Not only do our group have to make a trailer, we have to make a poster to go with it as well. So it is important to get some feedback on what makes a good horror poster. This first question focused on font. San Serif and Distorted got the best response. Distorted to me was the better option because it goes more with the horror genre. However, I was surprised that broken up wasn't chosen more, I thought it was quite good with horror films, and gives the audience a better idea of what the film is about. But, sometimes, less is more.
After talking with my group about ideas, and coming up with a storyline, and shooting ideas. I thought about trailers where you see people in distressful situations, like in the Saw trailers. However people weren't so keen on this. Maybe they thought it gave too much of the story away, or they didn't like the idea of children seeing the poster, or that it was just genrally inappropriate. It gave me an idea into what was seen as acceptable in a poster, and a trailer, and that full on torture wouldn't be acceptable.
To come up with ideas, I'd been looking at some posters, and the colour schemes. I personally prefered the darker themes, so thought I'd use it as one of the questions. People agreed, that it was better to use darker colours. It is much more sensible to use in a horror poster. Light colours and High Key lighting and mislead the audience into thinking that it isn't a horror film. Some people did think however that it was good to use lighter colours. Some posters do this, however it has to be made clear by tag lines, and images that the film is of the horror genre.
People seemed to prefer long shots in posters. I predicted that they might like close ups because sometimes the detail can be more attractive, but the audience seemed to prefer the mystery. Using a long shot, with one picture can make people think, why is this person here? why is there something there? etc... I can see why this works. So when creating the poster it's worth me looking at posters to see what has the better effect and looks more interesting. It is important though, to remember that different things, work for different films.
When thinking about making a poster, it's important to think about why someone might keep looking at it. Should there be a massive clear title? Or should it be more subtle? Should there be a tag line? Should there be one or two pictures? At this point I wanted to think about the tag line. It appeared that most people prefered to have tag lines. I could see why as well. It doesn't give you the whole information on the film, but it gives you an idea of what the films about. A lot of the time, the tag line is a question, and you only find the answer out if you go and see the film. This can sometimes be the deciding factor to whether someone goes to see a certain film or not.
When looking at the images on posters, I wondered what was more effective; to have the poster blurry, go create more mystery? Or to keep it clear, so it was easy on the eye. Most people opted for the clear option. Most horror posters are clear, and it's the picture that gives away the genre of the film, so maybe having it blurry wouldn't be so appropritate, unless it fitted in really well with the film. But after thinking of our ideas, it wouldn't be such a good idea.
Many film posters don't have the main character on them. This can to create a mysterious effect, especially if they use an object, for example 'The Last House On The Left' just has a house and no people in the picture. Some films have more than one poster with different characters on each poster. This is an idea that I'm interested in for our film. But the audicence felt it was better to use the main character. So now it was time to talk with my group to come up with ideas that would hopefully please the audience.
I was trying to decide whether the audience would be impressed with full on gore in the poster, or would it give too much away about the film. Most people seemed to prefer the idea of more calm, but sinister posters, which is understandable. Sometimes having lots of blood and guts in a poster is just too much. However some people did like this, but it may not be appropriate in some cases, for example, you don't want a picture on a billboard of someone being tortured with loads of blood because children are going to see it. This is something that has to be taken into account when creating the poster.
Some horror films such as 'Saw' have high key lighting in their posters, and some, such as 'The Haunting in Connecticut' have low key lighting. I thought that low key lighting would be preferred by the audience, as the poster was for the horror genre, but they decided that high key lighting was better. With 'Saw' for example, it's obvious that it's a horror, as you can see the persons head on scales, or the severed fingers, it gives a surgical feel to the poster, and connotes that sharp implements are going to be used in the film. Low key lighting gives a subtler impression of whats going to happen in the film, and can be used in different sub genres. In my opinion, high key lighting only works if it can sum up the story line, and mix the horror side well.
Many posters don't always have their titles at the top. It's not uncommon to find them at the bottom or in the middle. However, the audience seemed to prefer them at the top. Sometimes though, it looks better at the bottom, it's important to think about the compostion, and that the text looks right, in comparison with the image on the poster. Before thinking about where the masthead should go, it's important to think about what the poster will look like with the masthead in different positions.
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