Ancillary Task - Analysis of Horror Posters

In order to come up with a final poster, we must ensure that we take into account posters that fit into our chosen genre, I have chosen three posters which stand out to me and fit the typical codes and conventions of a horror poster.

Firstly, The Ring. Directed by Gore Verbinski in 2001, the ring tells the story of a journalist investigating a video tape which seems to cause the death of anyone who watches it within a week. At first glance of the poster, the title stands out the most being in the perfect position to draw the focus of the audience. "The Ring" is a rather vague title creating many enigmas as it could in fact have many different meanings giving off a horror vibe. This is enhanced by the apparent handwriting the title is written in, almost as if it is written by a child, and also making the audience wonder why it is written this way. This is further reinforced by the fact it is written in white giving off the innocence of the child.

The picture of the circular ring itself is clearly connoting what the film is about, and as is it is somewhat faded and distorted it represents the horror genre. The films tag line "Before you die you see" gives off enigmas to the audience, making them wonder what in fact they will see, thus drawing them into the film to answer them un-answered questions that the tag line is so subtly posing.

Through the colour coding that the poster is showing it is very clear that the film itself is a horror. Black being the main backdrop of the poster represents death and darkness, whilst the white gives off a contrast that makes the poster stand out and entice the audience. This is also supported by the distorted handwriting and fade image giving an omnibus feel to the poster, as at first glance, the audience is unsure of what the film is about as the poster is only offering subtle clues which are hard to follow.


Secondly, The Eye. In the film a woman receives and eye transplant that allows her to see in to the supernatural world. At first glance of the poster the main focus is in fact the image of an eye. One thing i like about this poster is that it is unlike many others from the genre horror, as the lighting itself is at an extremely high key but around the eye the shading is of an extremely low key. This lighting shift could perhaps give the audience the impression that the person who's eye this is may appear as normal through the high key lighting, but could in fact hold a very dark secret which links to the persons eye, and in turn showing the film is within the horror genre.

In terms of the text, the title of the film links to the image being shown, "The Eye" appears directly bellow the image and the fact the the word "Eye" is written in bold block capitals suggest that the film revolves around this and connotes that the film is based around an eye. Its also noticeable that the poster shows the name of an extremely well known actress, this marketing technique could some what convince people to see the film just to see the main actress "Jessica Alba", also the fact that it appears just in the middle of the text and the image suggests that her eye is the focus and with her name being written in a red font suggests anger, danger and blood linking it back to the chosen genre of the film and letting the audience subtly know what they are getting themselves into.

Lastly, Gothika tells the story of a woman who wakes up as a patient in an asylum with no memory of why she is there or what she has done. When fist viewing the poster it is clear to see if follows the typical codes and conventions of a horror movie poster with its low key lighting, however, it has its own stamp on it with the blue colour used, connoting evil and a cold feeling. The cold feeling is supported by the apparent rain which appears perhaps suggesting that a main theme in the film is the weather or maybe even the film itself takes place within a storm.

The point made previous about the storm can be linked directly to the font used on the title "Gothika", the colour appears to have a somewhat, electric blue feel to it, as if it were the same colour of lightning. Likewise to "The Ring" and its font the font used on the title appears to have been written by a child, with its oddly placed capitals and strange font itself giving off a haunting feel to the poster and suggesting that perhaps a child plays a huge role in the film. The picture itself is of what appears to be the protagonist Halle Berry, its clear to the audience that the person being shown is Halle Berry is due to the text stating the name of the main character, something that many posters seem to do as another marketing technique. However, this is not a standard picture of the actress it shows her face looking dazed and confused, directly at the person looking at the poster, enticing the audience to look at the poster and notice on her left arm are the words "Not alone". It appears that the writing on her arm matches that of the title perhaps suggesting that what we can only assume of a child wrote this on her and is perhaps haunting her, which is shown by her facial expression.  

