Film Poster Design Development- Final Plan

Above, is the final film poster that I have designed for 'Melinda'. There will be a close up image of Melindas face in the centre of the page so that it is the first thing that the audience see. I have decided to place the title of the film closer to the bottom of the page because I want the image to see the first thing that the audience see rather than text. The title is bold and is accompanied by the tag line to ensure that it stands out. In addition to this, a credit block is at the bottom of the page to allow the audience to have a better understanding of the actors and directors that feature within the film. Finally, there is low key logging around the image and high key lighting focused on Melinda's face. 

Film Poster Design Development

Above, are my three draft designs for my film poster. All of the posters have a main image in the centre of the page to catch the audiences attention. For some of the posters I put the title of the film at the top whereas for the other posters,  I put the title of the film towards the bottom to see the difference. A credit block is also included on the posters to give the audience an understanding of the actors and directors as if they're popular, they are more likely to watch the feel because they like them. Furthermore, the dark colours around the main image are to represent low key lighting, with high key lighting focused on the main image to ensure that it stands out.

Magazine design development-Final Plan

Based on the three drafts that I created for the magazine, I created a final front cover. The cover conforms all conventions of a magazine cover. The masthead is in a bold font and stands out from the background, which is important because it allows the audience to recognise the magazine. The image is also an important aspect of the magazine because it makes the magazine look less daunting and intimidating as it doesn't look like there is as much text on the page. The headline 'Melinda', is in red which links the man image as red has connotations of evil and blood. There are many cover lines used on the page so that if the main image doesn'tt catch their eye, there cod be other aspects of the magazine that interest them into buying it. In addition the this, the magazine also has images, barcode, date line, headline and price. If there was one thing that I would change about the magazine, it would be to ensure that the image is bigger because although the girl needs to look vulnerable, this image still needs to stand out to the audience.

Magazine Design Development

Above, are the three draft designs that I created for my magazine cover. I believe that all three magazine covers conform and challenge the codes and conventions of a magazine cover. all three magazine covers show the min image situated in the centre of the page and although different dhots are used, this confirms a magazine cover as all magazine covers have an image situated in the middle of the page to catch the audiences attention. The masthead for the first magazine is the boldest and biggest whereas the masthead for the second and third aren't as bold. This is important because it gives the audience a sense of recognition and allows them to see what magazine it is. Furthermore, on all three magazine covers, the main image links back to the headline and sub headline, giving the audience a better understanding of the film and the magazine before looking at any other page. The magazines also consist of cover lines, barcodes, stickers, price, issue number and pictures. However, magazine cover 3 is the only one that shows a skyline.

Final Plot after TA feedback/Class feedback

After our target audience gave us feedback on our initial final plot idea, we decided to change our plot as this will ensure that we meet the needs of our target audience. We then presented this PowerPoint in class and further feedback can be seen below. The final plot PowerPoint:

Below, is the feedback that we received from the class, this will help us to see if we need to make any changes to our final idea or to see if there is anything that we can improve on. After our feedback that we got from class, Beth, our target audience and I mutually agreed that we were going to go back to the original idea of the girl getting lost on her way home because she has moved to a new town. Some other parts of our trailer that we also need to start thinking about are:

• Our lighting-if it is filmed at night; how are we going to film this?
• Who will play the roles
• Different types of camera shots
   
  We presented our original final plot to our class in one of our media lessons. They agreed that it would be better to go back to the original idea where ‘Lucy’ gets lost and ends up in the woods because she has moved to a new city rather than her being tricked to going into the woods
  Therefore, we decided that our final plot after our target audience feedback is:

• A teenage girl called Lucy moves to a new town with her family and starts a new school
• On her first day she makes new friends who tell her about the girl called Melinda who has been missing for years after entering the frightening woods.
• Lucy gets lost one day and sees Melinda who is possessed and tries to kill her.
• She manages to get away but starts seeing the girl in numerous different places
• The “missing” girl’s body was found and the demon ends up taking control of Lucy’s body (new equilibrium)
  

Outline Of Deadlines-Planning/ Filming/ Editing

Now that Beth and I had done all of our research on existing horror films and have decided on our final plot, we can now plan our filming and editing of the film. It is important that we plan for many different reasons, such as:

• Planning increases efficiency
• Reduces risks such as missing out important aspects of the trailer
• It helps to achieve objectives which effectively means to create a trailer that meets he needs and demands of he target audience
• Encourages creativity
• Helps with decision making 
• Helps with time management

Planning: 19th November-25th November 2014. This will ensure that we plan all of the actors, location, costume, props and create a storyboard to ensure that we don't miss out any important aspects that need to be included in the trailer to meet the needs of our target audience.

