Poster Inspirations

Once we had completed the trailer, it was time to explore the creation of our poster. This made us think about specific text and aspects that needed to be included on the poster. These are as stated below:

• Film name
• Slogan in relation to the film
• Character names
• A main image
• Quotes from trusted sources IE The Guardian

It is crucial that my group and I carried out research regarding other horror posters as it would allow us to gain the needed knowledge and inspiration to ensure our own poster is going to be effective. This research will allow me to understand what is common across most horror posters to ensure that the codes and conventions of horror posters is achieved. Before creating the poster for my group teaser trailer package, I thought it would be valuable to research into the different types of posters created for previous horror trailer packages. This would therefore allow my group to understand the different styles and techniques that would be adaptable to our teaser trailer.

Sorority Row is a poster that attracted large amounts of interest from myself and my group. The main inspiration I gained from looking at this poster was the fact that it uses one main image as well as background images that correlate and interlink with each other whilst also making a strong link to the film. Although the images of the five girls isn't striking out as a scary image, the fact that is placed on top of a burning house creates a scary effect, allowing the viewers to understand that something chilling is going to occur during the film. The colour red is symbolic of blood, death and danger which therefore gives the audience an idea of the content of the film. Overall, I believe that this poster is highly effective as the genre of the film is fed to the viewers clearly and effectively, allowing there to be no confusion regarding the film whilst also ensuring the right target audience is reached.

Another inspirational poster that gained large amounts of interest from my group and I was 'The Strangers'. As we all found the trailer effective in the way that it uses a variety of different techniques to convey a disturbing and chilling effect to the viewers, we thought it would be in our own interest to explore the techniques used in their poster.The image used on the poster portrays and conveys a sense of entrapment and fear to the viewers as there is a couple that have been placed in a difficult situation by three masked protagonists. There is a strong link between the trailer and poster which influences the audience to want to watch the entire movie.

The slogan located at the top of the poster reinforces the link between the storyline of the film as the victims are disrupted at 4am and placed under the control of the masked people. This allows the entire concept of the film to be grasped with one look at the poster. Although there is limited use of text on the poster, the poster is still effective. It has become clear that most posters aim for a simplistic poster when regarding text and highlight the horror with the use of an effective image. The dim and dark lighting used in this poster allows the genre of the film to be portrayed within a short period of time, therefore allowing the viewers to decide whether this film is going to be one in their interest.

The main inspiration that this poster has given me is the fact that it uses two images layered on top of each other with a multiplying effect on photoshop. This therefore allows the under images to be seen through the top image. I find this technique highly effective as it creates suspense and leads to the viewer to wanting to know more about the film and why there are two images blurred together. I aim to use this technique within my own poster as it is highly effective and grasped my attention from the first glance. Also, the use of a black background allows a dark and negative emotion to be created. The grey scale images also create a sinister, mysterious and oppressive image to the viewers. Again, in this poster there is a limited amount of text only stating the title, characters name, a quote and production information. This therefore corrlates with the simplistic layour earlier mentioned.

After conducting all research regarding posters, it has become clear that all posters aim for a simplistic layout with a strong and bold image located in the centre of the poster with minimal amounts of text located across the top and bottom of the poster. Therefore, I am going to ensure my group poster uses the same layout, therefore allowing our poster to be as effective as possible.