Poster Influences

Below are posters that Anthony are hugely influenced by and we want to achieve something similar to this for our own poster. Because are movie is based on a lone wanderer character we want to have a poster that shows this character from behind looking at something in the distance. This will help make our film seems quite mysterious and hopefully people who see our poster will be attracted by it and come see the movie.

Third Day of Filming

As Usual, Anthony and I decided to film on the 20th of December as the weather conditions matched with our other shots. After reviewing the footage in the editing suite Anthony and I noticed a lot of mistakes that we decided to try and patch up today. For example, in one shot we noticed the tripod bag was in shot, and the more we viewed the shot the more it became apparent to the point where we had to get rid of it. As a pair, we loved the shot and felt it fit perfectly as it was, so tried to recreate it exactly as it was. We did the shot 3 times, changing small details each time in the hope that one of them will fit. After we finished some missing shots we then decided to move on to some new shots which Anthony and I discussed thoroughly.

An example of a shot Jack and I discussed used the editing technique of cloning. In order to pull this off, I was made to walk down a very narrow alleyway with the camera stationary in a mid shot. When my entire body has past the camera we were keen on leaven the camera running and sending me behind my initial walking spot so I would appear behind myself after my body had walked past. This in turn would create a haunting effect which is almost spiritual where I would appear in a spot watching myself from afar. After much deliberation Jack decided it would be best if he took the role of the person watch me, so we would not confuse the audience. I agreed so we continued to repeat the process but put Jack in the background. After checking up on the footage a number of times we were finally left with the effect we were pleased with and are eager to see what it turns out like in the editing room.

Day three of filming basically consisted of patching up the shots in the snow, as it seems the snow has stopped for quite a while. It gave us time to prepare for the transition of snow to sun, so we stopped filming in the middle of a pan, and once the pan has finished, I will appear with no snow surrounding. These noticeable shifts in weather are key to our story line and play an important role in the protagonist finding out where he is. Jack and I were extremely pleased with today's filming and feel we achieved everything we set out to do and are excited to film the remainder of our film in the near future.

Music Influences - Silent Hill

Jack and I are working closely together in searching for the perfect music for our film, we are highly influenced by many different types of new media technologies, one being video games as mentioned previously. One game which is very well known for it's use of music is Silent Hill 2 and the very memorable song I think we should bare in mind when choosing our music is entitled "Promise". Where the music is in many ways mysterious, dark and eerie, 3 very key words Jack and I often refer to when discussing what type of music we are looking for. By using the website Free Play Music we are able to type key words into the search bar and browse through the website using this, narrowing down all songs and finally deciding what one we will go with. Jack and I have planned to meet up on the 18th December, where we will decide there and then what songs to choose. As the other members of our group are unable to attend we are going to show them the song we have decided to choose and hope they enjoy it as much as we do.

Planning Diary 2

Week 5
Similar to week 4 we continued with the Limbo blogs, Jack created a questionaire to help us aim the film at a partcular intended audience. As a group we then proceeded to take responsibility and discuss certain ideas with eachother to help create a story we all agree with. We did this by using Harvey's iPhone to record a conversation with eachother and too also exploit another piece of new media technology to give a more interesting feel to the post. Harvey then blogged about what type of genre our film would be, and came to the conclusion that it will be a 'Horror', based around the influences we have had.

Week 6

Jack and I decided to go location hunting and after narrowing down a few we decided on a field located a few minutes away from the school. Considering we are all local to the area we always knew this was a good place to film a creepy film and transport is not a problem. I took my phone in order to take multiple pictures to show members of the group who were absent some of the ideas Jack and I came up with for a few shots, as well as to look back on for inspiration for both the story board and the film itself. I proceeded to upload the pictures to the blog along with some writing. Jack meanwhile was busy searching for the perfect music for our film, after narrowing a few down he showed me his favourites, all seemed to fit perfectly so we will need more opinions from other members of our group.

