Film posters deconstruction

The Amazing spider man

• The dark shadowy theme of the poster evokes a sense of enigma
• The spider shape is instantly recognisable and the title of the film doesn’t even need to be shown on the poster for people to know what it is
• The actors face is obscured in shadow so the whole appeal is the franchise not the actors in the film
• The poster does not incorporate the red and blue colours of spider like previous makes of the film, defining a new spider man perhaps with a darker tone however the red text of the release date is a nod to the spider man colours
• The image is the main focus and the text is very small at the bottom so it does not distract
• Typography is clear, bold and capitalised so it still is noticeable despite size

Gone

• The focus is solely on the actress Amanda Seyfried rather than hinting at plot
• The typography is centralised but spaced which draws attention, the colour also highlights the title, typed, off centred, capitals
• The silhouette of a person is slightly suggestive of the plot and creates enigma as you don’t know who the enemy is
• The tag line ‘no one believes her. Nothing will stop her’ is suggestive of the genre, plot and also character traits as it portrays her as determined. Small, off centre, capitals 
• The text ‘coming soon’ is in red to draw attention to it among the small print
• The imagery is shaped as a person rather than a rectangle as the focus is on character and so this shape is far more exciting
• The contrasting light and dark is to highlight further the silhouette image of the figure

The Descent

• The image of people forming a skull defines the genre
• The tagline ‘Scream your last breath’ is hinting of the plot as it takes place underground and that it can be difficult to breath. Also screaming underground nobody can hear you which heightens the horror element of the film
• The light coming through behind the people suggests they are trying to escape and reach the top where the light is out of the hole
• Typography looks as though it is illuminated like the light the behind the image
• The poster shows all women and the convention of women in horror films is that that are futile and often are the damsels in distress which reflect society’s stereotypical view of women
• Also the use of women’s bodies to form the skull exploits the horror convention of involving sexuality
• The positioning of the small print writing around the edge of the poster could be to represent that they are trapped and surrounded
• Includes quotes about the film 

The Last Exorcism 

• The choice of image is quite striking and portrays the genre of the film and follows the convention of creepy young possessed girl
•  Colour scheme is bleak sepia with vibrant red which becomes the focus
• The typography is in red so attention is drawn to it, the font is gothic looking and so reflects the religious element in the film
• The tag line ‘Believe in Him’ makes clear that this film has religious elements but sounds almost threatening as it is blunt and commanding
• The composition and positioning of the poster is centralised following the point of the cross
• The image of the cross looks like a dagger pointing at the girl. The girl is in a demented, unnatural position which creates discomfort for the audience

Jaws

• Simple, effective image, contrast between unaware girl and massive shark attacking
• Emphasis on the shark rather than the victim – could be anyone
• Typography – red, danger, blood
• Actors names – Spielberg not famous at this stage
• Plays on fame of book
• Genre – creature feature, slasher as lots of blood perhaps psychological makes you afraid of the water and plays on common fears 

500 days of summer

• Blue background – relates to Summer’s eyes – relevant to plot
• Title – pun. Poster plays on both meanings – sun pictures of girl
• 500 days of summer – collage to represent each day with summer
• Genre – romance, boy and girl. Boy alone, not happy. Girl related to sunshine and (his) happiness
• Tag line – ‘this is not a love story, this is a stry about love’ – enigmas and subvert conventions
• Boy sitting on sketched hill – arty

Final destination

• tag line- piece of glass, plays on rest in piece
• related to plot – franchise. Horrible unusual deaths
• image – mix of face and skull, eerie, grim
• skull – relevance to death personified (like grim reaper) out to kill those who escaped their fate
• typography – light in mirror, relates to plot – people look back on premonition and work out how they were meant to die
• mirror – image. Young, attractive actors who have gruesome deaths
• colour scheme – dark blue, black, white and a bit of colour. Mysterious because it’s not following traditional conventions
• New age horror – green and blue tints to create cold, clinical feeling
• Red – still applicable for slasher

