Our Finished Epidemic Horror Poster

Poster Design Idea 5

This is an example of a poster design idea we created in colour so we could better visualize our final poster. The positioning of the subject is incorrect and would be better if it was similar to the first sketch. The colours are close to what we want to achieve. Yet the black background maybe too bland for the warmer tones we want to present. The cracked chunky font is what we will use in our final poster along with the film credits and date displayed along the bottom in traditional poster style.

Poster Design Idea 4

This idea was also seen o be too similar to already existing posters not in keeping with our wanted originality in the horror genre. The bloody hand would be too much of a cliche for our poster perhaps. Yet we agreed that red more chunky fonts were the way we wanted to go in our final poster.

Poster Design Idea 3

Another nice idea for our poster was a long shot down a corridor (possibly of our derelict nursery location). Yet due to a lack in numbers and costumes this would be hard to achieve. The titles of this poster idea are more stylized yet perhaps not exactly representative of the horror genre.

Poster Design Idea 2

When discussing ideas our first one was to use an eye for the poster showing off the white contact we had used. Yet we found this later to be too similar to already existing posters. The eyes in the background would also represent other zombies of the Epidemic. In this poster Halloween is in the titles to show our best time for releasing the film. The background would be black.

Poster Design Idea 1

This is the initial Idea with our male zombie character looking over the shoulder at the camera. The poster will utilize high-key lighting and represent warmer colours so that the red gore of the image shows out for greater horror effect. The Titles are in simple bold font so that they stand out.

Existing Film posters- Research

Looking at existing film posters we got a number of ideas for our poster, we spent a lot of time analysing different posters so that we could get a number of ideas of how people project themselves on posters.

The horror film "The Eye" was released in 2008 and was a re-make of a Hong Kong thai film made with the same name. This poster produced for this film was clearly carefully thought about and utilises technical photoshop editing for dramatic effect. The positioning of the eye in the centre of the page makes the view concentrate on the eye. The texture of the face and the hazel eye pupil makes the whole mis-en-scene blend in well together. The text is fairly basic and it is clear that the picture is the main focus of the poster. The Eye is put in bold for emphasis that contrasts with the picture. The designer of the poster has made the font of "eye" in bold text which links to the main subject of the poster for added emphasis. The poster is fairly simple yet effective, with the hand coming out of the poster it creates a creepy atmosphere and makes the horror genre that the poster is aimed at, stand out further.

This poster gave us an initial idea to design a poster with an eye on the front, but have the victim in the eye so it looked like the villain or killer was watching the victim, the victim would look scared and shaken up to create an ominous horror feeling.

Famous zombie films like "Land of the Dead" gave us the whole initial idea to do a zombie trailer. As zombies are getting more and more popular we decided we would follow trends and adapt them in our own way for original success. The colours in this poster really work well to create a grim and fearful atmosphere that zombies give. The red text represents blood and is a typical convention used throughout horror posters, magazines etc. The image of this poster is of loads of zombies walking towards the viewer as if they are being approached, the murky green colour used represents rotted corpses and gives a gruesome feeling. Although we cant see all the zombies faces we can see the ones vaguely at the front which show blood and pale faces. A lot of zombie films use the pale face look we decided to break the tradition and go we a more up to date look of freshly killed zombies more like films such as 28 Days Later.

Shaun of the Dead is far from scary being more of a horror comedy, but it does have some horrific aspects and the zombies typical to the conventions we are analysing. When looking at this poster we got the idea to use white contacts, as they would work well to create a zombie effect. Typically, audiences convey red as blood so the red doors in the mis-en-scene create a sense of danger and death. All the zombies in this poster are presented as dark and gorey and look drained of colour in their complections. The main actor is presented on the poster as bright and colourful which causes great contrast, this also helps distinguish the difference between the undead and the living. The slogan and title is white and bold which makes it stand out but also could symbolise surrender, peace or innocence. This font type is another factor we considered in our design ideas.

Film Age Rating

To get a rating for a film you have to go through the BBFC who watch and classify the films before release, unlike other legislations like OF-COM they can do something before the release of the film. The British Board Of Film Classification is an non government independent body which was set up in 1912. The BBFC is in place to protect people, in paticular children.
They may reject a film if it is not in line with the UK Legislation requirements. An example of this was The   Exorcist which was released in 1970, the film was so vile and gruesome it was banned from being shown, and wasn't re-released until 25 years later when the film had been "toned" down and still today it isn't being allowed to be released on DVD.

