Textual analysis of existing film posters.

The purpose of a film poster is to entice audiences to go and see the film. The poster has to represent the film and its genre and give audiences some clue of what it is about, as they may not have previously seen a trailer. Promotional posters normally include an image of one of the main characters and they must also inform audiences of when the film is released. I have analysed three promotional posters for different horror films to help me see what conventions are used.

An American Haunting

This promotional poster is for horror film “An American Haunting” which was released in 2005. The poster is very simple but effective.

The girl featured on the poster is the main character, Betsy, who is getting haunted by an entity in her house. The image is the main focal point of the poster as it takes up the majority of the space. There are only three colours used on the poster to help keep it simple; black, white and grey/green. These colours represent the genre because they are all dark and dull. A convention of horror films is the darkness. The colour white and grey/green is associated with ghosts, and spirits which relates to the “Haunting” in the title.

The font used for the title is in the colour white and the word “Haunting” fades out along the bottom, again this relates to the theme of ghosts and spirits. The font used is simple and clear, making the image the main focus point. There is also a tagline underneath the film title saying “Possession knows no bounds”. Taglines are used to help promote the film and give audiences more of a clue as to what the film is about, they are normally short, snappy and straight to the point. A symbol of a cross is noticeable on the right-hand side of the page; the narrative of the film is based around possession and exorcism which linked with the idea of the church. The symbol does not stand out straight away however it is a very important part of the poster as it is a symbolic code which will give audiences more clues about the film.

In the top right-hand corner there are the names of several actors and actresses. The same font as the title and tagline is used. Underneath the names of the actors are the credits, these are often very small and difficult to make out. They are not essential for audiences to see but are there for promotional reasons and include the names of producers, directors etc.

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th was released in 2009 and this is one of the promotional posters for the film.

As the poster for “An American Haunting” there are only three main colours used; black, white and red. The colour black is the main colour used, this is the most conventional colour of horror films as I mentioned previously as it represents darkness and the unknown. As the majority of the poster is in black this makes the red and white stand out more. The font used is, again, simple and clear to read, however it is in bright colours which stand off the poster. Therefore a simple font is appropriate because it makes the bright colours the more important element. The name of the film and the release date are the only things in red, which represents danger and death. The film title “Friday the 13th” is position at the bottom of the page, this is similar to the title of “An American Haunting”. Both titles stand out despite being at the bottom of the page instead of in the centre.

The titles are placed at the bottom of the page because the main image takes central position. The main image is the selling point on a poster, it is important the image is effective and represents the genre of the film as well as giving audiences some clue as to what the narrative of the film contains. The main image on this poster of “Friday the 13th” is of Jason Voorhees, the main character of the film. If someone had not previously seen a trailer this poster would give them some clue as to the main plot of the story. The image shows that Jason is a killer, this is represented through dark colours, a saw and the masks adds a sense of horror as it makes him far more scary and sinister because his face and identity are unknown. The angle used is a low angle shot, this makes audiences feel more inferior because Jason looks very dominating and threatening. Rather than just having an image of the main character, as the promotional poster for “An American Haunting”, the setting is also shown. The background of the image shows part of a wood, this allows audiences to take a guess that the narrative is set around a wood. This is very conventional of a horror film because woods are dark, and isolated, making it the perfect place for Jason to commit his crimes. The tagline also gives some suggestion about the location and setting of the film “Welcome to Crystal Lake”, this suggests that the wood is set around a lake. The white font makes the tagline stand out very clearly at the top of the page, against the dark background.

Along the very bottom of the page is the conventional credits that have also been on previous posters I have looked at. Again the font used for these credits is very small and difficult to make out. The names of production companies, directors etc are all in capital letters and the letter spacing is very close together, this makes it difficult to read. However, if the poster was on a larger scale, for example a billboard, it would be much easier to read the text. These credits are not as important as the main image and title therefore it is essential that they do no stand out too much, taking the attention away from the image and title. There are also different logos underneath the credits, these are the logos of the different production companies that produced and released the film.

Scream

This promotional poster is very simple, like the previous posters I have looked at. Scream was release in 1996 and features classic horror scenes, however isn’t as predictable as everyone expected it to be.

The image is an extreme close up of the main character, Casey, who is trying to solve the murder of her mother. It is a very simple image but grabs the audiences attention. The images shows her facial expression very clearly and relates to the title of the film “Scream”. The image is black and white and is positioned in the centre of the page taking up the majority of the poster. The main focus point of the image is her eyes, they are about two thirds of the page down which is where audiences eyes first glance at. Eyes show emotion, and hers show she is full of fear and shock. The image suggests to audiences that this is how they’ll feel when they watch the film.

As seen previously, this promotional poster uses simple and clear to read font. The title of the film is in white, block writing, which stands out against the dark background. The “M” on scream has a sharp point at the end to represent a knife. The film title is again placed at the bottom of the page, as the titles on the other two posters I have previously looked at. The title of the film along with the image represents the genre of horror however it does not give much away about the narrative. The tagline “Someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far. Solving the mystery is going to be murder” gives the audience more of a clue about the narrative, it tells them that a murder, or perhaps several, are going to take place and the narrative revolves around solving the murders. However, the poster does not give any clue about who committed the murders, it is usual for film posters to show the main character and in a horror film the murderer is normally the main character.

The promotional poster again conventionally uses three main colours; black, white and gray. It also has the credits and production details along the bottom, as well as the name of the actors and actresses in the film. All this font is in white, sticking to one of the three colours. The logo of the production company, Dimension Films, is also on the poster.