Biblography

• 'The movie is a decidedly slow burn, but it ramps ip to a rare (and essentially unguessable) twist that doesn't totally discredit the rest of the movie. Instead, it makes climax' - the opinion of an anonymous review critic, Blogs.indiewire.com - 2010.
• 'It is distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depiction of violence and 'hyper-intensive horror with no limits.' - Term given by David. J Schow in 1986. Splatter punk, Adam Cesare, 2006.
• IMDb.com - film references, reviews and age ratings.

OTHERS:

SlideShare / 2014

Research into the typical horror genre.

SlideShare / 2013

An example of questionnaire results.

Main Poster

For my my main poster,I took and used an image that I had taken of an arm wrapped with rope.

I then changed the hue and saturation of the image to create the black and white effect. Using the burn tool, (original exposure), I made the rope darker. I then used the brush tool, (low opacity, colour red) I was able to make the rope look blood stained. Lastly, I used the pencil (on sketch) to make the creases of the fingers more prominent.

Once I used the wand tool to crop the background from the hand, I was able to import the image onto a poster size black background. I then zoomed closer into the image so I could remove any white/jagged parts of the image. By adjusting the curves, I started the give the image more of a cartoon effect rather than it just being 'an image'.



My original typography was this. But, I imported it back into pixlr and added it to my poster and edited it to make it bigger and bolder. 

By zooming into the typography, and using the white brush tool, I went back over each individual letter to make it look bolder and brighter. I then removed the corner smudges with the eraser and re-did them; making them more noticeable and complimentary to the typography itself.

Lastly, I used BERNARD CONDENSED for the copy on the bottom of my poster. The emptiness of the poster connotes the theme of isolation that reoccurs in the script. However, this image leaves an enigma code as to who is most secluded - it leaves the question as to who's arm is this.

Report.

Georgia

For my coursework I chose to do print which included producing a campaign, creating a teaser poster, main poster and a DVD cover. Before beginning the actual creation of the campaigns I had a few ideas for how I could design the campaigns, all involving the sub-genre, Killer Toy. However, I knew I had to get the opinions of my target audience first and research further, so that I could use the correct generic codes, conventions.

Before finding the most wanted sub-genre, I analyzed professional film campaign poster for films like “The Return” and “Insidious 2”.  I analyzed the tag line, typography, color scheme, images and the layout and design. I found that the child/baby doll in the darkness of the image impacted the poster as it was subverting the normal vulnerability of infants - but in this context it seems to be creepier.  This being my interpretation of the image affected my choice in mise-en-scene within my script; for example, throughout the script in the theatre there is a frequent reoccurrence of old dolls, baby shoes, clothes, rocking horses and other semic codes of an infant. The contrast of vulnerability and evil also had a good response from my target audience; most of my focus group thought that the contrast would impact the target audience as the subversion is usual and leads to enigma codes and unanswered questions.

By using props' theory whilst analyzing the campaign posters, I could clearly identify that their was a 'villain' and a 'passive princess'. In my analysis of "The Return", I found that the poster was quite simple and did not have too much going on, therefore resulting in impact on the target audience. The main color scheme of the poster was dark contrasted with a pale grey/almost white rather than bright colors; immediately indicating the genre of the film to the audience. In contrast, the "Insidious 2" DVD cover includes a prominent use of stereotypical "horror semiotics". 

I also undertook some research into secondary evidence to identify how other media platforms. By doing this I identified what/who I needed to base my campaigns around. One of the media platforms I used for secondary evidence was a magazine called "Splatterpunk"; its generic codes and conventions very clearly targeted the horror genre audience. the use of the graphic images, monochrome colors and smudged, paint-like typography makes the genre obvious and uses simple semic codes of horror to draw the audience in. Additionally, on the website 'Blogs.indiewire.com', I found a review of a movie and it said "The movie is a decidedly slow burn, but it ramps up to a rare (and essentially unguessable) twist that doesn't totally discredit the rest of the movie. Instead, it makes a climax." This quote was significant because it identified what a movie, (my script), needed to include to target my audience's expectations.


