Film Poster Analysis

This is one of many basic layouts in which some movie poster follow. It focuses mainly on the image and the title of the film. By having the main image and the title being the focus of the poster could entice the audience more as it would look more interesting than just reading a lot of text. Therefore, it could look more eye catching. Also the image it's self says a lot about what the film is about and what will happen in it.
By having the main actors names on the poster the film could draw more attention if the actors names were recognised as being good/popular.

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This is the poster for The Dark Knight film. It closely follows the previous layout mentioned. The main image is a low angle shot of Batman standing in front of a building. This gives the impression that Batman is a powerful man and has more dominance. The building behind Batman is on fire. The fire is in the shape of the Batman logo. This clearly shows that the film is about batman without having to read the text, this is the signified as the audience who have watched previous batman films will know that this is related to them. This also may be why the title is smaller than usual for a film poster, as the Batman franchise is very popular and the majority of people will look at the logo and will already know what the film poster is advertising. The air around him looks to give a spooky effect showing that the film could be a bit darker and deeper than the previous Batman films. This is also shown through the title of the film. This could make the audience feel safer as Batman is a superhero and will try and save anyone in danger. The release date for the film is clearly shown at the bottom of the poster so that the audience know exactly then they can go and see it at the cinema. The location for the film looks to be in a built up city area, from the previous films it is know as Gotham.

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This is the film poster for Cloverfield. This one also closely follows the example layout. The slogan at the top of the poster and the title of the film are both in a big bold font. Although, the title is not the biggest text on the page. This may have been done as the text "Some thing has found us" could sound very enticing to the audience. The main image of the poster is of the statue of liberty which is well know to be in New York. The statues head has been removed in the image and also in the background of the shot there's a lot of smoke coming from the buildings. This shows that the film will have action in it and possibly violence, The main colour used is a blue/green colour with the buildings in the background being a sepia/grey colour, this makes it look quite dull and deserted. Also, the fact that the statue of liberties head is missing gives the impression that something really powerful must have done it, therefore it makes the audience feel like there is danger in the film.
The text for the title of the film is in a bold white font and looks to be shadowed/ smudged, this could make the film seem like it has a darker atmosphere.

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Here is the film poster for Shutter Island. The main image is of Leonardo Dicaprio hold a lit match up to the camera which then blacks out the background around his face, this could suggest that he's coming out of the dark about something or he's finds something out. The light emphasises Leonardos face and his expression which is a confused/curious look. The largest text on the screen is title say Shutter Island which is in a bold white text and above it is Leonardos name in big clear, this is done because Leonardo is a popular actor and will attract more people to watch it. Below the picture of Leonardo there is a picture of the island that is in the film. The Island is surrounded by a blue glowing light which makes it look unusual and mysterious. The slogan below the images says "Some places never let go" this could intrigue the audience as they would want to know what that means. It is written in capitals and is red, this colour can have connotation of danger and blood. The release date for the film is then placed at the bottom of the poster in clear, bold red text so that the audience know when they are able to go and see it at the cinema.

Conventions of a psychological thriller-Sound

The sound in a psychological thriller usually includes eerie style music which keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. This music fits to the likes of Psycho and this sound is well recognised to many people, it builds up tension in a scene and scares/shocks the audience.

Psycho shower scene-sound effects

The sound of a knife scraping or a weapon making a noise such as a gun is usually seen in this genre but the audience can't see where the sound is coming from and in most cases neither can the characters which adds to the thrill.

Other noises that add to these genres are non diegetic sound and mainly music as it makes the opening of the film more scary if there's a lot of music rather than talking whereas when there is talking it's rather slow paced to make the film seem scarier. Silent scenes are sometimes seen in these type of films or scenes with barely any sound in order to portray a danger in the film

The sound usually relates to the characters as a certain type of music plays when a character is on such as the main or an evil character. This shows the audience what type of character they are and if they're good or evil so in our film we would use eerie music when Damion arrives on screen to show he has an evil side to him.

Themes of a psychological thriller

Reality- the audience can't tell whether what's happening is in the characters mind or whether it's real and neither can the character. As seen in shutter island, the audience find out what's happening at the same time as the character making it exciting.
Perception-Characters are lost in the narrative, they can't see what's happening as they get very confused because their point of view is usually very different from other characters.
Mind- Characters are in a constant debate with their own mind on what emotions they feel or where they are.
Death- Involved in death in film, either have killed someone, want to or are going to kill themselves.
Violence- results in death usually, relates a lot to the fact the character will probably kill someone.
Obsession-Character feels obsessed with finding something out, won't stop until they do
Guilt: The character is guilty of doing something which is why they become mentally ill in the first place


All of these films are expected in a psychological thriller, though the film can include other elements like romance in order to make an in depth plot to the film i.e:

A man murdered his wife because of a mental illness and the film shows a progression of their relationship.

If a film doesn't contain at least one of these, it can't be classed as a film of this genre as the certificate would differ and the storyline would be quite different.

