Poster development

Mitchell Frost

After undertaking detailed research into real life film posters to find out what I needed to include and what worked well and what didn’t, I then moved on to producing my own poster for ‘Hatched’, in order to eventually add more promotional value to ‘Hatched’.

This presentation will be built up gradually as I will document changes I make to the poster from the start to end and explain why I made the changes. Progression of the poster will be documented in this presentation.

Producing a poster for ‘Hatched’

This is my main base image for the poster. I first took it to Photoshop in order to touch it up and make the image a lot more interesting. I used the Outer glow option and the neon filter to bring out the edges of the image and therefore enhance the detail in the image. With ‘Hatched’ being a psychological thriller film, I feel that the ‘electric’ look that the neon filter gives to the image is perfect and connotes danger and shock. Additionally, the framing of the shot means that there is lots of potential space to place titles, billing block and tag lines etc.

Original image Edited image

Next, I looked at adding the main title of the film to the poster. I liked the look of the October Crow font as I felt that it matched the sinister theme of ‘Hatched’ and complemented the main image. With the outer edges of the main image glowing white, I was sure to make the title white too so that the colour scheme flowed and was integral. Initially I felt that the title looked good with no adjustments made to it however after gaining some feedback from family, friends and teachers, I soon realised that the title needed tweaking to make it stand out more. I used the outer stroke in a red colour in order to hint at blood and therefore themes of violence as well as a drop show to ‘bring the title off the paper’ and stand out, so that the audience remember the name.

I have now added a tag line, which will help to increase the promotional value of the poster by encouraging more people to go and see the film. The red colour of the font is again to connote blood and violence. I have added a large drop shadow to the text to ensure that the text does not ‘get lost’ in the background and stick out of the page, to be seen.

I have now added a rating to the poster. I saw the large amount of empty black space as a chance to place some promotional features such as a rating from a large well known media corporation in order to encourage the audience to watch the full film. The rating also helps make the poster less boring and adds another dimension to it, meaning it is more attractive to the eye when placed in places such as bus stops and underground trains.

The next stage was to add the billing block. This is an essential feature of film posters and something I could not leave out. I placed the billing block in the place which is most typical of real life film posters, at the bottom. I used the universal font SF Movie poster to create the billing block as without this font the poster would look amateur and un professional (potentially leading to a reduced audience).

One of the last things I did to my poster was add a tagline-’He’s watching you...’ I added a tagline after realising that many real life posters utilise them and noticed that a tagline could be effective for building hype for the film and therefore increasing its promotional value. Additionally, I added the release date and made this a different colour to the surrounding text as it is more important and something that the audience is more concerned about. With the tagline only being small in size and under the title, it means that it takes for the viewer to analyse the poster in depth, I feel that this is more subtle and professional looking.

After taking my research and all feedback in to account, I finally had a final poster. With each tweak and improvement throughout the production of the poster leading to a poster with the highest level of promotional value for ‘Hatched’. By creating a successful poster, I feel I am now one step closer to producing an overall successful promotional package for ‘Hatched’.

Final poster