I chose to look at this empire magazine cover as i believe it shows a great contrast between itself and other film based covers we would see promoting a film. The simplicity of the cover instead of using eye catching covers with writing and bright colours to draw in buyers, instead makes it stands out for the receiving audience, as it subverts from the normal by doing less, this would therefore attract an older audience to it.
The older audience is most likely due to be the target audience for this cover as the advertising film "The godfather" was filmed in 1972, Meaning the younger generation are less likely to be familiar with it, therefore it's purpose may be to introduce the picture to younger audiences due to the tagline seen at the bottom of the cover in small simple italic writing, "The greatest movie of all time", possibly due to the Sicilian heritage of the main characters, trying to teach the younger generation of great film, by making this bold statement of stating that this is the greatest film ever made.
The image alone stands as an iconic tribute to the late Marlon Brando, who is widely considered the greatest actor of all time, with also winning the oscar for best actor in a leading role, through his portrayal of the leading character in "the godfather", Don Vito Corleone. The image is of Brando within his godfather character, showing the memorable "bulldog" cheeks that was created for his representation of the character.
Also contributing to this is the black and white effect used within the cover this again could be due to the original film poster,which was shown as a black and white cartoon styled image of Don Vito, with the only sense of colour being a red rose in his top pocket, although instead of red colour use, we see an almost gold toned text for both magazine's title and also the film's, showing the effect of gold to be 1st and valuable film.
The fact the the film's title is seen finely written in a small bold golden font underneath the image of Corleone, is showing the audience that the image alone is all that the receiving audience needs to know this film.
In September 2016 Empire magazine released a series of covers, in an effort to promote the highly anticipated DC movie, who's trailer was released over a year before it's 2016 august release. The covers focused on each of the main cast from the suicide squad, These being Dead shot, Enchantress, Harley Quinn and the highly anticipated role of the Joker, who's character is replacing the late heath ledger with Jared Leto. Therefore with The joker's character being of a high significance to DC comics, and is arguably the famous villain in Comic book history.
This is definitely shown within his cover, Which shows a very darkly lit and murky room,with fluorescent purple lighting reflecting from two cables the joker is pushing together, effectively showing the audience the craziness within his character. The colour scheme also effectively shows an accurate representation of his character, The purple an green are shown as a heavy theme on the cover, due to the fact that these colours are the iconic scheme that has been used on the joker for many years, but also sufficiently shows the re-vamp the character has acquired due to the tattoos, and stylish and expensive looking clothing.
The receiving audience can see that the film is destined for success, due to the sole focus,when it comes to visual image,on the suicide squad film.Even having the joker's face block out empires title, showing how much of a bold character he is. We also se highlighted in bright green in black font "Meet the joker!", making the audience feel as though the character is a real life persona due to the fact that they could meet him in real life. Underneath the joker we see the movie's title, "suicide squad" written boldly to stand off of the dark purple background, therefore helping the audience to realise what the film is called and therefore make it rememberable for them to go and see it in cinemas.
The tag line underneath the title also shows a good representation of the film, "psychos.Killers.Freaks.Here to save the world.", showing the audience the plot summary of the film trying to draw in the audience who enjoys violent and dramatic themes.
A group seek refuge in a motel after a severe storm occurs, with this there is also a serial killer under psychiatric care, the killer is being executed for the murder of a group of people in a motel. When the group realise that there is a killer coming for them all one by one, a brave limo driver attempts to reveal the murderers identity by going head to head with him. The film's genre is shown accurately as a thriller through the tones of colour that are used in the poster, with a simple white background, the receiving audience can see that the revealing description of the films plot is in the sole image on the poster. Which is a large black hand, although the red on the bottom of the hand, shows the conventions of violence and murder, due to it being on a hand it shows that the victims blood comes under the fault of this persons hand. The hand also effectively fits to the films title also, identity, as a persons identity can be found through a persons finger and hand prints. Showing the audience that the film is about trying to discover the identity of a killer. Within the palm of the hand we se a horrified face staring at the audience, showing that this is possibly the face of the victim as the were being killed by this person. The hand also shows blurred figures for fingers and thumb, the four fingers are more drawn out and easily able to be seen to look like bodies, and also seem a lot closer together, making it appear to the audience that this resembles the main cast, and who may possibly be trying to uncover the murderer. The thumb being a lot more distant from the rest of the other figures implies that this could be the murderer, the thumb figure also is very blurred barely being able to make out the shape of a human body, except we can differentiate the thumb figure from the fingers due to the fast the the figure is a lot more hunched over appearing to have their hands in their pockets, standing away from the other fingers and also seemingly wearing a hat to possibly shadow their face from the fingers. The credits also accurately show the film's genre, as the film's title also matches the hand print on the poster, showing a bold, capital and simplistic font, showing that the film is serious and follows mature themes. At the top of the poster we can also draw out the same conventions of serious themes as we read the slogan, "identity is a secret.Identity is a mystery.Identity is a killer". Overall creating a strong message about the film, showing that a person's identity can be dangerous.