The BBFC looks at legislation and acts and works alongside them, these are all on the bbfc website.

www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/the-bbfc-uk-law

They may also ban or alter categories of films exhibited under their own licensing jurisdiction. The BBFC has set guidelines and the last set was published in June 2009.

Existing Film Magazine Ideas.

 To get some ideas for our media magazine we decided to do some research on some magazines that already exist. We decided to look in our local shops to see if they had any horror magazine ideas but having little success we decided to browse the internet for inspiration.

The Character The Joker comes from "The Dark Knight" which is the last of a series of films about The Batman. Although this film is more action than horror as a group we liked the detail of the makeup used on The Joker and also the way this magazine was layed out and it gave us some inspiration for our own work. The letters joker were written in a way so it looked like the O and E had been stamped on, but also the lettering in general reminded us of the joker instantly. His head is positioned facing downwards which gives him a dark feeling but we can see he is looking directly at the camera with the one eye that is visual. We decided to use this idea in our photography so that our actor was facing away from the camera but he was still looking directly as if he was looking right at the audience. We did however think this magazine cover was a bit cramped and the space wasnt used as effectively as it could have been.

The lettering on this magazine was used really well and gave out the impression to the audience that it is a horror magazine instantly. Our group liked the makeup effects used in this picture and it gave us the inspiration that blood coming out of the mouth would be a really good vampire look. This magazine follows the typical conventions of a magazine but is also careful not to use to much lettering which would cover the image up.

Roles of Post Production

Ashleigh: My main role of post production was ensuring that the blog was up to date and that everyone had their work produced on time. I planned out the blogposts carefully and produced a lot of well thought out blog posts when we weren't filming  I have also been working alongside Eliza to get different make-up techniques to make our villan look as scary as possible, whilst we tested out the makeup we took pictures so we could look over them after.

For our new footage we plan to film I am searching for more actors to be in our film and taking photographs of the new location to put on our blog. After all our filming is done i will put the photography on our blog and continue to add more blog posts about filming and other work we have done.

Andrew: My role of post production consisted of creating a suitable movie poster and magazine cover to go along with the teaser trailer. Through the researching of many other horror magazines I was eventually able to produce a magazine that followed the traditional simplicity that most, if not all other horror magazines held. I presented the magazine to the rest of my group and asked for feedback; overall they said it was very good, but they still had me take note on small adjustments that could make it better. I took the feedback into account, made the changes and the final version of the magazine was produced.
The magazine is still in the process of being made, but as the photos have yet to be taken, I am limited with what work I can do while only analysing sketches. Since we plan to take new footage, we also decided to take the photo for the magazine before, during or after filming.

Micah: My main role of post production was the editing process of our teaser trailer. I utilised the software of final cut to splice and seamlessly edit our footage together. I also predominately have produced the poster and magazine front cover sketches and final design ideas for Andrew to use when he creates both the poster and magazine cover. I have created a soundtrack using garageband software for our trailer to avoid copyright issues and make our work more original. I drafted and designed the ideas for our "Reactions Productions" logo; in this process I carefully studied other companies logos and took ideas from these to create our own unique production logo to display at the beginning of our trailer.

For our new footage we plan to film. I have drafted a new storyboard to include within our already edited footage. I plan to direct and shoot most of these shots next week. After all of the filming is finally completed I  will edit all of the footage together using our original created soundtrack and finally complete the trailer.

Eliza: My main role of post production was to assist with the blog and also to research makeup techniques and ideas for our trailer. I have been looking at different techniques that will make out zombie look as realistic as possible. I have tested out some ideas on different volunters and pictures of these have been taken.

Unused Footage 1

During the editing stage a number of shots were not used in the final cut. Here are some clips uploaded to the groups youtube account from the first shoot that did not make the final cut:

Updates For December

Andrew has almost completed the poster for our horror film and the film magazine cover has been started. We have drafted a new storyboard due to complications with the filming equipment and the decision to add in more flashback scenes during our first attempt at filming. We complete all of the filming by next week including new extra shots in a new location. All of the original footage has been edited to match a new storyboard and the new footage will be cut in alongside this. The soundtrack for the teaser trailer (created by Micah) has been added over the top of the footage.

Final Logo

For our production company we decided to create a few logo's and see which one was the most succesful and refected our group the most.

