1. Evaluation 2 How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts
2. Poster Genre My poster is quite stereotypical for the horror
genre in that it utilises low-key, a close-up for the main image,
and a blood- like font. Thomas Schatz talked about the benefits of
having a clearly defined genre in his book 'Hollywood Genre' he
states genre is the 'most effective means for understanding,
analyzing and appreciating the cinema'. You can't convey a lot of
information in a poster, this is why I chose to use generic
iconography so I can give out as much information with very few
words. 3. Poster Image I chose to have our severed head prop from
our trailer to show the level of body horror and special effects of
the film. I have the image at a canted angle to add to the
creepiness of the poster, plus the head looks more limp and
lifeless at this angle. I used a close-up for the main image
because it's unnerving being very close to someone let alone a
severed head. I chose a spotlight for the lighting on my image
because it's iconic of the horror genre and it clearly shows the
head but it still blends in with the background. 4. Poster Title
The title 'Suicide Pact' on my poster is written in a red, sans
serif font, with an effect to look like it's dripping. I chose to
have my font the colour red because it connotes danger and combined
with the dripping effect makes it look like the title is written in
blood. Sans serif fonts are generally thought of as more modern,
which is why I chose to use it for my title, since all the
characters are young, modern teenagers. 5. Magazine Cover
Mise-en-scene I tried to include multiple aspects from the horror
genre on my magazine cover so it would catch the attention of
horror fans if it was for example on a shelf in a shop. I have the
coverlines on top of knifes because it means they need to be an
interesting shape to fit, plus the red font colour represents blood
and makes the knife look like it has been used as a weapon. 6.
Magazine Cover Image For my cover Image I had our trailer's main
antagonist looking directly at the camera. In photoshop I made the
area around his eyes darker to make him look more sinister. I also
had the actor look directly at the camera, breaking the fourth wall
and drawing the audience in, which is unsettling. 7. Magazine Cover
Image I took the picture in front of a brick wall because I thought
it would make for an interesting background for the magazine cover.
I used photoshop to add the words 'Suicide Pact' to the bricks in a
red font to get it to look like grafitti written in blood. I did
this to further convey that this is a horror film, but also
revolves around a group of teenagers since grafitti is associated
with this age group. 8. Magazine and Trailer A lot of the best
horror films have very iconic killers in them i.e. Mike Myers,
Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees to name a few. We tried to make
our killer quite memorable as well, we named him Simon Cohen (first
syllable of each of his names combined makes Psycho) to try and
make his name stick. We also gave him a unique way of killing, by
beheading people and burning the head. 9. Poster and Trailer We
tried to create a memorable scene in our trailer using our severed
head prop. We spent most of our budget on making this prop since we
agreed one impressive prop -which was easily recognisable and would
be associated with our film- would make our trailer more memorable
than several mediocre ones. Including this severed head in my
poster was to make sure people associate this severed head with our
film which makes it more memorable. 10. Campaign With all these
aspects combined I hope we've made an advertising campaign which
would attract people to watch the film. We've tried to create an
iconic killer with a unique way of killing, and an impressive prop
to reinforce that.