Filming: 26th November 2014-10th December 2014. This will give us enough time to film in the different locations that we have planned to ensure our trailer looks consistent and professional throughout.

Editing: 11th December-19th December 2014. This will allow us to edit out trailer and add in any sound effects that we want to include within the trailer to add an effect to it.

Target Audience Feedback

We decided to get some target audience feedback to find out their opinions on our plot and to see what current horror films people are interested in to ensure that we do everything we can to meet the needs of our target audience. 

Name: SHANNON MORRISSEY

Age: 17

Gender: FEMALE

We also decided to get different reviews on the plot of our psychological horror film:

Final Plot Idea

For our final plot idea, we decided to go with one of the ideas from our previous plot ideas. This can be seen below:

• Possible title for the film: Melinda
• Sub-Genre: Psychological Horror
• 5-part Todorov plan of the plot:

1. Girl moves to a new area and starts a new school
2. Makes new friends and hears tales about a girl who was previously missing in the woods in the area but everyone thinks she’s been murdered.
3. She gets lost going home and ends up in the woods and sees the girl that was “murdered”
4. She goes crazy and has affects the way she treats others around her
5. The missing girl’s body was found and the demon ends up being inside the new girl.

This follows Todorovs five part plan as the girl starts of at a new school and everything is fine as she is just starting to settle into her new school. She then makes new friends and hears tales about a girl who was previously missing in the woods in the area but everyone thinks she’s been murdered. This is the first part of the film that starts to become scary and it becomes apparent to the audience that it is a horror film. The girl then gets lost going home and ends up in the woods and sees this girl and goes crazy as this effect the way she acts as she keeps seeing he girl. A new equilibrium is presented to the audience at the end of the trailer when the missing girls body was found and the demon ends up being inside the new girl. We decided that a girl would be the main character because you don't associate a girl with being evil as girls are normally associated with being in innocent and pure and this will leave the audience wondering what is going to happen next.

Research Reflection

From doing research into different psychological horror films and looking at different film posters and trailers, it has enabled me to discover what I need to to and what I need to include in my trailer to meet the needs of my target audience. I look at both historical and contemporary film trailers to see what codes and conventions have changed at technology has developed over time. The films that I looked at were:

• Orphan
• Silent hill
• Silent house
• Black swan
• Insidious

All of these films follow similar conventions as they are psychological horror films. From looking at the different trailers, I established that the main characters in these films are predominantly young girls as they are seen to be more innocent which is juxtaposed when they turn evil in the film. In addition to this, the sound used within each film speeds up towards the end of the trailer to build up tension for the audience. The evil person within the film costume is very different to any of the other characters within the film which allows the audience to have a clearer understanding of each character within the film. All trailers use low key lighting to make the film more disturbing and to put the audience on the edge of their seats. Most of the props used within horror films are knives, fire and household items that would cause danger to people.

Not only did this research help me to understand what codes and conventions that I need to include in my trailer to meet the needs of my target audience but it helped me to understand who the actual target audience are and who horror films are aimed at. Most of the horror films that I looked at are aimed at both males and females between the age of 15-30. I think that this is a good age range because anyone below the age of 15 may find some of the scenes within horror films too disturbing for them to watch.

Overall I believe that this research has helped me to develop my knowledge on the codes and conventions of psychological horror and will help me when I come to create my own trailer because I now know what I need to do to ensure that I meet the needs of my target audience.

