Analysis of Film Posters

Analysis of 3 film posters. 

Layout.

The first two posters have the actors in the role of their characters in the centre. These are the protagonists, therefore it makes sense for them to appear on the poster. However the third poster is an exception to this and if you have seen the film you will become aware of why. The use of the landscape and not use of actors still makes the audience wonder why are there many cars but no people? Which are similar questions audiences ask themselves when looking at the other posters, why is this woman being dragged to hell? why has she only got 3 days? Similarly they may ask why is this man wearing a mask and carrying a weapon? Each poster has its own captions, Friday the 13th's caption- 'Welcome to Crystal Lake' is at the top, so in theory you will see the caption before the person this shows that this is the location where this character either lives or strikes. Drag Me To Hell- 'Christine brown has a good job, a great boyfriend and a bright future, but in three days she's going to hell' is under Christine but above the title of the film. The happening captions are in the clouds which read; 'We've seen it, We've seen the signs, Now.. it's Happening' as this is in the large dark clouds may indicate that what ever is happening is to do with the clouds or nature. These all arise questions intriguing the viewer. The images used are in continuity of the film, what you see on the poster is what happens or a result of what happens in the film, with Friday the 13th the character is dressed in dark clothing which will blend in the background of the dark woods once out of moonlight, which is currently behind him surrounded in fog, gives the effect of eeriness, holding the weapon displays the character as the villain in the film,this is reiterated as he is wearing a mask to hide their identity. For the 'Drag Me To Hell' poster in the background there are homes, this connotes that this isn't a girl lost in the woods type of horror the horror occurs in civilised area. You can clearly see by her expression she is in pain this is emphasised by the hands or rotten flesh, this is also a sign of hell as well as the fire at the bottom of the page. Finally the image in 'The Happening' poster is of abandoned cars either side of the road with large dark clouds in the sky, the image doesn't consist of much but the meaning is deeper.  

Typical of many movie posters the name of the film is at the bottom of the poster, this is because the image commonly takes up the majority of the page, these are typical conventions of a film poster. This is because looking at a poster from top to bottom the title is the last thing you see. In some posters instead of writing un-familiar producers they display other films the viewer of this particularly movie may have seen, for example,  ' from the producers of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.'   The font used at the bottom of the first two posters is a universal font, majority of movie posters you find have the same font, if the lower case of letters are used a different job involved in filming is used fir example, director is created by just one letter. The release date is also at the bottom of posters directly under the name of the film so you know what to see and when to see it.