Analyzing Print ProductsPart II

Alex Challies

The second print product that I am analyzing is the film poster advertising Chernobyl Diaries. The eerie layout of the poster with the central image taking up the entire product gives the impression that the genre is horror. The form is also obvious because it’s a standard poster layout, which is universally recognizable as what it is.

The purpose of this text product is to promote the film, since the film itself is creating a fictional narrative from non-fictional events then it is extremely effective to use a simple centre image.

The unique selling point of this poster is the creational credit displayed at the top of the page. Since Paranormal Activity is known throughout the world to be a mainstream shock horror film, a different product from the same creator is going to attract a large audience due to curiosity and a fondness of Oren Peli’s work. There is no tagline on this poster, this shows it is more of an indirect teaser as oppose to a direct film advertising, it still advertises the product but with a lot less information. The same is used with film trailers, often a ‘teaser’ is first released before a full theatrical version.

The title of the film is shown clearly in the centre of the poster in a distinctive font that is associated with nuclear warnings. This embeds well into the film product because anyone with knowledge of Chernobyl will know the nuclear disaster, fans of disaster films and horror will both be attracted by this. Despite the two genre audience attractions, having seen the film it is slightly deceiving but regardless serves its purpose.

Towards the lower section of the poster is text (all identical font to title but varying in size), it does not give a release date but states ‘coming soon’ with a website link below. This suggests that their target audience will be considerate of enthusiasts and people who are online. The target audience, after seeing this print product will have to look for themselves to find out any considerate information on the film. Potentially the website could also be part of a viral advertising campaign.

Unlike the first print product I analyzed (The Cabin in the Woods), this poster appears to follow traditional horror conventions in terms of text. At the top of the product is a piece of text that was referenced earlier, stating that the creator of Chernobyl Diaries was also the creator of Paranormal Activity. It follows conventions as this text piece is placed boldly at the top of the page. Equally however, conventions are also defied to a small extent with the lack of a tagline, release date or any starring/directorial roles being shown.

The inspirational aspects of this print product is its simplicity. A basic image with minimal text but still acts as a successful advertising format. The picture below is taken from the very top of the poster and shows the central image blurring into blood splatter, which could suggest gore content in the film.