Shots taken/mise-en-scene

Mid shot - We took photos against a black backdrop first in order to make it different from our poster, as well as to show the genre of horror as black is a conventional colour used in horror as it is dark and has connotations to evil and the night. Despite our ideas concerning the image and the mise-en-scene of the black background, when studying the images that used a black background, we found that the it didn't look professional or realistic due to it being creased in places, as well as the fact that the mise-en-scene of what the model wore, which is a black top and also the fact her hair was black, this meant it all blended in with each other and nothing really stood out. On top of this, we considered that putting text over this image would be a difficulty due to most magazines using black texts, and in general we felt the image would make the writing stand out too much due to the dark nature of the image and distract from the text. 


Final shot (Mid shot) - This is the final image we used for our magazine front cover as when comparing it to the others we took, we found that it stood out most, and generally looked more professional and well done than the others. When taking this image, we experimented much more with facial expression, eyeline matches, and colours. For example, you can see it is much more inventive and interesting with the red tint the photo has, which we created by putting a red gel in front of a white light, which projected onto her face. We also made it contrast the first image, as well as our poster, very clearly due to her eyeline match being at the hand on her shoulder, which makes it different from most magazine covers where the model looks directly at the camera. However we felt it added to the unsettling and creepy effect of the image, especially with the hand on her shoulder. Her position also shows vulnerability, as well as the binary opposition in the white background we switched to and her clothes. The white background proved to look more professional and effective, and we also thought it would be easier to manipulate if we wanted to add a different background in order for it to replicate the Empire magazine better. The mise-en-scene of her black clothes also made it stand out much more against the white, unlike the first image where it was very blended in to everything.