After, I did some thorough research into the most common age-rating on horror films. I did this by identifying 6 different horror films within the variety of 3 sub-genres - Teen, Zombie and Ghost. I then recorded into a table whether the age rating was: 12PG, 15 or 18. Evidently, my results relayed that out of the six films from 'teen horror': 1 was 12PG, 4 were 15 and 1 was 18. With 'Zombie horror': 0 were 12PG, 2 we 15 and 4 were 18. Lastly, within 'Ghost horror': 0 were 12PG, 5 were 15 and 1 was 18. Overall my results showed that there was only 1 12PG, 11 aged 15 and 6 aged 18. Therefore, it is clear that the most common age-rating for horror films was 15 which meant that I needed to write my script in the right detail to target teens around the age of 15. I decided that the best way to target that specific audience was to base my script around people, also, in the similar age group. . 

Following the analysis of the posters, I created a questionnaire. This consisted of 12 questions helping me research further into the preferences of my target audience. I gave my questionnaire to around 50 people, ages 14-24, both genders, to achieve more accurate feedback. By including the question "How old are you?" I was able to see which was the most common age and what they most preferred. My other questions asked my audience details such as: if they found color scheme or images more effective and how useful they found poster campaigns in advertising. Once I recorded the results in pie charts, I was able to easily recognize the most important factors of my poster campaigns. 

Using the 'demographic theory' enabled me to categorize my target audience, and I found they were in categories C2, D and E as it is more likely for skilled/unskilled manual workers, and unemployed to watch horror films as they most likely have lower expectations for their spare time. This contrasts to categories A, B and C1 - people in higher culture, who have a higher wage and more full time jobs.

I created a focus group of 3 girls and 2 boys. Firstly, I showed them my typography ideas, which varied from 1-12 different choices; but there were two different title names that I chose for my campaign posters, DVD cover and script. I was able to identify the most preferred font and why - this gave me an idea as to how I could make sure my images and typography all linked together. Also, I asked my focus group to look at the campaign for "One missed call" and asked a series of questions on what features were/were not effective and why. This was so I was able to identify what to/what not to include in my campaigns or script. I asked if the quote 'based on a true story' was more or less effective to the audience, this was so I knew whether or not to include the text in my script. The replies I got from my focus group was mostly that having the quote only really works for the audience if the story that follows is realistic enough. Therefore, I decided not to use it in my script.

In order to know how I had to write and layout the script; I analyzed the screenplay of Poltergeist. I decided to analyze this specific screenplay because it is based upon a possessed clown toy and at this point I had decided that my campaigns/script on the same sub-genre. During the analysis, I highlighted the mise-en-scene/props, characters, stage directions, location and camera angles.

In the actual creation of my print campaigns I used the editing software 'Pixlr.com' which enabled me to completely transform an ordinary image into a horror themed poster. I found working with Pixlr quite simple, eventually, as the tools worked really well with what I wanted to do with my images and I was also able to continuously edit my posters in as much depth as I wanted, throughout the whole creation of each one. For me, this meant that I could create pieces of work that I originally had no idea that I could do, an example being my teaser poster. Even though, when I first started to get used to the software and editing my image, I found it quite difficult to create a professional-looking piece. Using the tools, i.e. curves and levels - was hard as I wasn't experienced in them so I couldn't use them beneficially for my production and this meant that my posters were still looking like images rather than professional campaigns. I found that the depth that I could go into with editing the images was a huge strength as I could make them (visually) into something completely different through adjusting the lightings, saturation and many other effects to enhance a much better finish. However, there were limitations on how well - myself personally - was able to work with the tools; there were some mishaps due to the creation ideas that I had in my head which I couldn't quite seem to achieve on the real thing.  Another weakness for me was the period of creating my typography. There was such a variety of ways I could have designed the typography, and choosing the correct brushes, colors, brightness, etc. was complicated as I had to be certain that it all suited the sub-genre of my horror campaigns.

One major difficulty that I had to overcome was that, sometimes, the ideas that I had created on paper or in my mind, was a limitation on my ability of using the software. For example, I may not have been able to edit my images the way I wanted, or when I did the end result was not as I originally planned. This was difficult as it meant that I would have to come up with a whole new idea for one of the posters. Although, I did overcome these difficulties through experimenting more which, sometimes turned out for the better.

I think that Pixlr provided a high opportunity to go into a lot of depth in your work which helped my majorly in creating my typography. Throughout my whole production I thought that it was significant and most professional to keep my typography design consistent; I also used my original colour scheme of black, white and red consistently, as it evidently linked all 3 of my campaigns together. I think that my typography was a strength in indicating the generic codes and conventions of a 'gory' horror film which was important for my target audience to be able to recognise.

