Final Film Poster

 

This is my finished poster for 'Killer Next Door'. I have followed many conventions of a poster design in the genre of thriller in order to keep my product as close to real media texts as possible. I have kept brand synergy between the three products in terms of colour scheme, the fonts and locations as well as the female protagonist who is featured on all three products. With all of this in mind I believe my thriller poster displayed many traits of a conventional film poster as well as conveying and sticking to the genre of thriller/horror. 

Film Poster Photoshop Design Process

To start the design process for my film poster, I selected one of the drafts which I had previously drawn; this draft being the one I shall take inspiration from in order to complete my digital print version of the film poster. In order to create this I started with a blank photoshop document ready to insert my pictures which would be feature on the poster. 

This picture I took myself in low key lighting in my garden and I used this as the background of the poster as it is representational of the wood area where a majority of the film is set. I used to photoshop tool 'contrast' to help darkest the picture as to add to a deeper level in term of the low key lighting.

This next step shows how I have added the slow up shot of the female protagonist onto the background of the tree shot. This shot of the female shows her in a struggle and references to the tone of the film in terms of it being a mystery thriller. This gives the audience an insight into the type of film this poster is advertising. I cropped and blurred around the background of the female therefore to blend her her into the branches of the trees to make it look seamless. 

To add to the dark and scary tone of the thriller genre I used the contrast and saturation tools on photoshop to bring more light to the females face in contrast to the background of the poster, the trees where made darker as to blend more into her hair. This stopped it looking like two pictures onto of one another but rather just one blended picture. 

Next, I blurred the whole face of the female slightly using the 'blemish' tool, this took out any unwanted redness or pixilation which may have occurred when positioning the photograph on the photoshop document. I then also added more saturation to the face of the model especially around the eye area to give more of a yellow tint which could signify bruising around the female; her appearance on the poster yet again help to symbolises the thriller genre. 

I also then added the title text ('ringbearer font') which I had downloaded from '1001fonts.com' as the default fonts on photoshop were very limiting in terms of my genre. I also wanted to keep synergy between all three products and this font was used on the end credits of my trailer and it also matches the colour scheme of my film magazine. I placed the title in the top 3rd of the poster as to stick to convention. I also made the font very large as this is the title of the film and needed to stand out to the audience. 

The screenshots below demonstrate how I used the tools such as 'bevel', 'Blend' and 'smooth' to add texture to the font as well as darker the colour of the edges of the font which added a 3D quality to the font. 

After the title text was done I added the actors names at the top, I added their names at the top and bolded their surnames as this is what conventional film posters had displayed when I had analysed them. Therefore I wanted to emulate this realistic layout on my own film poster. I also added a hook line on the bottom, an additional sentence which draws the audience in even more and gives an insight into the genre which the film poster is advertising. The words 'already chosen his next victim' immediately displays to the audience that this conveys a 'victim vs killer' dynamic therefore must fall into the thriller/horror genre. 

To finalise the poster I added the small print at the bottom disclosing information about the directors, producers, actors etc. This is common on conventional film posters and ties the whole poster together. 

Taking Pictures For the Film Poster: Background

In order to convey the woods scene in the the poster I took my own photos in outside at different times of the day to see which lightning/colour scheme worked better and which would fit in best with the overlaying image of the female protagonist which I was going to place on the poster as well. I felt that the pictures with the plain blue sky worked better than the multiple colours featured in the sunset pictures. This is due to the tone of my genre; I wanted to avoid bright colour palettes. 

Below are all the shots I took before deciding that the first picture below was the best one to feature on my poster. 

Taking Pictures for Film Poster: Female Protagonist

In order to create my ancillary products I needed to have a corresponding picture which related back to the trailer which could be feature on the front of the product; in this case I as shooting for the film poster magazine. I had the concept of taking a still from one of the scenes in the trailer, that scene being at the end when the female protagonist is seen unconscious in the bath and in a state of suffering. I shot these picture on location and not in the studio with out studio lights therefore it made it a little harder to get the perfect shot with out access to all studio equipment. 

These ones featured the killers hand over the victims mouth because I felt that it added a more intense feel to the picture as she almost look calm in the pictures above when she is just laying in the bath. This is not the tone I wanted to convey so by adding the hand over the mouth it automatically referenced suffocation, danger and set the whole tone of the picture to be more intense. This matched the genre way more than the previous pictures I had taken. 

These next pictures, I had taken the hand away again but had played with the lighting. As I didn't have access to studio lights I had to work with the lights which were installed in the bathroom I was using. However although the quality of the pictures seem better due to a higher exposure than previous photographs, this wasn't what I wanted to convey in the poster photograph due to the nature of the genre. A typical conventional film poster for the genre of thriller/horror conveys low key lighting and has a mysterious feel to the picture. Due to this I discontinued to play with the light in terms of making the set brighter as the low-key lighting was working much better in terms of setting the correct miss-en-scene and tone of the poster. 

Designs for Thriller Film Poster: Killer Next Door

These are the three drafts which I have designed for my film poster. From these three I will chose a final design which I will then create on photoshop.

Final Magazine Design

This is my finished magazine cover for 'Killer Next Door'. I have followed many conventions of a conventional magazine design in order to keep my product as close to a real media text as possible. I have kept brand synergy between the three products in terms of colour scheme, the fonts and locations as well as the female protagonist who is featured on all three products. With all of this in mind I believe my film magazine displayed many traits of a conventional film magazine as well as conveying and sticking to the genre of thriller/horror. 

