Horror Campaign Analysis - The Conjuring - Official Poster

Horror Campaign Analysis - The Conjuring - Teaser Poster

Due to having completed my pre-production campaign, I will now begin research and preparation for the final production task.

Mock Up #2

As I stuck with the same idea for the campaign through both posters, my second mock up is a  teaser poster. I much prefer this poster to the official poster, as I feel it connotes the idea of the film a lot more. The slogan seems much more obvious than the previous one, as it connotes the idea that something is hiding within the child's body. I also like the way I've still used the colour scheme of black, reds and whites though in a much more subtle, less vibrant way than previous which I think makes the poster look more realistic. I think the way I've changed the opacity of the layer with the child's face in agony is very effective, as it contrasts and so emphasizes completely the hand. The poster also looks a lot more bleak and washed out, which I think looks better for my idea. I like the way I've used scratches and blotches on a low opacity sporadically in order to make the poster less structured. Finally, I much prefer the font type used for the title (Modern No. 20)

To improve on this poster, though I like the image of the hand, I would perhaps change the image to something more suitable of the genre as I feel it may not fit the background image appropriately in relation to the possession sub-genre. I would make the image of the hand or its replacement more clear and perhaps try to connote the idea of pain through the main image as well as the child's face, perhaps by adding blood brushes and cracks/smudges/dirt to make the child look more deformed and less life-like. I would also darken the image by lowering the brightness and raising the contrast, however I like the way that in this poster I used the burn tool between the fingers to do so. To improve I would also edit the child face slightly, perhaps show that something is within her body through having something coming out of her mouth and make her skin look more deformed.

Mock Up #1

This is the result of my first mock up. This particular poster would be the official poster for the campaign, as it contains elements such as the credit block, the exact release date, the actors in the movie and so on and so forth. I like the way I've used cracks and blood splats in the background to make it look as though the poster is crumbling, and through doing this I've intertwined the black, red and white colour scheme within the poster, using a mixture of black and blood red cracks cobwebbing the typography, which also fit the colour of the dress. I think the way I've made the main focus of the poster (the girl and the dress) look more emphasized than real through the use of glamour glow is effective. The slogan used for this poster seems very topic appropriate seeing as 'God' is linked with the lexical field of religion.

To improve in my final piece, I will make sure to take photos of suitable backgrounds connoting the title instead of using plain black in order to give the poster a more life-like effect - perhaps a church or a set-up exorcism scene. I also dislike the way I've intertwined typography together as in some cases it does not suit the genre, and I would  need to stick to one form of typography rather than three. Perhaps I could also think of ways to merge the background, image and text together to make it look as one rather than a put-together text.

Some photos taken for the mock up pieces >>

More playing around with typography...

I created the original typography on Microsoft Word using 'Times New Roman' in order to conform to typical 'possession' typography. I again used small caps to conform, and added a white glow around the edges.

After editing. I used pixlr.com to edit very subtly. I adjusted the Gaussian blur on the word 'Ritual' and added smudge brushes over the 'R' to give a supernatural effect. I also decided to add scratch marks in the corner to create enigma codes. 
This is the first typography in which I have used no red, and I don't like it as I feel it is missing a demonic presence - however I like the overall design. To improve, I would change the scratch to perhaps a red to include more of the demonic colour scheme.

In this design, I used the font 'You Murderer' which I downloaded from dafont.com a while ago. I decided to change the font to a deep red in order to use the typical demonic colour scheme however still used a white glow to keep the theme of the supernatural.

Through editing on pixlr.com, I decided to make this font more messy and abstract than the rest to create a sense of panic and disaster. I randomly scattered scratch, dirt and blood brushes over the piece to create a sense of chaos, and decided to stick with the red scheme. If I were to make changes, I would attempt to strategically place the red brushes whilst still being abstract.

Again, I used Microsoft Word to create the original font. I used the font 'Georgia' and chose a deep red, including Microsoft's cross symbol rather than a 't' in order to promote the genre. I added a slight white glow around the edges of the text.

 When editing on pixlr, I decided to keep the idea as basic as possible. The only editing I chose to do was put emphasis on the cross, emphasizing the genre. I added a white overlay around the edges of the cross and used a soft circle brush in the middle of the cross, and lowered the opacity. This is one of my favourite ideas.

