I chose to analyse this film poster as it adhered to our proposed film genre we want to make a trailer for, as well as being minimalist and easy to recreate something similar if we were to make a film poster inspired by this. It uses subtle editing techniques without special effects, fierce photo-shopping or enhancing making the poster convey a raw and realistic affect to its audiences.
firstly, the typography of the title with its simplistic black font uses no fancy or unrealistic coloring's or extravagant fonts making it stand out even more and its 'times new roman' font similarities make it seem similar to the written hand typography of historical documents, already giving the film historical context and making it seem more realistic. having the entire title capitalized gives it prominence- and as well as this the verb 'conjuring' is larger than 'the' showing its importance and power. The byline 'based on the true case files of the warrens' implies a pragmatic understanding that audiences know who the warrens are, and if not, will conduct further research to find out who they are as it will give more meaning to the film. it also merges in to the film poster the idea of hyper reality, blurring the lines between real happenings and the films made up plot aversions. This byline also conveys a documentary style genre to the film- also portrayed with the lack of text and movie characters and actors so it combines the true non fictional genre of a documentary with fictional horror attracting audiences as this acts like a unique selling point. with the absence of any large scale actor names as unique selling points, this keeps audiences in tension and anticipation for when they watch the full movie, it creates an enigma out of which known actors may be in this film. This is a common convention of most horror movies, to re enforce the element of surprise and shock.
The top byline 'from the director of saw an insidious' is a unique selling point to the film because these hugely successful horror movie series' are highly watched, rated and recommended films- topping rotten tomatoes and film review sites as some of the best horror movies ever created, hence The Conjuring would be expected to be just the same. By just saying 'director of' instead of 'James wan'- the directors actual name, it creates an enigma around the film, bringing a sense of eeriness as it as if the director is almost hidden, relating to the films plot and hidden characters making the whole movie poster seem even more suspicious and eerie. The vague mention of the film 'coming soon' with the absence of an official date contributes to the sense of the unknown in the poster- which almost gives a tone and style to the poster.
The picture itself on the poster sets the setting for the movie, an effective attribute in film posters and film openings to familiarize audiences with the setting so it seems more real, and they feel like they too are in that setting (linking to the hypperreal). The abstract imagery makes audiences look deeper into the image, as nothing is obvious. audiences would be questioning the relevance of the house- what went on there? why there is a shadow towards the bottom of the poster? the relevance of the noose hanging from the tree? The setting conveyed also sets a tone for the movie, with its eerie misty surroundings conveying a sense of pathetic fallacy with these gloomy dull lifeless low saturation weather linking to themes within the films plot. The lonely barren setting leaves audiences wanting to unveil what is lurking in the darkness, especially with the austere tones. the juxtaposition of the dead tree in the foreground and house in the background in shallow focus contrasts the theme of death symbolically portrayed by the tree with life which you'd associate with a house/home environment. This hence presents death as a more prevalent theme than life in the movie poster.
The twitter hashtag in the credits block encourages audiences to head on to social media to find out more, and also would create a viral marketing campaign combining the hypperreal as people would advertise the film itself online through talking about it on twitter, without even having to see this poster. this is perhaps why the poster gives away such few details, as it can rely on social media and viral marketing to get the film advertised. this method of advertisement with interactive editions and online editions of this exact poster available is only a 21st century approach to film marketing whereas in the 19th century all film producers could rely on was the posters and theatrical trailers, and hence posters had to give away a lot more e.g dates, actors, plot summaries in comparison with this very vague poster above.
The way in which the billing board of directors and producers is placed in the left hand bottom corner of the poster rather than the right is unconventional of movie posters as typically these credits are in the right hand corner. This draws attention to the shadowed silhouette in the bottom third of the poster as this is the reason for the credits being moved, hence, audiences would naturally and subconciously notice this easily and its eerie appearance would be conveyed.
No comments:
Post a Comment