The Hills Have Eyes promotional package.

Although The Hills Have Eyes film poster has an image, it does not have a central image like a majority of film posters. The image is at the bottom, although the hand stretches from the top. The image still takes up some of the page and is noticeable due to the close up of the woman's face. Her facial expression is scared which shows it is a scary film just from looking at the film poster. The hand has a lot of control over what happens to the woman's face which shows it is a film about someone hurting someone else. It does not have the actors names at the top of the movie poster, that is because the image and the title are the main things that stand out, and any other writing could take attention off them. The tag line is quite short and under the large title so it is noticeable and memorable, this also gives an insight into what the film is about and makes the audience want to see the film. The film poster has a vague release date 'March 09' so the audience know when abouts it is about, but would have to do some research to find out the exact date. There is also a small billing block above the release date, this is dark red and blends in with the woman's dark costume, this is not noticeable as the writing is hardly readable. The image is used to show the woman is scared, and also to show it is a film about strange things as the hand is strange. The woman in the image is wearing dark clothes and has dark make up around the bottom of her eyes, this contrasts with the light background ad attracts attention to her. The colour of the background is quite light, unlike other typical horror film backgrounds, this leads the audience to confusion as they do not quite know what the film is like. The hand has a bandage one but it is discoloured so it suggests someone who should be in hospital is doing the attacking. This film poster appeals to it's target audience (adults and teenagers) because it has suspense in it, and it leaves them wondering what is going to happen. It is cohesive with the trailer because they both have someone being hurt in them, and the background of the trailer is also similar to some of the colours in the trailer. It also has the man's hand in the trailer, and the tag line.



In The Hills Have Eyes trailer there are mostly midshot's of the bombs going off, this shows the bomb clearly so the audience can see how damaging it must have been for the people living there. There is a close up of the man at the gas station, this is so you can see his face in detail and can tell he knows something is going to go wrong. There is a long shot of the car when it is driving into the desert, this shows the car surrounded by nothing so it makes the audience suspicious that something must be hiding somewhere. There is a close up of one of the killers faces, this shows he is deformed and is not like a normal person, this also shows the detail in his face, and gives the audience fear. There is then an extreme close up of one of the killers and that adds even more fear to the audience. There are straight cuts when it shows the bombs, this shows the reality of bombs and that the pictures of them are real. When the family enter the desert the cuts turn to fades, this shows that they are not in a typical reality anymore, and that something unrealistic is going to happen. There are straight cuts when they are at the gas station to show that that is reality, and that what the man at the gas station is thinking about there safety is very real. When the non-diegetic sound of the bombs are going off, non-diegetic bomb sirens are also going off, this shows the audience what happened to the people without even speaking. The happy diegetic music when the family are entering the desert is the opposite to alot of the trailer because is it catchy and cheerful and makes everything seem perfect. The diegetic sound of the voices talking in the van are also very cheerful so it makes you think the family are a happy family who are going on a nice holiday. The non-digetic sound of the music that builds tension when the girl is looking out of the window adds suspense to the trailer and makes the audience wonder what is going to happen in the rest of the film. The prop of the van the family are in shows that they are a typical family going on a typical family holiday, this makes them seem innocent and lets the audience relate to them. The costumes that the family wear are typical summer clothes which adds to the sense of innocence which they portray. The man at the gas station looked dirty, this shows that the people around the desert are not like typical families straight away, even though the family do not suspect anything. This film attracts it's target audience (adults and teenagers) because it has adults and teenagers in the film, and it has suspense and fear which are very popular among films that adults and teenagers like. This has helped me draw the conclusion that a trailer going from happy to scary could be a good idea as it would intrigue the audience.

The Last House on the Left promotional package.

The Last House on the Left film poster has a central image, it is not a typical large central image and it not the most attractive thing on the page. However, it does stand out against the black background as it is dark grey and white. It is the only image on the film poster and just gives the audience the simple idea that something happens in a house. The house is surrounded by trees which gives the audience a sense that something mysterious is going to happen. There isn't actors names on the top of the movie poster which subverts the conventions, this is so the movie poster can be kept clear as it wouldn't have such a scary effect if it had a lot of writing. It has quite a long tag line, and not one that would be remembered, but when looking at the film poster it makes you think and makes you want to see the film to know the full story. The movie name is the most attractive thing about this movie poster because it is the largest thing and the white and red writing stand out against the black background. The red writing symbolises blood and the blood splattered next to the writing gives the sense of horror and makes you wonder what happens in the film. The white contrasts well with the black which makes it more noticeable and the different size fonts highlight the importance of different words. There is no reference to related films or release date on this movie poster. Again this is so it can be left as clear as possible to have a scary impact. There is a large billing block at the bottom of the page which would not usually be read unless someone is interested in the making of the film. The writing in the billing block is white, but it is so small people would not notice it. The image is used to create a sense of mystery and no one knows what is in the woods or the house, it is also noticeable even though it is small because the colours contrasts with the black background. Colour is used to create a dark and scary film poster and the only bright colour used is red, and that is used to symbolise blood. The target audience for this film would be teenagers or adults and it attracts them because it leaves a sense of mystery which would makes them want to watch the film, and it also has action in it which is a popular genre among teenagers and adults. The trailer is a lot more lighter than the film poster and the film poster makes it look alot more dark than the trailer. There is blood symbolised in the trailer and there is quite a lot of blood in the trailer so the audience can see it is a bloody film from both. The conclusions I have drawn is that having a very simple film poster can be just as effective as having a complex film poster. I have also drawn the conclusions that for horror the typical blacks, whites, greys and reds work really well.



