Following on from doing my draft posters I have realised what I need to improve on, and have learned what will make an effective film poster for my story. Even though my drafts looked like professional posters and some good conventions were used effectively, the overall feedback was that it did not evoke the theme of horror/psychological thriller. A lot of people said some of the drafts looked like posters for an action movie or even an arthaus indie. In addition, my peers said I should practise creating billing boxes and layouting as some features looked oddly placed on the page.

With the above points in my mind, I decided that the first step I would take in order to improve on my drafts is completely change my idea for the Photoshoot – instead of shooting the main actress Lux played by Olivia outside, the shoot should be done indoors, in one of our main filming locations, the dark room (see next slide). Not only would this evoke our genre because of the poignant and generic colours (reds/blacks) but would also completely reflect the film title ‘The Dark Room’. Secondly, the Mise en scene should be changed too – the actress’ costume should be simpler without any props or sunglasses like the drafts, so the audience can focus on all the information on the poster instead.

In order to film in a dark room, we hired City of Westminster College’s studio facilities for £20 an hour, and managed to use their dark room and apparatus for filming and for the poster & website photo shoot.

Shoot date: 03/03/2013

Item/model: Olivia Boren (as the main character, Lux in a dark room)

Shot types/angles/distances: Close up shot of her face with worried/scared facial expressions (evokes tone of horror). Preferably at a high angle to inferiorise her character (makes her look like a victim and instantly puts audience on her side)

Macro, flash and lighting: No flash, only natural dark room lighting (red lights will illuminate characters face) Camera is at least 1.5 metres away to prevent over exposure.

Background: Dark room background (red lights shining onto walls/machinery/pictures hanging)

Positioning on poster: Model’s face either on the right or left side of picture framing so text can go around it.

Details of editing: Pictures effect from Instagram (so poster looks modern and appealing) with colour grading to be changed on Photoshop.

One thing I did do effectively in my poster drafts that I thought I should continue for the final poster, was editing the pictures using

Instagram effects. This is because it makes the poster look modern, contemporary and appeal to the eyes of audiences.

FINAL POSTER DRAFT 1

FINAL POSTER DRAFT 1

Star ratings and reviews

Included similar work from known director so audiences familiarise themselves with the genre of the film (psychological thriller/horror)

Main actress featured in poster

Big and bold film title, with sinister and dark shading to indicate theme of horror

Background of a darkroom reflects title

Main actors’ name

Billing box (font used called universal accreditation)

Logos include production company and distributor

FEEDBACK FROM TEACHER & PEERS ON FINAL FILM POSTER

Consider playing with the size of the stars, so there's an emphasis on the words above them, rather than the stars and particularly on the name of the reviewers.

Font billing box a bit pixilated - Consider resizing Warner bros logo AS WELL as Dolby digital? – should have only 1

distributor Maybe include when the film is coming out (Date of release) Really good shading on the title. Effective use of brushes (on top of actors’ names and shading on film

title) Tone of horror/thriller evoked very will via use of colours (red & black)

and grunge fonts

FINAL POSTER DRAFT 2

Changes made from feedback given:

Size of stars diminished, and review words and reviewer names increased in order to enhance the film’s credibility.

Grammar point: ‘s’ added to the end of ‘director’ since there are two directors and producers (my partner Kitty and I)

Date of release: Instead of adding a particular month to indicate date of release I just included a ‘coming soon’ . This is because I find it more eye catching and persuades audiences to find out more and when exactly it is coming out so they can watch it.

Logos: Warner bros logo taken out leaving only the film rating, distributor (Dolby digital) and production company (St Marylebone)