STORYBOARDING x2

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.