I have chosen a typical, simplistic style for my film poster. It has a Z shaped layout, which means the reader's eyes start at the top left, go to the right side and then back to the bottom left.
In my market research, I discovered that blue, grey and black were popular colours among my target audience. That's why I have opted for this colour scheme. I thought that a dark, mysterious poster would look intriguing and would effectively convey the atmosphere of my film.
Most of the text is a bright grey, since it contrasts the background (in order to stand out) but still fits the colour scheme. However, the title is white so that it stands out the most and has a 3D effect.
I've kept the text at a minimum because realistically, people won't stop to read a public advertisement. Under the title is the date of release and the necessary film logos/copyright notices. Some posters would display the actor's names to draw in their fans. But my film is a low budget, niche production, so there are no big names to advertise.
The main image shows a mysterious (hooded) figure holding a glowing orange pill. These are enigmas since we don't know who this is or what he(?) is holding. But we do know that they are significant, since the tagline says 'It will change you'. That is presumably referring to the pill. He has a blacked out face, which indicates that he isn't trustworthy or honest. He could therefore be an antagonist.
There are some long, grotesque shadow hands stretching up to the character. Ordinarily, this might indicate that the character is being haunted by something paranormal; but since the hooded figure isn't fazed or physically restrained by them, it could be assumed that they are his allies. This shows that the film has some supernatural elements.
I've put a shadow behind one side of him, to again enforce the idea that he is hiding something dark and deadly. But the other side has a white glow, which is a symbolism of the main character's spirit, who got separated from his body. The overall white glare behind and around the character is another representation of a ghostly presence. The shape of the main image forms an oval, against a black background. This gives the impression of darkness closing in.
Above the character, are some stormy clouds. This relates to the narrative, since the main character is going to enter an alternate world which is darker than reality. These clouds symbolise how the hooded figure is going to change the main character's world and bring chaos into his life.
My magazine cover is more busy in terms of text and graphics.
I have chosen the name 'ThrillFest' for the masthead, since this magazine focuses on films in the thriller genre and because 'fest' relates to 'filmfest'.
I have stayed with my original, flat plan design, except for a few addition features (like the demon hand and red splatter effects).
This cover shows much more about the story. We see how the demon is drawing the main character's spirit out of his body, so that it can inhabit the vessel.
The colour scheme is similar to the poster (with blue, grey and black), except I have added red for the magazine's own style and identity. The red helps the important features to stand out. The splatters are a commonly used convention for anything with horror movie themes. I wanted to make it known that 'ThrillFest' isn't just a thriller movie magazine, it's a horror thriller magazine (which is a different genre entirely).
The title also has some continuous themes, such as the white colour and the misty clouds which represent a dark premonition.
The free posters provide the reader with some extra images to look at. The magazine doesn't actually state that they are related to the main cover story. But they are actually screenshots from my trailer footage.
Other conventions on my magazine cover include; the skyline, barcode, puffs, articles and the slogan. I didn't make it too busy because I wanted the main image to be the focus of the cover. The articles feature some well known actors/films in the horror/thriller genre. This includes; Jane Levy (known from 'The Evil Dead' and 'Don't Breathe') and Shutter Island.
The barcode may seem like it's in a strange place, but I have seen a number of magazines place their barcode vertically on the right side of the cover. I think it works. There wasn't really space to move the 'Plus' sign and the articles upwards because the title was there and I didn't want it on top of the main image.
I was also going to darken the spiked bubble around the plus, so that it matched with the other red text. But I decided against this because I liked how the bright red made it stand out even more than the other puffs. I also decided against deleting the page numbers (p45) because I think it's helpful and I've seen some covers with this convention.
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