Poster Analysis: Insidious

Poster Progression

After looking closely at the previous poster image, we noticed a mistake in the photograph. Where we had used a torch to illuminate Elsie's face, we had shone it mainly on the left side of her face (from viewpoint of the camera and audience), whereas the moon was positioned in the top right of the image, therefore if the image was to be realistic, the light from the moon would be on the other side of Elsie's face. So we rearranged the figure of Elsie and moved the moon to the top centre of the page to make it look more realistic. We also liked the idea of using the moon as an 'O' in 'Durlock' but wanted to keep to the idea that the human eye moves from the top left to the bottom right of the page, therefore rearranging the image has made the overall effect of the poster better.

We also decided to use our preferred font of 'De Walpergen Pica' as we feel it is more effective and eye catching for the audience.

We decided to use this image as a poster as it portrays one of the main characters; Elsie. She is the 'ghost' and main 'fear' of our story. We wanted to hold back some information to our target audience as to make them want to find out more and therefore watch the trailer and film (if there was one to be created), so we kept the image very dark and out of focus so you can just see basic features of Elsie's face, similar to the Insidious poster but not giving as much information away, therefore using 'subtle horror' which is what our target audience said they preferred. 

For this poster we placed the title of the film 'Durlock' in the centre of the image as to draw the audience's eyes straight to the name. The main setting and basis of our horror trailer is set in Durlock House, we felt the name 'Durlock' was powerful enough and gave off the right connotations as a title and basis of the story. We kept to the dull colour scheme of black and white and decided against using any form of red colouring in the title, as this will connote blood, which is not a specific convention we are using in our sub-genre Paranormal/Supernatural. The photograph of Durlock House acts almost like an establishing shot, based on the ideas we have taken from The Conjuring poster, this introduces the audience directly to the setting of the horror and gives them some form of information and idea of what the film is going to be like.
We created the basics of our posters on a free editing website www.picmonkey.com and used 'Roman Antique' font in black and to stand out against the background, we also used a white shadow to highlight the text and link to the black and white theme of the house.

Poster Analysis: The Conjuring

Target Audience Research

We asked ten people (5 males and 5 females) aged from 16-18 years old to complete our questionnaire based on Horror movies, this will give us an indication on what to include in our own trailer and a general understanding of what our target audience are interested in.

Results

50% of people we asked said their favourite sub-genre of Horror movie was Paranormal/supernatural. This is our chosen sub-genre for our Horror Movie Trailer as it appears to be the most popular. 20% of our participants said they like Psychological and one person enjoys Found Footage and therefore a sense of realism. We will try to include conventions from these three sub-genres to our Paranormal/supernatural Horror trailer as they are the most popular and relevant to eachother.

We will apply the results from Question 2, 3 and 5 as these are the favoured answers from our target audience. They also link in well with eachother to create a ghost/haunting theme relevant to the sub-genre of Paranormal/Supernatural. We also now know to base our trailer in the present time but reference and possibly relate to the past.

60% of participants asked said they would prefer to see a teenager as the main protagonist, this is perhaps due to the age range of the people we asked as they will be able to relate to the main protagonist if they are of a similar age. The fact that all of the participants we asked said they prefer Horror films to be 'realistic' supports the idea that they like Horror movies to be relevant to them and believable, so they can feel directly involved and almost 'part of the movie'. Relating a storyline to real life will be closer to our target audience too, and therefore 'scarier' for the viewers.

This question gave us mixed ideas as to what to do about the casting of our main character, but as the highest percentage, 4/10 participants said 'don't mind/unsure' about the gender of the protagonist, so we have decided to choose our friend who is female to play the main role.

More male than female participants said they would prefer for the main protagonist to be female, perhaps this has relevance to Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory (1975) where the dominant point of view is masculine and the women are often displayed in order to provide voyeurism for the masculine viewers. But as the response to this question is mixed as the majority of participants 'don't mind' or are 'unsure' of what gender they would prefer to be the main protagonist, we will not be conforming to the Male Gaze theory like in many other Horror films such as 'Psycho' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'.