Sinister is the 2012 horror flick that focuses around the the crime novelist Elison, who in need of a new best seller discovers an unsolved case, to which he wants to base his novel on where he will figure out who caused the death of an entire family. After moving his own family into the victim's home, although upon stumbling on new evidence, things don't seem as they should be when the signs of a supernatural presence comes to light.
The film's poster shows a disturbing image of a young blonde haired girl, walking along a dirty grimy white tiled floor, as her hand is seen brushing against again a dirtied and cracked white wall, which is seen to be dripping in blood from where the girl has presumably brushed her hand. What pushes the frightening image further is the creepy clown like image that is seen through the dripping stream of blood on the wall, this sufficiently shows the genre of the film to be horror, but also the further conventions of the film, which would show a supernatural/paranormal image, due to this demonic blood casted display. The young girl's mise en scene shows her to be wearing baggy dirtied white clothing, a tracksuit almost, which resembles an outfit that a medical patient would have to wear, suggesting to the receiving audience that the girl has either been driven to be hurt by this demon like figure, due to the blood that is presumably coming from her hand, or that she is a mental patient driven crazy from the demon. Lastly, we very subtly see a rusted and unwrapped film tape lying underneath the demonic image,suggesting to the audience that we see this demon throughout film, also with the film tape being extremely old fashioned, it shows that the paranormal creature has been in existence for a long time.
The credits shown on the poster also accurately portray the correct horror conventions, with black capital bold font, the black conforming to the dark conventions a horror film possesses. The text also is shown to be faded and smeared against the wall, again conforming to the conventions of horror as it shows a distorted and damaged appearance, showing that life will not be easy at all for the main cast. We also see in bright white writing that stands of the dirty wall behind it, stating "from the producer of paranormal activity and insidious", which effectively aims at an audience, which would draw in the the audience who enjoyed those franchises.
Pulp Fiction is the 1994 thriller which tells the multiple stories of individuals on the same day,showing the harsh side of the life of crime, violence,drugs and sex are a prominent part of the film's plot.
This film poster shows a very creative and effective visual of promoting Pulp Fiction, Showing a frayed comic book cover as a layout, showing that through the damage of the cover, that the story (film) is rough and sets out a prominent look of violence. This is also due to the image displayed largely on the front showing a gun placed in front of the woman. This theme gives off the impression of a comic book styling for the actual film, suggesting to the receiving audience that these could hold the violent, slapstick conventions that you find in comics.
The titles shown on the cover are also that of what you would find on a comic book, with bright yellow capitals in bold, against a bright red background, it sets the outline for a bold movie, again with the violent conventions being conformed to with the red background. Although we see two areas of black text, the first underneath the title stating "a Quentin Tarantino film", this would be an effective statement to put onto the film's poster, due to the fact that Tarantino isa highly successful film directer and writer (amongst other things), which effectively draws in his fans to come and see his next film. Then the last black stated at the top of the poster which claims success for the film," Winner best picture 1994 cannes film festival", which again effectively aims for the target audience ,who attend the film in cinemas and buy the film, to be an older audience who appreciate film, due to it's high success from critics.
The image also states a lot about the film with the woman taking up the majority of the poster and being the main focus on the cover, showing her wearing all black as she smokes a cigarette, wearing red lipstick. Her mise en scene portrays her as a seductive and powerful woman due to her having a gun laid in front of her, as she appears to be lying on a bed also reading what appears to be a book called Pulp fiction, making an echo chamber of sorts occur due to this, her expression also shows her to be a very serious woman, also due to the fact that she is staring directly into the camera and is not accompanied by anyone, makes the audience find her very enticing and makes them wonder more about her character and more about her role within the film. Also the way her hand is positioned on the book, almost grasping it, makes it appear as though it states a way of life or a moral that the film bases its plot on.