Week 7

After supporting Jack with the search for the perfect music I decided to do some research into the importance of music. Whether it is Diegetic or Non-Diegetic, music is the key to a successful horror film these days, creating tension and delivering incredible notes on those scares. I decided to post an example of this with a film created on youtube called Scary Mary, where creepy music is placed in rather than the more, chirpy music that is used in the film, proving that music is what can make a film scary, or not scary.

As a group we then decided to visit the location with a camera and test out a few shots that we have planned on using in the film. Within this I would be the actor and Michael and Harvey would tell me how I could complete certain movements and in a way be the directors for this short shot as Jack filmed and also gave his input. When we completed the filming itself, Jack and I decided to take the footage back to the editing room and put it together in a sequence that we were proud with. After watching over the footage analysing the pros and cons of it we decided it was perfect for the film and I began to organise and initial shooting schedule. Taking into account of the weather we noticed it was going to snow, after much discussion we decided to not let this effect us and instead adapt to it and continue filming within the snow.

Week 8

This week was rather successful as we finally decided who our protagonist would be, Jack suggested I take the role and the others agreed simply due to the experience I had in GCSE Drama. Within this week, Harvey uploaded his Audio podcasts so we were able to take note of what was said on them and incorporate them into our final idea. As a group we decided creating audio podcasts would be an outstanding idea so we could look back on what we have said previously, thus meaning we wont forget any good ideas we had. We nominated Harvey to record them as his iPhone 4 had the best sound quality and was able to pick up our dialogue without a problem. Also, as Michael, Jack and I were filming Harvey would film around us commentating on what we were doing and the process we are using in order to make the film its best, and using his HD camera on his iPhone 4 he was a perfect candidate for this role. The shooting diary's have proved a success as we often look back to see if there's anything else we could be doing to make the film better.

Jack and I also decided within this week it would be best to begin filming our final film. However, Harvey and Michael were unable to come with us due to school work, and told us they will meet us at the location later. We arrived to at the location and began to shoot around 1:30 of the film (fully edited). We achieved our goal and felt we could have gone on for longer, however, due to the camera running out of charge we had to return back to school and tell Harvey and Michael how the filming went as they joined us in the editing room. We are all extremely pleased with how it turned out and are looking forward to continuing with the filming.

Week 9
The group decided on what editing software we felt would be best to use, we settled with pinnacle as it was extremely accessible  for the entire group and all desired effects could be achieved on it. After this the group decided to film, in the snowy weather, Jack and I went out and began filming the first few minutes of the film, but were devastated as the camera ran out of charge, once the footage had been edited by us, we decided to return some day soon to finally finish. Upon arrival the next we were greeted with a problem, that the snow had melted. We attempted to film without the snow, but looking over the footage within the editing room Jack and I were not pleased with the outcome and so we called of filming till Thursday (as it was going to snow that day). Whilst not filming, we decided to take the initiative and research into title ideas, we came up with many suggestions but then decided to wait until the film was completed until we decided the name itself. Notwithstanding the fact that I decided to dive deeper into music research, drawing influence from scenes within the film Silent Hill which in some ways is similar to ours.

Choice of Editing Software

As a group we feel it extremely important to ensure that our short film is edited perfectly with the input of all of us. We've decided to use the editing software Pinnacle Studio Plus.

When editing our film our group must ensure that the film itself is always constructed with professionalism, as we are trying to steer away our film from looking like a typical student film. We must ensure that the film is at the highest quality we can get it with outstanding editing techniques to help create the effect of professionalism. With this editing software we are able to add all relevant effects to a film, such as slow motion where it is best fitting, credits to appear where we feel best, fades and much more.