DVD cover. Images.

DVD Cover. Draft & Final.

I used a DVD template instead of creating my own to save time and to make sure it was correct. Once I imported the template into pixlr I coloured it black for a dark backrgound. As the theme of my advertisements is black, white with small amounts of colour throughout.

Using one of the images I had taken, I imported it into pixlr to begin editing. The first thing I did was crop and rotate the image to fit onto the DVD template the way I wanted.



 

Once the image was set onto the template the way I wanted, I began to edit. Firstly I adjusted the hue and saturation so that the image was almost completely black and white. Then, using the original brush tool (colour red, opacity 20/30) I made the mouth on the image look blood covered and sore. I then added darker areas of the mouth by using the Burn Tool. Once I had finished that, using the Bulge Tool, I enlarged the eye and completely blackened it using, again, the black brush tool. Lastly, to create the definition of the image,I adjusted the curves to create a more 'cartoon' finish.

Then, I re-opened the same image but instead, I cropped a small section of skin out of it to fill in the missing area in the top corner. Once I cropped the skin out, I adjusted the hue, saturation and curves to get the correct lighting and colouring to match the rest of the face.

Next I added my original typography to both the front and down the edge of my DVD cover. I used the same typography so that the connection could be made between each of my campaign posters and the DVD cover. I then added any relevant logos/signs, e.g the 15 age rating, 4-star rating and the bar-code. Once that was done, I wrote the blurb for my DVD cover on powerpoint (Bradley Handwriting, Bold) and also the "horrific" and "terrifying" typography at the top of the back cover. I then went onto added my images I had taken, I kept the colour in the them for the contrast of the colour and darkness of my DVD cover; I edited and shaped them to fit in with the effect created. This makes the cover look less ordinary and more creative.

Fially, I added my small print onto the bottom of my DVD cover along with 3 more DVD logos that are commonly found on actual DVD cases.

Feedback I was given said that the main image of my DVD cover was too similar to my teaser poster. I was told that if I changed the image but still made them all link together it would be more effective, therefore I decided to re design my DVD cover. 

I crop the DVD template so that I was left with my original DVD back. 

Using the original DVD template that I had, I used the 'fill tool' to make the DVD front black. I then added the DVD back onto the template to set out the structure.

Using an image I originally taken, I cropped and imported it into Pixlr so that I could edit it to look like a bloodstained/ruined marionette.

I moved the marionette image onto my original DVD cover so that I could begin cropping and editing. Firstly, I used the wand tool, lasso tool and the eraser to remove the background from the image. Once I had done that, I adjusted the saturation, hue and curves to create a darker, dirtier looking wooden structure. I went over the string with the brush tool (light brown, opacity 35) so that the string was more defined once everything was finished. Using the pencil (sketch, opacity 100), I added, and adapted on original, cracks in the wood for more definition. Lastly, using the brush tool (colour red, opacity 27) I went over certain areas of the string too give a bloodstained look - using the burn tool and   brush (black opacity 20) I went back over the red areas to make them look older.

I finally added my typography onto the poster.

Main teaser draft - tweaked/final.

I took my teaser poster draft that I originally created and imported it back into pixlr. I removed the smudge effect, typography, and slogan so that the background was back to completely black again. I then centred the face so it was more of the main focus and in eyes view completely. Using the curves, I made them darker at the bottom and lighter at the top to get the correct lighting effect; I then completed that edit with the "sharpen" effect. Using the black brush tool on "Opacity/30" I faded the edges of the face more into the dark background to merge them together.

After that, I zoomed right in onto the eyes of the face. I did this so that using the brush tool (crack), colour red, I was able to add cracks onto the skin/lid under the large eyes. Adding these red cracks, on top of the strain marks, it adds more of a sense that the puppet is dangerous/evil. I also added a slight red tint to the edges of her eyes to imply damage and ruin - as if bruised or bloody.

This is my original typography and I added this onto the poster. However, I edited the typography to make it brighter and bolder.

I used this font as it resembles handwriting quite clearly more than anything else. My slogan idea 'it's got no strings to hold it down' came from adjusting a couple words in the lyrics from the Disney song 'Got no strings' in Pinocchio. I used this for my slogan as it removes the ideologies of 'Disney, dolls and toys bringing happiness' by subverting it to something quite scary and discomforting. 