Overall this poster proves to be very effective due to the creative way they layout their poster, with their target audience although seeming to be young due to the comic book style, need to appreciate the sense of art within film due to its high success and critical acclaim.
Black Swan is the thrilling 2010 tale of Nina, a talented but shy ballerina, who overly shielded by her mother, seeks to achieve the main role of the swan queen in her company's next production of Swan Lake, striving to achieve this by pushing herself out of her sensitive and shy ways, Nina begins to experience explicit visions of herself either cutting or being wounded, sending her into a dangerous mindset in effort to perfect her "Black Swan" dance.
The film's poster effectively shows the deeper meaning behind this film, with many different observations that people can draw from it. The most obvious points we can draw from this is the solid visual of an attractive young woman seen staring powerfully at the audience. Which links to the films plot of wanting Nina to possess the persona of the "black swan", which is powerful and evil.
Her mise en scene can both convert to this and subvert. Her makeup shows her to be very pale, with dark eyes and rose red lips, creating an almost vampire-esque image, fitting to her image of being mentally ill with her explicit out of this world hallucinations. Although her white fluffy hair piece we can see, shows her to have some innocence and purity about her persona, including the dainty flower shaped diamond earrings, which a child would wear, putting her into an infant character.
The most bewildering part of the film's poster would be the bold crack seen covering the girl's face, which could be interpreted as something breaking out of her pretty and polished look, making an appearance of something darker, making an almost frightening factor that disrupts her distilled image. This paired with the completely black background, makes the receiving audience focus solely on her, showing the audience both that the film's premise will follow this woman, but also that she wants people's attention.
The text that the film's title and other credits, are shown in a simple but bold font in black, to match the film's title "Black Swan", although next to the girl's face we see in smaller writing a quote, stating that the film is "An extraordinary intoxicating masterpiece", showing the film as a serious picture. Effectively aiming at the right crowd who want to see an academy award worthy film,which would be older middle to upper class members of the public.
Shaun of the Dead, tells the story of a going nowhere man, who's life is slowly going down hill, as his relationship crumbles and life rotates around trips to the pub with his less intelligent friend Ed. Although things plummet when the apocalypse strikes and Shaun finds himself on a mission to save his girlfriend and salvage their relationship whilst trying to survive the night.
The film's genre sits on a satire horror, whilst containing the imagery and plot of a horrific situation, with the possibility of death, The movie still shows a comedic side to the apocalypse by having the less than able Shaun and Ed try and fight off zombies and keep their spirits light hearted.
This is shown within the poster, where we see a Ginger man in a bright red tie and white shirt, holding a bunch of florescent yellow flowers, as he stands awkwardly on the train as he is surrounded by green skinned, white eyed zombies, showing the audience that what should be an expression of fear being replaced with almost a look of sarcasm shows the humour within the picture and that it's not a serious horror film.
The font used within the poster shows an all capitals titles, where it seems to have been worn off it certain areas, showing a rough sense to the film and that nothing stays pristine and perfect through the plot. Within the main title "shaun of the dead", we can see that within the letter "a" in dead there is a grasping hand coming out of the ground, again giving off the sense of the living dead and showing the zombie theme.
Subtly written slogans are also written in white to stand off of the bright, yet blackened in certain areas, background, also possesses the satirical comedy that is shown visually within the poster also, with at the top of the poster stating " ever felt like you were surrounded by zombies?", Also hinting the plot to be starring characters of the average every day life, due to the rhetorical question that makes the audience put themselves into the leading character's shoes.
The second slogan is seen again in small righting underneath the main title, stating more about the the type of film it is, but again in a satirical and voiced in a way that would be said by the average cinema goer who was telling their friends about it. which goes as follows "A romantic comedy.With zombies."
In conclusion this poster effectively shows the conventions of their film's genre, plot and who their target audience is, both visually and with the slogans they use. As this would appeal to movie goers who want to be thrilled with both humour and horror, which would be by the average working class male, which forms the main leading characters characteristics.
Stephan Kings horror epic "IT", retells the story of a group of children, firstly shown as adults, who come into a horrific situation when their town comes under the scrutiny of a murderous clown, called pennywise. The clown shows it's purpose to entice young children and feed off of them, but once his clown imagery stops getting him what he wants, "IT" takes drastic measures.
