The finished horror DVD Covers for MirrorHouse

My production piece is made up of a front and back cover of a horror genre DVD cover and the other one is a special edition cover for a box set. For the layout of the actual DVD cover i made sure that red, black and white were distinctive colours on the DVD cover. These colours are sharp and quite bold which symbolise various codes and conventions for the horror genre. Black symbolising darkness in the narrative; red symbolising violence, meanwhile white symbolises the innocence  of someone being destroyed. White also represents the psychological side of the genre.

I used 'The Nightmare of Elm Street' DVD cover as inspiration and 'Saw' special edition case also. Because both films are slasher films, they have the sign of gore showing on their DVD covers. As a result of this i could only use them as templates for my own DVD cover.

The pictures for MirrorHouse.

I have taken pictures that represent various enigmas and action codes that relate to the Horror genre film. I have been taking pictures of a white castle to convey the location of the mirrorhouse. I have also taken pictures of the two main protagonists, Phoebe and Jordan. Jordan is seen by himself in pictures to show that he is a loner and is by himself in the world. Phoebe is seen in pictures with her friend and other friends to show that she is a socialite. Pictures have been taken in the woods to cause a sense of enigma within the horror genre. In images of Jordan his clothing is all black and his face is also covered to show that he has an hidden agenda which causes another enigma code. In the mise en scene, i made sure that the settings fitted into the horror genre, the trees create an enigma code. Took a picture of a significant white house because it represents an mental institute which also links with the horror genre.

Part Three- The audience i would like to appeal to.

Now we all know that horror films are in the certificate of 18 , this is obvious because of the content usually featured in the film. However, there are some films that some in the certificate of 15 which do not show that much of the gory content and are usually sub-genres of horror, so this will cause the narrative to not only focus on the horror theme to the full extent. My film genre will be 18 because even though there wont be enough gore there would be a lot of twisted concepts.

• Gender- Both genders would be preferable because the storyline does not appeal to only one gender.
• Age- No one younger than 18 years of age because the content of the storyline can be very disturbing for younger viewers. I also believe that younger audiences are quite an active audience. This is because they might believe that the content is real and this might cause psychological damage for them. This age would have an oppositional reading, so this film would better for mature viewers.
• Nationwide audience- This film would be able to be seen in all countries and translated in many different languages.
• The target audience for this film are Strugglers, the ones that seek escapism; Reformers, the ones that seek enlightenment, and Explorers, the ones who enjoy discovering new things.

What should be put on my horror DVD cover?

Mirror House

• I would definitely need an image of an haunted house of some sort and then incorporate the title 'Mirror House' because that is the main focus of the story.
• An image of the main character Phoebe because the film focuses on her.
• Jordan will not be seen throughout the film only until the end. So him being on the cover would not be advised. His shadow should be part of the picture as an enigma code.
• The title should be the only thing in colour to cause an dynamic affect. The colour red.

The horror film idea

I have an idea for a horror film to help bring out the horror narrative into the DVD covers. The film idea will be about a manic that is seeking revenge to his childhood friend called Phoebe. In the past, Jordan and Phoebe were childhood friends because their families were so close. However, in a certain event in history, Phoebe offended Jordan in a way that is unforgivable to him...but Phoebe does not know her wrong doing. While growing up, Jordan and Phoebe do not speak anymore, but Jordan has been keeping in touch in a very weird way. He has been recording Phoebe's life for 20years, stalking her, without her realising especially focusing on her fears and weaknesses. So this has made him form a Mirror House, which reflects her emotions and fears that she night have suppressed. She would have to go through various tasks and face her fears to escape. At the end we usually find out what the Phoebe actually did to Jordan.

My idea is stuck between the psychological horror and slasher film. We have the psycho which is Jordan who has a specific victim to deal with. It is also an element of an psychological horror because the Mirror House is going to reflect on Phoebe mental state and how it will terribly affect her. I got the Mirror House idea from Saw, how the man wants to 'play a little game' with his victims that have some way been doing something wrong.

Mirror House is the title of the film. Now i have the title... i am now going to start off forming my DVD covers.

Part two- The particular fonts used for the title of the films

Today i just entered into google 'horror themed fonts'  to see a selection of different horror themed titles that are commonly used for the genre. At the bottom you will see a link going to the website i looked at. What i found in connection of horror titles is that the names of the fonts were to have the noun 'blood' with it. This denotation is how blood represents the narrative of the genre convention. The connotation of blood shows us that the horror genre is quite gory and very sickening. This also depends on the type of horror it is also. Example of fonts

There are loads of horror sub genres

• Psychological horror genre- which consists of subtlety in narrative and less physical harm compared to a traditional horror genre. This genre plays with your emotions as you see the victim is under a threat. E.g, 'Drag Me To Hell', 'Mirrors' or Halloween'
• Splatter films- this is the sub genre that focuses on the gore and graphic violence in the horror film (torture porn).  E.g, 'Hostel' and 'Saw'
• The renowned Slasher Films- these are my favourites, these are the films that typically involve a psychopathic serial killer that has target victims or just love killing people.

All of these films can intertwine with the same sub genres as long as it is all under the horror genre idea.
Now it is time for me to try and think which of these sub genres will make a good film idea.

Part One- The analysis of different types of Horror DVD covers

I am looking at different ranges of horror DVD covers to see the codes and conventions and if this was enforced in every one.



 What I have noticed in these DVD horror covers, is that the most common colour is red. This may be part of the codes and conventions of a horror movie genre because red symbolises blood gore and death, which are most themes in horror films.  The other colour is black is also common which makes it an enigma code to the genre narrative. This is because this causes mystery in the narrative; black evokes darkness and darkness causes mystery in the narrative.

Analysing and contrasting Horror DVD covers

For my Media coursework I am doing research on 'Densely coding of opening sequences of specific genre films'. I wanted to analyse three films but then the requirement was 1800 words so i could only do two out of the three; which are Horror and Action and had to cut out Comedy. The film analysed from the horror genre is 'The Nightmare On Elm Street 2010' and the film in the Action genre is ' Terminator: The Rise of The Machines'. It was announced that whatever media research you do must be connected to the production piece. This production piece was said to be film/video and not print. So I felt this would be good because it relates to my question really well; i had the idea of doing a hybrid of a horror/action genre, which would be really good. However, my teachers decided to change it to print instead and this has left things to be very difficult for me. So now i am doing horror DVD covers, because they are my favourite genre in films. So let the process begin.