Flat Plan One:
In the above flat plan, I placed the tagline at the top of the poster. The reason for this is because this is one of the first things that the audience will see and if it is persuasive enough, it will hook the audience on to the poster. The film name will be to the left of the image as the image will be partly explaining the film name, 'The Vanishing'. The image will be of the killer in the forest where the film has taken place. Lastly, at the bottom of the poster, there are crew names and the release date which I felt it is not as important as the other elements of the poster hence placed it at the bottom. The tagline and release date will be in red as red has connotations of death and blood which relates to the genre. The tagline will be, 'No Laws.. No Limits.. One Killer', and due to the fact that the tagline is trying to place an vision of horror conventions such as death and blood in the audiences head, I thought that if the writing was in red, it will be more effective and clear as to the implications its trying to give. The film name will be in white as the background is black and it will stand out due to the high contrast as well as the crew names at the bottom. Across the whole poster, there will be three different fonts which will help separate the text where the film name has a font of its own, the release date and tagline carry the same font and the crew names having a font of its own. Below is a mock up of what the poster should look like:
Mock Up For Flat Plan 1:
When I was creating this poster, I came across a few problems and changed a few parts. The tagline was not that noticeable due to the background which is fairly bright at the top of the page, I had to place a square black box at the top of the poster and reduce the opacity in order for the background to show a bit. This helped a lot as it makes the tagline stand out more as well as showing some of the background. Also, I played around with the character and tried to make him appear as if he is behind a tree, however, the character was hardly noticeable therefore I decided to pull him close up in order to make him the central point of interest.
Flat Plan 2:
The second flat plan which I felt would work well is the one above. The background will be of the car used in the film at a side angle with the bonnet open. The reason why the bonnet will be open is due to the links people make with a open bonnet and a car which is that the car is broken down which happens in the film. The car will be parked on a countryside road where there are bushes behind. I will add a sign to the right third of the poster which will contain the writing "No Trespassing, Violators will be murdered". The image of the car and the background will be in grey scale and the only element of the poster which will be in colour is the sign. The reason for this is due to the text in the sign which is a key element to the poster and will work pretty effectively. The film name will be towards the bottom on the right, in the same third as the sign. The masthead will be white with a red outline. The white will stand out on the grey scale of the background image whilst the red will help to associate the poster to the horror genre. Below the film name will be the tagline which will be in white also due to the fact that it will stand out. Lastly, the common convention of the crew names and release date will be at the bottom highlighted in a dark grey box. Across the whole poster, there will be three fonts which I found to be a common convention in all the posters I analysed. The film name will have a font of its own in order to make it stand out then the rest of the text, the tagline and the writing in the sign will be in Arial as it is clear to read and lastly, the crew names and release date will be in another font different from the rest of the poster. Below is a mock up of what the poster should look like once images, the masthead, tagline and crew names have been added:
I will not use the above idea due to the fact that it does not really link to the horror genre therefore will fail to capture a high audience. However, I do feel that this poster has very effective parts which I do like, such as the film name's font and the style it has been laid out. I will use the elements I like in this idea in the idea I put forward.
Flat Plan 3:
In the above flat plan, I tried to make the poster highly conventional by placing certain parts in the places where the audience would expect it to be. The film name is placed at the top in big bold writing which will attract the audience and also help the film name to be rememberable. Towards the middle of the page, there will be half a baseball bat coming out of the left of the poster. The bat will be black with white wood grains. There will be blood on the end of the bat which is dripping off it which will help associate the poster to the horror genre. The tagline will be divided into two parts on each side of the bat. On the top left of the bat, there will be the words " Be Careful..." and on the bottom right of the bat, in between the blood drops, will be " He Has A Weapon ". Right at the bottom of the page will be the production crews names and logos which is placed at the bottom due to not being as important as the rest. There will be two colours running across the poster which is white and red. The film name, tagline, bat and the production crews name will be in white due to the high contrast with black and the blood will be red as this will help catch the audiences eye due to it being a different colour. There will be 3 different fonts running across the poster where the film name will have a font of its own, the tagline will have one of its own and lastly the production crews name having a font of its own. Below is the mock up of what the poster will look like with certain elements in place:
Once I created this mock up, I feel that it is not very eye catching due to the simplicity of it. I prefer the first two ideas as they are very different and conventional to the horror genre.
Flat Plan 4:
This was the idea that I was most keen to improve and take forward which is due to the fact that it is very different. The first thing that you will notice is that the poster is landscape rather than portrait which would immediately attract attention due to the difference in which it holds in comparison to other posters. I had a vision to challenge common conventions. Secondly, I decided to try to give as little information as possible hence decided to place the killer half in shade and half in light consequently creating enigma as only half his features are to be seen. The part of the poster which would attract majority of the audience is the actor names due to the fact they are highly valued actors, consumers will feel secure that this film is good due to the actors and will be more willing to watch it. Lastly, the tagline will be broken down into two parts, one above and one below the film name which would be in a less busy font then the film name in order to emphasis the film name more. Typically, the production crews names will be at the bottom where it is normally found.
Above is a mock of of what the poster would look like once it is processed in photoshop. In my opinion, I believe that this is the best idea as I have challenged conventions by constructing a landscape poster rather then portrait as well as creating enigma and interest with the actor names being in bold letters at the top of the poster in the audiences eye which in turn will increase the audience for my film. This is the idea I am going to put forward.
