Poster Mock-Up: The Unexpected

This is the original image that I took opened up in Photoshop. The main idea for using the girl in the photo comes from supernatural horror films like Orphan and The Ring which both use a female child, that is usually possessed or deranged, as the main part of their narrative. I thought that positioning the girl in the middle of photo was a good idea because she is then the main focus of the poster. The teddy implies that she is a young child. I thought I would get the girl to have her hair hanging over her face because it hides her identity and creates an enigma code as we do not know who she is.

The first step I took was to change the levels of the photo to correct the lighting using shadows, mid-tones and highlights in the 'Levels' window. I thought I would slightly increase the darkness of the shadows and decrease the highlights to give the poster a more darker and eerie effect.

The next step I took was, using the gradient tool, I created a black gradient around the photo. This put the focus more so on the girl in the photo and also gives the photo a border which is typical of all film posters. 

What I did next was select the crack effect from the brushes drop down menu. Cracks are often used on horror posters and was even used on the Sinister poster that I researched. 

The screenshot above shows the photo after I used the crack effect on the photo. I chose to only use the effect on the wall behind the bed because it looks more realistic when used on the wall. I also positioned the cracks so that it appears as if the cracks are surrounding the girl which makes her the central focus and also may suggest that it is her that has caused the cracks to appear. 

 I felt that the photo appeared to be slightly too bright for a supernatural poster. As a result I very slightly decreased the saturation of the photo to create a slightly more darker and cold atmosphere.

This is the final mock-up of the poster with the inclusion of the typography. I chose to use the title 'The Unexpected' because I thought that it would create an enigma code, making the audience ask questions like what is unexpected? The real reason for the title was to suggest that something supernatural happens to the girl, for example she gets possessed, and this is the unexpected event in the narrative, hence the title. 

I also included the teddy as a cultural code to help the audience understand that the girl is young. I also included it so that, if I were to continue using this poster idea in my coursework, I could use the teddy in the narrative. It could maybe be something that the girl gets attached to, for example, because she has been told to by a poltergeist. 

I also took the photo in low-light conditions because it relates to the setting that most horror films are set in due to the common fear of the dark and the fear of the unknown.