The Dark Knight (Joker)

• Typography – catch phrase of the Joker, looks like it’s written in blood. Smile makes it more freaky and unsettling, more sinister and sick/psychotic
•  Gotham in the background – mist, fog, vague. Painted onto a window?
• Gesturing towards audience. Unnerving, addressing us yet we can’t see him clearly
• Title of the film and symbol at the bottom – franchise
• Nothing in the middle positing golden rule, eye is drawn all around rather than at focal point

Terminator

• Plays on the convention of the golden rule as main image is in the middle however is upside down
• Eyes are main focus. Red is illuminated – suggesting still alive, contrast to colour scheme – brown, black, cream – natural
• Takes longer to look at image, twist your head so more time is spent looking at it
• Typography – metallic, futuristic – robotic and man made
• Genre – sci-fi horror

The Cabin in the woods

• Genre – grey scale background, eerie, chilling, enigmas
• Cabin suspended – rubiks cube, puzzles, psychological
• Tagline – ‘you think you know the story’ plays on audiences expectations and conventions of horror in the woods genre
• Conceptual image, simple but has been manipulated to create an interesting image
• Typography – scratched, thin, elongated, modern classic, simplistic 

The last exorcism

• Girl not in centre of the poster – ‘the golden rule’, forces eye to look around as not conventional composition is used, makes you look at the poster longer. Unsettling
• Tagline – ‘if you believe in God, you must believe in the Devil ‘you’ – addresses audience
• Picture, typography and tagline all relate to eachother
• Playing on previous success of ‘The Exorcist’ – girl, subverting conventions of youth and innocence
• Explicit picture of girl possessed – uncomfortable, should expect shocks and jumps as she is in a dangerous threatening position
• Colour scheme –sepia, green (filthy) neutral natural colours – realism, tiny bit of red (convention is there but background)
• Font –archaic, gothic- religious

Inception

• Background – road twists up. Confuses the audience what way we’re looking
• Genre – sci-fi/fantasy/thriller
• Tagline ‘your mind is the scene of the crime’ – relates to thriller but ‘mind’ suggests its more abstract
• Different size given to different actors and director’s name, famous cast so capitalising on this by making this a focus of the poser
• Colour scheme – blue, clinical or cold.Blue and red – crime like police lights. 
• Title strong contrast to rest of the poster and stands out against the background

Batman

• Teaser poster
• No need for plot franchise will guarantee success
• Black, white, grey – bleak, creates disequilibrium
• Comic book used this grayscale colour scheme, film stays true to comic book
• Rocks falling, action, destruction
• No title, enigma, forces people to further research creates interest
• Unusual angle- looking up, we are the people from Gotham – need help
• Rocks falling towards us, bat shape at top – light. Binary opposition
  

    Batman (The dark knight rises)

• Plays on similar image from before, batman symbol in the sky from buildings
• Tagline ‘a fire will rise’ – matches destruction in image. Instead of light, we have fire – suggests hell
• Finality, destruction, hopelessness, action, dark
• His stance is defeatist, standing at the bottom with us   

The Pact

• Landscape poster – unusual
• Image of someone coming out from the wall paper - creepy , something lurking reflective of the tagline and perhaps plot but doesn’t give away what the scary thing is, creates enigma
• Old fashioned wallpaper – old fashioned houses tend to be haunted
• Tagline ‘are you alone in your house?’ – small font, people look closer to read it lengthens amount of time audience spend looking at poster, use of ‘your’ addresses audience and questions them
• Colour scheme - conventional use of horror colours black and white, contrasting makes text stand out more against background
• Typography – ‘PACT’ has more emphasise and has a glowing effect hints at paranormal, ghostly, ethereal   
• Gives a clear indication of genre as horror to the audience
• Positioning of elements and use of the golden rule - there isn’t much going on in the centre of the poster, the image is slightly higher, the audiences eye is drawn around the whole poster, spend more time looking. 

Amy Freeman