Poster Construction

Poster Construction 1 (draft)This is the beginning of my poster construction and I will be using non-copyright free images to create a draft. I wanted the poster to hint at the fact that this would not be a traditional werewolf movie, but at the same time not give away any vital information about the plot. Therefore showing the wolf as a shadow rather than a physical presence connotes the split personality of the person casting that shadow.A beam of light shining through a doorway looked ideal as the wolf shadow will be emphasised by its position within the narrow beam.I copied an image from www.google.co.uk/images into adobe Photoshop and firstly darkened the image before adding a gradient overlay to blend the edges of this image into the black background.

Poster Construction 2 (draft)

• I found a copyright free drawing of a werewolf that I thought would be ideal to use for the shadow. I used a layer mask and the magnetic lasso tools to separate the upper body from the rest of the image and then used free transform to move it into position within the beam of light.

Poster Construction 3 (draft)

• I used the paint bucket tool to fill the wolf in black. I then adjusted the opacity of the wolf drawing to make it slightly transparent, just like a real shadow. I also confined the edges of the shadow to the edge of the beam of light to make the effect look more believable.

Poster Construction 4 (draft)

• I have imported the title and it’s font from my Empire magazine front cover. The titles have also had a shadow effect added to them to give a visual impression that the light cannot penetrate the room in large quantities.

Poster Construction 5 (finished draft)

• Here is the completed draft of my poster. I think that it sets the tone of the film effectively as being dark and suspenseful. I added the silhouette of the human casting the shadow to make the poster even more creepy. This design is very similar to that used for the film ‘dog soldiers’ and conforms to the conventions of the genre by using darkness and mystery to scare the audience.

Images for the poster

This was the first attempt to capture the image of the door but the glass bottles in the bottom right corner made it unsuitable.

I removed the bottles from the shot and also took the picture from a slightly lower angle than previously

Images for the poster

• I will use this picture of myself for the silhouette in my poster. Because it is already very dark it should convert to a silhouette very easily. I won’t use it for the main image because the gap in the doorway is too wide and it is a level shot whereas I need a low angle image.

Poster construction 6I have blended the image of the door into the

black background using an inner shadow. Everything outside of the doorframe has been removed using a layer mask and the whole image has then been darkened.

I used gradual brush strokes on the door to give the appearance of fading light, reducing the opacity of the brush the closer to the edge of the door it got. I created a similar effect next to the door on the left hand side, using a large brush with 0% hardness which made the light appear to fade along the wall.

I stretched out the wolf shadow and made the dimensions appear more realistic, with the shadow being cast from the silhouette taken from the other image.

I have added actors names as my audience research indicated that this was one thing that horror audiences look for on a poster to make the film appealing.

Poster Construction 7

I have changed the light in the poster to red. This is the universal colour for danger and connotes blood and violence. This helps to target my film at fans of the horror genre. I have also added more red light to the top of the door to make the image look more realistic. The beam of light encasing the shadow has also been trimmed at the edges to make it more realistic as well.

Poster Construction 8

• Here I have finished trimming the shadow and beam of light to complete the realistic look I was after. I did this by mainly using brushes at 0% hardness to add and remove colour a number of times until I achieved this finished piece through trial and error.

Poster Construction 9

• I have now begun to add the credit block at the bottom of my poster. I have decided to base it on the one found on the ‘hatchet’ poster and downloaded the correct font from www.dafont.com

Poster construction 10

This is the completed credit block for my poster. I put each line of text into a different layer group to make them easier to reposition. As is traditional on a poster the names of people involved in the film are considerably larger than the job roles.

I have also added a web address that audiences can visit to find out more about my film if they are interested. The font size and colour make this stand out so as to attract the attention of any viewers.

Poster construction 11I have added a critic

review onto the poster because my audience research indicated this was another feature that will create interest in the film. I also downloaded a font from www.dafont.comwhich allowed me to put a star rating with the review. This will further draw the viewers attention to the positive review.

Poster construction 12 I was unsure as to which

way round I should position the film tagline and critic review. I took screenshots of both options and asked classmates to choose which one they preferred. My original design on the left was the overall favourite because people thought that this positioning looked better on the page. I therefore abandoned the design on the right and stuck to the original positioning.

Completed Poster

• This is the finished poster for ‘Canine’

• I have added the address of the official Facebook page for the film https://www.facebook.com/CanineMovie below the official website for the film. This gives the public two different options of sites to visit for more information on the film.

• I have included two previous films by the director at the top of the poster which conforms to my audience research about including famous actors/directors on the page.