Promotion of a film prior to release: Orphan

The promotion of a film is one of the most important aspects that take place before the film is released and distributed into cinemas and onto DVD's. When a movie is made, the film crew start promoting it through various means such as advertisements, websites, TV etc. which includes spending lot of money. Since past decade with the advance of digital technology, a lot of money is being spent on movie before it hits the cinema. What I think a movie attracts people through is solely on its content. When the movie is quite good to watch it reaches other people through word of mouth. As technology continues to develop, distribution companies are always finding more ways to distribute a film so that they can persuade the audience to go and see films. It is important that the media product is distributed on a number of different platforms to ensure that it reaches a range of audiences. There are three platforms that a film can be promoted on, these consist of:

•             Print: Teaser poster, main poster.
•             E-Media: website? YouTube channel? Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.
•             Broadcasting: Teaser and Theatrical trailer.

The film that I believe is the most similar to the one that I am going to create is 'Orphan' and therefore I am going to analyse the promotion of this film. Orphan is a psychological horror film and was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Institution companies for the film are as follows; dark castle entertainment and Appian Way Productions. In addition to this, the film was distributed by

Warner Bros.  Pictures. ‘Orphan’ has a wide range target audience, girls and boys between the ages of 15-40. The film was released theatrically in the United States on July 24, 2009. Kate and John are a married couple who have recently been having problems with their marriage. Kate and John already have a son and a daughter; however they decide to adopt a child to overcome problems that they have recently been having in their marriage. They go to St. Marina Orphanage and fall in love with 9 year old Russian girl, Esther, as she was 'different' to all the other girls in the orphanage. Further on throughout the movie, Esther's actions cause Kate to think that there is a problem and she is psychologically disturbed. Her husband refuses to believe what she is saying, but when Kate called up the orphanage to find out more about Esther and her background, Kate discovers that Esther isn't who she thinks she is. Orphan was promoted by a two minute long trailer. This could be seen on both the TV and on websites like UK, which is of mutual benefit for both distribution companies and social networking sites. This was a very helpful stage for the promotion of Orphan because the fact that Orphan was being released to cinemas would have been noticed by lots of people due to the amount of people that watch TV and use websites such as YouTube. There was also a film poster and an official website. The website includes trailers, pictures and the names of characters. This helped to promote because it increased the excitement of the film which could have helped it to go viral. This is important because of the development in new digital media now means that people have access to these websites where ever they are via their smart phones. There is also a Facebook page for orphan which people cud ‘like’ and see new forms of advertisement such as new posters which were being released. There was also an apple app for orphan whom fans of the film would buy; it played sounds from the movie. Orphan also has a premier in Westwood, California on the 21^st July 2009, which would have helped the word of the film go more viral. Isabelle Fuhrman playing Esther was the highlight of most of the critics and if the actors are said to be good, people are more likely to go and see the film. 

Firstly, I am going to analyse the print promotion for 'Orphan'. The distributors of orphan (Warner Bros) released a teaser poster and main poster and I am going to analyse the difference between the two as these were used to promote the film, prior to the film’s release. There were three posters released prior to the release date of Orphan. The first poster was a poster with a red background which was effective because red has connotation of danger, evil and blood. This poster shows picture of Esther positioned in the left of the frame with the title of the film ‘Orphan’, written next to her in white, which attracts attention to this quote. In addition to this, there is a tag line ‘You’ll never guess her secret’ which will make the audience want to see the film to see what her secret is. The first poster also gives the audience of the names and actors who play a role in the film because if they are popular and the audience like them, they are more likely to go and see the film. The second poster shows Esther wearing the same outfit with a green/blue background. However, this poster shows the release date which suggests that this poster was released closer to the release date of the film.

Just from looking at the main image on the poster, you can immediately see that the genre of the film is a psychological horror film as the girl featured in the main image as the girl in the image looks evil. In addition to this, the main image used on the poster is one of the most important aspects as it is used to draw the audience’s attention into the poster and is also one of the biggest conventions of the film poster. Due to the fact that that the girl is the only person in the image on the poster suggests that she is one of the main characters within the film. Direct address is used in the image as Esther is looking directly into the camera which is a vital aspect to use to enable the poster to catch the audience’s attention to look at the poster. Furthermore, the fact that the image takes up the majority of the page is important because it means that unnecessary text isn't just placed on the poster to fill up the space. If the poster was just filled with text, the target audience wouldn't read it. Behind the image is a green background, which represents life and jealousy which could mean that Esther is starting a new life in her new house but she could be jealous of the other two children already within the family and wants to ruin the relationship between everyone within the family as she is jealous because she has had a bad childhood and has had a different upbringing. Low key lighting is used on the poster has been used which makes it look like Esther is hiding something which could be revealed in the film, giving the audience a reason to see the film. Esther is wearing old-fashioned clothing which would differentiate her from the other characters within the film as the rest of the family don't dress like this, which represents as being isolated and different. However, the school uniform like costume and pig tails represent how young she is as she still goes to school, which gives away more information about the film as she could go to school, where other incidents happen within the film. However, Esther's costume in this image is juxtaposed because her pale face makes her come across as innocent but in contrast her dark hair makes her seem dangerous and evil.

