In this poster, we can see the advertising campaign for Paranormal Activity, released in 2007. At the top of the image, we see quite a large amount of text for a film poster. The context of the text shows a review of the film, it goes into quite a bit of detail about how the film will affect you. The text at the very bottom of the poster is hard to see, so must be therefore unimportant to pass-er-bys. However next to it we can see the rating, and the production company. These are however important and easy to see. Something like the production company would be very important to place on the film cover so that fans who have seen productions by he same company will know the level of quality that the film will be like. The text at the middle bottom of the shot shows the name of the film, in big red letters - used in order to be seen from afar, to attract more viewers. The reason why red is used as it is commonly associated with danger, to which this film has plenty of. The style of the name looks as though it has been taken with an old camera, with lines running through it, much alike what most of the actual film is filmed with
- a technique used so that the viewer can both connect with a hand held camera and the person holding it, and also for the viewer to be scared even more - the theory being that this happens when a electrical disturbance happens in the area, and what paranormal activity- not the film, the activity itself - is mostly associated with is electrical disturbance. The slogan of the film is wrote around the title itself, used to strike fear into the viewers before they even go and see the film itself. Seen as we are effectively told what genre it is from looking at the poster - "what happens when you sleep?" common fear across the world is what happens when you close your eyes, fear of what you cannot see, or in other words Nyctophobia.
Looking at the image itself, we are told instantly what sort of film its going to be, the fact the picture is set at night, very little lighting, the couple are in bed and looking terrified, we can see that it will be a psychological horror. However, looking closer, you can see even deeper what its going to be about, looking at it closely, you can see that the light in the room is meant to come from a window perhaps, shining onto the bed, there is a shadow appearing on the door, and there is nothing casting it, what could it be? This is what the film is really about, being afraid of something dangerous, and not being able to see it, something that once again nearly every human being can relate to.
In this film poster, we can see the advertisement for The Last Exorcism, released in 2010. First looking at the writing for the main title of the film, we can see it is in the colour of a dark red or burgundy, it is also splattered with blood stains, this way from just looking at the title we are still able to see what kind of genre it is - a horror, the writing is also the largest on the image therefore it is the most important information. Another bit of writing is when it is released, this too is in the same style as the title but without the blood stains, it is also the second biggest section of text, the rest of the text is quite small and partially insignificant, except for the text at the very top. This shows who directed the film, it is placed here specifically so that it overlooks the main image in the poster, therefore it will easily be seen by viewers.
The main image shows quite a lot of the story in itself, giving away enough information to intrigue viewers but not give to much away. Such information is shown through the usage of shadows, seen as the film is based on a demon taking a girl but there still remaining hope, but it is undecided whether the main protagonist will succeed or not, it is shown here, looking at the walls either side of the girl, one side has a shadow at the top, the other at the bottom, the one on the top looks like the shadow is coming from the possessed girl, the other coming from the bottom, the lower shadow could be looked at as though it is the girl trying to escape, but seen as the shadow comes to a stop, without becoming a solid human shape, we could assume that the girl will not escape.
Film Magazine Covers
In this image the main selling line relates to the main image. The image of the character Gollum from the Lord Of The Rings series is used to promote the up coming film, The Hobbit as shown in the main selling line. The mast head is hidden behind Gollums head, just enough so we can see what magazine it is, but enough so that it does not distract us from the main image - Gollum. The main selling line is in the colour of gold, this is because the film it is based around is based on a gold ring, so Lord Of The Rings fans will not only associate the name with the film, but also the colouring.The other sell lines indicate recent interests in the film industry, such as the famed Heath Ledgers death. The magazine also uses three colour scheme, only using gold, white and red.
In this magazine we can see that it advertises the film Hellboy 2. The main character - hellboy - dominates the magazine. This way we can become completely entrapped by what the magazine offers. The name of the director is is listed at the bottom of the magazine underneath the main sell line. Above the main sell line, it plays on a very well know phase said by a lot of people in plenty of films and in reality, and includes the title of the film. Across the left hand side of the magazine cover, there are other sell lines, used in order to attract more people to the magazine, spreading their influence. On the right hand side it offers other interesting articles. The mast head also relates to the film advertised, with one of the main features of the film being hell, it has incorperated fire into the text, again to make it stand out more.
From looking at the two magazine articles above, i have been able to conclude that the most effective factor that my team should use in order to get the best quality magazine cover, the majority of the cover should be filled with an image related to the film. This way we can avoid complications such as filling empty space. Another good idea, as taken from the Hellboy cover, is to try and relate the mast head to the film, this way people can become excited by purely the mast head.
From looking at the two film posters above, i have been able to conclude that the most effective factor that my team should us in order to get the best quality film poster, is to make sure that the poster tells some of the story, as seen in the Last Exorcism poster, this way the viewers will be interested consciously from looking at the poster, and be subconsciously intrigued as they try to figure out what is going on in the story. Also, another good idea is to make sure that the slogan of the film is clear to the viewer, something snappy and able to send a shiver down the viewers spine, as seen in the Paranormal Activity poster.
This has been useful as i have been able to make a gooss analysis of what i need to put into my poster and magazine, so that we will be able to create a successful marketing campaign.