We would love the editing to reflect how hard we worked on this film, and don't want it to be the let down. This is turn will allow the audience to enjoy the film with the editing placed perfectly. Which is why we are using Pinnacle Studio Plus. -Anthony Wilson

Why we Chose to use Pinnacle Studio

At first our group was against using Pinnacle Studio as we wanted to use an editing program that nobody else was using. Harvey suggested we use his £500 Adobe After Effects and as a group we thought this was a good idea. However after seeing the program in action we decided against it as it is more for putting in special effects then editing. Also it is really quite complex and our group only had limited experience with this program. After thinking about some other programs we decided to just use Pinnacle.

We chose Pinnacle because it is extremely user friendly but you can also add in some flashy special effects. It is also very similar to Windows Movie Maker which almost everyone has experience using. I have personally had a lot of experience with editing software and I find Pinnacle to be great for editing. It is so easy to cut clips and add in special effects which isn't the case in most editing software. - Jack Windsor

Title Ideas

Harvey, Anthony and I thought it would be a good idea to get together to discuss the title our film. I personally didn't like the title of our AS film and wanted to make sure we thought of something that sounded more professional this time round. We started by just thinking of words that would relate to our film such as "Limbo." However after a long discussion we realised that we didn't really like any of these suggestions as many of them would completely ruin our twist ending.

After even more discussion Harvey and I came up with two different titles that we both felt strongly about. Harvey really liked the idea of "The 11th Hour" however I strongly disliked this. I believe it sounded really boring and dull but Harvey insisted it was a good title. After doing some research we realised that this was already the title of a documentary starring Leonard DiCaprio so we all decided not to use it. I suggested we use the title "Where Time Stands Still" as I believe it sounded very professional and also was quite a mysterious title that would make people wonder what it was about it they saw the title or poster. Anthony believed this was a good title aswell but Harvey was strongly against it. He believed it sounded "like a lame Macaulay Culkin film." I took this on board but I still really like the title. At the moment we still don't have a title that everyone agrees on however I am still going to try and persuade my group into using my title.

"Fallout" Shot

As previously mentioned we drew lots of influence from a variety of media especially video games. One game that had a huge impact on our film is the game "Fallout 3" which is a game that revolves around a lone wanderer who travels through a post apocalyptic world. This had a huge influence on our storyline and we wanted to incorporate that sort of feeling in one of our shots. The game allows the player to switch between a Third Person perspective and a First Person perspective at any time and felt having a sequence which is similar to this would be really effective and stand out.

To create this shot I filmed Anthony with a slightly shakey camera showing the third person persepective. Then I gave the camera to Anthony and he filmed what would be the first person (Point of View) perspective. We were extremely happy with the finish result and many of our peers said they liked the shot very much. We believe its makes our film really unique and makes it stand out. Below is the finished shot.

Second Day of Filming

Since we had double Media Studies during periods 4 & 5 Anthony, Harvey and I decided it would be wise it we tried to film what we could during the two hours. However we had a slight problem with the camera. Since everybody is trying to finish up their filming there are barely any cameras available for use and our group accidentally left the camera in the editing suite. When we arrived back it was gone so we had to use a weird camera that we weren't even sure worked. We quickly head to Anthony's house as he needed to get changed into his costume and we then headed to our location on foot.

Once arriving at our location we noticed that pretty much all the snow had melted. This was bad for us as we had previously been filmed in the snow and our new footage would look awful when added on to our old footage. We tried to film around this but it ended up looking awful. After filming for 20 minutes Michael arrived but quickly had to go because it was his Mother's birthday. While we were filming we all had our doubts about the camera as it was one that we never used before. We weren't entirely sure that the quality of the camera would be similar to the one we used previously. Since we were running low on battery Harvey, Anthony and I headed back to school. Anthony and I headed to the editing suite to take a look at our footage.

After we uploaded the footage Anthony and I both agreed that we would not use this footage as the quality was horrendous and it was uploaded to wide-screen format which looked terrible in contrast with our previous footage that was in full-screen. However these hours were not wasted as we figured out many great shots and plot points that we will be adding to our final film.