The trailer begins by showing a young girl holding her doll as she plays in what is presumably her back garden, We hear the non diegetic soundtrack of happy, lighthearted children's music as we see a close up shot of white washing hanging on the line as it blows in the wind, when suddenly we see a smirking white face with bright red lipstick and a receded red afro hair line, giving the audience the impression of a harmless children entertainment clown.
The camera continues to cut back and forth of closeups of the girl and the waving washing and we see the girl smiling, suddenly loud abrupt drums occur, with whispering, deep voices beginning to chant, eradicating the innocence of the scene and building tension within the audience, The girl is then seen in a medium shot through the laundry again and we see that has smile has fallen as she stands there staring into the sheets, where we cut to a medium shot of the clown hunched over also no longer smiling and appearing very menacing, making the audience worry for the child's safety and wonder what the clowns intentions are of him being in this girls garden as she plays alone. The camera then starts a naturalistic panning towards the shaken girl, appearing as though this is the clowns footsteps and posing a threat towards the child.
Then fading to a white screen we see the white sharp edged text reading "Stephan king's" as the camera pans out to reveal "IT" written largely around it as it turns from white to blood red, giving the audience a strong sense of a gore-like and violent theme within the picture already, as we hear the non-diegetic soundtrack of a fast paced child like song. Then cutting to a close up shot we see a paper boat sailing through a long puddle aside a curb, with a young boy dressed in a yellow raincoat and cap, giving off the sense of innocence and cuteness due to his mise en scene, running after it as it suddenly falls down a vast drain, as it rains. Due to the darkness negative weather, and the large yellow gate barriers, we can gather that the boy is likely to be on his own as other children and the majority of the public would not be outside in that kind of weather, showing a sense of vulnerability. As the young boy gets on his hands and knees the clown again pops up from the drain smiling, showing the audience the repeating occurrence of the clown wanting to entice children.
We then cut to various shots of middle aged adults trying to live their normal lives as the clown pops up in their houses, digging graveyards and even in the moon as a reflection, showing the audience that the clown is a stalking psychopath. One particularly disturbing shot shows a conventional helpless and nerdy teenaged boy as a large pair of inhumane hands slowly wrap around his neck as he stands their and shakes, effectively giving the audience the impression of paranormal tones within the film and that pennywise himself isn't just a psychopath but possibly a monster.
This is further proved when a middle aged man is seen in a taxi as he drives past the clown holding a large bunch of balloons as he waves at him from the side of a woodland empty road, then after the middle aged man turns around, finds a large yellow balloon floating next to him. This theme continues on when showing the clown being sucked down some sort of hole as a group of children watch in horror, and also when they're reading book only to see a hand luging out of it trying to grasp them.
We see multiple fas paced shots of various creatures coming out of a lake again trying to get to the children, with also dead looking zombie like creatures appearing in people's homes, making the audience question what it is about this town and why these creatures are attacking and wanting to frighten young children, showing one girl standing over her sink as a red balloon starts to inflate outside of the drain then finally exploding blood all over the sink and her, showing the audience that the clown has taken blood, therefore there will be death within the film.After seeing the clown reached his way through a shower rooms floor we fade to black showing the title once more.
Drag me to hell (2009) tells the story of a woman who in effort to try and gain a higher work title humiliates a woman trying to seek help from her company, when this occurs the woman casts a curse on the young woman, setting a demon on to her and to drag her to hell for eternity.
The trailer opens to an establishing shot of a a trafficked motorway, with a blonde haired young woman in her car looking miserable, we then cut to her in presumably her work place, where she approaches her boss in order to ask him about a new job title, when he seems to be less convinced he diegetically talks about the need to make "tough decisions". The office she is in appears very plain and with dull colours, making the woman's life appear very boring and dull, making the audience sense that she needs the promotion in order to gain more happiness, showing the audience it is very important to her.
We then cut to a creepy looking older woman, with one colour eye different to the other, seemingly poor, as she pleads with the before mentioned young woman to get an extension on a loan so that she can stay in her house, the young lady's boss tells her that it is a "tough decision", hinting to her not to give the old woman an extension, making the woman realise in order to achieve her wanted managers position she must decline the woman's request.Making the audience sympathise with both Christine and the older woman, as Christine before hand seemed to be willing to help the older woman, but now she is making an out of character move.
