Friday 1 March 2013

Report

The brief

 My task was to create a sophisticated and professionalized teaser poster, official poster and DVD cover for my own constructed narrative of the horror genre. I was asked by the institution Reel productions to create a Horror Campaign for a new horror film, and to conduct my own research, design and print to advertise it to a specified target audience. Through the use of my blog, I have been able to document my different areas of research and have effectively produced a visual timeline presenting my stages of trial and error, improvement and progress. By creating a production schedule I was able to set myself weekly tasks to keep on track of deadlines. I have conducted much of my own independent research to help me identify a full understanding of the generic codes and conventions of horror and have shown this through the exploration of textual analysis and photo manipulation. 

Pre-production

Pre-production research included the textual analysis of different horror campaigns. To gain a broad understanding of varying institutions, plot structure and sub-genres, I looked at One Missed Call, Silent Hill and Paranormal activity 3. I chose these specific films to collect a range of secondary data. My aim was to explore films of contrasting subgenres to help inform my pre-production by gaining the confidence to be able to distinguish the codes and conventions of horror and to analyse the semiotic meaning and values behind them. I discovered that there are particular colours, mise-en-scene, typography and action codes in which we associate with different sub-genres of horror; this is knowledge that has guided me in my own construction of posters and editing techniques. These include the colour symbolism of blood red, ghostly white and deathly black which are used to dramatically emphasise the horror genre.

I created a questionnaire (Fig 1) in which I asked 50 people to contribute their ideas to. I was able to collect a wide range of primary data through the integration of both demographic and psychographic questions. I obtained quantitive research through the use of questions requesting age and gender and this was extremely useful in determining the age specified target audience of my campaign, which resulted to be young adults. Results proved to compliment the main cinematic audience, 18-25 (Fig 2 a) I also inquired occupation and this helped determine the social scale of my audience. Qualitive research was achieved through questions such as ‘which is your preferred type of sub-genre’ and ‘what is the scariest place and setting of a horror movie’ (Fig 2 b). The questionnaire results helped inform my pre-production because they enabled me to construct my own ideas of a successful horror campaign through the reassuring knowledge that I was satisfying my chosen target audience by nourishing their expectations. I discovered that my target audience wanted to see something relevant to abandoned/isolated areas in which there is a fear of the unknown. This research has informed my pre-production through a wider knowledge and understanding of specific elements which we associate with successful horrors.


I created two mock up posters (Fig 3 a and b) for my horror campaign, which I then presented to my focus group to gain constructive criticism. I found pixilation of detail becoming an issue throughout my work and it is something that I have been aiming to improve as I developed my editing skills. I asked four people to take part in a 20-minute session, in which, I gave them a few relevant topics to discuss for my project including typography, layout, narrative and camera angles. The aim of the focus group was to receive constructive feedback about my narrative ideas, and to discuss my strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, it was crucial at this point to find out whether or not I was being successful in suiting the codes and conventions of the horror genre. I asked them to be as critical as possible; I used their feedback as a guildline to improve my work. I was told I needed to condense my narrative so it was brief yet informative. I was also told to incorporate more images, ensuring that they are relevant to my narrative, to visually help develop and add clarity to my campaign. The ideologies that came across included many of the generic codes and conventions that I had learnt from my pre-production research. These included lots of blood, heightened contrast and intimidating camera angles. This research informed my production because I gained accurate feedback from my specified audience, and therefore I knew how to succumb to their expectations of a successful horror.

My next task was to create a draft of my entire three-section campaign, of which, some of the ideas were expanded from the strengths of my mock-ups. For my teaser poster (Fig 4), I created a mirroring of letters to reflect the narrative of having a split personality. This idea was drawn from my pre-production research where I learnt that the paranormal genre is extremely popular within the 18-25 cinematic audiences. The paintbrush tool was used to create splats, which are reflective of blood, horror and subtle gore.  Research showed that backgrounds of horror campaigns are dirty and very textured. For this reason, I created cracks and dirty smudges to taint the background. Using the ‘curves’ and ‘exposure’ tool, I created a fish eye effect to make the title and copy the focal point of the poster; I only used one photograph and I found this effective in ‘teasing’ the audience by not giving too much information away.

For my official poster (Fig 5), I aimed to present more of my narrative to the audience by incorporating more images. I wasn’t satisfied with my official poster as it was too dark and my focus group reiterated this through their feedback. I was unsuccessful in this task because it was a strained effort to distinguish the narrative through the chosen images of my poster. The most essential tool used was the 'free distort' tool which allowed me to manipulate the shape and create a more intimidating appearance. A strength that was repeated was the relevance of my taglines. The idea of the 'curse' is possession of the soul, and therefore 'The horror lies within' seems quite appropriate.

The DVD cover (Fig 6) achieved the most positive feedback from my focus group. The blurb consisted of a brief summary of the narrative and the use of enigma and action codes were used to hook the audience in. I made the background resembling of the teaser poster and this way my campaign looked consistent through the use of similar colour palettes of low saturation and sepia tones. I created a montage of 'stills' taken from the film and integrated positive quotations from reviews which I used to reinforce my horror genre, 'An unforgettable horror experience'. To make my DVD realistic and professional, I incorporated the DVD logo, censorship warnings and a five star rating. I conducted some research into horror reviews and added 'Scream Magazine' into my campaign. Language like 'spine-chilling' and 'terrifying' were used to emphasise the films’ success as a horror. The tagline is short and reflective of the narrative blurb, which is representative of the feeling of entrapment and solipsism. After completing my drafts of the teaser, official poster and DVD cover, I was given some skilled feedback which helped strengthen my draft ideas and improve my final piece production work. A range of positive feedback was given, such as consistency across campaigns, as well as constructive criticism, such as the blurb being too unclear to read and the images of the official poster being difficult to distinguish. 


Production

All of my practical work has been created and edited using the website Pixlr. I had very little previous experience using this site, and although I found it initially challenging, I found learning about the new techniques very enjoyable and beneficial. Through frequent photo-manipulation tasks, I have grown accustomed to using the burn, blur, and sharpen tools as well as experimenting with the saturation, contrast and opacity levels to achieve a degree of professionalism within my work. The paintbrush tool allowed me to create blood splatters and dirty backgrounds to satisfy the codes and conventions of horror. The creation of typography has been an on-going experiment throughout my campaign; it is essential for the copy to be suitable to the codes and conventions of horror and also to look professional within the structured mise-en-scene. When editing the copy on Pixlr, I often lowered the contrast and saturation to create a bleak canvas and I integrated cracks and scorch marks, using the paintbrush tool, to make the letters ancient and weathered-looking. 


My final pieces were the result of pre-production research, photo manipulation and textual analysis. The purpose of my teaser poster was to hook the audience in through the use of enigma codes; the screaming mouth is semiotic of fear and terror and is also an intertextuality to the ‘Scream’ horror campaign. Due to making my production suitable to the codes and conventions of horror, the paintbrush tool was used frequently to create blood and gore marks. Therefore, the oppositional reading could be that there is too much blood. I used a possessed female character as the focal point on my official poster because my pre-production research informed me that women symbolize vulnerability and fear. When creating my production work, I checked that the posters were fit for their purpose by placing them on a wall and asking people for their opinion on whether or not they look professional; I gained much positive feedback from this. I also placed my DVD cover amongst real DVD’s to ensure it looked realistic. Elements of realism were incorporated through the use of DVD logo’s and age restrictions- the effect of these created a professional finish on my production work. I am extremely satisfied that my production work is suitable to its purpose.








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