Textual Ananlysis Of A Horror Poster

FILM TITLE: THE PACT
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2012
DIRECTOR: NICHOLAS McCARTHY
PRODUCERS: Jaime Burke, Jamie Carmichael, Ross M. Dinerstein, Sam Zuckerman 
Distributed By: Entertainment One, IFC Midnight, content Film International

This Poster gives very little information about what to expect in the movie. It gives a very brief idea of what to expect to the audience.

Its gives away enough information to tell the poster is to-do with the genre horror. The poster goes all dark and mysterious at the bottom of the poster which is typical as most horror movies have the main image going into the unknown like how it is shown in this poster. As soon as it gets dark nothing else is exposed about the character. This is another way to tell what genre the poster is about; the antagonist is shown but not fully as the creators want to persuade possible viewers to watch the movie.

Also the poster has quotes from a magazine which says "Scream Out Loud Scary" now this gives more credibility to the movie as the media have actually seen the film and actually think the movie is scary and therefore worth watching. that’s the reason the creator of the poster has included the quote, it’s so it persuades the viewers to go out there go to the cinema and watch the movie because the media think it’s worth watching. The movie has also won an award for one of the scariest movies out. This adds more credibility to the movie and gives the possible viewers something to think about as the movie is winning awards for being a horror. This award will bring in more people as well as the quotes from the magazine both about how scary the poster the movie is. This is an excellent addition to the poster and makes it one not to miss.

The colours used for the title of the title of the poster is also a common use in movie posters as there is always something mysterious on the poster. The way the text is written on the poster and the font used also gives information that the movie the poster is a horror movie. I have personally seen the movie and the antagonist in the movie is also similar to the way its shown in the poster, the antagonist is hidden throughout most of the film and it will give away too much if the face was revealed in the poster because it will no longer be a mystery of how the character looks in the movie.  

This poster is one we may compare ours with not fully as this poster is more of a thriller whereas our trailer and poster will be more of a supernatural approach. We will make it more mysterious and add more in our poster. The Pact poster has got little on it and is hard analyse it as not much is given away.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Poster

The images used in this poster along with the title are a clear give away of what the film is about, you have "Leatherface" walking down a Texas road with his chainsaw, you can see he is wearing something that looks a lot like an apron which is a shade of green, you can tell this due to the light coming through it, chainsaws are heavy bits of equipment used for logging etc, how the main character holds it in one hand and walks with it suggests that he may be quite strong. The typical horror colour conventions have been used but altered, its not the strict black background with the red writing swiped across it, blood, dripping, the cloudy skies have been given the colour of the dusty Texas plains.

The bottom right section where "Leatherface" you can see the camera image was edited as were "Leatherface" is walking the sky is of a lighter colour so you can see the back of the main character whereas the rest of the sky is seen to be charcoal grey. Right at the top of the poster where the sky is seen to be charcoal grey is where the title has been written in the colour of the sky in the bottom right section.

Although the title and the image give away the main ideas of the film, very cleverly underneath the title is written "The Beginning", so when you immediately see the poster you think you've got most of it worked out however when you see the writing below, it gives the effect that there is so much more to come which is very effective. On some movie posters they have certain magazines ratings on the film etc, on this particular poster they don't have that, which gives it that raw UN-rated effect, personally i tend to read or browse reviews when i am going o watch a film but with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre i didn't read and didn't see any ratings however still thought id watch it.

Everything on this movie poster is an indication of the genre, the colours, the props, the font in which the title is written, the strap-line, these are all indications that this is a dark, bloody horror. The way all of these things have been put onto this poster which is of high deffinition quality, but been given that old rigid effect that tops off the whole idea you can get from the poster, big built male walking casually down a deserted road splitting the Texas plains holding a chainsaw, old, ridged, rough, these are the word which come into mind when looking at this particular poster, the idea gained from the image of the main character is that he doesn't care, its clear he doesn't fear anything, but is that just because he has a chainsaw? Anyone could have a chainsaw, its the mindset that sets you aside from the rest, there is a clear case of that with this character, not just alone but in a city or busy town, in the middle of Texas, certain form of isolation.

The way the character is walking along, casually, doesn't give the impression he is in a hurry, and the fact that he is just walking down a road that seems so bleak, suggests that hes not really walking towards anything. This gives the impression that there is some sort of connection between man and location, hes a crazed man with a chainsaw..in the middle of nowhere, he doesn't seem to be walking to anywhere..there is nowhere to walk to.

The strap-line plotted right in the centre of the poster, "Witness, The birth of fear." suggests that this is where the fear begins, this is well co-ordinated with the way they wrote "the beginning" underneath the main title, when a film is released, and there are plans for a sequel, they don't tend to write the beginning or anything of that sort because right at the end of the film there is a scene which suggests there is going to be another one. "the beginning" and "Witness. The birth of fear" are both lines that give the effect that this is something else, not quite like any other horror you may have seen, not any other film or thought that has made you fear something or someone, gives it the "one of a kind" identity which is what i believe is this movies USP (unique selling point).