I researched further into audiences for the horror genre and audiences for films comparable to my idea...

Typography preperation

I have reached the stage where I have begun thinking about possible titles for my horror campaign. I took into account the results from my questionnaire and responses from my focus group, and decided to base the campaign around the 'Possession' sub-genre. After gaining others opinions, I have come up with five possible titles to use for my work. These are:

The Exile
Demon
Ritual
Possessed
Contained

My personal favourites are 'The Exile', 'Demon' and 'Ritual'. Therefore, I have decided to play around with these fonts in most detail.

Focus Group

Focus group carried out on Saturday 2nd November 2013. The group includes two males, Sam and John (18 and 24) and two females Chloe and Kelly (20 and 29). Based on my questionnaire results, the fact that they are all old teenagers/young adults will give me an accurate impression of what my target audience is looking for. The points discussed will help determine what I need to include in my campaign and what I could add/improve to make my campaign better.

My discussion points will include:

1. Which character do you prefer to see as the victim in a horror movie and why? Based on this, which character do you like to see as the 'baddy' and why?

2. What elements in a horror poster draw your attention the most? Consider colours, images and text?

3. Do you enjoy the 'possession' genre and why or why not? If not, which genre would you prefer to watch?

4. Show them my mock up ideas using images from Google. What do they like? What could be improved?

5. What strikes your attention most on a DVD cover? Can you think of an example you've previously seen?

Me: Which character do you prefer to see as the victim in a horror movie... Why?

Sam: Well typically it's the woman that is the victim in the horror movie so I guess I'd like to see her as it would fit in with the typical horror conventions, whether she's actually being hurt or not is a different story. She could be the victim of betrayal or victim of possession.

Chloe: I agree with Sam that typically the woman's the victim but I think it gets boring! I don't want to sound too disturbed (haha) but I like it when the child's the victim because it makes you more emotionally connected to the film. Nobody wants to see a child get hurt! Plus it can make the plot a lot more interesting than just your typical horror film.

Kelly: I kind of disagree with Sam and Chloe... I don't find it emotionally overwhelming when the woman's hurt because like Sam said, it's typical of horror, but then again I find it more disturbing and scary. I think to make your horror campaign scary you should stick to the typical conventions of horror... if you go too offroad and use a male as the victim, the conventional scare will disappear.

John:  I like seeing animals as the victim but that could just be because I'm an animal lover! Seeing the animal die at the end of the film is even worse because that way you've seen the bond they've made with the human all the way through and suddenly that's all gone!

Me: Based on that, what character do you prefer to see as the 'baddy' and why?

Chloe: I like seeing the man as the baddy. You have to stick to horror's roots sometimes, seeing an animal or a woman as the baddy would just seem unrealistic in my opinion. 

John: I have to say I totally disagree! Seeing the child as the baddy really gives me the creeps, a possessed child! In this case animals aren't involved unfortunately, having an animal as the baddy would just seem immature... A woman could be a good plot twist though as the audience certainly wouldn't expect it!

Sam: Yeah I think having a mix of females and children - a little girl basically - as the baddy is a good idea. I think you should try and avoid the idea of the man as it's too conventional. People would expect it and like John said, expecting something get's tedious after a while.

Kelly: I agree with Sam and John, I definitely like films where the child is the baddy because it completely contrasts the idea of children's innocence! However I do like my traditional films and so I guess I find men the scariest coming in close second.

Me: What elements in a horror poster draw your attention the most considering colours, texts and images?

Kelly: Anything gory... Anything red... just anything that uses typical horror conventions. Sometimes posters go to the extreme and it just seems like a horror comedy rather than scary so I prefer it when they keep the gore to a minimum and don't go over the top.

Sam: Yeah I totally agree with that, but I guess it depends on the genre of horror you want to do. Obviously a gore film would need a lot of red, blood etc. but then that wouldn't fit in with the conventions of a supernatural film? If I saw a supernatural film with reds used I would instantly be put off watching it, it doesn't seem professional. You'd need to use whites and greens for films like that.

John: I agree that it depends on the sub-genre but certain aspects can run throughout all of them I guess... I think shadowy images can run through all sub-genres and still be acceptable, that's eerie in any circumstance! Stay away from cringey text though (at this point I have a few horror DVD covers in front of me for my own benefit - I was looking at DVD covers previously to give me an idea. John then points to one of the covers titles and laughs). That's just a joke! Ooooh blood dripping off the title, very scary! I'd be more attracted to a poster that has an eerie feel to the title. 

