1. Poster Construction

2. Poster Construction 1 (draft)
This is the beginning of my poster
construction and I will be using
non-copyright free images to
create a draft.
I wanted the poster to hint at the
fact that this would not be a
traditional werewolf movie, but at
the same time not give away any
vital information about the plot.
Therefore showing the wolf as a
shadow rather than a physical
presence connotes the split
personality of the person casting
that shadow.
A beam of light shining through a
doorway looked ideal as the wolf
shadow will be emphasised by its
position within the narrow beam.
I copied an image from
www.google.co.uk/images into
adobe Photoshop and firstly
darkened the image before
adding a gradient overlay to blend
the edges of this image into the
black background.

3. Poster Construction 2 (draft)
• I found a copyright
free drawing of a
werewolf that I
thought would be
ideal to use for the
shadow. I used a
layer mask and the
magnetic lasso tools
to separate the
upper body from the
rest of the image and
then used free
transform to move it
into position within
the beam of light.

4. Poster Construction 3 (draft)
• I used the paint bucket
tool to fill the wolf in
black. I then adjusted
the opacity of the wolf
drawing to make it
slightly transparent,
just like a real shadow.
I also confined the
edges of the shadow to
the edge of the beam
of light to make the
effect look more
believable.

5. Poster Construction 4 (draft)
• I have imported
the title and it’s
font from my
Empire magazine
front cover. The
titles have also
had a shadow
effect added to
them to give a
visual impression
that the light
cannot penetrate
the room in large
quantities.

6. Poster Construction 5 (finished draft)
• Here is the completed
draft of my poster. I
think that it sets the
tone of the film
effectively as being dark
and suspenseful. I added
the silhouette of the
human casting the
shadow to make the
poster even more
creepy. This design is
very similar to that used
for the film ‘dog soldiers’
and conforms to the
conventions of the genre
by using darkness and
mystery to scare the
audience.

7. Images for the poster
This was the first attempt to capture the
image of the door but the glass bottles in
the bottom right corner made it
unsuitable.
I removed the bottles from the shot and also
took the picture from a slightly lower angle
than previously

8. Images for the poster
• I will use this picture of
myself for the silhouette
in my poster. Because it
is already very dark it
should convert to a
silhouette very easily. I
won’t use it for the main
image because the gap
in the doorway is too
wide and it is a level shot
whereas I need a low
angle image.

9. Poster construction 6
I have blended the image of the door into the
black background using an inner shadow.
Everything outside of the doorframe has
been removed using a layer mask and the
whole image has then been darkened.
I used gradual brush strokes on the door to
give the appearance of fading light,
reducing the opacity of the brush the
closer to the edge of the door it got. I
created a similar effect next to the door
on the left hand side, using a large brush
with 0% hardness which made the light
appear to fade along the wall.
I stretched out the wolf shadow and made
the dimensions appear more realistic,
with the shadow being cast from the
silhouette taken from the other image.
I have added actors names as my audience
research indicated that this was one thing
that horror audiences look for on a poster
to make the film appealing.

10. Poster Construction 7
I have changed the light in the
poster to red. This is the
universal colour for danger
and connotes blood and
violence. This helps to target
my film at fans of the horror
genre. I have also added
more red light to the top of
the door to make the image
look more realistic. The beam
of light encasing the shadow
has also been trimmed at the
edges to make it more
realistic as well.

11. Poster Construction 8
• Here I have finished
trimming the shadow
and beam of light to
complete the realistic
look I was after. I did
this by mainly using
brushes at 0% hardness
to add and remove
colour a number of
times until I achieved
this finished piece
through trial and error.

12. Poster Construction 9
• I have now begun
to add the credit
block at the
bottom of my
poster. I have
decided to base it
on the one found
on the ‘hatchet’
poster and
downloaded the
correct font from
www.dafont.com

13. Poster construction 10
This is the completed credit block for my poster. I put each line of text into a different
layer group to make them easier to reposition. As is traditional on a poster the
names of people involved in the film are considerably larger than the job roles.
I have also added a web address that audiences can visit to find out more about my
film if they are interested. The font size and colour make this stand out so as to
attract the attention of any viewers.

14. Poster construction 11
I have added a critic
review onto the
poster because my
audience research
indicated this was
another feature that
will create interest
in the film. I also
downloaded a font
from
www.dafont.com
which allowed me
to put a star rating
with the review. This
will further draw the
viewers attention to
the positive review.

15. Poster construction 12
I was unsure as to which
way round I should
position the film
tagline and critic
review. I took
screenshots of both
options and asked
classmates to choose
which one they
preferred. My
original design on
the left was the
overall favourite
because people
thought that this
positioning looked
better on the page. I
therefore abandoned
the design on the
right and stuck to the
original positioning.

16. Completed Poster
• This is the finished poster for
‘Canine’
• I have added the address of
the official Facebook page for
the film
https://www.facebook.com/Ca
nineMovie below the official
website for the film. This gives
the public two different
options of sites to visit for
more information on the film.
• I have included two previous
films by the director at the top
of the poster which conforms
to my audience research about
including famous
actors/directors on the page.