The image above is a poster advertising the film ‘one missed call”, a 2008 remake of the 2004. Japanese film Chakushin Ari. The remake was released in North America on January 4, 2008 and was directed by Eric Valette and written by Andrew Klavan. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
The simple denotation of this poster is that it is a person face but the eyes are indeed illustrated with two girl’s mouths screaming and that the person is holding the key prop for the film which is the mobile phone, which is the antagonist weapon. If examined carefully, the screaming girls who appear to be the eyes on the face accompany the tagline which is “what would it sound like when you die” and often in films the girls are known for screaming for fear or for pain before the die. In addition the skin tone of the person face in the poster of the remake of the film may signify the race of Japanese culture as the original film was Japanese film.
The connotations linked with this poster run much deeper than the mentioned denotation. A great amount of low key lighting is used in the poster to cast darkness. With dark tones being used, audience members will instantly become aware that the film being advertised would not be a film that is appropriate for a family including children to watch in movie theatres. This is because dark tones such as black and grey instantly connote sadness or in this case, death. Through these dark tones the surroundings have not been identifying properly, prompting them to fear what cannot be seen in the dark. It is very well known that a lot of the time, fear derives from the unknown, which also gives a sense of mystery.
As well as warning audiences, the main purpose of film posters is to advertise films. Posters such as this one will be placed in a variety of different locations. This can vary from advertisements on the internet, billboards, buses plus many more. Another common place is within movie theatres themselves. These posters will probably be placed in lobbies. If the posters fail to entice movie-goers, there is still another chance to persuade them to watch the film. This other chance is within the teaser trailers and normal theatrical trailers that are played before a film. These trailers and posters all share the same target; however there are only so many chances a company will get to interest viewers enough for them to spend money in cinemas to watch these films. That is why other tactics must be used other than simply telling audiences that a certain film is due for release.
In addition to using the film makers in order to make the film more appealing, the connotations that the poster gives should attract another type of audience; horror-lovers. The red font used for the tagline within the poster is also a convention. This is because the colour red connotes a lot of negatives such as danger, warnings and hazards as well as death. Although this will make younger children scared, it will attract its intended audience even more.
In conclusion my research throughout the summer will help me to construct a good film poster to advertise my group’s production, by making sure we use all the horror conventions and codes to complete a good and realistic selling point for our teaser trailer.
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