Film Magazine Photoshop Design Process

To start the photoshop design process, I needed to select a picture from the photoshop which i done with my model/actor in the studio.I settled on a mid shot of the female protagonist this is because I wanted her to be the centre and face of 'killer next door'. I chose the victim of the film to be the face magazine (as well as the poster and film) because I wanted the audience to associate with the venerable female character and keep the 'killer' of the film a mystery as to add to the tension of the trailer. Her costume suggests a struggle with the ripped and dirty t-shirt.

First I imported the photo into a blank photoshop document. I need to cut put the image and remove the model from the background which she was photographed on. To do this, I used the polygon lasso tool, this enabled for a clean, precise, accurate and professional outcome. The edges of the pictures were therefore smooth and looked seamless when placed onto the photoshop document. 

Next, I added a background. I took this picture in the woods on location when filming for my trailer. I wanted the background to relate directly back to the trailer in order to enhance the brand synergy of the three products. In order to make the background more aesthetically pleasing than just a simple picture imported from my camera, I went ahead and used the blur tool on a large setting and moved the cursor in a downward motion starting at the top of the page and moving the cursor over the background in a repetitive vertical motion. This allowed the green tones of the picture to all merge together and create more of an appealing look to the background. In order to still keep the photograph obvious as to it being the woods, I left the base of the picture unblurred by creating a graduated effect. This mean that the colours at the top 'popped' in a more pleasing minor to frame the models face, yet the bottom of the background was still representative of the wooded area where the trailer's narrative was based. 

To stick to the conventions of a thriller genre, I wanted to darken the whole magazine layout so far (the background and model's features/shadow)because when researching in existing media texts of film posters in the thriller/mystery genre they all had dark, ominous and eerie backgrounds with heavy shadowing on the front cover photograph. I decided to emulate this in my own magazine design as I wanted to convey a sense of mystery to the magazine design - this also allowed me to stick to conventions of real media texts. The way I darkened the background and font cover photograph was by selecting the 'contrast' on the photoshop document and lowering it to make the magazine design appear darker. 

After I darkened the picture the background was done and I wanted to focus on editing the front cover photo. I used the 'blur' tool to add an airbrushed look to the models face. This gave off a more professional look and an overall smooth look to the design. As I had previously darkened the contrast to add shadows to the design, I wanted to bring a bit of light to the models face as this is where I wanted the audience to be drawn to when initially looking at the magazine. To do this I selected the 'brightness' tool on photoshop and turned it 'up' to bring back some life into the models face. 

In addition to this I also added a Masthead. The name of magazine's masthead was inspired by the idea of marketing a product which was of 'moving image' - therefore the word 'Motion' seemed appropriate to reflect this. I downloaded text from the internet which had a bold and cinematic look to it, I then clicked 'File, Place' and added the text to the photoshop document. Using the 'text tool' I could then move the text around on the screen and make it smaller/larger to ft the positioning of the magazine design.  

I placed the masthead just below the top of the page, leaving room for a puff to be inserted above this. A conventional feature of a mast head is to take up around 1/3 of the page - therefore the masthead on my magazine design reflects this convention by being bold and large. I also added a red 'glowing' effect around the masthead to make it stand out even more. I chose the colour red due to the product being representation of a mystery thriller and therefore red has connotations of blood, danger and death.

I then added a puff above the masthead; a puff is there to boost the ego of the magazine and draw more attention to it's popularity. My puff states that the magazine is 'an innovating insight into the world of moving image'. I made sure to reference the 'moving image' to make it clear to the audience that this magazine was about films. It also helped back up the masthead title of 'Motion' and linked all the text together to create a sense of brand identity. 

Next I added a barcode on the bottom left hand corner - this makes my product come close to looking  like a realistic media text product and it gives off a more professional feel to the magazine as a whole. I then added a few extra film titles which were featured  in the magazine - these specific film's genres were all in the thriller/horror genre, therefore the audience can easily understand that this edition of 'Motion' was specialising in the promotion of thriller films. 

After this, I added the cover line of 'Killer Next Door' in bold red lettering, I also added a 'drop shadow' behind the writing text to make it stand out further. I decided to do the cover line in a different colour and add a drop shadow because this is the name of the film which is being promoted on the front cover so I wanted it to stand out as much as possible. Similarly to the masthead, I also downloaded the font of the cover line from the internet as there was a limited amount of options on the photoshop software I was using, this was restricting toward my genre so I sourced my fonts elsewhere on 'www.1001fonts.com'. The positioning of the cover line was toward the bottom of the page as I did not want it to take away and attention from the cover photograph as both these conventions of the magazine are equally important. 

After the cover line was implemented onto the magazine, I took to adding a price above the barcode, a date, issue number and the web address for the magazine site. Even though these details are small, they are significant in keeping the magazine's layout the same on each new edition of the magazine and it helps to keep the brand identity stable. 

To fill out the space around the main cover line and cover photograph, plugs were the next step in terms of designing my magazine layout. The fonts used on the plugs were sourced from the photoshop software as I didn't need these to be particularly fancy or bold like the masthead and cover line. I used a range of fonts but stuck to the same simple editorial feel for each of the plugs as too much variation would have made the plugs look untidy. I also used a few colours; red, white and black, but again didn't want to overpower the rest of the text. 

Next, I finished placing the plugs either flush left or flush right and worked them around the outline of the female to keep the magazine tidy as I didn't want to overlap the text onto the photograph as I felt this would draw attention away from the female.  This finished of the magazine and tied the colour scheme together. 

This is the final finished copy of the magazine layout where I have stuck to conventional features of a magazine in terms of film as well as sticking to the genre of 'Thriller".