreme close-up shot of an eye from the movie The Eye. Next to the main image in the left third is a cover line. Below the main image is the main cover-line which spreads across the entire width of the cover. A film reel of cover-lines are also located at the bottom of the magazine cover.
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For our first film poster we used a cut off close up shot of our antagonist for our main image. The upper torso of the antagonist is shown but not his face. As a result, the audience is able to see the role of the antagonist (Principal). We decided to use props in our first movie poster. In it, the antagonist is holding a bloody knife and a book which reads "college rules". We did this to reveal a small part of the narrative to the audience so they have a vague idea of the storyline. The tagline is located at the top middle part of the poster, against the image. We chose to put it there because our audience would most likely come across it whilst looking at the main image. The film title is just below the main image. We used a stylised yet simplistic typography for the film title as we wanted to reflect some of the themes from our narrative. Below the film title are the film credits and release date.
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For our second film poster we used a mid shot for our main image. The main image is of the principals office door which has a smeared bloody hand print left on the glass. The purpose of this main image is to leave our audiences curious about the narrative. Below the hand print is the tagline and the film title. We continued to use the same location of the film title on our posters to build familiarity within our audience, so they remember and recognise our posters. At the bottom of the poster are the film credits and release date.
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For our third movie poster, we used an extreme close up shot of our antagonist for our main image. His face fills the entire poster. He is looking straight down the camera. We did this to engage our audiences and make them feel as though they are involved in the narrative. He is wearing a moderate amount of clown make-up to hide his identity as well as to take on the persona of someone sinister. He is not smiling even though his make up is. This reinforces the horror element as the audience is aware that the antagonist does not play games and does not have mercy. The tagline "YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW" is located at the top of the poster. We chose not to include the film title due to the striking effect of the main image. Our audience will be so intrigued by this and confused at the lack of a title that they could possible begin to use the internet to search for our movie website, therefore creating a buzz about our film online. At the bottom of the poster are the film credits and release date.
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For our fourth movie poster we used a long shot of our antagonist and the setting for the main image. The purpose of this is so the audience is able to see the setting of the film in order to give them a rough idea about the storyline. Also, the audience is able to clearly see the antagonist. They are able to see his costume which is a suit as well as props which is a knife and a college rulebook. He is also wearing clown make-up. The main images connote that the Principal is the antagonist and that the film is set in a school suggesting that the students are young adults similar to the age of most of the audience members. At the top of the poster is the tagline and the film title is directly below the main image, followed by the release date and the film credits.
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For our fourth movie poster we used a low angled long shot for our main image. The antagonist is standing at the top of a flight of stairs. However only his silhouette is visible, nevertheless this shows that he is holding a knife with blood on it. We chose this camera angle to connote that the audience is inferior to the antagonist due to his authority in regards to being a Principal and a killer. We decided to change the location of the film title to the top of the page. We did this to go against the common convention of a movie poster. Below the film title at the left hand side is the tagline. It also has a different appearance to our previous film posters. Following this is just the release date. This is a more minimal version of the conventional film poster.
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For our final film poster we used a high angle cowboy shot for our main image. In this image we have included our main protagonist. She is on the floor facing the camera, her body language suggests that she is trying to escape. She is covered in blood. The main image also includes the protagonist however we cannot see his face only the lower section of his body. He is holding a knife behind his back and only the audience can see this and not the protagonist. We can see the protagonist through the legs of the antagonist. We chose this as it supports the theory of the male gaze in horror films. We also included the protagonist as it supports the final girl theory . The tagline is at the top part of the poster, whereas the film title is just below the main image. The film credits and release date follow the film title.
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Magazines:
The aspect of this magazine cover that is appealing is the simplistic layout. There are minimal cover lines which are located at the bottom of the cover. Also, the main image is within a border that covers the entire magazine cover. This sets the tone of the magazine as well as compliments the colours of the main image. The main cover line is also simply. It still follows horror conventions of manipulated typography, however it is also at the bottom of the cover. In order to help the main cover line stand out the font colour is different to the cover lines. These are simple elements of this front cover that make it very effective.
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The part of this magazine cover that was attractive was the typography of the main coverline which is about the movie Day of the Dead. The typography relates to the subject matter because of the use of the hand-prints and blood splatters that resemble the themes in the movie. This could be an element we could apply to our magazine to make it engaging and eye-catching for our audience. Additionally, the colour scheme challenges the usual colours used for horror magazines which a dark, sinister colours. This cover however uses bright colours like yellow and red. This is another aspect of this magazine cover that makes it attractive.