In The Last House on the Left trailer there is a midshot of the girl getting ready to swim, this shows how normal her life was when she first arrived at the house, it also shown she was a normal girl who never thought anything terrible would happen with her life. There is a close up of her and her mum talking about going to meet Paige, this adds to the sense of her having a normal life as it shows detail in both of their faces and they seem happy. There is a close up of the murderer's son and you can tell straight away there is something wrong by his facial expression, the close up lets you look at his face in detail so you can tell he is not normal. There is a midshot of the murderer's walking in which at first makes them look like normal people, but as you start to see them in more detail you can tell they are not. There is a long shot of the girl being dragged into the woods, this shows the surroundings so the audience can see there is nothing around, and it also shows the violence in the way she is being taken into the woods, and the fear in her position. There is a low angle shot of the parents looking at Mary's body, this shows she is in control of the situation and her parents will do anything for her. There are mostly fades throughout this film to show it is not a reality, it is a film. There are fades when Mary comes back and she has been shot, this is to show this is not a typical situation, there are some straight cuts when they first go into the house, this shows that it is at first a normal sitatuion because it is just a family moving house. The non-diegetic sound of happy music at the beginning when they are first going to be house shows they were just a typical happy family. The digetic sound of their voices also adds to this as they are all getting on when they are talking. The diegetic sound of Justin's voice is deep and dark and you know straight away he is not the same type of the people as Mary's family. Low/dark non-digetic music starts when the murderers come in so the people watching the trailer automatically know they are not good people. The digetic sound of the thunder adds to the dark feeling that is in the trailer, and even when Mary comes back and there is non-digetic happier music again there is still the thunder. The costumes when the family first arrive are just typical costumes a family would wear in a family film, the prop of the trees show an idilic place, so overall it looks like a nice place to live. Justin's costume is dark compared to the girls so it shows he is a darker person already. Justin's mum who is a murderer has a light costume on at first, this makes her not look like the type to be a murderer when she goes out. The prop of the rocking chair when Mary comes back shot is important because it shows something that was earlier in the day something nice to now be shown in a darker light. The target audience for this trailer would be teenagers and it attracts teenagers because it has them in so they could relate to them in some ways, and because teenagers like films with action and music in and it has both of them. This has helped me draw the conclusion that having good music can really help the impact of a trailer, and also that having teenagers in a trailer can attract other teenagers.

The Amityville Horror promotional package.

The Amityville Horror film poster meets the conventions of a film poster because it has a Central image. The man in the central image is small, but he still attracts the audience because his posture and the weapon in his hand suggest he is dangerous. The house also attracts attention because it is large and is quite light compared to the black surrounding it, the image of the house is also an old, scary house so it tells the audience straight away that it is going to be a typical horror film. The other image at the bottom of the page saying 'catch em & kill em' gives the audience an insight to the film before they watch it. It also leaves the audience in suspense because they are left wondering who is going to be caught and killed. It is quite small compared to the other images on the page so it is only seen by people who look at the film poster in detail and not just glance at it. At the top of the film poster it says who made the film, it also gives another horror film he made. The other horror film he made was highly rated so it gives the impression this film is going to be just as good. It is quite small because it is not one of the most important things on the page as most people would not take notice of who made the film. The 'catch em and kill em' could also be seen as a tag line as is it catchy. It is an easy tag line to remember and is quite large compared to average tag lines so people who look at the film poster will remember it. The movie name is the only colour thing on the page as everything else is in black and white. This automatically makes it noticeable so it doesn't need to be large. The y in Amityville is stretched down to the end of the movie name, this gives the effect of blood and also adds detail to the movie name instead of it just being simple. Underneath the movie name it has 'based on a true story', this added fear to the poster as people will remember it when they are watching the film. It is also in white so it contrasts with the red above it, it does not take up much room on the page because people will see it after they read the larger movie name. This movie poster subverts the conventions of movie posters as it does not have a release date. This means people have to research the movie to see when it is out, this could be a good thing for the promotion of the movie as when people are researching they will come across other things such as images that would also attract them to the film. It has quite a large billing block at the bottom of the page, but even though it is large the writing is small and hard to read so it is still not noticeable. The billing block includes actors, directors, producers, etc, but would only really be read by someone who is interested in the making of the film. Colour is used in a very dark way to show the darkness of the film. The red is used to represent blood, but the movie poster is mostly black to show there is nothing to be happy about. The images on this film poster are simple as they do not include colour, they also do not give much information about the film except there is a violent man and a house involved. The target audience for this film would be older teens and adults, it appeals to the target audience because it leaves you wondering and you can tell a lot is going to happen. The cohesiveness with the trailer is achieved because the trailer is also dark, it does give off more information than the film poster though because it shows different things that happen in the house. It also shows you the front of males so you see the front of the person you see the back of in the trailer. It also gives you background to the story at the beginning of the trailer so you understand what is happening. The conclusions I have drawn from analysing this movie poster are that dark posters can have the same effect as colourful posters, and that if you have a good image the movie name does not need to be overly large.



