Analysing 2 film posters and 2 film magazine covers

By Rashedul Bari

SevenThe genre of this movie is thriller/horror. The aim of this is to create A buzz for the audiences to want to watch this film. The USP of this text is it gives us some plot signifiers (as the seven deadly sins). The target audience of this text will be the thriller lovers who like a good mystery. It appeals to the target audience by having the tagline as “Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to die.” This creates an enigma for the audiences as they want to know what happens in the movie. This text works in relation to other media texts as it creates mystery like similar thriller posters and it also has dark colours and intense expressions on the faces of the actors. The technical codes used are similar throughout most posters as there are taglines and plot signifiers (“Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to die.” and noting down the seven deadly sins as plot signifiers), this is done top entice audiences to come to the cinemas to watch this movie and see the mystery unfold. The poster also uses star names to ‘plug’ the film in essence to attract a wider audience and maximise their box office returns. The poster also uses framing to show that the two actors are at equal footing and they are both major-ly involved in the story. Texts like this normally portray dark colours and intense characters on the posters, which is similar to most thriller posters. The text inspires me as it shows how to make my poster for a thriller, dark colours, enigmatic taglines and intense character expressions, where everything is mysterious and nothing is simple. The genre is clearly signified through the use of the genre’s repertoire which includes: dark colours to signify seriousness, serious expressions on the faces of the actors, using a fiery colour scheme which can signify fire and a mysterious tagline, which keeps the audience guessing.

SevenThe names of the actors can be a Unique Selling Point and can be used to pull a wider audience in and maximise the potential box office returns

The actors sombre expression creates an enigma for the audience as they are clearly serious and this normally means something serious has happened there laying the foundations of the thriller movie.

This is the plot signifier of the movie where it gives the audience a clue of what the movie is about: the seven deadly sins. It is not clear what role they play in the movie as it is a mystery thriller movie and could be anything

This is the title of the movie and below is the tagline which reads: Seven Deadly Sins. Seven Ways to Die. The title is very ambiguous as it creates a mystery itself just an allusion to the 7 deadly sins. The tagline also alludes to the 7 deadly sins and also how there are seven ways to die as well.

LawlessLawless is a thriller/gangster film. the aim of this text is to create a buzz/identification among the audiences to persuade to go and watch this film. The USP of this text is showcasing the all-star cast which consists of: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce etc. This will certainly work well with audiences as each star has a following and this will result in a wider box office appeal. The target audience will be one who love their old-fashioned gangster/action movies who will expect to get a bit of thriller conventions thrown in there. It will appeal in the form of the title (Lawless) as people might then expect it to be a action movie, It will appeal with the cast on the poster being fully showcased to attract audiences. This text works comparing to other posters with the same genre as it follows the same conventions in terms of features: tagline, title, actor credits etc. The poster uses similar technical codes as it uses a tagline (which can also be implied as a plot signifier) of “Brothers. Gangsters. Heroes.” The conventions of this genre seem to be, a tagline, actor credits, serious expressions on the faces of the actors. this text inspires in terms of the catchy tagline and plot signifier as it is quick and witty as well, this will inspire me to make a catchy tagline that will entice my target audience. The genre is clearly signifies through the use of the genre’s repertoire which can include: dark colours, a gloomy-looking sky, serious character expressions and a title that screams seriousness and stamps its authority.

LawlessThe actor credits can be USP and appeal to a certain audience and help maximise box office returns

The tagline can also be implied as a plot signifier and gives an allusion to audiences as to what they might expect to see in the movie.

This will appeal to audiences as it showcases the star cast and will help in gaining a greater box office return. They also have serious expressions on their faces to reinforce the thriller conventions.

This is the title of the movie that can also act as a plot signifier, in terms of what characters might be in the movie and create an enigma for the audiences.

Magazine AnalysisThe image of Leonardo DiCaprio from the movie Inception will entice audiences of this kind of movie.

The text to image ratio favours towards to the text side to show the features in the magazine.

The layout consists of a selected image in the middle, the masthead at the top but the picture in front of it, a skyline and sell lines in and around of the picture. The design is simple and in bold to stamp authority and to be taken serious. The sell lines are slanted to give a certain futuristic look to it. The masthead is the title of the magazine and is placed behind the picture to give the picture authority.

The sell lines are placed around the character to again give the picture the authority and make it more important.

The background consists of one of the places from Inception which follows the thriller convention of a dark location.

The colour is very dull and constrained to make it more serious and enforce the thriller convention.

Magazine AnalysisThe image is Robert Downey Jr. in a still from ‘Sherlock Holmes’. The picture portrays him as mysterious, a thriller stereotype. There is an image of Jake Gyllenhaal from ‘Prince of Persia and there is an image of Johnny Depp from Alice in Wonderland. The image of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ enforces the thriller conventions as mystery/mysterious characters is what thrillers are centered around.

There seems to be more text than images, to showcase the features of the magazine.

The image of Sherlock Holmes is placed in front of the masthead to show authority in importance. The skyline is above the masthead and in a big font.

The masthead is behind the image because public is now familiar with the magazine therefore it has identification.

The sell lines are placed on the images to show relative text. The sell lines are not in obstruction of the images, as the image is more important.

The background is dark and mysterious to re-enforce the thriller notion of mysteriousness.

The colours are very dark and dull to make it more mysterious and similar to a thriller poster.

The fonts are very big and easily readable to allow the reader to understand easily.