Weather Issues during our Second Day of Filming

Upon the disappointment of being unable to film over the weekend, we were all eager to get back on track and finish the filming issues. At first glance of the field we noticed a worst case scenario. The snow had melted. We immediately began discussing how we could over come this, coming up with suggestions and alternative endings to make sense of the disappearance of the snow. When we finally came up with an ending as shocking as the last we felt it necessary to begin filming although the lighting was quickly running low.

We used as much snow as we could in the first shot of the day a it slowly began to thin out into the green grass my character became more aware of the disappearance of it as I proceed my walking. Upon Jack and I editing this shot we were extremely pleased with it's outcome and felt that it worked extremely well with the ending - which makes everything clear - and yet not make the audience wonder if it was intentional or not. However, upon further viewing Jack and I had to admit that the shots didn't flow well enough, the change from snow to grass was far too sudden and seemed extremely unprofessional. Harvey mentioned that on Thursday we are expected to have snow once more.

I took notice of this and decided to check out what the 5 day forecast was for this week and can confirm that what Harvey heard was correct. Upon discussion on MSN with Harvey and Jack we decided that perhaps it's best to film on Thursday, to ensure our film is the best it can be. However, the filming that commenced today was not all worthless, we came up with some shots we are eager to repeat and look forward to doing them much better a second time round, Jack was also able to test out an editing technique we have all been dying to perform which we feel could turn out extremely well.

First Day of Filming

As a group we decided to take advantage of the snow and begin filming on the 1st December. However, after performing a risk assessment we decided that due to safety issues we will abandon this date and proceed when the terrain was much safer to walk through. Upon multiple discussions we decided on the date 9th December to begin filming, as thankfully the snow was still present, but not nearly as drastic and dangerous as it was before.

Jack and I began the walk to the location and planned on meeting Harvey and Mike there. Throughout the walk Jack and I were constantly brainstorming ideas to each other that come from our appropriate surroundings, we were drawing influence from pass films and short films we have seen and were constantly relating them to the location in a way that we could decide what would work best for our film. When we arrived to the exact location where we were planning on using for the first scene of our film - which we set up on an earlier date - Jack and I were thinking of the ways we could perform the initial wake up scene. We thought back to when we were having our full group discussion and decided to try many different techniques in multiple shots and afterwards, decide which fit best for our film whilst doing the editing process.

Although the main problem of the heavy snow had disappeared, we still had to have our whit's about us when walking through the ice, dangerous yes. But the ice gave an amazing effect for one of our shots which Jack and I felt would create many an enigma. By using a long shot of me walking into the ice and then matching the shots through sound we bought the camera to an extreme close up of my feet stepping on the ice, giving a feel of destruction and perhaps even dominance for my character, giving the impression that perhaps there is another side to him that the audience don't know yet.

Unfortunately, the battery on the camera began to fall drastically low, so we decided to call it a day and call Harvey and Mike to discuss the mishap. Upon meeting them we showed them Jack began editing the footage with input from all of us to ensure that we all agreed on the perfect shots to use. We criticized what we felt we could improved and planned to film again on the 10th December during our frees in the afternoon. As a group we feel its possible to complete this part of the film within the free hours. All this proved that our first day of shooting was an outstanding success.

Audio Podcast #3

This Audio Podcast varies slightly from the others; we were in mid discussion with the recording equipment turned off when Jack and Anthony came up with a sudden Idea for the opening and closing sequence that would contribute well to the film. Our group is constantly coming up with ideas so I deemed it necessary to start up the recording equipment and capture everything that Anthony and Jack had just come up with because when it came to actually filming it we could look back at this Podcast and see exactly what they had in mind when they came up with the initial Idea. Bellow is the Audio Podcast itself in which you will be able to whiteness as Harvey Anthony and Jack discuss the new found Idea and develop it further and further.

Audio Podcast #2

This Audio Podcast features an nine minute solid discussion amongst the group as we continue to ponder ideas that flow through our heads as well as decide on shots for our opening sequence.