The masthead on the poster "THERES SOMETHING WRONG WITH ESTHER" further represents the genre of the film as it means that something could be psychologically wrong with her. In addition to this, the white bold font ensures that the font stands out from the green background and catches the audience’s attention as soon as they look at the poster. Furthermore, the tag line "can you keep a secret" at the bottom of the page, again gives away some of the storyline as it suggests that Esther is keeping a secret that is revealed in the movie and the audience will want to see the film to find out what this secret is. This links in with the low key lighting used within the poster as this lighting suggests that Esther is hiding something and all will be revealed in the full film. This writing also stands out from the background and represents the horror genre as red has connotations of blood and evil. Also, when the audience are lured in by this poster, they might then want to go and watch the film trailer, to gain a greater perspective of the film. They will then realise that the same tag line is used in the film trailer, this time as a strap. This therefore creates continuity between the two media texts and makes us understand that there is definitely something wrong with Esther and she isn't like any other orphan. Although the film poster does follow most codes and conventions of film posters, it does however challenge some conventions. This is because whereas in most film posters the title of the film would be situated at the top of the screen, on this film poster, it is positioned nearer the bottom of the screen, which you wouldn't normally expect as it should be the first thing that the audience see. Although, there could be a reason for this. The title may be positioned here because it could be the last thing that they want the audience to see so that they can remember it and then go onto watch the trailer so that they can find out more about the film and events that happen within the film, which will then make them want to watch the full film. Also, the font of this makes it look like child's writing as there is a mix of lower and upper case fonts. However, you would not expect an ordinary child's writing to be in this sharp, evil writing, which makes Esther 'different'. It also looks like it has been engraved and suggests that Esther is engraving her evil on other people within the film and destroying other people’s life's. Finally, the date of the film’s release is situated at the bottom of the poster and stands out again in a red font to ensure that people know when they can go and watch the full film. I feel that the orphan film poster successfully appeals to their target audience as it includes all of the details with the main image of the main character within the film. I also feel that because the text used on the poster is "short and snappy" it will further appeal to the target audience because it meant that they can quickly read it and will give the audience a clear understanding of the film without giving too much information away to also allow them to see the film.


Furthermore, closer to the release date of the film, a main movie poster was released. The poster for the film was released prior to the release date for the film. This poster gives the audience a better understanding of the film. Just from looking at the main image on the poster, you can immediately see that the genre of the film is a psychological horror film as the girl featured in the main image as the girl in the image looks evil. In addition to this, the main image used on the poster is one of the most important aspects as it is used to draw the audience’s attention into the poster and is also one of the biggest conventions of the film poster. Due to the fact that that the girl is the only person in the image on the poster suggests that she is one of the main characters within the film. This final film poser gives all of the information for the audience whereas the other two posters only give small snippets of the film. This poster displays the main image, which is of the antagonist in the film. In addition to this, the title of the film is displayed at the bottom of the image in white to draw attention to the text. Furthermore, at the bottom of the film poster, the actors and directors of the film are displayed which further persuades the audience to see the film because they could be popular or actors that they like to see within films. Finally, the release date of the film is displayed which means that the audience are aware of this and can see the film when it is released.  Print is also another important aspect of the promotion of the film. Firstly, a teaser film poster was released, which has a picture of the main character within the film and the title of the film and the date that it will be released on. A second original film poster is then released and it gives people the chance to look at the directors and actors within the film. This could then attract more people who didn't originally like the film to want to see the film because of the actors.

