The colours in this psychological thriller poster for 'Silence of the Lambs' are very haunting.Under the mise-en-scene, there is little use of colour and the poster mainly consists of light and shadow. A face can be seen represented photographically with her face in the light; the shadow underneath her, which connotates that she is an innocent character. She is easily recognised as Jodie Foster, a well known actress, which immediately creates an audience for the film as she may already have a large audience. However she has also starred in many other psychological thrillers, hinting to the audience that 'Silence of the Lambs' is a psychological thriller. Her face also conveys she is the protaganist as she has a soft face with big brown eyes and a slightly scared expression. She is not looking directly at the camera, therefore she is not confrontational and the audience warm to her more easily.
As the character has no make-up on and her hair is hidden, it shows the audience that this is not a glamourous film and also hints she is not as weak as previously thought. There is a butterfly across her lips, which makes the poster very eye-catching and unusual. The butterfly is an important symbol in this poster, which the audience realise as it is in a warm orange colour against the characters pale face. This shows the butterfly is going to be an essential part of the film. Although the butterfly is a delicate, calm insect, the use of it covering the characters mouth adds a different meaning and makes the symbol more sinister, hinting the film is a dark, sinister thriller. This gives a shock factor to the poster in order to attract the audiences attention. However the poster does not make it obvious what the butterfly signifies completely and this is a persuasive technique in order to get the audience to go and watch the film, as they wonder the significance of the butterfly and want to know the relationship between the character and butterfly.
The messages in this poster are primarily visual, as the photo takes up most of the frame and there is little text other than the heading which reads 'Silence of the Lambs'. As Silence of the Lambs already exists as a book, this gives the film an immediate audience being anyone who has read the book. This heading is centered at the bottom of the page below the character in a small text size, going along with the conventions of psychological thrillers. The use of the colour red for the title, connotates danger and a sense of threat to the character in the poster. The text below the headline reads 'from the terrifying best seller', reminding the audience that this film has come from a book, and the superlative 'best' tells the reader that the book was very successful. This promises the reader that the film will be successful and therefore there are no critic quotes as they aren't needed.
Overall, I find this is an extremely effective poster as it reveals what genre the film is, gives insight into the characters personality and also uses enigma codes such as the butterfly to leave the audience wanting to know more about the film.
Similar to the previous one, this poster is primarily visual as the image covers the entire poster, a frequent convention of psychological thrillers. The image here communicates to the audience clues of what the film is about. The character on the poster is instantly recognisable as Leanardo Dicaprio, a very well known actor who has a large fan base which immediately gives this film an audience. Dicaprio's face uses half the sapce on the poster and is surrounded by darkness, with half of his face in the shadow, conveying that there is more than one side to the character. This is a very frequent convention of psychological thrillers as there is usually a complex character who is hard to understand. Some of his fingers can also be seen holding a match, which is positioned over a illustrated picture of an island; the illustration gives the connotation that the island may not be as real as you think.
The lighting under the mise-en-scene is very dark, which gives connotations that the island is a dangerous, dark place. The match in this poster is a symbol for light and as the character is holding this match over the dark island, it conveys this film is composed of binary opposites being light vs dark, good vs bad.
Next to Dicaprio the tagline reads 'Someone is missing'. This short but effective tagline immediately draws the audience in as it sets an enigma code and make the audience question 'Who is missing?''Where have they gone?' This is effective at making the audience want to go and watch the film in order to answer their questions.
The headling 'Shutter Island' fades from yellow to red, giving the effect that the match is lighting it up but there is also a connotation of danger.
The mise-en-scene and the actor used in this poster, hints to the audience that the target audience for this film are people aged between 15-50. The dark theme to the poster indicates that no one below the age of 15 should watch this film as it may be too dark. This is also conveyed through the actor as he is around 30-35 showing that the film would contain adult themes.
I find this poster is very effective as it communicates to the audience in a visual way, gives some clues to the film's character but leaves the audience questioning a lot of things about the film which overall makes this poster very effective.
The colours used in this film poster consist of blues, greens and browns. These cold colours give the connotation that the genre of the film is a horror/thriller.
The poster is dominated by a young girl, in a medium close up, around the age of 9 and this picture is represented photographically, making the poster more effective.
The young girl is looking straight on and the expression on her face is hostile and unfriendly, giving the connotations that she is going to be an unfavourable character in the film.
She is wearing make-up which is unusual for a girl of a young age, which conveys that she has something to cover up.
She is wearing a dress, with a collar around her neck and bows in her hair, which is the opposite of what you would expect from looking at her face, therefore this creates a sinister atmosphere and makes the poster more impacting. Her outfit is of an old style and looks Victorian, which gives enigma codes to the audience and makes them question why, thereby increasing the chance they will go and watch the film.
The tagline at the top of the poster reiterates the message of the picture, which is that Esther is not a normal 9 year old girl and ‘there’s something wrong’ with her. This confers with the tagline at the bottom as it hints to the reader that Esther is carrying a secret, and the use of the tagline in a red font, conveys that it is a dangerous secret.
This psychological thriller poster has a primary focus on the characters of the film, a man picture in the bottom right and a young boy in the top left of the poster. This immediately tells the reader that the film is going to be based on the relationship between these two characters.
The man in the poster is recognised as Bruce Willis, a well known actor for staring in action thriller films, which gives the audience a clue as to what genre the film is. He is in his early 40's, which shows he may have a father type relationship with the little boy who is also featured in the poster. The man is wearing a shirt and a coat, which shows he is moderately weathly. His expression on his face looks concerned but also brave, showing he is a strong character and is therefore likeable to the reader.
The young boy is around 10 years old, making him immediately sympthetic to the reader. He looks very scared which makes the audience question what he is afraid of but also tells them that this may be a dark film with a serious tone.
There is a yellow, orange light coming from the top right corner of the poster, shining both of the boy and the man, showing that they are good characters. However this light also highlights the smoke coming out from the young boys mouth. This isn't clear as to the purpose of the smoke to the reader which makes them want to go and see the film as they will want to know more about the reasons behind the smoke.
The smoke is also a symbol in this poster and it is clear that it is going to be a big part of the storyline.
Overall, this poster is very effective as capturing the audiences attention with the strange use of colours, yellow and black. It also is effective at getting the genre of the film across to the reader.
This poster for Jaws 3D is primarily visual, and consists mainly of the colours blue and red, the blue as the film is set around the ocean and the red connotates danger. The image uses two thirds of the poster which makes it stand out and catch the audiences eye. Within the image, a sharks head can be seen however it is slightly covered by shadow, conveying that it is a dark creature and also emphasises the danger that sharks aren't easy to see coming.
The people on top of the ocean are water skiing and are oblivious to the fact that there is a shark underneath them, which is a frequent convention of thriller films as often the victim do not realise they are under any danger.
The title of the film 'Jaws 3' is in the top third of the poster in a big, red font making it unmissible but the colours red convey danger and blood. Which is a known convention of Jaws films.
The tagline at the bottom 'A deadly new attraction' tells the reader that this sequel has something 'new' to offer than that of what they previously saw in the other films, which makes the reader want to go and watch the film in order to find out what the 'new attraction' is. The words 'deadly' tell the reader how powerful and dangerous the shark is.
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