Audio Podcast #1

I have uploaded an Audio Podcast of me and the rest of my group discussing everything that needed to be decided before we start filming. I find the ability to compare the Audio Podcast with the shooting diary's because it shows what ideas we have dropped what ideas we have kept on and ultimately the result of the original discussion. The Audio Podcast's came well before the shooting diary so everything that happened in the shooting diary's is discussed in the Podcasts.

Bellow is a short introduction to the Audio Podcast series. We are the first group to introduce an Audio Podcast as a method of blogging and after analysing the first three Podcasts I believe it is an extremely useful tool because we are not being visually recorded we feel our discussion occurred a lot more natural and therefore flowed a lot better.

Shooting Diary #6

We suffered an immense amount of pressure today as we thought against rain and time to get all our filming done, I recorded anything I could in the short time we had but please appreciate we were fighting to meet a deadline so we may seem a little on edge. This diary is very important because it shows how our group works under pressure. I have found that even when we are faced with a little pressure we don't give half the effort or rush things, we will still weigh out every option for a shot in order to get the best shot;

Shooting Diary #4

Today two members of the group, Jack and Anthony went out and filmed several sequences ultimately resulting in a finished opening sequences. Jack Windsor and Anthony Wilson edited the footage we had and we are actually extremely impressed with the result. In this shooting diary I concentrate more on the whole concept of coming up with ideas and how we work as a team to inject those ideas into our final film. One thing noted today was an accidental stroke of genius. The sequence starts with our actor Anthony waking up in the middle of the forest, as he wakes up in shock Anthony unintentionally kicked the camera tripod resulting in the camera shaking. Jack was able to use his editing skills to make the shaky cam effect as ant rises up to look extremely professional and it has turned out to be possibly one of the best shots in the entire film. Below is the diary I recorded as we were editing.

Shooting Diary #3

This diary features me commentating as Jack. Anthony and Mike work together to come up with the same opening scene we had planned to do but from different angles. One thing that I like to focus on in this shooting diary is the method of scene rejection. Scene rejection is self explanatory; When a scene doesn't quite fit into the sequence it is removed and deleted.

Shooting Diary #2

The video bellow is just something I filmed whilst we were about to shoot for our first take. This video is a good example on how we discuss things with our group whilst filming.

Shooting Diary #1

Bellow is a video of mike talking us through the early stages of planning our opening sequence. We decided to use the same technique as last year because it is a lot easier for us all to contribute our own ideas onto a big white board rather than a small piece of paper. One thing I found is that the fact that the entire group is standing up all getting involved with a pen in their hand actually leads to further and more in depth discussion rather than just arguing. Any ideas that emerge from our group meetings we like to encourage and take on board rather than immediately dismiss them. Bellow is the first shooting diary in which we start by planning when and where we will shoot for our opening sequence.

Picking our Actors

As previously mentioned we wanted our main protagonist to represent the 'everyman.' Our group all brainstormed who we thought would make a good protagonist. I believed Anthony Wilson would be great for the part as last year he was our best actor by far. I asked Anthony and he agreed to play the main protagonist. I believe this was a great choice as Anthony took Drama at GCSE which shows he has previous acting experience. This will make our character a lot more believable and will also make our film seem more professional.


One change we made to our film was to change how the Grim Reaper looked. We decided against the cliche Skeleton look and decided to make him look human. We also decided that his character will be mentally unstable and essentially be the one who turns the film into a 'Horror.' Anthony suggested I (Jack Windsor) should play this part and I agreed. However I believe we can find a better actor for the role but If we cannot then I will play it.

Update 13/12/10

After further discussion we decided to completely get rid of the Grim Reaper character in favour for another character who is also played by Anthony Wilson. Whilst It may sound ridiculous to have both of our main characters played by the same actor it is a crucially part of our new storyline as this other character serves as the main twist to our film.