Overall, this questionnaire has helped us to make vital decisions related to our Horror Movie Trailer that will affect and appeal to our target audience.

Narrative for Trailer

There are many different narrative structures that can be used for a Horror trailer, the narratives depicted in the trailers we have studied and analysed such as The Conjuring, Insidious and Paranormal Activity are mainly non-linear as they show rapid and frequently changing clips, cuts, flashbacks and the events do not necessarily follow eachother in chronological order. The ending of these trailers is also open ended as this does not give away the whole story or any form of closure to the audience. Therefore leaving them on a cliffhanger and persuading them to watch the full film to find out what happens, this is the purpose of trailers, they act as a 'teaser' for the audience with a sense of ambiguity about them. Which then draws an audience in to watch the film.

In our trailer we have decided to stick to the basic open ended narrative as to not give too much away to the audience and withhold information from them, convincing them to watch the full film (if there was one to be made).

We are considering doing something a bit different from the trailers we have analysed, instead of creating a trailer with a single strand narrative focusing on one character's adventures, we are thinking of using a multi strand narrative. We have three characters that we plan to represent in our trailer, a young boy (aged 8/9), a teenage girl (aged 16 as to appeal to target audience for relevant age) and Elsie (the ghost/paranormal being in our trailer). We were thinking of creating three separate parts of a trailer, each showing the three characters story and how they are relevant to our storyline. We could use point of view shots and hand held cameras to create a sense of personal narrative, this will also directly involve the audience and make them feel as though they are part of the story/film.

Types of Font for Poster

We tested out different font types and styles on Picmonkey.com and chose a selection that we could possibly use for our Horror trailer subtitles and movie poster. Each font fits the theme and conventions of the horror genre, some more specifically than others.

Similar to The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity and Insidious, where simple and clear font is used, we selected 'Cardo', 'Special Elite' 'Roman Antique' and 'Sue Elle Francisco' as they are simple yet eerily effective. We like the idea of the typewriter style as it makes reference to an old traditional item (typewriter), whereas we also like the slight childishness of 'Sue Elle Francisco' as it could be relevant to the characters in our Horror movie trailer.

We have decided against using 'Gypsy Curse' as it does not fit our theme, it looks like the type of font used in a Zombie Horror sub-genre film such as 'Zombie Hunter (2013)' and therefore does not fit into the conventions of our chosen sub-genre.

We also like 'Face Your Fears' and 'Nightbird' as both fonts have a creepy childlike look to them, this could be used in cohesion with the character Elsie in our trailer, as she is a 'childlike' character. Making the look of our Horror trailer and poster more appealing to the audience as they will recognize the link between the font and the plot.

After trying out each font we found another one called 'De Walpergen Pica' which we feel is the most effective and fits in best with the conventions of our sub-genre of Paranormal/Supernatural. It is simple yet 'eerie' and very bold, therefore attracting attention and connoting the right atmosphere needed for a Horror movie trailer and poster.

Photograph Editing

I found this image of Durlock House (setting for our horror movie trailer) on Google Maps and used editing software and websites such as Paint and Picmonkey.com to create an image that would be more suitable and relevant to the conventions of a horror movie setting.

I used Paint to rearrange the proportions of the image and lengthen the height of the image to 'portrait' which will be suitable for possibly a horror movie poster. I edited the exposure of the photograph on Picmonkey.com where I adjusted the brightness, shadows, highlights and contrast until I found the desired effect. I then used filters on Picmonkey.com such as 'Dusk', 'Black and White', 'Cinerama', 'Holga' and 'Infrared' to create a darker and older looking feel to the picture. I also increased the saturation and temperature of the image to give a slightly red 'burnt' effect.

I think this image could be used as one of our film posters as it depicts the setting of our horror movie and fits in well with the conventions of the horror genre as the image is dark, 'gritty' and old looking, which is also relevant to the period of time our trailer will make references to.

I took inspiration from The Conjuring film poster's below, as they fit in well with the sub-genre of Supernatural which is what we are basing our horror trailer on.

