Finished InDesign Poster

This is my completed poster for our group's Delirium film trailer. The final adjustments I made were the changes to the billing block. From observing professional posters, I realised that the billing block was far too square, which meant that it took up half the poster and took focus away from the image, leaving blank space. Therefore I re-made the billing block so it would be more rectangular, and then I could enlarge and move the other content down the page, giving the main focus to the image and the title. This was important as posters are supposed to be image led, and the text should be minimal and basic with key information.

Full Analysis:

The Tagline

For the tagline, I eventually used a font similar to the title so as to link it better to the poster. However, I made sure to keep it smaller than the title so it did not distract from key information like the title and the release date, and there could be more focus on the image. The word 'PAST' relates to the image being a photo frame and connects the poster together more seamlessly. 'HAUNT' could suggest to the audience the supernatural presence of the possession in the plot. Also, 'YOU' directs the tag line to the individual audience member, helping the audience to feel more involved in the plot, possibly even feeling at risk of the danger, creating a more longer-standing memory. As a promotional device for the film, this is ideal as it counts on making an impression on the audience so that they feel intrigued enough to go and view the film and gain profit through ticket sales for the filmmaker.

The Background

I wanted the background to look as realistic as possible to present the film as of high quality and the fear to be more effective. Therefore, I searched different backgrounds to appear underneath the main image. I finally settled on the grey wall to portray the dark and mysterious nature of the plot and the villain, which also allows me to place key information on without the difficultly patterns would cause to reading.

The Main Image

The image of the photo frame was selected to suggest the happy life the family presented had. The past tense is suggested through it being a photo and the suggestion that this happiness has ended is hinted through the blood smearing hand. The blood represents murder with the red symbolising the danger the family is in. The hand is purposely made to appear as disturbing as possible.

The dark bruises and cuts, with the jagged edges suggest the person is no stranger to pain. The nails in specific imply the origins of this character, as the sharp, black jagged nails are often associated with witch-like figures, portraying their cunning cruel nature. The hand shape itself is meant to resemble a female's hand, hinting more to the identity of the character.

When considering the position of the hand across the frame. The position of the fingers convey elements of the plot. The child is almost hidden between the index and middle figure, suggesting the figure's dominance over him, and how he is quite literally in her grasp. These fingers are the more used and so hint the figure's focus on the child. The other fingertips rest near the mother's face, implying how she is not as victim but involved. The idea behind this is that the nails are around her head, suggesting her link to the figure. Finally, the father figure is completely left. This is intentional as the character is left unaware and in the dark to the true nature and extent of the figure (the possessed mother) and even takes to videoing the disturbances to gain more knowledge. Him being left in the lighter side of the portrait against the darkness of the hand also portrays the battle between him as the saviour and the evil possessed mother over the safety of the child and themselves.

The Title

The title 'DELIRIUM' suggests the insanity of the possessed mother and her ambiguous true nature and origin which the audience will be intrigued to find out during the film. The size and position of the title is purposely done to emphasize the importance of the name of the film as key information, as it is vital to the audience finding out more about the film. The white outline of the text creates the eerie and mysterious ambience. That, with the similar faded outline of the main image

The Billing Block

By making my own billing block and adding it to the film poster, it helps to create the presentation of a professional and realistic film poster. I re-made the billing block so as to have a rectangular shape, which allowed me to create a more balanced and conventionally correct layout.

The Release Date

The release date is the second largest piece of text on the page, as it is key alongside the title as informing the audience when to go about watching the film. I made the colour a dark red to link to the blood in the picture better and to portray the dark nature of the film more effectively.

Conventional Details

The poster include three set of online information,such as a web address and two social media links. This helps the modern audience stay up to date and interested in the film by using the technophilic society we live in now to access a wider audience.

InDesign Poster Draft: 4

This draft shows the final change in my tagline. I felt that the tagline was too disconnected from the rest of the poster and so, to tie it in, I changed the font to the same as the title. However, I made sure the size was smaller than the title so as ensure the title maintained as being the most crucial information on the page to take note of.

