Poster Analysis

Poster Analysis

Below are 3 poster analyses from 3 different horror movies. I will be looking at how they are laid down, how the characters are portrayed and what other features draw in audiences.

Friday The 13th

Above the analysis of Friday the 13th poster.

The Exorcist



The poster design for The Exorcist contains several important semiotic elements. The most obvious of these is the extreme contrast between light and dark elements of design
In this poster, through a coded visual language that arranges significant elements into a coherent and meaningful whole. This process of visual coding is understood as semiotics. We learn through experience to understand these codes.
The poster design for The Exorcist contains several important semiotic elements. The most obvious of these is the extreme contrast between light and dark elements of design. In art, these exaggerated contrasts are designated by the term chiaroscuro. This is the device by which the relative contrast between light and shade is used to give dynamic form to the objects in the picture. Inevitably, the art of shadows has always been understood as morally symbolic.
So, the poster locates the film precisely within a tradition of American cinema and also within the wider tradition of moral narratives that simplify everything into black and white. These implicit references to the moral landscape of chiaroscuro are further heightened by the use within the poster design of old-fashioned street furniture. The street lamp and the railings conjure up a powerful, and slightly disturbing, sense of decrepitude.
It's easy to forget that until recently our cities were full of private spaces and dark recesses. The sodium-glow of access-all-areas modernity has developed as a consequence of 24/7 consumer culture.
The hat, coat and bag combo, worn by the protagonist, distinguishes this quasi-medical professional as belonging to an earlier age.

Above is the analysis of the Hatchet poster.

Evaluation

During the evaluation of the horror posters I noticed that the main conventions of the horror film poster genre are that the edges of the posters are darker than the centre of the poster were the main characters or thing is featured. This can be seen especially strongly in the Friday the 13th and Hatchet posters. this is a convention i am going to be adding to my poster when doing the ancillary task.
Another convention I have noticed is the colour and size of the text,this in almost all of the film posters I have analysed is a dark red colour which a colour related to blood which is especially prominent in the horror film genre. This is also another convention that I will be adding to my poster. the title of the films are also written in very large fonts making them stand out from the rest of the text. i will also be adding this to my poster.

All posters also have tag lines which draw in audiences for example in the 'The Exorcist' it says /the most terrifying movie of all time', this draws in audiences because they might really what to know why this movie is the most terrifying of all time.
Another convention that i notice in the analysis of these posters is that at the bottom of each poster it shows the production credits that narrates the stars in the film, director (s), producer etc, i will be adding this in the creation of my poster.