Film Poster Analysis

This poster has a simple colour scheme of black, white and red. Only the film title, 'PANIC ROOM' and the words 'coming soon' are in red. As the rest of the page is in black/white/grey these two text are extremely prominant. This is vital as essentially the film title and release date are most important when promoting a film. The use of the word 'PANIC' and the poster image clearly represent the film as a horror. The two panels of black running down either side of the page draw focus on the middle panel, whilst also giving the illusion that the woman in the photo is trapped and in danger. The image used - a close-up of a woman's face, with a person's silhouete in the background - is very powerful. The main actress' name spreads across the width of the page in white text. The use of white enables the text to stand out against the dark background. As Jodie Foster is a well-known actress, her presence in the film may alone attract the audience. At the bottom of the poster, beneath the title, are the names of the crew and cast - this is often seen in film posters.

Brad Pit and Morgan Freeman are two extremely well-known actors. The poster includes a close-up image of each of them, whilst their names are also stated in bold text across the top of the page. The images have been taken with both actors looking directly into the camera, so to give the illusion of the actors looking out to the audience. This is often done in advetisements as it helps the audience to connect, drawing them in. Emphasising their involvment in the film is a sure way to attract audience members. It is often the case that people go to see a film because of who is in it, instead of what it is about. The poster doesn't give much away about what the film may be about. The title 'seven' and the caption that follows, indicates to the audience that the film is about death and the seven deadly sins, however little more is given away, inticing the audience. The main colours used are gold/brown and white. The colour white is used for the title and actors names only and stands out against the 'old', 'worn' looking background. The seven deadly sins are listed down the centre of the poster, clearly linking in with the title and the proposed focus of the film. The seven sins are each crossed out, which adds to the curiosity of the audience.

Film Magazine Cover Analysis

The main attraction of this cover is its sex appeal. Megan Fox is a well-known actress and sex icon. Her bare upper body and tight leather trousers, along with her pose and expression, not only portray her in a sexual manner but the image also has an element of vulnerability. Clearly this will appeal to the male members of the audience, but also any females are likely to find this appealing as they may idolise her. The cover is quite busy, however it still appears relatively 'neat'. The coverlines are positioned in line with Megan Fox, which helps to highlight her importance. Words and phrases such as 'HOT' and '...the most wanted woman in Hollywood' help reinforce the idea of sex appeal. There is a main colour scheme of blue, grey, black and white. The other feature photographs in the bottom left corner also contain these colours. The bold title however does not comply with this colour scheme and is instead in a vibrant bright red. This is the case in the majority of 'EMPIRE' magazines, helping to make the magazine immediately recognisable to past buyers. The magazine's reputation alone may then attract audience members.

This 'TOTAL FILM' magazine cover is very basic and features an extremely limited amount of text. The magazine cover is not conventional in that there are no coverlines or even a main feature headline. The image of 'Harry Potter' (a world renowned fictional character) is clearly emphasised as being the main focus. This alone will attract the audience. The image occupies the foreground, covering the entire page, and overlapping slightly with the magazine title/header. The use of overlapping helps the character to appear 3-Dimensional. The character's stance and expression indicates that the film is of the genre action. 'Harry Potter's' eyes are looking ahead, as his arm reaches/points outward, directly addressing the audience, helping them to connect. The bright patterned background links in with the known theme of the 'Harry Potter' series - magic! The magazine title is positioned at the top of the cover, spreading across the width of the page. The title is simple, to the point and clearly indicates what the magazine will contain. As well as this, the word 'FILM' can easily be read from a distance, which is essential at point of sale.

The magazine website address is the only other text featured on the cover. This minimalistic approach intices the audience to visit the website to find out more about the new 'Harry Potter' film. This promotes the magazine as a whole.

Problems with filming

One of the main problems we encountered when it came to filming our trailer was arranging shoots. Trying to gather together all of the people we needed to feature in our trailer was very difficult. We needed 7 people to feature in our trailer and several of the shots involved all of them. It was hard to find a day when each person was available to film and so there was a relatively long period of time when our group had little, or no footage to edit. When we finally managed to arrange our main filming day, we wanted to make sure that we filmed all of the shots needed, as it would be very difficult to get all of the same people together to film again. We made a detailed plan for the day and stuck to it.

We also had problems with lighting in some of our shots due to the time of day that we filmed. Many of the individual shots of the main character 'Grace' had to be filmed after school at around 4pm. Due to the time of year, natural lighting was often poor. For this reason some shots appeared very 'grainy' and so could not be used in our trailer.

We also found that once we had finished filming we realised that there were a few key shots that were not suitable to use. To solve this issue we left blank gaps in the trailer that we then filled after re-shooting these shots.

Filming schedule and plan

Below is our group's filming schedule and a detailed plan for Tuesday - the day we plan to film the majority of our footage.

Target Audience

Our horror trailer is aimed at both males and females, aged 16-25. The characters in our trailer are all aged between 16 and 18, and so belong to the targeted age group, which helps the trailer to appeal to the audience it is aimed towards. Also, as the main storyline is focused around teenage love and obsession, I would expect people aged 16-25 to find this more appealling than an older audience would. There are 4 female characters and 3 male characters featuring in our trailer, and so a relatively even spread, helping the trailer to appeal to both genders.
It is often said that stereotypically girls/women prefer films that involve love and romance, where as boys/men prefer action packed films, usually containing some element of violence. This trailer incorporates both love and action within the film genre horror and so we expect it to appeal to a broader range of people.
The trailer is set in the present and all clothing and styling will be done according to current trends and fashions. This should again help the trailer to appeal to our target audience who are of ages where looking and dressing according to what is current is often considered key. Below is a fictional example of the type of person our trailer will be targeting:




This is Joe, he is a typical 19 year old boy. He lives in Leeds and is currently studying New media at The University of Leeds. When he is not busy studying Joe enjoys socialising with his friends, going shopping in Leeds city centre, visiting the many bars and attending gigs and club nights. He likes listening to a wide variety of music, including music from artists such as Linkin Park, scouting for girls and The prodigy. He also enjoys trips to the cinema with his friends, particularly when a new horror movie has been released.

Detailed Storyboard

This is our group's detailed storyboard that we produced by combining ideas from each of our initial storyboards. When we film and edit our trailer we will follow this shot by shot storyboard, however, it is expected that changes and alterations will need to be made. There is always room for improvement and it is likely that issues will occur along the way.

Initial Storyboard