Monday 1 November 2010

Film Poster Analysis of The Others (2001)



The Others is a Psychological horror film starring Nicole Kidman, it set in Jersey immediately after World War II.
The poster colours comprise mainly of yellow, orange and black. The yellow and orange colours are coming from the glow of a lamp which the woman is holding in her hand, this is the only light source, it lights up the woman’s face mainly on one side, and the rest of the poster is filled with black. The darkness of the poster could also strongly suggest how the film has dark connotations to it. 

The poster is kept simple, with the black background and the women in the foreground. The women is staring at something to the side of her, this suggests that she is wary that there is something there, the way in which the women is scrunching her neck would also suggest that she is fearful of something almost gasping. It is not clear what is in the background although the light does appear to slightly reflect off of something behind her.
The intended audience for the poster is most likely to be people who are interest in the horror and mystery film genre, those who enjoy watching films with a lot of suspense keeping the audience engaged, men and women in their late teens upwards who have more sophisticated tastes in films, films which require them to think and be alert.

The person on the front cover of the magazine is a well known Australian actor called Nicole Kidman, who has starred in many well known films. Having an actor such as Nicole Kidman who is well known and a celebrated actor means that potential audiences will be attracted to the possibility that the film will be of the same quality as the actress’s previous works. The actresses name is also written in bold on the poster to suggest that she is an important part of the film and therefore one of its selling points. The poster does not include any critical comments or reviews, which may mean that the poster is an early release or possibly reviews of the film were somewhat mixed. 

The poster promises a film with a certain amount of mystery and horror, the tagline at the top of the poster reads ‘Sooner or Later They will find you’, this instantly brings to mind the possibility of another being of some sort is after the character/s in the film, this is backed up by the way in which the women is looking nervously around. The audience’s attention is drawn to the woman’s face and expression of shock, therefore the poster is used to sum up what sort of film is to be expected. 

The film title is written in the usual lower half of the poster, it is written in a brighter colour to the rest of the text, also the writing appears to spread out, this gives the audience the assumption that the film has an eerie feel to it, this also helps the film title to stand out against the dark background. 

The design of the film poster presents the possibility of a film which has a dark side to it, this is why therefore a dark background is used along with the women and the light, this could show how the women is battling against the dark in some way, profile lighting is also used on the face to show this. 

The poster also includes the standard credits written in a smaller font possibly suggesting that there is no one else such as a director or other actors of significant status except for Nicole Kidman. 

In a certain number of ways this poster does use a few different persuasive techniques, such as the use of a tagline which helps to explain what the film is about, also the main image and the way in which the woman’s expression is presented persuades its target audience to watch the film, however the poster does fall short on a number of areas, such as, the lack of any critical reviews or comments on the poster, also the tagline could be considered to be written too small.

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