Wednesday 12 October 2011

Detailed analysis of at least 2 movie posters and techniques used


The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 poster is centred around the elder wand as it plays a massive part of the film. The statement of 'IT ALL ENDS 7.15' shows how important the film is since it is the last film in the series. The effect of this is that it gives a dramatic effect to the audience that is has to be seen since it is the last one. The image used is a close up of the side of Harry Potter and Voldemort looking at each other, it shows the battle between them and the emotion in both of their eyes and concludes how their story has been between them throughout all of the films. The light coming from the elder wand and reflecting onto Harry and Voldemort shows how it will play an important roll within the film. The effect of this onto the audience shows how important is it and will cause the audience to wonder about what will happen. The poster doesn't even need a title or heading because everyone knows that this finale film is down to the meeting of Harry and Voldemort and the consequences of it. The purpose of a close up of a person is to show their emotion which is which my draw the audience or remind them what the story was about. The colour scheme of the poster is dark blue, black and red, if you look at the actors' faces, you can see that different colours are reflected onto them, like the red and the light. The red could reflect the anger and conflict between them both and the light could reflect on the unknown ending of what is to happen. Generally red reflects anger or danger, which is normally used in horror films. The Harry Potter poster campaign involved a lot more posters of each character, it was acceptable for Warner Brothers to do this since we had gotten to know every character throughout the each instalment throughout the years and it was liked saying 'farewell' to all of them. This gives a dramatic effect by giving a characters their own poster as its like giving a message of that its the end of all the characters journey through Harry Potter.




The Red Riding Hood poster reflects on different genres, bringing in romance from the love triangle and horror that are portayed in the dark colours of blue, black and red. Compared to the Harry Potter poster, there are is a lot of text such as the title, the credits and the slogan. Since Harry Potter had been an instalment, then it makes sense they the use of a lot of text was not needed, whilst Red Riding Hood needed the text to inform people. Text such as 'FROM THE DIRECTOR OF TWILIGHT' persuades the audience that the style of the film may be as good as Twilight and therefore want to watch it. The slogan of 'BELIEVE THE LEGEND. BEWARE THE WOLF.' makes sure that people know that the fairytale has a modern twist and more features that will be it more interesting than the original. It will also appeal to other demographics. Gary Oldman, a well known actor, has a credit at the top of the poster which may draw in the audience, this may attract Harry Potter fans and the same applies to Amanda Seyfried as she has been in romantic films such as 'Letters to Juliet'. Now that Seyfried is in a dark romance film then it may persuade her audience from previous films to watch it as its still a romantic film but with dark undertones. The positioning of the characters show who is more important than who, obviously Red Riding Hood is the main character but the main love story is between her and the woodcutter who is in the middle and then the third person in the love triangle is Max Irons. Even though Red Riding Hoods red costume is relevant to the original tale, it is also applies to the semiotic theory created by Ferdinand De Saussre who came up with sign>signifier>signified. The red cape represents anger, danger and love which is exactly what this film is all about. The way Red Riding Hood's cape covers most of the poster shows how dominant she is in the film. As we don't know who the wolf is, normally the clothing can hint to us what each character is portrayed as. The second character of the woodcutter is wearing all black whilst the third character, Max Irons, is wearing a white shirt. The white against the black could hint at who is good and who is bad. Could the woodcutter possibly be the wolf? Even though he is Red Riding Hoods love interest? This bring a whole new dimension to the film in which would probably cause excitement for the audience.  

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