Research for Film poster A2

http://www.filmposters.com/catalog/results.asp?ProdCat=22&PosterSize=&star=&director=&title=&decade=&country=&ScrollAction=Page+6

I’m gathering ideas from across the internet for my film poster and I am looking at horror in general as well as specifically psychological horrors. From the examples I find I will take ideas for my own poster.

The two posters (Bundy and Dark Places) are examples of horror movie posters. DP is a typical horror from 1974 concerning the idea of evil forces, dark spirits, evil cults etc (typical of its time with movies such as The Exorcist and The Wicker man) and as such follows a typically Gothic theme with a green/grey skull placed behind a red scythe. The green on the skull would have been used to denote age and depth of decay that has occurred in the skull, the red obviously denoting blood, danger death etc. Bundy on the other hand is much more of a psychological horror detailing the mind of a deranged serial killer. As the style of horror is different it uses different methods to display the content of the movie. Instead of Gothic/ religious connotations to express evil and demons etc it is more the evils of humanity and of individual humans. This poster sees a mid shot of a man looking into a mirror that has two extra mirrors framing it, giving three copies of the original man each one blurred or warped in some way. This connotes his unstable murderous mind (as presumably the man in the poster is Ted Bundy) and shows how human beings can look so normal and alike one another but truly we are all warped and deranged.

I saw this Pandora poster and the darkness of the skin caught my eye, how it is made to look grubby and mud-covered. Also they way the wires become the veins I thought looked particularly good. I also enjoyed the fact that this doesn’t have any particularly horror features about it yet still seems quite creepy and makes you feel uneasy with it.

Researching Film Posters

Final Destination

In this Final Destination poster we see that the main body of the poster is taken up by the image of a glass face, with a skull jaw, smashing. It’s made to look like a portrait either as a picture frame or mirror that is being smashed, connoting the idea that a bad event will cause destruction, of some ones life or physically. The black background, used to suggest the unknown and therefore fear, accompanied by a light smoke around the edge of the poster. The top of the poster has the tagline for the movie ‘Rest is Pieces’. The tagline is a play on the phrase Rest In Peace, a phrase used when referring to the death of a person, but is used in this case to suggest a cruel or painful death. The title of the movie is along the bottom of the poster, much larger and brighter than any other text used. The only other text is at the very bottom which gives detail of the release date and production company etc.

Scream

This poster takes a similar approach as the Final Destination poster. It has a picture, again a face, as the main focus, taking up the large majority of the page. This is a close up shot of a woman’s face, her skin colour has been lightened to make her seem paler, more deathly. Her face shows shock, or horror, denoted by her wide eyes and hand across her mouth as if in shock. The Title of the movie is displayed at the bottom of the page in large, bold font. At the top of the page is the film’s tag-line. Under the title are the actors credits, producing information and release date.

The Strangers

This poster shows a woman in a room seemingly oblivious to a ghostly character in the darkened corner of the room. The lack of any emotion in her face and body position denotes that she is either unaware of the horror she will face or is herself a part of it. The picture takes up the main body of the poster with tag-line at the top. The Title is again near the bottom, under the main picture, but this time has the names of the main actors listed above it. Below the title it is told that the movie is based on true events, with production details at the very bottom in small print. The title is written in a different font, with a glowing effect in place.

The Number 23

This again shows a close up of a face. Faces, more particularly, eyes, seem to have a strong connection with the horror genre, perhaps since human eyes mean that you are being watched by a conscious being and the emotionless expression can be quite unnerving. In this case however, the face is that of Jim Carey, so there is a recognition with the face but he is still blankly staring at the camera. This time the name ‘Jim Carey’ is adorned across the top of the poster and the title is relatively small, tucked in the bottom right of the poster, yet still due to its bold white font, it sticks out. The name of the actor on this poster is bigger that the title but due to its dull red and elongated, yet not heightened, font. The tagline is small and only distinguishable from the production notes because of a different font and the same red colour as the actors name.

Overall

The main body of the picture is always the main focus of the poster, not the title, release date or actors names, the picture must either intrigue people enough to want to find out the details or it must tell enough about the type of movie it is to make people want to see it. The movie title is not as important as the picture but is second to it. All films have tag-lines, usually a play on a well known phrase or lyric, sometimes a pun, sometimes a quote, bible quote etc. The title of the movie never goes at the top (like a magazine title), usually the top of the bottom third of the poster is the title. Dark, dirty or dusty is the general norm but I think it is possible to strike a message of horror without this, like the example of the movie ‘The Strangers’.