After the woman begs and pleads with her, the young woman (Christine) calls security and starts to humiliate the woman by screaming and further denying her pleads. We then cut to a darkly set car park where Christine sits in her car building the tension, when suddenly the old woman smashing her side window and drags her out of her car and is seen breathing heavily on one of Christine's possessions, Then in a close up shot tells Christine "soon it will be you who comes begging to me ".
We then cut to a medium shot of Christine in a darkly lit room with a man holding her hand, As they are surrounded by books and ornaments that would represent a voodoo/psychic conventions, with the rooms mise en scene showing a crystal ball in the background, showing further tones of paranormal themes. The bearded gentleman then states that someone has place a curse on Christine and that the worst demon of all is coming after her, showing the audience that she was in fact cursed by the older woman in the car park, We cut to further creepy shots of gates creaking and slamming as the wind blows dead leaves around wildly, building up the tension of an attack against Christine. With images of a demon's shadow appearing around her house.
As she is lying in bed we can still hear the man non diegetically speak, the soundtrack continues to gain speed and pitch further increases, With the man stating that the demon will "Drag you to hell", as he says this all music stops as we see Christine choke on a fly as she slept, making her appear vulnerable and an easy target. We cut back to a side angle close up of Christine as she goes to lie down, when we suddenly see a demon like woman lying in place of her boyfriend screaming in Christine's face.
Then we hear a sign of hope for Christine when the psychic man who helped her previously state that she can give the curse away, As we see a high angle long shot of four people including Christine her boyfriend and the previously mentioned psychic man. Creating a seance like setting,We then see multiple faced paced clips of Christine struggling and fighting to get away from demon like figures around her, Finally concluding on fire like hands dragging Christina down, making the audience wonder if she lived and whether she indeed beat the curse or got dragged to hell.
The purge election year, is the third horror instalment of the popular purge franchise, where a female senator is under threat from the government due to her intentions to prevent the annual purges from taking place, which entail all illegal activity legal for 12 hours.
We open to a panning close up shot of a frame on a wall, distorted and hanging, where we can make out a quote within the frame stating " Welcome to our home", immediately making the receiving audience presume a break in, as the eery wind like sounds, make for a very uncomfortable feeling among viewers as the tension builds.
We then suddenly hear a male voice non diegetically, as he excitedly says that there is one more purge game to play, as we see a close up of a blood soaken floor with an unidentifiable metal object next to it, showing the audience that a sense of gore will be prominent within the film. Finally we then cut to a medium shot of a darkly lit room with the male speaker disguised with a blue mask, as we then see a long shot of a family bloody and tied up in front of him on a sofa, showing the audience that this type of horror film, will be gore more of instead of a paranormal based picture.Finally the male states diegetically "which one of you will survive this years purge?", We then pan into a woman on the sofa in glasses as she's covered in blood and screams. We then suddenly cut to the woman clean and nervous looking as she stands behind a podium where titles appear saying 15 years later, and showing that she is running for president, Through her past ordeal it makes the audience sympathise with her character and know that she is the protagonist of the picture.
We then see multiple shots of her on people television sets across america, where they all nod in agreement with what she is saying , with one man stating that "she is going to make real changes", Through their mise en scene we can see they are poorer and less privileged and that is who the presidential candidate is aiming to impress, As she states that the purge needs to come to an end, Although we see multiple medium shots of business men, who we then presume to be congressmen, state that they need to do something about "this senator", making the audience presume that she is under threat again.
We then cut to multiple shots of scary looking blood dripping masks, with people holding weapons, and passing through streets with weapons, making them seem to posing as a threat towards the senator. Immediately after the purge is announced to start, the senator's body guards are shot down, and the senator's main bodyguard states that they have been betrayed, showing that the two will have to go on the run to maintain their safety throughout the night.
We then see a very disturbing long shot, of three bodies in white night gowns hanging from a tree appearing dead, as a fourth individual in a night gown dances around their floating bodies.We then see a high speed pace of shots of the two either fighting, being tortured or running, as the two finally get picked up by some people on the street, showing the audience that the working class don't want to purge and want to protect the senator at all costs so that they can prevent a future purge from occurring.
We then finally see the senator captured and in church as she is tied up in a white gown, in front of a table of weaponry, and a cathedral full of people, as she seems to be about to be tortured, we then cut to the title of the film, making the audience wonder whether the senator will live or not.