Another way used to promote the film was through E-Media. The film was also promoted on social networking sites. They had an orphan Facebook page to allow them to further promote the film. This is important because the majority of their target audience will use social networking sites which mean that they are successfully reaching their target audience. Furthermore, they set up actors Twitter pages so that they could tweet about the release of the film and people who follow this actor will then see the tweets and will be encouraged to see the film because they like the actor. Furthermore, the development of new digital technology had an important effect on the promotion of the film because it meant that they could release an app that people could download onto their phones and can access this anywhere. This allowed the audience to find out new information about the film as it was about to be released.

As you can see above, orphan released teaser trailer and an original movie trailer. The teaser trailer gives the audience short snippets of the film at a fast pace so that they do not give away a full storyline. This will build up tension and excite the audience as they will then want to see the full movie trailer. The full movie trailer gives the audience more of an idea of the storylines within the film and the main characters. The pace also isn't as fast to allow the audience to take in the information that they are seeing on screen. This trailer successfully follows the codes and conventions of all film trailers. Another convention of horror trailers is when the trailer opens with an establishing shot of the house, which gives the audience a clearer understanding of where the film is going to be set. The mise-en-scene used throughout the trailer gives a clear understanding of what each characters role is. Esther’s dark, old-fashioned costume and the shape of her hat and her dark eye make-up, give her a witch-like and scary, evil appearance that immediately leads us to see her as evil and not the innocent child that everyone thinks she is, which leads on from the fact that the girls in her new school made a comment about her clothing. Whereas, the two other younger children wear normal clothes to represent the clear difference between the orphan and the opted other children who have been brought up in a happy family. This gives the audience a god understanding of the film before actually seeing the film and they will want to see what happens next and excites them to see the film.  This trailer successfully follows the codes and conventions of all film trailers. As with all horror film trailers, the trailer opens with an establishing shot of the house, which gives the audience a clearer understanding of where the film is going to be set. The trailer opens by explaining the story as the family are happy as they are about to adopt a child. They go to the orphanage and decide to adopt 'Esther'. When they bring her home, there are shots with her bonding with the other two children within the family. However from then on, everything starts to change as it starts to become obvious that there is something wrong with Esther, which means hat that the audience are presented with an Enigma as soon as Esther is seen kicking the toilet door and being violent. In addition to this, when the enigma is presented, the writing appears in black to represent dark and danger and make her seem evil. This also started to show the sub-genre in the trailer as something is 'psychologically wrong' with her. In terms of setting; the main setting of the film is in the house or either in a park. However, the white snow makes Esther look more innocent and come across as an innocent girl, when in actual fact the mother is the main victim in the situation. There is lots of contrapuntal sound used throughout the trailer, such as when 'Esther' screams as the end which could attract the target audience as it gives them a clear idea of the sub-genre and whether or not they are interested and this also catches their attention right at the end of the film. Furthermore, many conversations take place throughout the trailer, many of them are discussing Esther. For example, when the nun and the mother are discussing her behaviours and how she thinks that there is something wrong with her, it is in a linear sequence to give the audience a clearer understanding of the film and what to expect from the real film, without giving too much away so that they wouldn't have to see the whole film.

The mise-en-scene used throughout the trailer gives a clear understanding of what each characters role is. Esther’s dark, old-fashioned costume and the shape of her hat and her dark eye make-up, give her a witch-like and scary, evil appearance that immediately leads us to see her as evil and not the innocent child that everyone thinks she is, which leads on from the fact that the girls in her new school made a comment about her clothing. Whereas, the two other younger children wear normal clothes to represent the clear difference between the orphan and the opted other children who have been brought up in a happy family. However, her pale skin could make her come across as innocent but as an audience, we know that her dark hair has a massive impact on this as it can make her seem dangerous and evil. The lighting at the beginning is a lot brighter and more colourful as the family are happy about adopting another child. However, there is a complete contrast between the lighting seen at the beginning of the trailer from the lighting at the end of the trailer, signifying that the events that take place within the trailer have an impact in the lighting that should be used. When Esther starts to become more violent and angry, the ambient lighting becomes a lot darker, such as when she was in the toilet kicking the doors as this is the first time the audience start to see the 'psychological' sub-genre appear in the trailer.  In addition to this, the props used, such as knives and bricks are not probs that you would expect an ordinary child to use to hurt others around them. Also, lightning is used when 'Esther' is standin over her sisters bed when she sleeps, the Lightning allows the audience to see Esther, creating a sense of evil, however we never see why she is standing next to her sister? This makes the audience want to see the film to see what does happen.

