This week, we started to focus on one of our smaller production tasks; the poster advertising the film. We decided to look at some posters for feature films that we liked the look of and analysed them:
Film Poster 1: The Happening
We thought that this poster was very effective. We liked that way that the background is distorted, giving the poster a sense of mystery and a sense of the unknown. The mise-en-scene is also very effective, giving the illusion that the city is like a ghost town, giving of an air of enigma. Also, the low-key lighting - a typical feature of this genre of film - helps the poster look mysterious. The way that the characters are positioned makes the film look scary, as the woman is holding the child in a protective way, as if sheilding it from evil. We plan to use this type of acting in our poster; we will use facial expressions to make the character of Lucy look afraid.
Film 2: WAZ
We liked the way that the emphasis is put on one side of the face, while the other side is in a shadow, making the character look scary and mysterious. Also, the emphasis on the eye makes the poster look chilling. We liked the typography used for the title, which has connotations of the writing of person who perhaps has a frazzled mind, like Lucy in our film. From this poster, we learnt that having quotes from reviews is alos quite important because if the auidence sees a good review, they are more inclined to see the film. Also, a chilling tagline might be good idea for our film, as it draws the audience in and suggests a sense of enigma. We need to think of an appropriate tagline for our film; something that will hint at the plot just enough so that the audience can tell what the film is about, but not too much so it creates mystery.
Film 3: Murderer
Although this film is a foregin film, we liked this poster very much. The evil smile is very effective in making the poster look scary and - like in poster 2 - the fact that half of the face is hidden makes the chracter look more menacing and mysterious. The fact that the character seems to be looking round the side of a wall suggests that he is hiding or perhaps syping on someone, which can relate to our film. The strong use of red and black make the poster very noticable, drawing in the attention of audience. This is something that we can use in our poster; we can use dark colours not only to make the poster look menacing and dark, but it can alos be used to draw in the audience.
From analysing these 3 posters, we have learnt that the composition and the mise-en-scene of the shots are very important as they can give key clues to the audience about the plot and the genre. Furthermore, the lighting is alos quite important. Low-key lighting creates a sense of enigma, which would work for our film, as the audience doesn't know the Lacus is actually real and isn't a figment of Lucy's broken mind.