Prop Listing, Costume and Make-up, Setting

Due to our Horror film being based on a paranormal/supernatural sub genre with elements of psychological and some found footage conventions, to make our trailer seem as realistic as possible we will use the following props:

Props

• Child's carousel music box
• Photograph of 1900s family
• Torch 
• Old wooden chair
• Chains
• Child drawings 
• Sharp piece of wood

Costume and Make-up

          Elsie Durlock

• Black Victorian-styled dress 
• Long black hair 
• Dated hairstyle (tight, messy ringlets, unbrushed)
• Pale, plain face, dark bags under eyes

          Anna Paige

• Normal attire - stereotypical teenage clothing
• Short dark brown hair 
• Full fringe
• Pale, plain

          Alex Paige

• Normal attire - stereotypical childlike clothing
• Short dark brown hair
• Neat hairstyle 
• Pale, plain

Setting

• Gundymoor Woods
• The Heath
• Durlock House

Planning: Character Profiles

Production Schedule

For our horror film trailer, we have decided to film it at a friends' house in Widley. There are two of us in our group and a minimum of 3 main characters featured in the trailer, as well as a few others playing different family members.

When: November - December, evenings starting 4pm onwards - this to achieve the best possible effect for our trailer making it dark and mysterious to fulfil the stereotypical horror film setting.

Where: Gundymoor Wood, Durlock House and gardens (friends' house) and 'The Heath'.

Who: Jo - director/ producer/ camera work/ editing

          Kate - director/ producer/ camera work/ editing/ Elsie Durlock (hauntee) 

          Ellie - Anna Paige (main character)

          Alex - Alex Paige (Anna's little brother)

Dates of Filming: 16/10/13 - went to Gundymoor Wood and took a few photos and filmed a few shots     around the wood with the wind and rain to create the typical horror scenic atmosphere.

                             15/11/13 - went to Durlock House and created the character Elsie through dressing Kate up in an old fashioned costume and took some photos up in the attic, which is where the hauntings will occur. We also recorded some footage whilst taking photos which creates a good effect amongst the darkness. 

                            7/12/13 - we will film up in the attic again to complete the filming up there whilst it is dark to set the mood as well as take pictures and record footage outdoors to capture the house in the moonlight and make it took scary. 

                           11/12/13 - we plan to get together and organise what we need for each filming session, including a tripod, video camera, camera phone, and to find a date when we are all suited to film.

                            17/1/14 - went to Ellie's and got some footage of Durlock House in the dark from different angles and positions for trailer

                            1/2/14 - today we returned to the attic and recorded some footage as well as created sound affects that we could use to create suspense throughout the trailer

                            15/2/14 - we tried to create the creaky door opening and closing without anybody being there scene today and it worked reasonably well. After a few failed attempts we managed to succeed in shooting the footage and aim to add it to our progressing trailer during our next lesson

                            27/2/14 - today we went to Ellie's and recorded her brother in the role of Alex Paige for a clip in our trailer, as well as the character of Anna Paige exploring her house after hearing unexplainable noises

                            

Over the next few days Kate and I will finish up our posters, magazine covers and finalise our trailer, as well as make sure that everything on the blog is finished.

Location Scouting Report and Photos

'The Heath' 

Just down the road from our main setting (Durlock House) is a large field known as 'The Heath', we went here at night to use the open space to film part of our trailer and take photographs for posters and a magazine cover.

 These are the pictures we took whilst filming and testing out for possible posters and a magazine cover. The large area and darkness gave us plenty of space to work with and get the right angles, it is also a very desolate and empty area so there was minimal light and disruptions that would have affected the look of the photos and the sound on the filming we did.

Gundymoor Wood

This is the woodland setting we discovered just outside of our college. Although our Horror trailer is mainly being filmed at Durlock House and 'The Heath', we took some pictures and clips which could potentially be in our trailer or posters. The darkness and interesting trees, gates, barbed wire and other objects worked well with the conventions of our Horror genre.

We took photos in different effects and filters such as 'greyscale' and 'black and white' to achieve the right look that would appeal to a target audience, these pictures and settings also work with the conventions and codes that would be stereotypically found in a Horror movie trailer/film.