I added the typography and slogan onto the poster. With the slogan, I used the brush tool (in red, on charcoal) to make the eyes of the 'i' look as if they are blood smudges. And with the typography, I used the white brush tool to go over the original letters to make them brighter and bolder.

Lastly, I added the date to the poster.

teaser poster.

TRIAL.

First, I imported the photo I took of my sister and imported it into Pixlr as a new layer.

I then changed the colour effect to "old photo". By adjusting the contrast and brightness, and the saturation and lightness I was able to make one side of her face darker than the other.

Adding another layer, I used the burn tool to make her eyes completely black. Using the "bulge" tool I then expanded her eyes so they were abnormally larger.

On another layer, using the "smudge" brush tool; i added marks on the lower eyelids portraying strain/ruin of the skin. I also added a slight hint of the colour red on the insides of the eyes. Then using the brush tool, colour black, I darkened the background all around her face.

By changing the size of the document I made it into poster size. I then added my typography at the bottom of the page. Using the 'burn' tool, I darkened the skin around the lips, and the lips themselves making them look more bruised and dirty.


ACTUAL (TEASER) DRAFT.

Using another photo of my sister (one more fore-front) I imported it into pixels.

Once it was in pixels I changed the colour effect to Old Photo. Using "curves" I adjusted them, making the edges darker but her face paler. Using the brush tool I darkened her whole eye to black, then using the bulge tool I enlarged them to an abnormal size. Making her look slightly possessed. Then using the burn tool, I darkened the skin and lips of her face making the look more bruised and dirty.

Using the brush tool on smudge, I added marks on the inside (near bridge of nose) and on the lower eye lids. This makes the skin look stretched and strain.

Using the sponge tool, I made the lips (and skin surrounding) red to represent the blood that would be on the face of the puppet due to the ripped and sewn face. By adjusting the "curves" again I made her face another stage brighter and the surroundings darker to make the features of her face more prominent.

I then darkened the background so that the face was the complete main focus. But, I didn't use a "block" black brush to hide the background, I used a smudge tool so that not every single part of the background was hidden; there is still (even though small) parts visible. I did this to make it look worn and old, rather than too unrealistic.

Adding a new layer, I imported my typography and crop it to where I wanted it to be. Using the brush tool I blended it into the background and then, changing the colour to white and using smudge, added the effect on top of my typography. I did this so the page looks more faded and creepy.

I then designed my slogan typography. The font I chose to use was 'Gigi' as it resembles more of a (childlike) scribble rather than actual font/handwriting. I added a slight grey shadow/glow around the edge of the font. The actual slogan itself is a twist on the Disney Film 'Pinocchio' the puppet, and the song he sings 'Got no strings'. I did this because puppet shows usually have a younger target audience, so using the Disney lyrics will have connections to other people. The original lyrics are "I've got no strings to hold me down"; however I change them to "it" as it adds the enigma of who and what the story line is based upon - it leaves it to the imagination of the audience.

I then added the slogan to my poster. I decided to position is just above/next to the head of the image on my poster as that is where it is most likely to catch people's attention. I think having the words 'it' in the slogan and then positioning next to the mysterious face; allows the intended audience to make the connection that, that face is the 'it'. This then adds more of a creepy/fearful atmosphere as the audience would then feel even more (in a sense) 'watched' by the creature on the poster.

After, I added the release date onto the poster in the same font as the slogan - Gigi. On another layer, using the simple brush tool (colour black) I faded on the typography slightly on both the date and the slogan to give off more of the 'old and worn out' feel. Then on a last layer, using the crack brush tool I went over some of the fonts again for more specific fading of letters.

Finally, using the brush tool on the option "smudge", in the colour grey, I added an effect around some areas on the edges of the poster. I did this (mainly randomly) so that the page would look old, and as if some parts are beginning to fade away. This helps relate to the film firstly being set in the 1960's. Therefore the context of the film originates historically - so, it is important that I create my poster to include features that will satisfy the expectations of my target audience. The fading around the edge of the poster also relates to damage - damage of the poster/refers to damage of the teens and the 'Human Puppet' itself. I then enhanced the curves to make everything brighter are more visible, but it also made the grime/worn edges more prominent to the eye so show decay.