Ideas:

-The use of an eye to represent the reactions of the nervous system relating to the name of the team
-Use of shadow and colour to contrast

Logo Design Research

First of all to create our own "Reactions Production" Logo we looked at a range of different logo ideas already created by famous production companies and distributors. Both of the following examples utilise animation in their screen time.

"New Line Cinema", the distributor behind films such as "The Lord of the Rings" and the remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" have a very basic logo design. We decided to also use a similar kind of colour scheme in our own logo design for an edgy and dramatic feel. The black back ground brings out the blue glow around the black symbol in the centre. Shadow has been used to great effect in this logo perhaps using the burn tool on photoshop. The titles are in an elongated Times New Roman font in white to boldly stand out from the background, clearly stating the name of the company.

New Line Cinema Logo

The "Warner Brothers" Logo is a lot more of a vibrant logo idea. The sky blue background contains clouds and moves to create a dream like sequence. A crest or emblem is boldly embossed onto the foreground of the image clearly stating the titles in time new roman font across it. The bent nature of the crest makes it seem almost 3d, separating it from the background. The WB behind the title is the original symbol of the company combining the use of old and new techniques in logo ideas. The WB is presented in a different font then times new roman for an almost cartoon like effect.

Warner Brothers Logo

Filming Locations

For our trailer we wanted to film somewhere dark, closed in and something that gave the spooky impression (e.g. dirty walls). We began to explore differant places to film. We felt that the classroom was too open spaced and creating the setting there would be a bad idea so we began to look elsewere for inspiration. We had a good idea to film in the janators cupboard as this was small and creepy looking and you instantly thought of a horror film when you looked at it. However the room was a little to cramped and there would be no space for lighting which would give out a bad pictures when filming.
Our teacher than gave us the opportunity to film at his studio, the pictures he showed us of the studio was exactly what we was looking for. The walls were dirty and looked old and the whole setting gave you the vibe that a horror film gives you. The setting was perfect, and so we had our perfect location for filming.


(get pictures of janitors cupboard and studio)

Second Storyboard

Updates For November

8th November- Since October we have been working consitantly on the progression of our teaser trailer and are not coming to the end of its completion. Our trailler is 41 seconds but we aim to cut it down by at least 5 seconds more as, as a group we feel that it drags to much in some places. More blog posts have been added and these include our backstage photography which illustrate what we did on the day of filming and also some background knowledge on sub genres. For homework we are now looking for a logo for our production company. We have decided we will design this ourselves by using other companies as inspiration. We wanted our logo to reflect our company like other logos do.

Makeup/Costume

For my groups film trailer various equipment will be needed to create the set. As our setting is based in a basement we used various old household objects and laid them out in a way to create the illusion that the place had not been used in a long time. I have begun research on materials and makeup that portray zombies. Our initial idea was really good and that was to purchase white contact lenses so that out zombie would have white eyes.

Our research on zombies showed that clothing is usually generic or what the zombie was wearing when they died and is a little dirty and ripped. The makeup was a little more varied but generally they had cuts and bruises and dirty faces. Alot of zombies have pale faces but for our actor we decided not to do the pale face look. To accomplish this look we would use latex and dark makeup to create the cuts bruises and dirty face. We also would purchase some blood to make them look more scary. We will use all these techniques to make them appear more frightening.

Backstage Photography

We took a number of pictures throughout filming to show the progress throughout production.

Building up the Latex

Drying the latex, we held the latex down but apart to create a ripped effect

Sticking down already made latex

As the latex built up we added more blood

We put makeup on to blend the latex in so it was all one colour

Latex mask complete with white contacts in also

Latex complete with the fake blood

Andrew on set with lighting and props set up

Andrew and Eliza (Actors)

Micah (Directing)

Eliza (Camera Crew)

Ashleigh (Victim)

We begin to film

Andrew as zombie

Audience Research

We posted our questionnaire on Facebook and sent emails to people so that we could get a varied response as well as many answers as possible, we used surveymokey.com to design our questionnaire and to hold our results.

In order to know what our teaser trailer was going to be based around, we opted into making a questionnaire that was distributed on Facebook and via email to 21 varied people, asking them on their opinions. The questionnaire consisted of 20 questions that were related to the information we needed .Then having gathered the feedback we were then able to start the filming of our trailer. Below are the results we obtained.

Question 1 ; Are You Male Or Female ?