Chloe: I agree with John, stick to the eerie feel. Although if you decide on the gore genre this might not fit... Just try to keep it simple no matter what you do or like John said it gets very cringey and in fact not scary at all!

Me: Do you like the 'possession' genre and why or why not? Are there sub-genres you prefer?

John: I love it but it's not for the easily scared. I think because it's kind of realistic compared to monster or ghost films makes it that little bit scarier.  There aren't really any genres off the top of my head that I prefer.

Kelly: I personally don't like it because like John said I'm easily scared (haha). I prefer gore films like Saw just because of the fact that it's not really realistic and I don't get scared that it may happen to me whereas in possession films everything seems a lot more real... It gives me the shivers just thinking about it! So I guess it would be good if you wanted to scare an audience.

Chloe: I like it personally. It doesn't really scare me though.

(Kelly: You must be crazy!)

Chloe: (Haha) Sub-genres such as science gone wrong appeal more to me, I'm a science geek.

Sam: I agree with John, I love possession films. I could watch them all day! I love it especially when a child is possessed or even like in that film [The Conjuring] where the woman is possessed was freaky as hell! I was jumping in my seat all the way through the film. 

(At this point I showed them my mock-up posters with image used from Google) Me: What do you like about these and what could be improved?

Chloe: I really like the "They're Watching" poster. I love the way you've put the images together and lowered the contrast so it's all dark and dingy. It looks like a child at the bottom, too. Freaky! The only thing I'd say is that the font could be a bit more ghostly looking as though 'They're' don't exist.

John: I like the "Torn" poster because the font attracts me right away. It looks like a mixture of gore because of the red and ghostly because of the glow behind the text. It's mysterious, I like it... As the audience I'd definitely be drawn in to this poster more. The title is mysterious too, the whole poster is mysterious! I'd want to know more about it. One improvement is that you could perhaps add some more red to the picture to make it match the title and the theme altogether. 

Sam: I like the "They're Watching" poster too. Yeah, I agree with Chloe about the font. It could be more ghostly and perhaps even positioned in a better place. I like your use of different cracks in the picture but I just think you could make it seem like the photos are supposed to be together rather than put together by altering the contrast even more, but it's good the way it is. I like the way the silhouette is entering through the bottom. (He then notices the blood splats) Oh! I love the blood splat from the ceiling above too, it's like something is above the silhouette. It's mysterious and ghostly, the pictures and the title! It's definitely a film I'd watch.  

Kelly: I prefer the "They're Watching" poster personally. I like the use of the images being put together to make it look like the girl is about to turn round at any second. I don't really have any improvements to add on to the ones that have already been said.

 Me: What strikes your attention on a DVD cover? Have you seen one you can think of?

Kelly: Pretty similar to what I said about the poster. Typical colours and pictures. But I always read the blurb and the tagline. If neither sound interesting, I won't even give the rest of the front cover a look-in. I like "Wreckage" if I'm going by the blurb and tagline.

Sam: If I was flicking through films I'd definitely need something with typical horror colours used, reds and ghostly whites. But the picture is a big giveaway, too. Close-ups or silhouettes of people scare the hell out of me compared to scenic pictures like lakes or houses. "The Conjuring" is a bad example of a DVD cover! Boring!

Chloe: Personally I think the title. The wording, the actual font itself. If the title looks boring or doesn't fit in with what I personally see the sub-genre as I just won't buy it. So word of advise, if you want to impress me make sure the conventions fit in with the sub-genre you choose! I like "The Dare"

John: Agreed with Chloe and Sam, the title and the main image. I don't like a DVD cover to be too crowded or it looks very amateur. Simple but scary, is my motto! "Inside" is a good example

Me: Thank you for your time and opinions. I'll take them all into careful consideration when preparing my pre-production pieces.

 

The analysed results for my first questionnaire were as follows...

This is the questionnaire I will use to narrow down my audience and general ideas for my horror campaign

I created a schedule for my pre-production research in order to complete the tasks required by the deadline, efficiently. 

 Textual and content analysis into comparable products - Drag Me To Hell