When you put all these thought and ideas together along with the poster of course you can clearly tell what kind of film this is and what target audience it is aimed at. The language used in the title is very strong, powerful yet rigid, just like the effect of the poster, old, rigid, slightly faded effect. They have set it as a real true story by adding "The" before the main name, when you think there could of so many other names for this film, even if the name remained this long there are so many other words that could be used to substitute, however they have matched up the poster effect with the style of the writing, the positioning of the character, the colours and the text perfectly, these all come together to back up the message that the text gives, there isn't a horror quite like this one.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Poster

Film: Strangers
Release Date: May 30, 2008
Production Company: Rouge Pictures
Producers: Doug Davidson, Roy Lee, Nathan Kahane
Director: Bryan Bertino
Actors: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman

The primary purpose of a poster is to advertise they can be seen all around us in a wide range of places from public transport to magazines. A poster is one of the primary form of promotion for a movie, as well as other forms of media. Although there has been enormous leaps forward in technological development a poster has become a traditional way of promotion for a movie, as it has the power to portray the essence of an entire movie in a single snapshot, and work brilliantly in synergy when accompanied with other forms of promotion such as the use of a trailer.

Instantaneously this poster informs the audience that the movie it is advertising is a horror, this is achieved through many different media techniques and the use of specific images that fit with horror conventions.

Firstly the poster uses but also alters typical horror conventions of dark backgrounds and gory foreground text or images, it uses dark colours to surround the central image in the same way a vignette filter usually does in many horror films this further solidifies the audience belief that the poster is for a horror film and also focusses the viewers attention on the central image which shows two people confronted by three people wearing masks although we are not explicitly told who are the victims and the perpetrator because the audience are familiar with media conventions and are aware the perpetrator is often anonymous and victims are often shown as helpless, it allows them to differentiate between the two without explicitly stating so.

Secondly the font used in the poster is white which contrasts with the black extremely well, furthermore the font and colour could be considered a visual metaphor with the white representing light and the black representing darkness referring to a typical scene in most horror movies where the victim is show in darkness with usually a small lightsource such as a candle.

Equally the lack of text works just as well as the text that is present an example of this is the lack of
ratings and review quotes which are often present on promotional posters this poster has neither which i think adds to the mystery and horror as it suggests that the movie is too frightening to have ever been watched, this works very well as many people tend to watch movies to prove to friends that they are fearless this may cause people to watch this movie in particular as a measure of how brave they are.

Furthermore the non verbal communication in the poster works extremely well. i think this is because the perpetrators are wearing masks with prevents any emotion being show and provides a sense of of being in the presence of the unknown which is something portrayed in many horror movies. The use of light once again works very well in synergy with this as it focusses the viewers attention on to the masks worn by the perpetrators.

At the same time there is also a sense of mental instability portrayed in the poster this is achieved through the way the perpetrators are shown stood with there arms by there side in a almost innocent way however are in a situation that we believe could result in the murder of someone. Due to death and innocence being contrasted insecurity and mental instability is portrayed as these are things we would never associate with each other  

In addition the costumes worn in the poster with the exception of the masks appear to seem very natural and normal this adds to the to the realism portrayed by the poster as it provokes the audience to think that what is happening in the poster could very easily happen to them and creates fear which is exactly what horrors are meant to achieve.

Furthermore the poster provokes the audience to stop and think through the use of unique tagline 'Because You Were Home' the use of this tag line creates a sense of mystery as people think they are safest when at home however this suggests otherwise and creates a sense of insecurity which adds to the viewing pleasure associated with media of the horror genre.

Overall the poster teases the audience by touching on almost every element that makes up a good horror as well as adding new elements unique to this poster alone which when coupled together with each other and create a extremely enticing atmosphere, which when displayed on the poster makes an outstanding piece of promotional media which is more then capable of completing its task.

Theories and trailers

From research i have gathered various information for what makes a good trailer, there is a balance of elements which come together to produce a good trailer. If too much of the story is added to the trailer of a film then the audience will think there is no point to watch the film because they already have the plot and main scenes all in the trailer, however if too little of the story is given away the audience is left with a confused mind and question weather watching the movie is even going to be worth it.
Although we are not creating a full movie at the end to follow on from the trailer, these are the elements needed to create a good trailer regardless of weather its just a trailer or a movie is to follow.

Tzveta Todorovz's theory of narrative is worked around the idea of equilibrium, when things are at equilibrium they are balanced.
His theory goes:

• Equilibrium
• Disruption of the equilibrium
• Recognition of the disruption
• Attempt to repair the damage/disruption
• New equilibrium

Equilibrium, everything being okay at the beginning, you see a little bit into the character, his/her surroundings and personality. 
Disruption of equilibrium, thing going wrong for the main character, for example hes a hero and hes challenged.
Recognition of the disruption, the character is over the reality that there has been a disruption and begins to look into and see what it is.
Attempt to repair the damage, comes up with a plan/scheme to fix what has happened, may have aquired a team or something for instance.
New equilibrium, the hero has solved the problem and everything has settled and the situation may be different then the beginning, for example some character may have died but things have gotten better and settled now.

