With the second image, the title could suggest a key aspect of the film and it’s hard genre, as ‘Delirium’ is a noun that is defined as an acutely disturbed state of mind, characterised by restlessness and illusions. Synonyms of ‘Delirium’ express the nature of the villain, appearing almost ‘insane’. This all portrays not only the conflict as a disturbance within someone, rather than a more physical one, further focusing the horror genre, but also the title’s monosyllabic structure allows the title to be more easily remembered by the audience, which is a vital role of a poster as a promotional device. The bold style of the font is also used to draw attention to the title, as it is the aspect of the poster that is most needed to be remembered as the audience will need the name to identify the film.
The main image previously conveyed a young boy stood in the foreground of an over bearing house. The house’s position over the boy represented it’s dominance, hinting how something connected to the house is the cause of the conflict and the break of the equilibrium, putting the child at risk as the victim, which is portrayed through his frightened facial expression. There is also the use of eye contact which helps connect the film to the audience, allowing them to feel more personally involved. The symbolism of the child’s pyjama colours was also significant as it combined the combination of white and blue stripes. The white symbolising the innocence of the child and his vulnerability. This then tarnished by the blue stripes which represent the paranormal disturbance and how the progression is splintering his innocent life. His age related to the parental target audience, playing on a parent’s fear for the danger of their child. The stereotype of a boy was wild and free, which is the opposite of what is portrayed on the boy’s facial expression, suggesting that the effect of the house or it’s contents is the cause.
I then decided that the child didn’t connect to the audience enough, and by conveying the main character, the poster is not only implying who the focus of the film would be but directly clarifying the target audience it aims to attract, and therefore have a higher likelihood of obtaining more popularity. Also, the character of the mother is portrayed as the villain in the trailer, and by presenting her in the poster, the negative and unnerving genre of horror is portrayed more efficiently. This is enhanced by the colour scheme of the character’s outfit. The clothing choice of a flowing top with trousers suggests her gender but also he age to strengthen the portrayal of her as a mother and infers the positive qualities that is assumed from the female stereotype, such as caring, nurturing, calm, sensible, etc. However, this is contrasted with the colour of red, which could symbolise blood, danger, evil and the devil, connecting to the genre of horror and creating an unsettling enigma for the audience of what the mother is capable of. Her position in front of the house, being in the foreground not only inferring the location of the film but the connection of whatever has caused this evil is rooted from the house. This also links to the presentation of the eyes. The dark red circling the eyes, along with the tag-line ‘The eyes are the window to the soul’ could imply the nature of the disturbance and that this horror film is specifically supernatural concerning the possession of a presence through the use of the corruption of a ‘soul’. The use of ‘eyes’ not only connects the tag-line back to the main image, but also implies with the unspecified ‘the’, and not a particular person, that this possession could happen to anyone, even the audience, leading to the audience feeling more personally involved with the events of the film and more likely to remember the film or even be encourage to go and watch the film, so as to see if there is a restoration of the equilibrium to console themselves of the fear that no one’s ’soul’, not even there’s, is safe. The use of ‘window’ could be fair to be noted as intentionally referring to the link between the antagonist and the family, as well as the windows shown on the house, also linking this connection back to the setting. This, like many other aspects of the poster, helps it all to link together, giving a well thought out impression and positive expectations of the film’s success.
In the background of the image, the house is shown to be built with wooden-stripped windows which represent bars, such as those of a prison, suggesting that there is no escape for the characters, leading the audience to feel helpless. The emotion allow the audience to again feel personally involved, which creates a greater impact of their memory. The door of the house has an outer layer, which conveys the normality and the empty look of the house, as well as the character’s lives. This is then contrasted with the door shown within the outer layer, which represents the complexity of the plot within, after the break of the equilibrium, as a result of entering this house. The storm conveys the pathetic fallacy of the feel of the plot. How dark and mysterious, and it is this lack of clarity over the plot, and the storm over-bears that house and the mother, which creates tension and suspense for the audience.
The colour scheme of the poster includes the colours white, grey, black and red. White emphasising the title out of the black darkness of the storm, as well as representing how happiness and the innocence of this unsuspecting family is consumed by the darkness of evil presence. The grey is to merge these two colours together, it’s misty likeness presenting the enigma of the events of the house that are to follow in the plot due to the presence and what she is capable.
The format of the poster is one that is often used, shown through various posters I have researched and analysed, which are shown on previous blog posts. They all remain in the same structure, with only ever minor variations if any, such as the placement of a tag-line. This format is minimal and clear, which helps inform the audience of the key information, like the title efficiently. If crowded with content, the audience may be too overwhelmed, and a poster is supposed to be an enjoyment to quickly observe, picking up the key information about the release of a new film, and having to decipher it would not be effective in obtaining the audience’s interest.
Part of this format contains the billing block, to give credit to the film’s contributors, and the release date, to inform the audience of when to expect the film’s availability in cinemas. The release date our group chose for our film is ‘October 31’ as it is a date celebrated as halloween, which is known for focusing around the theme of horror. This is why the audience may feel more inclined to go and watch a horror movie at this time, as it is suspected horror films will be at it’s peak of interest for the year. These two aspects of the format, as well as the tag-line, allows the audience’s impression of the poster to be realistic and professional, helping with the trailer the promotion that this film is worth watching, which creates the sales from cinemas tickets, which leads to initial profit of them film is generated and this may lead to prospects of further sales later from DVDs and possible sequels.
The poster image I chose to style my poster on was Insidious:
No comments:
Post a Comment