We decided to ask 21 people aiming to get half females half males we wanted to do this in order for our data to be fair and to have a general feedback on both genders opinions. However we ended up having 12 females and 9 males, but this was only by a minor amount.

Question 2 : How Old Are You ?

We aimed to ask a variety of people in our age gap of 17-21 and although most of them were 17 they were still in our age group and helped with out research.

Question 3: What is your ethnicity?


For our ethnicity question we didn't want to give tick boxes as we didn't want to risk excluding anyone or offending anyone, so we asked them to state their ethnicity if they wished. 18 out of the 21 said what ethnicity they were.

Question 4: What is your favourite sub genre horror?


With our research , we discovered that a small minority of people we asked enjoyed the sub genre of vampire and supernatural . More so we also found that the same percentage of people that enjoyed thriller and horror also was the same amount enjoyed by zombie . We decided as a group to then use the sub genre of zombie as part of our teaser trailer as seeing as it look more interesting.

Question 5: Where do you usually see advertisements for films?

The majority of people we asked seemed to say internet or bus this gave our group the impression that maybe mostly younger people were most out and about when seeing these advertised and many of them were regular users of the internet .

Question 6: How long do you expect a teaser trailer to be?


Seeing as the trailer we were asked to produce was to be a teaser , our group decided to look at other teaser trailers that were related to our sub genre , we noticed that most of the teaser trailers were between 30 - 50 seconds. Our feedback also shows that most of our audience expected the trailer times to be not more than 50 seconds .

Question 7: Does the trailer heavily influence if you watch the film or not?

20 people out of the 21 people we asked said that the believed that the trailer heavily influenced whether they would watch the film or not , this then made out group make sure the trailer was the possible best in order for people to want to watch the film .

Question 8: On a horror magazine front cover do you think the character should be in normal clothes or dressed as their character?


The majority of people we asked said that they preferred if the character on the magazine was in costume , we as a group also decided on making sure that our characters where in costume because it made it look more realistic and appealing which would gain the attention of our targeted audience .

Question 9 : Does the villan of the film influence if you watch the film?

The statistics we got in this data was quite close we thought the villan played a constructive part as well as main role in most horror films , so we decided to make Andrew the central point in our poster as well as within the trailer to appeal to the audience .

Question 10: Are props important to you?


The use of props in most horror films play a big part on the production and makes it seem more real as well as thrilling , 9 people didn't think props were important in a horror film , however we as a group liked the idea of props in our trailer , we didn't use an excessive amount of props but a reasonable amount .

Question 11: Do you like the actors in the film to be around the same age as you?

Again the results we got , the majority of people didn't mind . We in turn didn't rather mind about the age group , but we thought it did help , seeing as our audience we were targeting were fairly young we didn't think the involvement of drastically older people would have given them a positive response or made the film enjoyable .

Question 12: Do you agree there should be overhead music in the trailer and writing?

We thought as a group the involvement of both writing and music was cramming the trailer and making it excessively to much , we wanted to go for a simple yet effective teaser trailer . Luckily most of our respondents had the same view in mind as us , which it made it easier to plan .

Question 13: if you said just one in the previous question which one?


Many people preferred overhead music , to writing in a teaser trailer. We thought music created more suspense and impact , where as music gave away more than music , which wasn't out intention.

Question 14: How often do you go to the cinema?

Quite alot of our respondents ,went cinema regularly so we thought , that in order to attract our audience would be in cinemas and in many public places . Also our campaign on this film would have to be very appealing in order to gain attention . None of our respondents said they never went cinema which helped us .

Question 15: Do you usually watch horror films in the cinema?


10 out of the 21 people watched horror films in the cinema , we were hoping more would watch them , but nevertheless we still went ahead with our horror theme . 

Question 17: Do you think a poster should have dark colours?


We as a group also favoured the use of dark colours in our magazine as it connotes the characteristics of death , mystery , emptinesses as well as fear . We then decided to use the colour black in our work .

Question 18: Should a poster have one main picture or a few ?

Eighteen Respondents thought that one main picture on a poster was better than a few , we also thought this was better as there is one focal attention drawn and it shows minimal information on the film and looks neater .

Question 19: Are you more likely to watch film based on a review?

Many people were likely to watch a film based review , which was understandable , so we made sure that we created a positive buzz around our film.

All in all we were pleased with our results and it made it easier to follow through our next step and the other steps of making .