. OFFICIAL FILM POSTER IMAGE

When deciding on what the image should be for the film poster, I did find it relatively difficult because of the amount of pictures that were taken. Due to the fact there was a variety of images available, I finally picked ‘IMG_0632’. This image is of a character in our narrative called Lilith, and in this image she is holding up an antique necklace in front of her face. The necklace creates a sort of shadow on Lilith’ face which could be interpreted as horns, this was one of the reasons that I wanted to include the image on the final film poster because of the harrowing unnatural element of the image. Horns are normally related closely to wild animals or the devil, this would then encourage the viewer to connote, and Lilith was an evil character, with beast like qualities. The use of the necklace was also important in allowing the audience to identify what the narrative would be about, and the relationship between the character of Lilith and the necklace would mean the events of the narrative are not only centred around the necklace but also that Lilith’s existence is also centred around it also. The image uses a mid shot of the character of Lilith, this allows us to see the necessary iconography to interpret that the film will include elements of the sub-genre, Slasher. The inclusion of her face, allows us to observe the bruises on her face created by costume make up and the blood splatter on her shirt allow us to interpret she is in fact a corpse. This image was appropriate for the film poster because it does not conceal the appearance of the films subject because of the use of the camera shot and angle. Blood was an important element to be included because it is identified as iconography of the horror genre, and we wanted the audience to interpret that the film was a film from the horror genre, but also to ensure that the film rating was appropriate for the film as a 15 rating does focus on a good amount of blood and gore. The use of blood and gore allows the audience to also interpret that there will be elements of the film that will cause some discomfort because of the negative events that will take place. Dawn's eyes are piercing, and encourage the audience to pay attention. I asked members of my group, my peers and also my teacher if they thought this image would be appropriate for the poster, and all agreed that the use of strong eye contact from the character Lilith was appropriate.

The shadow from the necklace over Lilith’s eye/forehead was an element that I originally intended on getting rid of. When speaking to my peers however they recommended that I keep the shadow, and create a sort of cross like image over the eye. Therefore I samples colour from the false bruise underneath Lilith's eye right eye and created an upside down cross that would add to the iconography of the main image. I did this using the lasso tool on Photoshop, which was extremely helpful as if I had used the rectangular tool and created a cross, it would have become the main focus of the image. I tried to create crosses, using the colours red and black which have been identified as conventions of the horror genre but my peers argued that it gave the poster an animated element, and because I didn't want my poster to look unprofessional I decided to stick with the lasso sampled cross that I created. Along with the simple lasso tool I had to learn to rotate the shape, using short cuts on the keyboard which allowed me to execute the cross perfectly. The use of inverted cross has strong religious links as it shares close correlation with Peter (one of the 12 disciples, who it is believed that Peter requested this form of crucifixion as he felt he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner that Jesus died. However in recent years the inverted cross has been used as an anti-Christian symbol. The anti-Christian ideals link well with the horror genre as usually religion is only shown when in connection with the devil or possessions. This still relates to the theme of religion in the genre but also the iconography used to ensure the poster represents the genre correctly, this particular symbol has been used in ‘The Omen’, The Devil Inside and Annabelle.

Creating the cross did take a while as I had to sample the colour of the shadow when creating an extension of that shape to extend the cross’ length. When placing the cross on the face it was hard to alter the brightness and exposure so that it wouldn’t be too overbearing.  Along with the black background placed behind her, it appears that she is fading in from the darkness. emphasising her dark and evil character.