Secondary Audience Research - Summary

After conducting Secondary Audience Research, it has influenced me in the following ways: 

• My Horror Products will contain elements of Social Realism
• The characters will be of a similar age so my audience can relate to them
• Thus the film will have an Age 15 rating
• I need to ensure that all my products relate to what my target audience demand.

Audience Conclusion

Trailer Production

Logo Production

Logo Research on Prezi

Inter titles

Above are the intertitles I have created which will be featured within the trailer, they contain the traditional aspects of intertitles that one would expect to find in a horror film.


Trailer (Rough Cut)

Poster Production

The production process of my poster began with creating a black background, and positioning text. However, I decided that the font for the title of the movie looked slightly childish to a certain extent and therefore may not convey the themes of the movie appropriately. However, after referring back to my textual analysis blog post, it was evident that the positioning of my text didn't exactly match the forms and conventions of a horror poster.

I decided that by adding a smokey texture it will give the poster an element of mystery and it will potentially make my poster stand out more than a plain black background. I then blended the layer into the original black background and changed the blending mode to hard light.

As mentioned above, I decided to reposition my text to match the forms and conventions of a horror poster. I decided to change my font to a font that looked more clear and professional. Although the font itself does not give the atmosphere of horror, the traditional horror colour palette of white, red and black does. I changed the text on the skyline from "From now on nothing will be the same" to "An experiment, gone wrong..." I decided to change this because the original quote has been used countless times on professional products and it didn't really tease that audience about the film narrative. However, "An experiment, gone wrong" teases the audience slightly more, and at the same time the teaser gives away the film narrative but not enough to spoil the overall film. 

I added the three random actors names above the movie title, as this was again a common convention found in my textual analysis. I also repositioned the "11.11.11" directly to the bottom of the poster, as if it was positioned directly below the title, there would be too much going on.

Literally every single professional mainstream (and indie) will contain a credit block, therefore I have included one on my poster. Therefore I have created one for my poster, I created this by downloading a font "SF Movie" from dafont.com and typing various text which you would expect to see on a credit block such as "Directed by.." "Cinematography by..." and so forth.

 Throughout production, minor alterations were made such as the fact that the word "Wrong" is now red,  the reasoning behind this is because if one buzzword is in a different colour, the audience are likely to be more attracted towards it, thus focusing their attention on it. Additionally, the fact that the colour red is applied on the word wrong also connotes danger and the fate of the characters within the movie, therefore this also lets into the narrative of the film.  Also, the reviews included work in a sense as usps to persuade the audience to see the film, as they are positive views from mainstream companies then it's likely that the audience are therefore more likely to develop the attitude that because "The Times or The Sun said it was good, then it must be good." This factor is more of a psychological technique to encourage the audience to go and see the film. 

Magazine Production

My production began with adding a simple black background on Photoshop.

I then sourced a concrete texture, that will eventually give my magazine background a slight rugged texture.

The concrete texture was then placed above the black layer and the opacity was lowered to 20%. This is so that it is still noticeable that there is a texture but at the same time it does not dominate the black background. 

My next step was to add my mast head, I wanted to use a slightly distorted font as I felt that it would suit the overall theme of the magazine as I have decided that this magazine is going to be a special halloween edition. The reason behind this decision is because the film I am making is due to be released in November, and as this issue would be produced in October, Horror films in a Halloween edition magazine would sell well. 

I then added my puffs and Barcode. The puffs let the audience know that this magazine has value for money and I have tried to include content from films that belong to a variety of genres. This is so that the magazine has something to offer for everyone if they were not interested in the horror genre. 

I then added my main sell line, I have made the title of the film dominate the main sell line by making it red and using a font that the audience can easily associate it with the horror genre. 

The skyline I have added was placed above the masthead so that it would be easily noticeable, furthermore, again I have used a font which conveys horror, giving the overall magazine a sense of continuity. 

I then thought that I could make the masthead fit in with the rest of the horror themes on the magazine by  adding a blood splat across the Masthead. The blood splat was created by downloading a brush online, and changing the blending mode to Hard Light. Changing the blending mode gives it a realistic looking effect. 

More sell lines were added, again to reinforce the fact that the magazine will hold value for money. Again a majority of genres were covered in the sell lines to reinforce the fact that there is something for everyone in this magazine. 

After showing my product so far, I received some feedback as to how I could improve. I altered my "2012" sell line so that it stands out more, with the 2012 in a different colour and different font. I also edited the spacing as before it appeared to be too far apart. Also, another notable difference is that I changed the blending mode on my concrete background. I discovered that if I changed the mode to "hard light" and the opacity to 100% it stands out more and creates an atmosphere of horror which reflects upon the main sell line. 

Additional sell lines were added, again which cover a variety of genres so that the magazine has something to offer for everyone. Each sell line contains a teaser in order to intrigue the audience and hopefully encourage them to purchase the magazine. 

Photoshoot - Magazine/Poster

 This image will be featured on my poster, It will be manipulated  into black and white and possibly gradients or filters such as Hard light will be added too. The photo will need to be manipulated to look dark as possible, in order to convey feelings of horror. The location choice reflects isolation and loneliness that the antagonist feels throughout the film and invites the audience to empathise with her. 

This photo will be featured on my magazine cover. I've challenged the rules and expectations of how a model should be presented on a magazine by not using direct eye line match with the rule of thirds. This is because the antagonist on this film does not connect with people personally and the image encourages the audience too feel suspicious towards her, and arouse curiosity leaving them longing to find out more about her. 

Magazine/Poster Mock Ups

In order to create a potential background for my poster, I have looked at various photoshop tutorials to make a horror background have attempted to replicate them.
Blood Stain Effect Tutorial

My attempt at making a blood stained background.

Overall, I think that this "Blood Stained effect" would look good on a film poster. However, the blood effect colour may make the text difficult to read depending upon which font or colour text I use. Therefore, My next aim would be to experiment with fonts and colours in order to see if the poster would look professional and convincing. Also, if I was to redo this background, i may try and use more white colour as in some sections I feel that there is too much dark red meaning that it doesn't particularly look like blood running down a wall.

I feel that this second attempt works better than the first as the red does not dominate the background as much, however I still don't know for sure if this will be a suitable background for my poster depending on how text and images will look on it. 

Darkened Room Tutorial

After following the trailer here is another mock up of a potential poster background. Overall I like the effect and I think it conveys the horror genre well. However I think that the background would work better as a "teaser poster" as I think it has an intriguing effect on the audience, leaving them wanting to find out what the film is going to be about.

Zombie manipulation Tutorial

Here is a very rough mock up of how I think I want my magazine to look. I've decided that since the trailer I aim to make is a horror trailer, I am making the magazine a special halloween edition magazine, to coincide with release of the film on 11.11.11 I particularly like the blood splat effect I have created on the mast head, I think however, I need to add more sell lines, maybe make the barcode a little smaller and obviously include an image of one of my actors when they are available.