I also darkened the colour of the release date. The original shade of red, I felt was too bright and by darkening it, the red connects to the dark red of the blood better and portrays the dark nature of the film more effectively.

InDesign Poster Draft: 3

This is my third draft of my Delirium film trailer poster.

For my tagline, I then went on to place it on the frame of the photo, so as to link to the image better. I intentionally kept the text small and black as to not distract in from the title in size, or the release date in colour, as those are more important information for the audience to remember.

When considering the release date, I not only enlarged the text, but I also changed to the font to Impact to be more noticable on the page as key information.

I added in the billing block by converting the document to a png from Adobe Photoshop. This aided me by finishing adding all the content needed to complete the poster and leaving just arranging to be done.

InDesign Poster Draft: 2

Still deciding on the placement of the tagline, I meanwhile occupied myself with the creation of more blood on the poster as the props of lip stick to create fake blood did not give the image the frightening effect I had intended.

I therefore used Adobe Photoshop to remove the background of an image of blood and then placed it against the fingers of my main image to portray the hand smearing blood across the frame.

InDesign Poster Draft: 1

This is my first draft of my film poster. However, I felt the billing block didn't have high enough quality, therefore I would have to create another method to present it on my poster in a way that you can read it's contents clearly.

As wells as this, the tagline 'FEAR HER' could be seen as too vague in the sense that audience feedback has informed me that the 'HER' in question is not 'link well enough to the main image'. This is why I decided to use another sentence that was also used in our group's 'DELIRIUM' trailer, which was 'THE PAST WILL HAUNT YOU'. The word 'PAST' relates to the image being a photo frame and connects the poster together more seamlessly. 'HAUNT' could suggest to the audience the supernatural presence of the possession in the plot. Also, 'YOU' directs the tag line to the individual audience member, helping the audience to feel more involved in the plot, possibly even feeling at risk of the danger, creating a more longer-standing memory. As a promotional device for the film, this is ideal as it counts on making an impression on the audience so that they feel intrigued enough to go and view the film and gain profit through ticket sales for the filmmaker.

Yet I failed to decide on a suitable font, size, colour and placement of this tagline, which is evident below through my progress of trials.

Delirium Poster Image

For my image, I took various angles of my idea before choosing the more face-on version, as it was clearer to see and there wasn't many problems with sorting a background to suite.

I wanted the background to look as realistic as possible to present the film as of high quality and the fear to be more effective. Therefore, I searched different backgrounds to appear underneath the main image. I finally settled on the grey wall to portray the dark and mysterious nature of the plot and the villain, which also allows me to place key information on without the difficultly patterns would cause to reading.

I then had to use Adobe Photoshop to remove the existing background of my main image and then fit it on top of the grey wall background on InDesign.

From this I used tools to shadow the outerline and corners of the poster and the feathering too to smoothen the edges of the main image. This creates a darker tone commonly used in horror posters, while the feathering of the photo frame and hand gave the image an eery ghostly feel that suggests the supernatural plot of the film.

Location Information

For the location of our horror trailer, we use one of out group member's home. The reason behind this was that it had a classic design, which connects to the back story of the plot, having the witch haunt the premises since around the 1600s. We based this witch on Anne Leech (1645), who was hanged in suspicion of being a witch and therefore put to trial, which resulted in her death. This added realism, tying this supernatural presence to real life events. This is a technique done my other films of the horror genre. For example, Paranormal Activity plays on the pretence that the story of what happens to the main characters is an actual real life occurance. The filmmakers even go as far as capturing the film throough the perspective of a hand-held camera, allowing the audience to become more involved with the belief that these horrific events were real, and creating a larger effect on them due to the application of a threat like this being a possibility in their life too. Having a large effect on the audience is key, as it adds to the memorability of the film.

It also contained a barn which helped add to the daunting and fearful atmosphere of the frightening scenes set there, known for being cold, dark and damp.

Having the house as the home of one of our group members helped a great deal with planning the neccessary shoots, as we were able to film whenever was needed within reason, avoiding the difficulties of having to gain permission off owners of land and buildings, and organising our shoots around the availiability of their schedule.