Who would distribute our film?

FINAL FILM POSTER

I decided to take a whole knew approach for my film poster because all the images used for my initial poster were from the internet. 

Due to the fact that we had not begun filming I had no images myself for a poster so once we began filming i took some pictures of our protagonist that I thought would look appropriate for a poster. 

After doing research on Horror film posters, I found that a common element in horror film posters is one main striking image. I chose this image as i think the angle and action is fairly impending and almost threatening, with the arm reaching towards the camera, which is good for a horror genre poster. 

I chose the tag line 'you're never safe in your own home' because it fits the story line without giving too much of the film away. I also felt it would be eerie to a viewer as any person's home is supposed to be a sanctuary and safe place, so if that is not safe, where is?

I used the website ->

for the font as it is a good website for designing the font to the colour and style you like.

Horror Poster Analysis - The Uninvited

This poster demonstrates typical film poster conventions such as... 

and

...but it also demonstrates some typical conventions of horror movie posters.

• This poster has one large focusing image that is fairly invasive and seems as if the person is looking onto the viewer to give it an eerie and uncomfortable feel. This is common in horror posters as they tend to have one main image rather than many small ones to not give too much away of the film.

• The lighting in the poster is low and the characters face is shadowed. This again is not uncommon for a horror poster as the shadow over the girls face is to give her mystery, as people often fear the unknown. 

• The colour scheme in this poster is black and white or greyscale. This again must demonstrate the darkness of the film itself as well as to keep the mystery and suspense intact. The fog behind the character pressed against the window also creates suspense as it is typically difficult to see through fog, therefore anything could be lurking in its midst. 

• The title is somewhat small and in a distorted font. This distortion could reflect the distorted events within the plot, and the fact that it is small makes us focus on the picture more. 

• The fact that there is a caption on the poster stating that the film is 'from the producers of 'the ring' and 'disturbia'', shows the promotion of the film. 'The Ring' and 'Disturbia' were popular horror films in their own right therefore this film should follow that success. 

Props used in our trailer

Cellar props:

Old Bottles: 

Already in the cellar was a few boxes of old dusty and some broken bottles. We decided to scatter them around the cellar but in some order so it almost looked as though they had been used not too long ago. The good thing about old bottles is that not only could they have been an indicator of life in the cellar, but they are also glass, so could be dangerous (broken bottles). 

Bed area: 

We tried to make a corner of the cellar look like a sort of bed set up to emphasize the idea of someone living in the cellar. We made the 'bed' very minimal, with an old, screwed up blanket as a pillow with no cover, only a rug to sleep on. This gives the idea of the villain to be somewhat 'unhuman' in that doesn't need to simple human pleasures like a duvet. 

pillow :

Old photos:

We also found a lot of old photos in the cellar when we first explored it which we tried to incorporate in our film. We scattered some over the bed and stuck some on the wall to show that the villain took an interest in the photos or perhaps took them themself . 

Final location choice for trailer - Keeley's lower floor

After our lack of success filming in the abandoned college, Keeley and I found somewhere to film much closer to home... In Keeley's home!

The house itself is very old and used to flats, so the lower floor has a kitchen which isn't used so it was perfect for our trailer. It also has a cellar which is a very stereotypical location for a horror film so we thought we would incorporate that too. 

^ kitchen area 

The only indication that shows the protagonist is in a new home, other than when she speaks of it on the phone with her Mum, is when she is seen washing up in the kitchen. This is an indication as it looks very run down and there are very few homely belongings in the photo. There are boxes surrounding her making it seem as though she has just moved in and has not unpacked

 yet. 

The main location that our trailer is filmed in is the cellar that our protagonist discovers during the trailer.

Cellar from the entrance ^

The cellar is a very good location we felt as Keeley and I were the first people to go in the cellar since her family moved to the house so we found lots of old belongings owned by the previous family who lived in the house. This for us in itself was very creepy so it seemed the perfect place to film a horror! 

View of steps from inside the cellar ^

As is shown in this picture, the cellar is very dusty and old-looking and not decorated in the slightest. We removed some of the old belongings to make it seem more empty and  moved anything that looked modern, such as some carrier bags lying around. 

^ Walkway to the main cellar room (where Keeley is standing)  

 You can see in this picture as well as the previous one some rusty pipe and electrical work which we liked as it looked somewhat dangerous and rusty adding to the unnatural nature of the cellar.

This room is the main room of the cellar which we used as the living space of the 'villain' of our film. The lighting is effective in this room as it is a singular light bulb that doesn't give off a huge amount of light leaving some corners dark. 

Although the hole in the wall that you can see is actually blocked, that is not obvious in the footage so could be thought to be a secret passageway, again another standard feature of a horror movie.

Protagonists - Molly and Hermione

The only two characters seen in the trailer are the protagonist and the villain (person in the cellar).  

We have chosen two of our friends to portray these characters for us and chose the based on the fact that they both do drama at A-Level and they are also close friends of ours so we would be comfortable giving them instructions and they are used to being directed and are practiced actresses.

Molly - Protagonist:

We chose Molly to be our main character as there is a certain innocence about her look and she has a natural as well as mature look, like that of a student or young lady. We thought these characteristics would be ideal as our  protagonist's back story is that she has just moved out of her parents house and this is her first house alone. Therefore she is naive to living alone and is just starting her life and gaining her independence.

These characteristics are fairly typical of the horror genre as there is often a "damsel in distress" type of character that is weak and perhaps foolish. Molly's character is true to this stereotype to a certain extent, although she does live alone and there is no standard "knight in shining armour" to save her, so whatever situation she might find herself in, she must get herself out of. Here is one of the ways our film differs from other horrors.

Hermione - Villain:

We chose Hermione to act as our villain as she has a particular knack for playing supernatural and eerie characters. She also has a specific look that can be distorted with the right make up and look quite frightening. 

Hermione's character's look is of slight innocence, much like Molly's although it is distorted with make up and facial expressions into a more sinister and creepy look. We thought this would be effective, as then our protagonist and villain would have an odd similarity as well as vast contrasts. Also they are of the same age and gender which is another similarity. This may make the audience ask questions such as "what must have happened in these girls pasts for them to have turned out so differently from each other?" 

Magazine cover - drawn flat plan and template

In class we were given the template below to use to refer to when creating a flat plan for our beginning ideas for our magazine cover.

This was helpful in addition because it contained all of the technical terminology for a magazine layout such as masthead and coverlines. We can now use these when referring to them in our coursework .

This is my flat plan draft -

As you can see my artistic skills are not very good therefore I just did stick figures to represent the actual photos or digital images that will replace them in the real poster. 

In order to make it look like a magazine, I tried to add all of the standard magazine conventions, for example i had a column of coverlines, incentives and a barcode. I feel these features made my magazine cover as authentic as possible.