Movie poster analysis

The last house on the left

Title

Main image Credits Company logo

Tag line

Main image: the main image of the poster is a house which is placed in the middle of a wooded area. The house appears to be isolated and perhaps abandoned. The representation of this image shows that straight away the audience can tell the genre of the movie is horror. The house is surrounded by black background and trees. Which conveys that its isolated from everything else, which also links back to the title of the movie ‘last’. On top of the house is a white misty effect. This conveys the image as a ghost like atmosphere. The white mist affect also makes the house stand out from the black background making it the focal point in the image. As the image has a black background it can represent the nature of this house which would generally be unsafe and dangerous. The contrast in colours set the tone for this movie. The black background represents the evil and the dangerous atmosphere that could potentially lay ahead, and the use if the white could represent a sense of hope. Just by looking at the image the audience can tell the genre and possibly the sub genre of the movie, but at the same time the simplicity of the image doesn't give to much away.

Layout/ Rule of Thirds : The layout is essential for a successful poster. The rule of thirds is applied on the posters’ layout, as the audience will look at this poster starting from the top to the bottom. The first third show the word ‘the last’ and the second third show the continuation of the title. This title is split up into sections to create an emphasis for the movie title. That last third is the image of the house. As the audience will look from top to bottom the last third would be the focal point of the poster. The image is place at the bottom to show its importance . The layout is well organised and laid out with the motive of directing the audiences attention to them. This layout is very tidy and organised, this connotates the cold and calculating nature of this slasher genre.

Title/ Typefaces: In the title there is one consistent typeface used on the six individual words. The text is varied in size and colour according to how vital and important the information is. The word ‘House’ is written in the blood like red colour. The writing is smeared or rubbed on. Its the large text size on the poster therefore signifies it’s importance. The blooded affect on the word show the type of sub genre which would generally be slasher. Also the colour red makes the word stand out from the black background and serve to emphasize as the house is the main focus point of the movie. The word ‘Last’ and ‘Left’ are positioned oppositely . The word ‘left’ is placed towards the right hand side and ‘last’ more to the left. This would play on the minds of the audience as its an attempted to making the audience remember the film title.

Tag line/ credits: The tag line addresses the audience by asking then a question which they can relate back to. Having a question where the audience can put themselves in a similar circumstance can get people talking. This would attract the audience to go watch this movie as they would want to find out the answer to this question.

The credits an the institutional logo are positioned on the bottom of the page, this makes the movie poster authentic and prevents copyright infringement . Having the credits written in italic , makes the information look condense and professional, but not standing out against the main illustration of the poster.

The website written underneath the information. This would further promote the film, and help give the poster an overall professional appearance.

Target audience : The target audience of the film would be generally fans of horror movies. Fans of these actors or director or anyone would feels engrossed to watch this film. However conventionally the poster of the film is aimed at the audience of a particular age or gender range. In this case male and film 18 and above. The target audience is set so that anyone under the age of 18 are unsuitable to go watch this movie.

Enigma and ambiguity: enigma and ambiguity are conveyed through posters for the purpose of generating anticipation and curiosity in the target audience’s minds, this will lead to a maximisation of audiences going to view the movie. in order to feed their inquiries. Through this the promotion aim of the poster is utilised and the film is likely to generate a high level of revenue. The basic black and white tones create enigma as the colour is striking and simplicity is concealing the movies narrative .

There is a set of conventions that are interwoven in conventional film posters. This poster follows those elements as these conventions are flaunted:

• One main, focal image • it is vital for the poster to be eye catching because the public will only see it for a short time thus it needs to stay in their mind through its eye catching design.• the name of the film will be on the poster as this will start creating recognition and pre release anticipation for the film.• recommendations from reviewers that will act as incentives for the audience to go watch the film.• The directors name and production company credentials are shown to create identification for the film and they also act as incentives.• A tag line to attract the audience • The name of the main actors