Poster analysis of Shutter Island

Poster analysis of Shutter Island

This poster of Shutter Island firstly makes the audience realise the film will be about thrill and share the theme of death due to the fire being held over the asylum that’s pictured. This gives me the idea that the film is a thriller/psychological kind, as the expression on the males face seems to be angry/curious. 

The man on the front would also be the main character as he’s placed in the middle and the camera shows a close-up to his face, which is significant as it hints at what happens in the film i.e.-man distressed, gets revenge. The colour scheme of the poster is pretty much black symbolising death, darkness and maybe lies. This is pathetic fallacy as the weather and stormy looking sea relates to the overall mood of the film.

 The main image of the asylum in the middle shows it’s the main part of the film, the setting. The title Shutter Island is in yellow and orange, which is the same as the fire, symbolising the danger in the film.  And as the Leonardo DiCaprio title is in the same text it shows he’s the main character who is in danger or causing trouble. 

The subtitle ‘someone is missing’ is smaller, trying not to reveal who it is that’s missing but not small enough that the audience doesn’t notice it. The credits at the end are there to show who’s in the film to convince people to go and see it if there’s people in the film who they like or by a producer/director they have heard of.

Poster Analsyis

I have been researching into different types of thriller movie posters and how they come together through layers of pictures. As The Forgotten Truth is a thriller as well as a bit of a mystery I really like the idea of layering up sections of the film to create an image that will get the audience to use there mind as well as there imagination to be able to determine what the film is about. 

Here is a design layout that I have made to show where on most posters certain labels go.

As you can see from this film poster of the psychological thriller the life before her eyes the film title is in the middle of the poster in a bigger front than the rest, surrounded by a reflected image. The actress name is in the top corner of the page and the slogan and reviews are towards the bottom , with the credits and production details finishing off the poster.
This is a good layout idea that we could use to create The Forgotten Truth as it is simple but yet affective.

This poster is a very cool and creative film poster. When I first saw this poster I thought about the storyline of the film and how the poster is representing it. To me as there is two reflections both of them are pulling a slightly different face it could connote that the character has two side maybe one bad one good or that there is going to be two sides to this story.






The layout on the mindscape poster is slightly different as no two film posters are the same, this poster is focusing more on the films image than details about the film or the title in text.


This poster has a repeated image that has been rotated each time to give an affect that resembles the title mindscape.  I would really like to use this idea for our film poster as if we did this look the image could represent The Forgotten Truth (Lily).

This poster that represents the film Source Code is very interesting, as the fact that there are other images that are flying around the foreground image makes me as the audience think that there could be lots of different stories all being put together as one to find out the major plot twist. I like this layer of images as it could work for a film poster idea as it tells the audience that you have to look below the surface of the storyline.

Source Code has a slightly different layout to the other posters I have looked at. The foreground image is interesting as it is like the character is trying to pick the right image and 'source the code'.











This poster that represents the film Dream House, could symbolise madness as the illusion image shows that the girls are blending into there surroundings. I like this idea for our film as Damian is hallucinating/ seeing his dead wife Lily. The fact that you cant determine between if the girls are part of the wall or if it is just what they are wearing makes the audience think about what the story could be about. I have never seen this film and the first thing a think about when I see this poster is ghosts and hauntings.

Film poster analysis

Though there's a slight difference in film layouts they all share similar factors to intrigue, tease and inform an audience.

The film layout is set out so the picture that represents the film is in the middle, this could be the main actors or setting so in our case our Actors on the front would be Dale (Damion) and Hayley (Lily) and the setting would be a mental hospital. Therefore I think it would be good to have the front cover of the poster as Damion looking confused or upset and Lily standing close behind covered in blood to represent something bad that happens to her i.e her death in the film.

This film poster shows the main character in the middle and the two extra characters at the side of him, showing his importance in the film which we would try to reflect with our film poster.

The film title could go below or above the picture on the poster as it draws the readers attention to the main part of the poster and the title.

The setting is seen in this film poster as it gives the audience a very good idea of where the plot will be set and we could use this for our film and put a mental asylum behind the two main characters as it will inform the audience before they've even watched the film

Our distributors name would go to the side to show who made the film and who it belongs to which may interest the reader. The credits would go to the bottom of the film poster as it will tell the audience who is in the film i.e the characters and who made the film.

A tagline could be used in our film poster and this would be a small quote from the film that could signal something or interest the audience such as 'I will find you' as this relates to the main character finding his wife. Such as in this film poster...

This catchy saying at the top makes the audience intrigued to watch the film and find out why you can't touch or talk to anyone and this relates to the title contagion as it suggests contagion could be the reason why as in ours if we used 'I will find you' it relates to the title The Forgotten Truth as he could be looking for someone to find out the truth. We could add a date for our film to show when it will be available to watch. 

If we had made other films we could put at the top of the poster 'From the producer of...' to make people who liked our other films want to watch our work as they should recognize the name of the film if they enjoyed it and want to watch more. Such as in...

As many people have heard and enjoyed The Conjuring they will want to see this film as it could share similar elements eg genre, characters.