Photoshoot Term-Break Plan

I have decided that in the Christmas Holidays this would be the best time to arrange another photo shoot with the actors, however due to this time being around Christmas we wouldn't have the luxury of being able to include all actors who participated in the trailer and having a date where everyone was free due to some of the actors having family priorities. However for the Film Poster and the Magazine Cover I intend to use a limited number of actors therefore this makes it easier for arranging a time and date with the indivudals who contributed to the film trailer. Also I have a idea of what my ancillary tasks will look like, because I want my film poster to have a simple yet effective image which is subtle and helps get the target audience interested, however with the film magazine cover I want an image which shows emotion of the characters and some more revealing action shots to help promote the film on the magazine.

Choosing Design Software

Before I start my ancillary tasks, I want to decide on what design software to use as I may use different features from different software types to help me design both my film poster and film magazine cover. Software available is the Adobe software which includes Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator and also the Serif Software which includes DrawPlus and PhotoPlus.

The software Serif DrawPlus I have used before so therefore I know how to use different features of the software like the basics which involves the pen tool, erasing, creating and manipulating shapes and adding effects to text and images. From my experience with using DrawPlus this will help me speed up the making of the film poster and film magazine cover as I wont have to allow myself time to learn how to use the tools of the software. However even though I have used the software before I am not familar with all that it has to offer so therefore there will be certain aspects of the making process which I may not be able to do so I may have to watch tutorials online or read the help guide on the softwares website.

Another part of Serif called PhotoPlus is a piece of software that I have used briefly in the past to change the look of photographs. This would be good to use to change the photographs which I will take in the photoshoot during the holidays. However Adobe Photoshop is a very popular piece of software that is used to change the look of images by altering contrast, brightness, colour and even remove different aspects of an image for example blurring the background of an image or erasing a persons body and blending the face into the background.

In conclusion I will use the more advanced features of the Adobe software to create my film poster and magazine cover as Adobe is much more broad that Serif therefore the capabilites in this software are more vast. However for the basic part of the creation process like creating shapes and adding text I will complete in Serif DrawPlus as I am familar on how to perform these tasks therefore it will save time and I am using my existing skills but also learning additional skills throughout using Adobe's more advanced features.

Film Magazine Cover Moodboard

I have completed research into a film magazine mood board to learn what conventions are present throughout psychological horror film magazine covers and what I could use for my own film magazine cover for the film ''Transfixed''. From this research I have found that most of the film magazine names have a clear and concise font throughout their issues, this is so that their audiences can recognise the magazine as the name and font of magazine companies is their branding therefore it needs to remain the same throughout. I have found that the horror magazines use dark colours to portray mystery and horror, as black is stereotypically associated with the horror genre. The dominant image is often a close up shot of the antagonists face and is positioned in the centre of the magazine cover. Other types of shots include long shots which shows the entire body of the antagonist and the background of the image is normally foggy or very dark to portray the horror genre to the audience, an example of this is in the Film Magazine and Empire Magazine, where the Joker is shown and also a man dressed in a sinister suit.

Film Poster Moodboard

I have completed research into a film poster mood board to learn what conventions are present throughout psychological horror film posters and what I could use for my own film poster for the film ''Transfixed''. From this research I have found that the colour black and other dark colours which represent death or violence are very common and the images are often very subtle, for example film posters like The Shining, The Orphan, The Purge and The Others all use a characters face however this is the main dominant image and this doesn't tell the audience much about the films narrative or show much of the films aspects however they get the audience interested and curious which makes them go and see the film, also they all clearly show that there genre is horror which clearly informs the audience on what film they are going to see. Another convention of horror film posters is that low key lighting is used a lot, for example the film posters like Secret Window, The Purge and The Others are feature low key lighting which helps portray mystery to the audience and also low key lighting creates shadows which is a convention of horror films as it hides the unknown and encourages curiosity. Lastly the text is always mainly white, black or red which are colours associated with horror as these all colours help show different parts of the film, like the colour red shows pain and blood. Also the font used it very clear and seem to take one of two approaches, a scruffy and handwritten style font or a clear and serif type font.