Film poster planning- inspiration

Initial ideas:

A classic style horror 80s film poster but change certain things to allow it to standout from the rest, dark background but highlighted with other colours not just black and white/grey.

One idea I had is that i could reverse the colour theory in the background and foreground, so the background is full of brighter colours that stand out but are not too bright that they overwhelm the poster and change the feel of the genre and then for the foreground have darker aspects for example a cloaked figure or silhouette of some kind.

This idea came from the research I conducted as many posters for horror movies tend to all have a dark background and something/someone under a spotlight and as much as this format of poster design/advertisement works it starts to become a bit boring to the viewer and so I think to produce something still connected to the origins of the film vintage older posters would definitely standout and capture the viewer.

Here are some film posters that I could emulate:

 

1. The first is the poster of the film 'The exorcist', although i have not seen the exorcist, this poster creates an eerie feel to the viewer which sparks interest, as well as this, the spotlight on the man in the poster gives off a mysterious feel and ties nicely to the stark contrast of black and white used in the poster.

2. This next poster is from a more recent film named 'Dunkirk', this film is set during WW2 and this is clearly shown on the poster as it seems to be a mid action shot from the film.

By using a shot straight from the film, gives the viewer a taste of the movie, almost like a teaser trailer, it is clear from the shot that whatever is happening in this scene where the have used the poster shot from is quite intense and makes the viewer nervous for the character, therefore enticing people who like more adrenaline/tense films.

3.I like this poster for 'John Wick 2' as it adds an element of ironic comedy in the poster, by showing 'John Wick' surrounded by all these guns to his head, but realistically it would only take one shot to kill him, furthermore this then clearly shows this is an action movie as to have that many guns to someone's head inclines that this character is highly skilled and has escaped death multiple times which intrigues the viewer as to asking the question 'how'? And 'what will he do next'?

However this poster is quite dark with the predominant colours/shades being black and white the '2' stands out the most as its red showing the viewer that this film is a sequel however id want to have other elements stand out not just the number '2'

4.Graphically this is one of my favourite posters although i have not seen this film, just based off of the colours alone, the orange and the green/blue show that each of the main two characters is on a contrasting sides of have some sort of disagreement, however the fact that they are standing back to back shows that they either learn to work together or remain against each other. Moreover the colours orange and blue oppose each other on the colour wheel which means they go quite well together also hinting at the fact that these two character might end up working together and becoming a fighting duo, a 'them against the world' type situation.

 This is a great example of what i mean when I want to reverse the dark/light colours from background to foreground, in this poster both figures in the centre foreground are darker than the background which presents itself to standout to the viewer more, however for my poster these colours would be too bright so id have to edit it to fit the genre better but its a good example.

5. Jaws- the poster perfectly describes what is going to be the plot of the movie -although films with sharks in do tend to be quite predictable- the poster can be seen as an allusion to a darker meaning of the phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' implying that all may seem well on surface level but that in fact it really isn't.

The poster as well is also quite simple which focuses everything on the shark and the red writing of the title which represents blood is quite unnerving and therefore shows that this movie is quite obviously going to be a thriller/horror film.

Here are some movie posters that I didn't quite like:

1. This poster i think could've been quite good, but they put too much emphasis on the title i think they should have made the font size a bit smaller and put more emphasis on the solider in the poster himself as the title is no more than the name of the film whereas the characters are what really make the movie and how're they're shown on a poster makes or break whether someone is interested enough to go watch the movie itself.

2. This poster I'm not a fan of as the way it is presented as 'Spiderman' being a fictional character almost makes this film seem like its going to be a cartoon when actually its not at all, i can see why that may be a reference to the comics of Spiderman but for the majority of people who haven't read the comics and wouldn't understand the reference makes the film seem like its going to be a cartoon film, which predominantly are shown as being children's movies and therefore put people off from seeing it.


Some basic ideas and sketches:

-For each of these i did a few quick sketch ideas for the layout of each poster

Idea 1:

Title: Ghosted

Genre: Horror

Ghost style haunting classic old 80s theme, newly wed couple move into a old house in the middle of nowhere as they have little money from wedding...stuff starts becoming misplaced and shadows start to appear where they don't make sense. Poster of an apple on a table creating a large shadow of a figure, apple reference to Adam and eve.

Idea 2:

Title: Taxi girl

Genre: Horror

 Woman in killed in taxi murder becomes ghost and can only rest/move on once she has found her killer but can only travel in taxis, befriends dog who can see ghosts, she can move things but cannot be seen.

Idea 3:

Title: Ghost girl

Genre: Horror

Girl who was killed and her body hidden in a school locker becomes ghost and haunts people, bullied because she was lonely, only ever wanted a friend. One day at start of new school year girl/boy gets her old locker and discover the girl and they're ability to see ghosts, befriends girl to find out who killed her.

Final idea:

Film name: The Mannequin- Basic title however it gets straight to the point and the viewer knows exactly what the initial premise is about

Tag line: Hide and seek has never been so deadly- Catchy and creates a suspense between viewer inviting them to ask whats deadly about this game and so sparks their curiosity

Genre: Horror

Ive decided that the idea I'm going to go with is going to be slightly different and so instead it is going to be about a mannequin and a group of friends go exploring in an old house but suddenly things start to go wrong and a game of hide and seek begins between the friends and the mannequin. However still remain ghostlike.