The fact the orphanage was shown right at the beginning of the trailer has a massive effect on everything else you see throughout the trailer and makes everything easier to understand. As she was adopted from an orphanage, suggests that she may have had a very bad upbringing, which could be one of the main problems with her behaviour and suggests why she is so different to all the other children which are the main representation of the film. Furthermore, another conventional aspect of the trailer is the editing that is used, The scenes start out slowly as the family are happy, however, as the trailer goes on, the editing and speed of the trailer starts to get faster as Esther becomes more violent and angry throughout the trailer and the mother starts to panic about the way she is behaving. Although, this does build up tension and excitement for the audience as the faster it gets, the more they are waiting to see what happens next. There is a clear difference between the representation of the 2 children within the family and 'Esther', making them binary opposites. Especially the difference in their behaviour. Overall, the film follows the codes and conventions of all film trailers and appeals to the target audience because they are always waiting for something to happen, which would excite them, especially with the enigma that they are presented with at the beginning of the film.

The closing of the film trailer would also make the audience want to see it because although the trailer shows that there are many problems with Esther, it doesn't give the actual problem which would mean that if the audience want to know the answer, they have to see the film, which is the whole point of building up the tension. In addition to this, they released an interview with the main character Isabelle Fuhrman (Esther) to allow the audience to see the movie from her point of view as the main actor; this could persuade the audience to see the film after seeing this interview. This is a successful way of targeting their target audience because it means that people who use social media such as YouTube will be able to see the trailer. The trailer was released on the 22nd March 2009, giving people enough time to see the trailer before the actual movie is released for people to see.


This promotion of orphan was extremely successful, despite only being released in a few countries. In its opening weekend in the UK, Orphan made £570,146. It was released to cinema on the 24th July 2009, which is not typically a month associated with horror movies as they are normally released around the time of Halloween. However, the DVD was released on the 27th October 2009, just before Halloween. At this point, people will be looking for scary films to watch.

Film Poster Analysis- Black Swan (June 2010-Present)

Title of the film- Black Swan

Director- Darren Aronofsky

Institution- For Searchlight Pictures

Year of Release- September 1st 2010

It is important that I analyse other film posters to ensure that I do everything I can to meet the needs of my target audience. The psychological horror film poster for black swan can be seen below:

This 'Black Swan' film poster denotes a medium-close up as it shows from the girls shoulders upwards. Although the girl's representation in this image is fair, I believe it is juxtaposed. The girl in the image has a pale white face and white is associated with light, goodness, innocence and purity. It is considered to be the colour of perfection and is opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. This links in with the crown that she has in her head and makes her look like she is better than everyone else and has authority over other characters in the film which could be why she is in the main image. However, although she has pale skin, her eyes are bloodshot red and the make up around her eyes is black which could show a sense of evil. This could give away some of the storyline as at the beginning of the film, she could be innocent and pure but by the end of the film she has changed and is evil and that evil is represented through her eyes within this film poster. In addition to this, her lips are a dark burgundy colour which could represent blood and evil coming through in her personality and the way that she is represented in the film. Her eyes are covered in dark make up which also signifies that she is trying to hide something.

The main image takes up the whole of the film poster and the background of the image is also white. The writing within the poster is only positioned on the bottom three quarters of the page. This is important because if it was filled with text then the audience may not read it whereas because the top three quarters of the page has been left with no writing, it allows the image to catch the audience's attention. Direct address is used in the image so that the character is looking directly into the camera to catch the audiences attention. The text used on the page is primarily black which allows it to stand out from the white background. The title is the biggest piece of font on the page as the audience need to know this to enable them to watch the film. This font is in capital letters and the 'B' and 'S' are bigger than the rest of the font in the title to establish the difference between the two words. In addition to this, there is a credit block at the bottom of the page, which is also black to represent how evil the film is. The film is released in October which is near Halloween to allow the audience to understand that it is a psychological horror film as it is being released in Halloween.

