Analysis of shrooms poster:

Shrooms is a thriller brought out by Vertigo Films in 2007. This poster is the main cinematic poster. It contains information about the production personnel and the distributors down at the bottom of the poster, in small print. At the top of the poster there are two names of the actors. The actors that are named are the two main characters.

Clearly the title of the film is ‘shrooms’. The title is shown as slightly blurred and fuzzy, this links in well to the way your perception is altered when taking shrooms. This shows us this will be a big part of the film. There are two actors named ‘Lindsey Haun’ and ‘Jack Huston’. The fact that these actors are named could that they are the main characters and they could become more well known for being on the poster. The names have been placed at the top of the poster, one in each corner. 

The main images are of a full moon, shrooms and a thick form of hedge around the sides of the poster. 

The shape of the shrooms against the moon show a sort of skull shape. The mushrooms make the shape of eyes and a nose, the paleness of the moon then makes it look like a skull. This portrays the fact that it is a thriller and so would draw in an audience as it is eye catching and bright. This would also include the theme of death as it doesn’t show a head but a skull which is more morbid. The hedge is slightly enclosed around it, which makes it look mysterious and gloomy; this also adds to idea of the thriller genre. If you look closely at the scenery it looks as if it is a sort of field or a hill, this could signify the place in which the film will take place. 

The fact the film is clearly about shrooms presents us with the fact that it will more than likely be about teenagers. As shrooms are a drug that teenagers or young adults, are more likely to try rather than other age groups. This film will then be targeted at a teenage audience and onwards. 

There are not any specific characters shown on this poster. However the sort of gives us an idea that there may be a villain because there is a mysterious face in the moon.

Production Issues for Vertigo films-Shrooms.

Vertigo films have produced many films of a good quality that have become major hits in the last few years. In 2006 they had a very busy and successful year. It started off with Dirty Sanchez and continued with other films such as London to Brighton. Not all of their films are well known; however their films have all gotten good reviews and are all best sellers.  Whereas 2007 was not as good, Vertigo films released ‘Shrooms’ which did not turn out to be the success they 

hoped for. 

When choosing the cast in filming, Vertigo films have been known to use new young fresh faced characters, in their filming. Many of the actors they use are from different origins which adds to the variety and different in their choices. 

Vertigo films have used numerous different producers in their filming. One of the producers they have used is Rob Walpole; Walpole is one of Ireland’s leading independent feature film producers. His credits include ‘i went down’ and ‘man about dog’, indie hits that were two of Ireland’s profitable movies ever. Another film of his is Shrooms. Rob Walpole would be known to some independent film goers. 

 

Shrooms, bought out in 2007, was not a very big hit. In fact many people did not enjoy it. It opened to many negative reviews. It only had a 24% approval rate and was de

scribed as “A shake-'n'-bake slash

er movie that shows just how difficult it is to do effective, modestly budgeted horror", by Variety magazine. Not getting very much good attention at all this clearly wasn’t one of Rob Walpole’s best achievements. 

When producing Shrooms, Rob Walpole used writer Pearse Elliott. He got his idea from when he was younger and was taking mushrooms with his friends. Elliott decided it would be interesting to make a horror movie, specifying a part of some youths growing up. It was decided the most important aspect of the Director was that he must be very technically skilled in producing horror movies and so Paddy Breathnach was chosen as he obtains all of these qualities. Whilst Shrooms was in pre-production the crew faced a problem, at the time of their filming horror movies were going out of fashion; however everyone continued to do their best.

The cast of Shrooms is a mixture or American, Irish and English actors, all of which are beginning to make an impact in Hollywood and are becoming bigger stars. The fact a young cast was chosen helps them to play college characters easily. Walpole uses a mix of backgrounds with these actors, so as to deliver to a mass audience. The youth of the actors would appeal to young audiences who still get a thrill from horror films. The actors did a good job in this film as all of them worked their hardest and did all they were asked of.

Shrooms was produced in a period of seven weeks. During the seven weeks the cast and crew worked their hardest through any weather. They were located; largely in Rossmore Park in Monaghan, Ireland and also in Gosford Forest Park, Markethill, Northern Ireland. This was a new angle for Vertigo films as they are an English filming production company and so most of their films are filmed in England. However this bought a wider audience to view this film.

The Vertigo film company has bought out a number of profitable films. Most of which have been positively reviewed, of course they have bought out a few films that have been negatively reviewed due to the public’s views at the time. Overall however I feel that Vertigo film production company who maintain a good selection of films.

Vertigo Films Productions:

Vertigo Films is a british film and media corporation and distribution company.  It was founded in 2002, an independent cinema, with the aim of producing and distributing there own films to the cinemas.

Vertigo Films are also in partnership with the international sales company protagonist pictures. Also they formed an entity with film 4 and ingenious media. The post republic, a successful state of the art post production that is in berlin, is owned by the vertigo film company. 

Vertigo Films have produced twenty seven films to date and have been said to be UKs best low budget film company, like never before with a string of good quality and profitable films. This all happened in their first six years. Such as; The Football Factory ( the biggest selling independent UK DVD), The Business And The Outlaws to the award winning It's All Gone Pete Tong to the multi award winning London To Brighton and In Search

 Of A Midnight Kiss.

Vertigo films have a proven track record in producing and releasing successful horror films. Such as Shrooms.

Shrooms was produced and released in 2007.  The producer of shrooms is Robert Walpole (The eclipse, salt water). The Director The film was written by Paddy Breathnach (who specializes in horror movies), and stars Lindsey Haun, Jack Houston and Max kasch. 

The actors choosen are very important 

It is a horror film about a group of american students, who journey to Ireland to meet their friend who lives there. He is a mushroom expert, and takes them on a hike of the hillsides to find some. They end up getting stalked by a serial killer whilst they are searching for psilocybin mushrooms, (magic mushrooms).