Evaluation: Part 2

When making my poster, I included lots of aspects that horror film posters usually contain. I used a scratch and grain texture over the original images used in my poster, to give it a worn feel and add depth to the picture. I felt that the textures that I added made the poster have the same kind of look at the poster for the film ‘Sinister’. Another key aspect I included in my poster was the names and company symbols at the bottom of the poster. This gives the poster the authentic movie poster look, as it is a feature that is on almost every movie poster. Of the symbols on the bottom of the poster, I have also included the rating for the film, which is 18. I have included this as it is not only a typical feature of a film poster, but also a legal requirement for films to have an age rating. Another feature that I have included in my poster is having a tag line. I have included this as not only is it a key aspect of a film poster, but it is something that the audience can remember the film by easily. An example of this that works well is the ‘Have you seen him?’ tagline for the film ‘Sinister’. The tag line gives a small insight to the film, as well as creating a memorable aspect to the poster. The mood of the poster is dark and gloomy, which I have deliberately achieved by lowering the brightness of the main image, not using bright colours, and through the
use of textures. I have chosen to use this mood for the poster as it is a recurring theme for horror film posters, so before a person reads anything on the poster, they can identify that it is a horror film poster by just the colour scheme used.  

A key aspect that I included in my magazine cover was having a main image of a character looking directly at the potential readers, drawing their attention in. This is a common theme for magazine covers, and one that I learnt about through analysing the front cover of many ‘Empire’ magazines. The purpose of the image is to make eye contact with people in the attempt to get them to take interest in the magazine. Another key aspect that I included in my magazine cover is having a barcode, price and date on it. Since I was replicating a magazine cover for ‘Empire’ magazine, to fit the house style of the magazine, I had to put these in the same place as they are on every issue. My magazine cover has many headings on it, one main one and many sub headings. These are key aspects of any magazine cover, as they tell the reader what is inside the magazine. This is a typical feature of almost all magazine covers with the rare occasion of something such as a special edition of a magazine, where the sub headings may be lost, but the main heading is still almost always present. The purpose of the main heading is to stand out above the others headings, which I have achieved by using a more striking font at a larger size than the other headings, as well as putting the heading in a central position on the page as opposed to the sides where the sub headings are. A key aspect that I have also included in my magazine cover is a masthead, which for my magazine is the ‘Empire’ masthead. As ‘Empire’ is a well established magazine, the masthead is open to have imaged overlapping it slightly, as regular readers of the magazine will be able to tell that it is an ‘Empire’ magazine due to the house style. The masthead is in the same place on every issue of ‘Empire’ to enforce the house style, and is a feature that I have included on my magazine cover.

My poster and magazine cover are both related to my trailer and I have achieved this by giving some features continuity throughout the pieces. One aspect that I have kept the same is the text, as this is easily recognisable text that audiences can easily relate back to. I learnt this feature from the ‘Saw’ film series. I also used the same tag line throughout all pieces, to give the audience something to remember the pieces by. Both the magazine and the poster both have a gloomy feel to them, which is intended to make it obvious to the audience that it is a horror film. The trailer, poster and magazine cover are all intended to be shown to mainstream horror fans, which is why I have chosen to make a magazine cover for ‘Empire’ magazine, which is typically a mainstream film magazine.