Another theorist, Claude Levi Strausse had another media theory, this theory was of binary opposites, " a pair of opposites, thought by the Structuralists to powerfully form and organise human thought and culture."
Some of these opposites being the obvious, for instance, cold-hot, dark-light, although these are basic terms the way they are used and implied throughout media gives them allot more meaning, for example, you would have a gory horror scene set on a hot beach in broad daylight, the horror scene would be set in a dark forest where it gets cold and scary etc. 

Another studied theorist in media is Roland Barthes, text in media is used on a wider level then in common vocabulary, text is used to describe images, actual text, film, basically the subject that you are working on, Barthes said texts where either "open or closed", his way of describing was that text is like lots of tangled threads, and he said that once those threads have been untangled it gives a whole range of potential meaning.
You can begin to look at a narrative from one perspective, however if you continue to break the narrative down with a different perspective you could come up with a complete different meaning. Barthes came up with 5 key codes which are found in any narrative.

• The Hermeneutic Code (HER)
• The Enigma/Proairetic (ACT)
• The Symbolic Code (SYM)
• The Cultural Code (REF)
• The Semantic Code (SEM)

The Hermeneutic Code: is the way the story avoids telling the truth or giving away all the facts, this is to cause mystery, this can be identified in horrors and many other films, the story only really begins to unravel itself halfway or even further through. 
The Enigma/Proairetic: this is the buildup of tension and the effect of leaving the audience on edge and thinking what happens next..
The Symbolic Code: similar to the semantic code, it puts semantic meanings into bigger categories and sets of meanings, this is when there is antithesis, opposing and conflicting ideas. 
The Cultural Code: morality and ideology, looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge. 
The Semantic Code: this code points to the particular elements in a text that suggest a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation. Connotation: cultural/underlining meaning, what it symbolises.

http://www.slideshare.net/alexdabriel/barthes-codes-theory

Choosing A Genre

Our group has decided to choose to create a horror trailer for our A2 media the reason we have decided to choose this genre imparticular is for many reasons

Firstly we have already had experience in the horror genre and can therefore make use of the knowledge we have gained as we will know what is and isn't effective within the genre and can then decide how we would like to incorporate it into our main piece as well as this it will also give us a head start in the research we will need to carry out as we wont have to start from scratch and could simply add to and further develop to what we already have.

The second reason we chose a horror was because it is a genre we all have a active interest in this means we are more likely to be engaged in the work we carry out furthermore we will be able to apply what we have learnt from the numerous horrors we have viewed and apply it to our own task.

finally the last reason we decided to make a horror themed piece of media as we personally believe it is a genre that benefits from stereotypes such as blood and darkness and because of this we have a simple guideline of what to add if we start to stray from the genre

A2 Task

Myself and my group were presented with several options for our A2 media project which varied from creating a advertisement to making a short film.

We decided to make a film trailer accompanied by a magazine cover featuring the movie and and a promotional poster for the movie the reason we decided to choose this task was for several reasons

Firstly we felt extremely confident in making a trailer as during our AS task we were miss-informed and starting making a trailer which we think if we had finished through would have been a high quality of work.

Secondly we had already had experience of making a promotional poster from our AS piece this means that we can apply what we know works well on a poster and include and pick away what we think doesn't work so well. In addition everyone in the group was confident with using photoshop therefore making the choice even easier to make as if we had picked another task it would mean we would have to spend time learning how to use new software and tools

AS Media Poster

Finally out of all the options available we found that this choice exposed fewest of our weaknesses and showed off the majority of our skills making it a logical choice to do a trailer, magazine cover, and poster

AS Project Mini Evaluation

                                        

Upon starting my AS media task myself and my group were naturally extremely enthusiastic, initially this huge outburst of ideas seemed to us as a brilliant thing but was far from it as it meant we had an overwhelming amount of clashing between our visions of what our final piece should look like. however over the year we became more aware of what should and shouldn't be in a movie opening and became generally more media savvy. As a group we were happy with our final piece however there were many mishaps and some unexpected issues which were not given enough time to be corrected. Some of this was due to restrictions that were out of our control such as school rules that prevented us from filming in certain areas or at specific times.

During my AS media i was more practical orientated rather than the theory side of media i think this is because i feel more engaged in practicals because i think i am more capable when it comes to filming and editing rather then analysis of representation and other theoretical aspects. However this year i plan to evenly split my work and apply myself to both aspects, equally to allow me to get a higher grade.

Last year we used the schools equipment to film and edit our media project and for our AS level as we beleived it was capable of providing a clean final project. however because A2 is such a big jump up and demands better quality in all regards of our groups work, we have decided to use a higher quality DSLR for our stills and a full HD high FPS camera for our video footage as well as stepping up from editing with imovie to final cut pro

During our AS task were myself and the other two members of our group because this because of this we were limited as to what we could do in terms of our storyline to correct this in our A2 peice there will be actors as well as ourselves involved this widens the amount of things we can do within our piece and hopefully result in a better outcome.

Finally due to there being restricitions such as the one in place by the school most of our AS task was filmed in and around the school area this meant finding places which were well suited for our genre we had chosen was difficult however this year we have found ways in which we can overcome the bars in place and wil be able to find a set best suited for our filming