Evaluation of film poster and Storyboard
My film is titled ‘The Awaiter’ and adopts the genre and key
conventions of a horror movie. I think the idea of my film is conventional
because even the title alone creates tension and the genre will entice viewers
with stereotypical advertising. From my poster, the genre of the film is
exploited because of its dingy dull colourings, the reds connoting blood and
pain and the almost distorted and un-revealed main image shows something is
almost hiding or ‘Awaiting’ as indicated by the title. Also the genre is shown
through the film poster with mentions of other horrors by the same director
such as SAW and the inclusion of imagery of actors appearing in the horror
series ‘American Horror Story’ and ‘SAW’. With the inclusion of the hands in my
poster it almost connotes a restraint or something grabbing the audience into
the poster. the black colourings connotes mystery and darkness and negativity
as well as shadowing-almost suggesting something could be ‘awaiting’ in the
shadows..Linking to the title. The rhetorical question ‘who’s waiting for you?’
almost gets the audience involved with the film and once again links waiting
with the title of awaiting. The ellipsis before the question also connotes a
pause therefore empathising this idea of waiting. The old newspaper clipping I
purposely included in my trailer connotes a more old/eerie basis and story. From
my trailer, you can tell what the genre of the film is because it revolves
around very dark scenes and camera angles that appear to be almost hidden or at
daunting angles that appear like the main actor is being watched. The variation of camera angles, such as a
close up shot of a clock and the slowly paced camera movement as we see
footsteps in scene 10 in contrast with the long shots and the jogged and
blurred shots so that different parts of the film are addressed in different
ways. The close up shot of the clock
connotes time and once again ‘awaiting. The red in the trailer for the twisted
pictures logo and actual film title empathises this in contrast with the dark
colours of the trailer, but also connotes pain, possibly death, blood and fear.
As well as the colours, the actual noises of the trailer with diegetic and
non-diegetic sound create a trailer that makes the audience question where the
noise is coming from. Jump scares also support the horror genre because they
almost make the audience feel involved and scared. The twister pictures logo is
the first thing to appear in my trailer, supporting the horror genre as this is
a common film company that produces horror movies that the audience will be
aware of. ‘Ghastly echoes’ as sounds will create the horror movie feel to be
exaggerated through visual and sound. Crafting the music I would use to reach points
of crescendo makes it more frightening, and the diegetic sound links to
non-diegetic sound so that narration such as ‘ prepare yourself’ is supported
with a scary song playing in the background gaining volume.
My target audience is both genders, with an age range of over
15 as this allows me to explore some more mature and daunting themes. My film
would appeal to this audience as from some brief research- the idea of going to
the cinema to watch a horror movie comes across as an adventurous chilling idea
that many teens and young adults are interested in. also, by maybe including a
subordinate plot that includes a love interest or some more criminal male
themes both audience stereotyped favoured genders will be met.
Recently, similar films to mine have been popular with this
target audience such as recent box office hits like Annabelle, Ouija and The
Woman in Black Two. These films have been popular because the young adult and
teenager audience are intrigued by the idea of being scared, and made to
jump….this almost creates a more mature persona for audience members and also
gets the audience completely involved with the film and the film can be
relatable to common daily routine and things people are scared of.
In my film poster I have positioned the darkened face of ‘the
Awaiter’ in the top right hand sector of the poster which is stereotypical for
most horror movie posters as it almost portrays the main persona of the
magazine is almost hiding or over-shadowed. I have positioned the film title
directly in the middle of the poster to show its importance and created my own
font for the title as a unique selling point and its boldness and creativity
will entice the audience in. I have
placed the hands in the poster directly above the credits and release date to
almost grab the audience and lure them towards the release date so that they
watch the film. I have differed from
stereotypical horror movie posters by actually revealing the actors who are
usually not addressed in the posters but this makes the film seem like it has a
additional thriller plot and that as typical of usual horror movies, the main
characters do not always die. However, my trailer adopts similar features of
other horror movie trailers because it uses the idea of once short scene
included in the trailer rather than a combination of revealing events. Because
there is almost a sub-storyline portrayed in the trailer the audience will
carry on watching and are left with a sense of mystery.
In my work, I could have differed the amount of information I
included on my poster to create more tension and have a primary focus of just
‘The Awaiter’. I also could have made the date of release more exact for an
audience to receive the information in a more convenient way, and I
additionally could have brought more attention to the rhetorical question that
is directly addressing the audience.
Throughout the creation of my poster and trailer I have
applied the way I used different techniques to both the uses and gratification
theory and the ‘hypodermic needle theory’. I attempted to convey the audience
into a world where chilling creatures and supernatural occurrences exist…
however by doing this I also entertained and got an audience to feel mixed
emotions…and allowed escapism from their everyday troubles.
