Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Film Poster Analysis- Prom Night


This poster is very conventional of horror posters because the image used is an extreme close-up which shows the intense emotion of the character which in this case is fear. The fact that the character is a blond teenage girl who is seen to be the prom queen in this image as she is wearing a tiara is also a convention of horror films because young, good-looking girls as the protagonist because the audience always feel sorry for her because she seems so innocent and helpless. The 'prom' aspect makes it very clear that this is an American teenage film because teenagers and young adults are attracted to horror films like this. The fact that the prom queen in films is always good looking in films will also attract a young audience especially the males because she will most probably wear revealing outfits and be a flirtatious and pretty girl which also adds sex appeal to the film.

The blue tint over the image is used a lot in horror posters because it gives the image a cold atmosphere and also connotes ghosts and gives it an eerie feel. This also makes the poster conventional of horror films because it helps put emphasis on the image because it looks very unusual. The fact that you cannot see the characters eyes is clever because most of the time all the emotion can be seen from a characters eyes however in this image is is all from the characters mouth which is a interesting way of seeing the intense emotions of the character.

The narrative of the poster will be read from the image first because it is the main focus of the poster they will then look at the title and then the institutional logo because this stands out the least. I believe that this is very effective because it also makes the title stand out too because the title is in red and it stands out in front of the image. 'PROM NIGHT' is in a red, thin typeface which has a bit of a red glow around it. Red is typically used in horror films because it connotes blood/ danger and this will attract the target audience to this film. There is a tag line which is quite humorous 'A NIGHT TO DIE FOR' which is usually said in the context that the night was really good whereas in this situation it is used in the literal meaning, they have used humour in this to attract the target audience to the film. This tag line is in a thin, white typeface and it has strong masculine edges to make the font stand out more against the black background.

The target audience is teenagers and young adults are the main audience demographics who are attracted to these types of horror films because of two main reasons; the first is because they themselves are around this age group therefore they will want to watch the film as the characters are like a reflection of the audience and the second reason is that an older and more sophisticated audience would find these kind of horror films mediocre, especially ones whose characters are all teenagers because it is likely to have very simple and uninteresting storyline compared to the films they would watch usually.  

At the bottom of the poster the institutional logo is included in the right hand corner so that the audience will be able to relate this film to previous films that the same institutional identity have made, this is also a legal requirement so that the institutional identity gets the credit for creating the film. The release date of the film is also included at the bottom but it is positioned in the centre so that the audience look at that first rather than the institutional logo because the release date is more important for the audience be able to go and watch the film.

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