Making my poster

To create my poster, I used Adobe Photoshop CC.2015.5. This was because I felt it would be the best software to manipulate the images into a poster.
Firstly, I dragged my chosen image (Lara standing in a grotto) onto an empty canvas. I used the selection/move tool to make the image an appropriate size, filling the canvas. This is something which is conventional of posters as the size of the image makes them eye catching.

I wanted to experiment with the colours of the image but the image that I had chosen already had a brightness and contrast filter applied, so I didn't want the colour to be overly intense. With this in mind, I decided to adjust the image so that it was black and white. I believe that this helped me to convey the sinister element of my product; black and white is usually suggestive of lifelessness, as opposed to technicolour which connotes hope and optimism.

In order to create synergy between my poster and trailer, I decided to use the same typography as my main title. To do this, I had to take a screenshot of the title so that I had it in image format, and then I proceeded to use the 'Magic Wand Tool' to clear all the black space in order for it to blend into the poster document. This was eventually successful although it was at times a challenge to ensure that the right parts were selected. I also used the same font for both the release date and slogan/tagline so that uniformity was created.

I decided to overlay images as this is something that I have done in the trailer, but was conscious of the fact that there was usually one main image in a poster, so I didn't want to make them too obstructive. Therefore I reduced the image size, opacity and fill of the image. I tended to reduce the opacity to 50% and fill to 60% before assessing whether it needed to be more or less opaque. I liked the effect it had as I thought the images looked 'faded' which added a layer of ambiguity or enigma for the audience.

To change the colour of Lara's eyes, the eclipse tool was used. Red was the desired colour, (red eyes have connotations of evil/devils) to match the text and then the layer was duplicated so that both eyes matched. I am happy with the effect; they could have been more red but when this was the case they did not blend in very well. As a result, I altered the opacity/smoothness of this and they are now a subtle yet noticeable red.

The additional/other information at the bottom of the poster was created using a condensed font as normally that part of the poster contains a lot of information but it is designated a small proportion of the poster.

Lastly, I overlayed the original image loaded into Photoshop on top of the black and white image and used a combination of the quick selection, lasso and eraser tool to colour specific parts of the poster. I wanted to inject some colour into the poster because I was wary that it conformed more to the conventions of the horror genre rather than dark fantasy. The fantasy genre is usually more colourful on account of the mystical creatures associated with it.  The eraser tool was also used to get rid of white space surrounding the '12' BBFC rating logo. This was tricky because it needed such fine trimming.