I believe that the target audience is predominantly female as the film is about ballet, although some males may also enjoy the story of the film rather than what the film is based on. In my opinion, the demographics of the film would be A-C2 as people in section E on the demographics table are less skilled and may not have been educated as well and therefore may find it harder to understand the storyline of the film. I also believe that they would also really need to like horror films or have a big interest in sports and dance. Younger people tend to take part in dance and ballet and therefore in my opinion, the film would be aimed at girls ages 15-30. I don't think that the audience have to have a certain occupation or career to be able to watch the film because it a horror movie and opens up the film to a wider target audience.

Overall, as a member of the audience I believe that this poster does successfully attract the target audience of the film as it follows all of the codes and conventions of a psychological horror film poster and gives an idea of the story line but doesn't give too much away to make the audience want to see the film.

Film Poster Analysis- Silent House (June 2010-Present)

Title of the film- Silent House 

Director- Chris Kentis

Institution- Open Road Films

Year of Release- January 21st 2011

The film poster for silent house can be seen below:

Silent House is a psychological horror film which was released in 2012. This movie is about Sarah as she and her dad go to their lakeside retreat to pack things up inside because it is being sold. While there, her uncle also helps get the place up to scratch so they can sell it. The uncle has to leave to get an electrician to check the wiring, but after he goes she starts hearing noises and seeing what she thinks are people inside the house. Soon she and her dad are attacked by someone or something and they end up in a fight for their lives. But there's something more going on here than she thinks. The main image used on the poster takes up the majority of the poster space with the writing to inform the audience about the film is at the bottom of the page. The main image denotes a close up of the main characters face with her eyes closed and her mouth wide open so that it looks like she is screaming. In addition to this, the lighting in the image is focused on her face which is more eyes catching and ensures she stands to to the audience. Due to the fact that she is the only person featured in the main image of the poster, it suggests that she is one of the main characters within the film and also gives the audience more of an understanding of the roles of the characters within the film.The main image of this poster is of the main character Sophie screaming, but by the looks of it, it looks like a silent scream, this creates a code of enigma and makes us wonder what it is that’s making her scream, is there a killer or something supernatural. This poster employs the iconography of a particular type of genre; psychological horror as we cannot here Sophie scream which suggests that it is something in her head causing her to scream but the audience have to watch the film to find out what it is. Although it doesn't show any of Sophie's clothing, her facial expressions suggest that she is scared and is screaming for somebody to help her.

In addition to this, the title of the film 'silent house' is situated underneath the women's face, neared the bottom of the page. Silence has connotations of loneliness, death and quiet. The fact that it is called 'silent house' suggests to the audience that there is no one there other than the people living there, but this might not be the case in the real film. Furthermore, this font is red and looks like it is dripping with blood, giving away a further story line as well as allowing the font to stand out from the black background. This makes us as an audience wonder if somebody is going to be killed in the house. This is an important aspect of a horror film because the girl looks innocent but this is juxtaposed by the blood dripping from the film title. The tag line "Inspired by true events" gives the film poster a sense of realism as it suggests that the audience can put themselves in the situation which will give them a better understanding of the film and the events that take place within the film. Furthermore, there is a credits block at the bottom of the poster which gives details about the director and actors within the film and therefore if the audience like the actors and they are popular, they are going to be more likely to see the film. Finally, the date that the film is released is displayed at the bottom of the screen "on the 7th March the silence will kill you" this is also in white writing which builds up tension for the audience.

The low key lighting is focused on Sophie's pale face which makes her look innocent and the fact that there is no light and it is all black around her suggests that the evil is around her and she is in the centre of it as it chases her and she is trying to escape. The target audience for this poster appears to be 15-35 and mainly males, because this is who horror films are stereotypically aimed at. However, the film could also be aimed at women due to the female main character as they want to find out what happens to her. Also, the female male character is used rather than a male character as women seem to get more scared and on the "edge of their seat" whereas it would be harder to film a male as he might not be as scared by the events that take place within the film. The film appears to have something that differs from other films, and that is the realism it carries as it emphasises that this is based on a true story when it quotes ‘Inspired by true events’ which is the films unique selling point. This will make the audience want to see the film as this film poster conforms and challenges the codes and conventions of other film posters.