Horror Film Poster Analysis (Cabin Fever)

This is the poster for the movie Cabin Fever. There are many different techniques used within the poster that immediately makes the viewer recognise that this is the poster for a Horror Film. One way in which this posters does this is the subtle use of the skull outline using the cabin, which is the main setting for this film, as a mouth. This immediately denotes that there is some form of danger in this film as the skull is a universal icon for death. The skull also creates a very eerie and dark atmosphere within the poster showing what the atmosphere of the whole film will be. Another feature of the film's poster is the use of the black and dark red colour scheme, this is a very iconic colour schemes used within the horror film genres as it gives the viewer a sense of danger. Red is also used to show danger as it is the colour of blood, this is also why is denotes the danger of the film, the red as a colour also associates the red colour with the use of blood within the film. With blood and gore a staple feature within many different horrors this is yet another feature of a horror film poster.

The Title of the film 'Cabin Fever' is displayed in a colour that contrasts from the main image of the poster and also the background of the poster, the main title is the only feature on the poster that is not displayed in the colour red. This is very important as it draw attention to both the title with the contrasting colours and the main image. Below this is the tagline of 'Catch it' which is the slogan of the film. This is displayed in a red colour to not distract from the main title of the film, it also synegises with the rest of the posters house-style of black and red. The list of actors and crew known as the Billing Block is displayed below the tagline and is once again displayed in a red colour which is keeping in line with the posters house style, but is a much darker shade of red, this is done as to not draw attention away from the main focus of the poster being the main image and the main title. The films website is displayed at the very bottom of the poster in the same shade of red as the billing block, this is for people to visit one they have viewed the rest of the poster.

Horror Trailer Film Analysis (Cabin Fever)

The trailer that  have decided to analyise that is in the same genre of the film trailer I would like to create is Cabin Fever. Trailer

There are many features that are used wthin the Cabin Fever that can be seen throughout many other horror film trailers as well. Firstly the use of jump cuts throughout the whole trailer helps to create a sense of panic and urgency that can be seen within the trailer when something is happeneing. E.g. being chased by the main antagonist of the film. Next is the use of music within the trailer, the music that is chosen is usual more dark and mysterious than other music in other trailers, giving the sense of something not being right within the trailer and helping to create the atmosphere for the trailer. Lastly throughout the trailer you can see that the use close-ups and extreeme close-ups is emphisise some of the scenes within the trailer. E.g. when he finds his hand covered in the girls blood. This is once again creating a dark mysterious atmosphere for the films and creating the feel of unease for the viewers of the trailer.

Film Trailer Terminology

There is a lot of terminology used within film trailers, in this post I will be going over this terminology.

Music: The music that is used within a film trailer is of utmost importance, this is because the music is one of the main tools that can be used to set the atmosphere within the trailer. The music that is used with very dramatically between genres as a Horror film will need a significantly different piece than an action film to set the scene. Lastly a producer can either have a new score produced specifically for a film meaning that the music is bespoke and will suit the trailers needs very well, or they can use an actual piece of music that has been written by someone else, this will be quite expensive as they would have to get the rights to use the music in their trailer which is not cheap to do.

Voice Over: A voice over is once again like the music within a film trailer very important to set the scene and atmosphere of it. This can be done by giving information on the film during the trailer and also giving release information at the end. The voice of the voice over itself can be used to set the scene as a Horror film will focus on more of a dark character to voice it to help set the atmosphere of the film.

Cast Run: The cast run is a list of actresses and actors names that are shown throughout the films trailer. This is done using the big names of the movie to help create the hype and raise awareness of the film through the use of the main stars.

Billing Block: The billing block is mainly used at the bottom of a films poster and includes all of the people who played some of the major roles within the making of the film.

Ident: The Ident is the part of the trailer that shows the production company that was involved in making the film trailer. E.g. Warner Brothers and Lionsgate.

Video Resolution: The resolution of the films trailer is in most cases the same as the resolution of the actual film. E.g. 35mm Reel / Digital Formats. But thanks to the increase of viewing film trailers on the internet most trailers are being posted onto video sharing sites such as Youtube to be viewed in 1080P resolution.

Sound Mixing: Most of the modern film trailers will be using the Dolby Digital Sound Format. This is so that they can use the the sound effects to the greatest potential, helping to create atmosphere within scenes of importance within the trailer.

Advertisement Campaigns Research (Horror)

In this post I will be covering some of the marketing campaigns that have been used in the past to promote different films. There are many films that have used very sucessful media advertisement campaigns, one of these film campaigns would be The Last Exorcism.

The Last Exorcism was a very sucessful horror film that was released in 2010 and was very well received, they had a range of different advertisement forms such the usual posters and film trailers being released during the launch of the film but they also made a special marketing video that went viral very quickly. The video featured many different people using the chatroulette website thinking they were talking to a girl, when suddenly she becomes possessed and jumps at the camera before the website thelastexorcism.com flashes up. The video was then produced from the best reactions from this and posted to youtube where it gained over 7Million views and drew a large amount of attention to the film.

Synergy in Film Campaigns

Synergy in Film Campaigns

There are many instances in which the synergy between a films trailer and a films posters can be seen. One of the most recent that we have looked at would be the film campaign for the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 film campaign.

The first thing that we can see that stands out is the slogan that is used constantly throughout all of the various forms of advertisement used in the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. First of all we can see this use of the slogan 'It All Ends' on every single poster of  HPaTD:: P2 as well as being used throughout the whole advertisement campaign and being used as the films slogan.

Another similarity between the film trailers and posters is that the posters are made from screen captures of the films trailers, giving the synergy to the advertisement campaign and helping the viewers relate between both of the adverts helping raise awareness and hype for the film.

One last thing that is used in both the trailers and the film posters is the typography once again helping to promote synergy between both forms of the campaign advertisements and helping to gain hype and awareness for the film.

A2 Portfolio Checklist

Having looked at the A2 media checklist these are the things that I have yet to do:

-Trailer terminology including definition
-Codes and conventions of trailers
-Detailed analysis of 2 trailers
-Explanation of the synergy between trailer/cover/poster, how this has been maintained throughout the marketing process
-Research the marketing campaign for a movie of the same genre as you have selected of you own product