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The aspect of this magazine cover that we found appealing was the masthead. It has been altered to match the main cover story of the magazine which is based on the film Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. The usual masthead for Empire magazine is in minimal red font. However, for this issue they have included the effect of flames and smoke on the masthead. The outcome of this is to relate the magazine with the main cover story. Additionally, this change to the masthead will catch the readers eye. They will notice the change on the magazine cover and will be interested. As well as this, the design on the masthead makes the cover aesthetically engaging. The reader is drawn to read the rest of the cover as a result of this masthead.
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The element of this front cover that we found interesting was the coverline that read "Satanic Panic!". We thought that this was extremely effective as a cover line. The use of consonance makes the cover line memorable for the reader. It also adds a humorous element to the cover and makes the reader engaged. Another part of this magazine cover that we liked are the similarities between the masthead and the main cover line typography. The Fangoria masthead is red with white outline and the main cover lines have white font with a red glow outline. The effect of this is that is creates a common colour theme throughout the cover.
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Lastly, the aspect of this front cover that we found appealing was the main image. It is regarding the movie Scream, which involves a masked killer. The mask used in the movie has become iconic and is recognised everywhere. As a result, we believe that the use of the mask for the main image is extremely effective. The reason for this is because readers will instantly identify with the image and will want to know what the story is about. The image contrasts with the red background which makes it stand out more. This could be an aspects we could incorporate into our own magazine in order to achieve the same reaction with out audience.
Film Posters
The component of this movie poster that we like was the use of lighting. The arrangement of the lighting is placed behind the antagonist. This is very effective because the face of the antagonist is hidden due to the shadow from the light behind him. The effect of this is that that audience is vaguely aware of the antagonist however, they cannot make out any identifiable features which makes his character mysterious and even more frightening as the audience do not know how to distinguish the aggressor. The effect of the lighting also allows the audience to see the facial features of the the protagonist of the film. This relates to Carol J. Clover's "Final Girl" theory. This makes it evident to the audience that she will be the final character left to confront the killer.
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The part of this movie poster that we liked was the caption. Unlike other conventional movie posters, this poster contains a caption that reveals a bit about the story. Other movie posters include short taglines rather than captions. The caption relates to the narrative of the story which is centered around found footage. This fortifies the idea of documentary style of the film to make the audience interested in the story.
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The element of this movie poster that we thought was effective was the main image. The image consists of a close up shot of a masked figure with a hand to his/her mouth in a shushing motion. His/her hand is a complete contrast to the mask which is shiny and clean whereas the hand is old, wrinkly and scabby. We thought this was effective because it demonstrates the theme of the audience being afraid of the unknown. Due to the image the audience is unaware of the true identity of the antagonist who is presented in the main image. Additionally, the use of a common horror convention; iconic mask gives the audience some familiarity so they think they know what to expect.
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The aspect of this movie poster that we likes was the tagline. It reads "You Won't Last The Night". We thought this was interesting because direct address is used "You" to refer to the audience. The purpose of this is to make the audience feel like they are part of the film; like they are one of the victims. This is engaging and helps to relate to the audience. It also builds curiosity within the audience as they are intrigued into what it is that won't make them "last the night".
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Finally, the component of this movie poster that we liked was the typography of the movie title. It reads "The Collection". We especially liked that in the word "collection" the "C" in the middle of the words in turned in the opposite direction. The purpose of this is to support the narrative which is a sequel to the film The Collector about a serial killer who kills his victims by rigging their house with deadly traps. This could also relate to the distorted figure in the main image suggesting a high level of gore in the movie.
Digital Drafts: Magazine Covers
The digital drafting process, gave us the opportunity to visualize how our ideas for our magazine would look in real life. As a result, we had to look into colour schemes as well as the layouts of our magazine ideas. As well as our own suggestions, we looked at the data we received from the audience research and saw how we could incorporate this into our digital magazine drafts. It also gave us the opportunity to experiment with a range of colour schemes and layouts. For example, the colour scheme for the magazine "Gore-Hoard" is very different to the others. It uses brighter colours such as orange and blue. The purpose of this was to match the cover story and this could be an aspect we could experiment with for our own magazine. The process of creating our digital drafts really made us consider the strengths and weaknesses of each cover and how each one could be improved to meet the needs of our target audience as well as the conventions for our magazine.
Digital Drafts: Film Posters
The digital drafts for our film posters was also another crucial process for our project. We were challenged when trying to recreate our concepts into digital form. During this process we were forced to reconsider our ideas based on the feedback given to us by our audience through the research we conducted. Consequently, we created drafted posters of what we believe will appeal most to our audience. As creators we needed to ensure we meet all the requirements for a movie poster as well as what the audience wanted to see. Therefore, we used a vast variety of camera angles, layouts and subjects that suited our data.