At the beginning of The Amityville Horror teaser trailer there is video tapes and there is a midshot of a police officer talking into a microphone on the tape. This shows that the police officer does not need to be shown in detail and he is just someone talking, no one particularly important. The shot is quite simple also so it doesn't distract people from what he is saying, which is more important than seeing him. On another video tape there is a close up of some one's mouth when they are saying 'shot'. This shows the importance of the word shot and makes people watching remember that. There is a close up of a printed picture of a suspected murderer, this is to the audience can see him in detail to make an opinion about him and so they remember what he looks like. There is a long shot of the new family who are moving in playing with their children, this shows the happiness of them and shows fully what they look like (clothes, etc) so people can see what they are like. There is a midshot of the girl with the black hair who lived in the house before, this shows people what she looks like but not in too much detail, just enough so they remember her. There is also a low angle of the man from the new family in the bath looking scared and moving his arms, this shows that even though men are meant to be stereotypically not scared of things, he is. When the tapes are playing at the beginning there is a dissolve between them, this is to give the effect of video tapes playing and it also shows it is not a typical reality. There is a straight cut when a man is talking about people being shot, this contrasts that being shot can be a reality and it is a true thing that happened. When there is a long shot of the house there is a straight cut after to writing which shows the house is real and is someone's real house. At the end there is lots of short takes with lots of straight cuts, this quickly shows lots of things that happen and leaves the audience wondering what happens to the new family in the house. There is strange non-digetic sound over the tapes and when the newspaper reports are being shown. The music sounds a bit sci-fi but goes with the trailer as it seems unrealistic. The diegetic sound of the voices on the tapes are serious and show it is a serious case, they also add a sense of reality which contrasts with the non-digetic sci-fi noises around the same time. There is diegetic sound of the baby laughing when the new family are moving into the house, this contrasts with the rest of the sound in the trailer as it is happy, it also shows a sense of innocence because the baby does not know anything about the history of the house. When the short takes are happening at the end of the trailer there is non-digetic sound that builds tension right up until a woman's scream at the end of the trailer. The costume's of the Lutz family are light which shows they are a happy, normal family who think they are going to have a normal life, the sky is bright around them which adds to the happiness and normalness of their lives. The prop of the sign outside the house says "high hopes" which adds confusion as the last family were not very hopeful, the alliteration of the h also makes it memorable. The props of the flies on the man's face so weird things happen in the house, it also leaves the audience wondering why because flies are quite common and not scary. The girl who lived in the house before has a black costume on and has black hair, contrasting with her very pale face. This shows the girl isn't normal straight away, and it also adds to the horror of the trailer as children are usually seen as innocent. The target audience for this trailer would be older teens and adults and it attracts them because it leaves them in suspense, it has action towards the end and it is interesting. The conclusions I have drawn is that diegetic sound is effective if it is not used throughout the whole trailer, I have also concluded short takes are good if you want to show a lot of action.

First draft teaser trailer

This is the first draft of our teaser trailer:

First Draft from Hannah on Vimeo.

This was our first attempt and our main focus on this was for everyone to establish their roles and what they are doing in their roles. We came up with the genre during the meeting - horror, so we decided to make a horror trailer. We tried to give the effect of someone watching a girl wandering through the woods, and we want to have a camera clicking in the background to give the effect of someone taking a picture of the girl. The lighting in the film was not right as it was a bright day, but we plan to film it in a dark woody area when we start to do more drafts. This shown us that we need to plan where and when we are filming so we can check weather reports and check that the area we are going to film in is right. It was my job to, so I told people where to go to get the best effects and told people what would work, I also done things like counting in when to start and stop filming. We have a basic story line so the trailer can now help us develop our ideas and let us experiment with things that may or may not work. We can now add different things to our ideas and get more of a plot, we can also start working on more detail now like the lighting and the dialogue and the sound.