Film Advertising Campaign

Analysed using McMahon & Quinn’s codes for print analysis:

The Wolfman

The Wolfman PosterColours: Denotation - primarily dark, blues, reds.Connotation – darkness, night and fear. Red connotes blood and is the universal colour for danger

Key: Red = Technical Codes Blue = Symbolic Codes Green = Written Codes

Camera Angle:Denotation: Low angle shot of the Werewolf.Connotation: The Werewolf is superior and we are looking up to it from an inferior position. Camera from the point of view of a victim on the ground. This superiority makes the Werewolf more terrifying.

Lighting:Denotation – source of light is the moon, overall very dark.Connotation – We have a natural fear of darkness, a dark poster is more frightening as a result. The moon being the source of light is scary because it is considered unnatural and it also emphasises the power of the Werewolf

Font Size and Colour:Denotation – All white, title is the largest, actors names second largest.Connotation – The white font links to the moon and emphasises it as being a sign of the Werewolf's power. The film title is the largest because they are the most important words on the page. The actor’s names are also large because they are famous and the fact that they are in the film will help to attract potential audiences.

Background:Denotation: Forest at nightConnotation: Forest's are often isolated and one of the main rules of the horror film is to isolate the victim. Therefore by looking at this poster audiences feel isolated and consider themselves possible victims which will scare them.

The Wolfman Magazine Cover

Font Size, Style and Colour:Denotation – Magazine title is the largest, with blood style font and coloured red. Movie titles and famous names in large white font.Connotation – The magazine title is the most important thing on the page because it is the largest, the blood style font and colour help to target the magazine to audiences of the horror genre, as does the title. The movie titles and names are large to help them stand out on the page, the white colour juxtaposed with the darkness on the page helps to emphasise them even more.

Lighting:Denotation – No visible source of light. Werewolf face is well lit, especially the teeth and one eye.Connotation – Because we cannot see the source of light we assume that it must be the moon. The fact that the werewolf face is lit so well is aimed to scare the reader. This works because the more detail of the creature we see on a cover the more scary it is, especially certain parts such as the teeth which are shown here very clearly. The fact that we can clearly see the resemblance to a human in the eyes is also very scary as this creature could be anyone.

Colours:Denotation – White is the only light colour, the rest are all dark.Connotation – Darkness is scary, relevant to the horror genre

Facial Expression:Denotation – Anger and rage.Connotation - Scares the audience, conforms to the normal rules of monsters (scary)

The Wolfman Trailer Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPieOzIA7NM

Opens with an establishing shot of a man in dark forest. He is alone and seemingly isolated. This helps to identify this film as a horror as already it is using the darkness to scare the audience and the victims are being isolated.

During the first attack a voiceover speaks of previous werewolf murders. This linked in with the panic of the character on screen and scary claws helps to create a sense of terror for the viewer.

Mentioning silver bullets and the full moon. Relating back to werewolf mythology and the legends.Morph transition from the Universal logo to the full moon with clouds creates a sense of unease and also a degree of suspense.Lots of short scenes in succession, some of which with sound bridges, help to increase the pace of the trailer.Dark, grungy setting and costume create an tense atmosphere within the trailer and foreshadow the bad events to come later.Trailer begins with scary action and then settles down to give us more information about the story before building up the terror

again towards the end. I will aim to use a similar structure in my own trailer.The attack on the main character marks the start of the terror build-up.Non diagetic fast paced choral music is playing in the background building the tension and suspense.By the end of the trailer we have seen the Wolfman in detail and so there is not much left for the imagination of the audience to

create. My research indicated that the idea of a monster rather than the sight of one is truly terrifying so I will want to make sure very little or nothing of my werewolf is shown.

ALIEN

Alien Poster High angle shot of the egg connotes it’s appearance of being mostly harmless as we are looking down on it from a position of power.

The green light escaping from the crack however connotes that something very unnatural lies within. The fact that an egg is giving off light is unnatural in itself and is an example of changing an everyday object to make it seem strange and scary.

The layout on the page is very simplistic and seems empty, an extension of the emptiness of space and the fact that the crew are isolated.

The design also means that nothing distracts the audience from it’s key features: The title, tag line and the egg itself. From these three things alone you are given a solid indication that the film will be about an attacking alien. What you are not given is any idea of what this alien will look like, meaning that the audience’s imaginations can take over and create the image of a creature that is truly terrifying. This will lead to more interest in the film and could be one of the reasons it Is so popular.

The text on the poster only has the intention of scaring the audience. The tag line is very ominous and foreshadows the events which take place in the film. So does the title because the alien featured isn’t recognised by anyone. Describing it simply as ‘alien’ allows the imagination to invent some crazy concepts, many of which will be frightening.

Alien Trailer• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0DFvWLXv9U

• Establishing shot showing the emptiness and blackness of space. This uses an almost natural fear that the audience has of the dark to put them in a state of unease. Shapes begin to appear at the top of the page.

• Unnatural (alien) rhythmic sounds utilize the fear of the unknown. These noises aren’t recognisable so you must ask yourself: what is making them?

• Scenes running along the surface of a planet and a strange object. These shots also create questions in the mind of the audience about what this mystery object could be and they are compelled to keep watching.

• Reveal the object to be an egg at the same time the title has fully formed at the top of the screen has connotations of this ‘alien’ being something new.

• Alien sounding noises - one layer of sound resembles a very fast heartbeat. This heartbeat sound is working with all of the others to build the audience up into the maximum state of unease when they will be most likely to get scared.

• Egg cracks – light pours out, we begin to see clips from the film now but they are muted. All the director wants us to do is focus on the action beginning to unfold.

Continued…

Alien Trailer Continued…• The alien sounding noises are starting to resemble alarms as well as the human heart. Or

could it be the call of an alien creature. These alarm sounds will induce panic into the audience and further strengthen the feeling of unease.

• Very dark scenes on board the ship and out on the surface of the planet. This darkness again plays on our natural fear of the dark and the inability to see.

• The expressions of the characters have now turned to anger, panic and fear, which cause the audience to become even more uneasy as they share in that fear.

• The music is overpowered by the frantic scenes which now have volume. Everything up until this point has been designed to build up the suspense and tension within the trailer to put the audience into a position of anxiety and unease. Having the audience in this state means that the most terrifying scenes of the trailer (those found towards the end) will be far more effective at scaring them.

• The last few scenes are ones of total anarchy and horror but we have never seen the alien. One of the reasons I believe this trailer works so well in scaring the audience is that it does not give away any information on the alien itself so viewers are left to wonder what kind of creature could possibly cause all of the chaos they have just witnessed.

• In space no one can hear you scream. Probably one of the most famous tag lines in cinema history, this phrase highlights the fact that the crew on board the ship are isolated in deep space with nowhere safe to which they can escape. No matter how loud they scream, help isn’t coming for them.