Photographs: Drafts
Another aspect of the drafting process included taking a range of pictures that we could use for our magazine and movie poster. As a result, we had to consider a variety of camera shots and angles that was recommended in our audience research as well as our own ideas for our magazine and film posters. Here are all the test shots we took which experiment with different angles of lighting as well as props and costume.
Photographs: Edited
We decided to manipulate the images we took to develop their appearance and make them look more engaging and visual. Here are some examples showcasing the different camera angles and lighting we used. In addition, in order to create the various effects for these images we had to use a range of Photoshop and editing techniques. For example, altering the contrast and saturation of the images to make them vibrant and attractive. Also, we used the paintbrush tool to darken the background of the photographs. The effect of this is that it makes the subject of the photograph the main feature.
Working Draft: Magazine
From the data we collected from our audience research, we were able to create a working draft of how our horror magazine front cover will look like. We ensured to experiment with a variety of Photoshop techniques to create our working draft. The purpose of this is to visualise how we could present our magazine cover and what we can improve about our editing skills. Creating this working draft gave us the opportunity to use tools such as beveling and embossing text as well as merging images. Difficulties we came across while creating this working draft were contemplating the subject of our coverlines as well as finding images that would best suit the aesthetic of our cover. We also had to make some changes to improve the cover. For example, we added an extra coverline that is located at the lower center of the cover. We did this because we realized that the cover looked empty and very boring, thus, we added a cover line that related to the main cover line to keep the cover engaging.
Working Draft: Film Poster
We also created a working draft for our film poster. We decided to create this poster based on the demand by our audience to use a close-up camera shot for our poster. As a result, we thought it best to materialise how this would look on our movie poster. Creating this poster made us review our previous poster layouts and the components we chose to include in it. We decided to mirror one of the layouts we designed in our digital drafts, however we added some components which we left out previously for effect. For instance, this specific layout did not include the film title. We did this because we wanted to draw our audience with the image. However, we found that this would not be enough to make our poster eye-catching. Consequently, we decided to include the film title which is located in the bottom center of the poster. We also learned new Photoshop techniques such as making an image transparent and merging layers.
Final Poster Drafting
The final drafting process was quite challenging due to the number of different alterations we had to make. For instance, in regards to the layout we had to consider each aspect of our film poster and see what would work whenever we changed it. This process also required us to discuss the typography, colour and size of the text on our poster and how this affects the way in which our audiences react to our poster. Additionally, we looked into changes we could make to improve the appearance of our poster such as the names of the cast we would include and quotes. We also had to acknowledge film poster conventions and think about how we would incorporate these into the theme of our poster. Our vision for our poster is to create a sense of mystery and fear through a minimal aesthetic. Overall, we believe we have achieved this by experimenting with a range of possible layouts.
Final Poster Photoshoot
We required images for both our movie poster and magazine, as a result, we had a photoshoot in order to create the final pieces for our magazine cover and film poster. During this, we had to look back at our audience research as well as our poster mock-ups to see what we needed to finalise our vision. Additionally, we had to make changes based on what would make our poster look more professional and create continuity between all three of our horror genre products. Below is a slideshow of all the images we took during the photoshoot for our poster. Not all the images are perfect, however, they show a variation in the camera angles and shots we thought would be appropriate to use.
Final Magazine Drafting
For our final magazine drafting we had to experiment with different layouts and fonts that we will like to display on our final magazine product. when experimenting with layouts we also have to abide by the common conventions of a professional magazine this included the masthead, selling line, main coverline, coverlines,price, date, bar code/QR code and production website. To think of different layouts for the magazine was quite challenging because we had to consider the conventions as well as the presentation of the magazine and experiment with fonts that would be suitable for the magazine front cover however after the second or third layout we had got the swing of things, we were able to create 10 different layouts for the magazine by the end. By have 10 different layouts it has allowed us to have options on which layout to pick for the final product however we still think that there are a improvements to be done in regards to the fonts of the coverlines.
Final Magazine Photoshoot
Along with creating different layouts for the magazine we took high quality photos of the antagonist in our horror trailer. looking back at the audience research we knew that our target audience wanted to a close up shot/mid shot of our antagonist on the magazine this is why we did a photo-shoot using our antagonist to experiment of which shot would be best suited for the layout of the magazine. As we were experimenting with shots some of the photos maybe a bit darker than the others as we used artificial light which made it easy to create light and shadow within the photograph. During the photo shoot we decided to incorporate the knife as a prop into the photo shoot. This suggests to audience that the knife the the killer's weapon of choice. plus we also experimented with the types of poses the killer could be which was suited for a magazine front cover. Here are the photos displyed below.