Magazine

This is the magazine cover I created using photoshop. I found the font used for the logo on www.1001fonts.com and thought it had a suitable style.
Making the Magazine Cover 1

Making the Magazine Logo


After recieving audience feedback, I decided to update the title on the magazine, as Your Time Is Up is more suited towards a tagline. I also updated the logo, so it is more ghostly and mysterious and is consistant with my poster.

Here is the final draft of my magazine

My poster

I decided that the best designs contain a single figure and a simple colour scheme. To emulate this, I decided to use the lighting effects which I have previously experimented. I cast a model to wear the mask which will appear in the film and used a high birdy with red gel combined with a bright light from behind to create this image:



Using Photoshop, I removed the background, leaving a simple image of just the figure. I then added the cast information and the title to the picture. To make the image stylish and similar to the illustrated designs of early film posters, I decided to add a paintbrush effect. This is the resulting image.





After recieving audience feedback, a common complaint was that the title YOUR TIME IS UP was more suited towards a tagline. Also, the text was too small. In my final draft I edited the size of the canvas to make room for the text, rather than put it on top of the image. This is also an acceptable size of film posters. The film's new title is THE HUNTED. Another complaint was that it was not clear that this was a horror film, as it could also be a sci fi. Although I disagree, I do understand how this can be misconceived. I did think that the mask and the red light would be enough, but now it is too late in post production for me to add a knife to the character. Instead I used the photoshop effect of motion blur to create a more ghostly film logo, while increasing the quality of the font.

Poster Research

Before producing a poster of my own, it would be a wise idea to do some research.

Here are different examples of horror film posters.



The very title of this film, 100 Days of Night, shows the setting in the title, as night time is when a lot of horror films are set (darkness = unknown). This poster has a simplistic two colour scheme of black and red. These two colours cause us to instantly think of danger or blood, which is effective because these are two instantly recognisable common features in Horror films. The Poster shows a man screaming in pain and dark blood splatter, causing us to expect violence in this film. The overall look is very stylised, possibly because it is based on a comic book. Despite this, I think this is a very effective poster.



This poster is for the 1996 film 'Scream'. This poster has a more retro feel to it, as it is in black and white and simply shows a girl's shocked expression. We could feel disturbed as the extreme close up can be considered intrusive. The monochrome colours show that she is very pale, possibly from the shock, and could remind the viewer of a ghost. There is a hand to her mouth, which raises the question, is the hand there because she is shocked or is it someone elses hand? This poster also has much more text than usual, giving us more story. However, the reference to 'Scary Movies' could mean that this film is either a Satire or takes place in a less fictional world. The logo of the film features a sharp knife shape on the 'M', which is representative of the knife murders that take place in the film. The unconclusive picture itself allows the audience to come to their own conclusions and suggests a lot of possibilities.




This poster is for the 2007 horror film 'Shrooms'. The main colour scheme of this poster is dark blue, black and white, which is again a common setting for horror films. The full moon in the background is also associated with the genre, as is the skull shape which it makes with the mushrooms, which suggests they lead to death. The films logo is smuged, which could relate to the effect taking the mushrooms may lead to. Most of these posters have a face in it and a simple colour scheme, two elements I will use in my poster.

Production Company

To help with the production of my Projects I have decided to create my own production company. This will allow me to attribute all my work to a single company, meaning better organisation. It will also sound more professional and aspirational than simply using my own name.

I decided to call the company McLeod Pictures. I created a business card template which I could use to give to actors or anyone involved in the creation of my teaser trailer.



The logo was also created using photoshop, as seen on the business card.