This document analyzes the promotional materials for the film Black Swan, including the theatrical poster, trailer, and magazine cover. It finds several common elements across the materials: a black background, simple white typography, a focus on the female protagonist wearing makeup, and hints that her character is hiding something darker underneath the surface. The analysis suggests these elements link the film to the psychological thriller genre and fulfill audience expectations of familiar genre conventions.

1. Black Swan
Analysis

2. Institutional information Dark logo which matches
given at the very start of with the thriller genre.
the trailer.
Cross creek pictures - established in psychological thriller/horror type films.
Black background - common feature in psychological thriller films - used throughout
the promotion of Black Swan.

3. Long shot, straight angle, Isolated
Sense of the darkness
makes the audience feel like environment,
closing in on her, outside
they are in the room watching she is dancing
of the spotlight it is very
this rehearsal. alone.
dark.
Lonely female
protagonist
introduced to
us at the very
beginning.
Bright spotlight on her
shows the audience that Sense of control - ballet requires a lot of
she will be the main control - assumption that this will be
character. shattered as the film progresses.

4. Close up as the female Again the character is
character massages her alone, no one is around
feet after a dance session; her.
focus on the normality of
this action/situation.
Fairly light setting, there are shadows in the corners of the rooms.
Set up as a normal room - typical in psychological thrillers that the settings tend
to look normal, but are made abnormal - absence of light, stormy weather etc.

5. Variation of the over the shoulder Everyday city lifestyle, walking
shot, showing her alone again. through a well-lit busy square.
Sense of her being watched with this Use of daylight contrasts to the dark
kind of angle/shot combination. nature of the rest of the trailer.

6. Close-ups create a sense of tension.
Thriller element - image in the
mirror moves without the real Panic-stricken expression adds to
object. the tension already created by the
close up.
Well lit room, but shadows are
evident in the background. The character is not wearing a lot of
make up in this scene; revealing her
true self?

7. Poorly lit; tense atmosphere. Can barely see the face of this
character; but we can tell that it
is not normal, there is
something wrong.
Background is a familiar one to the
audience as it is where the ballet dancer
has been practicing - creates a sense of
unease because this strange character
has appeared in a place where the
dancer seemed to be comfortable.

8. The protagonist is wearing white, Audience shocked by the sudden
typically a colour which connotes violence of the protagonist, pushing
innocence and purity - contrasts to someone/something into a mirror.
her violent behaviour in this scene.
Appears to be set
in a dressing
room type
setting.
Contrasting sides of the room;
Use of mirrors in psychological thrillers one side is very bright and well-lit,
is fairly common; seeing things from a allowing us to see everything
different viewpoint/how the character there, whereas the other is very
sees themselves. dark and does not allow us to see
very much.

9. Extreme close up of the protagonist, Red/bloodshot eyes; there is
sense of overexposure/nowhere to something very wrong with this
hide. character, sense of something that
she has been hiding coming to the
surface?
Orange/red lighting; sense of
Panicked expression on the face
danger, the need to be alert
of the character, making the
because something is
audience feel uneasy and
important is going to happen.
uncomfortable.

10. Title of the film given at the very end Black background becomes
of the trailer, makes it more solid, with a feather like texture
memorable - you’ve seen the action to it - reflecting the ‘swan’ in the
and what the film is about, now you title.
know what it is called.
White typography - fractured in the
middle like the split in her
personality?

11. Black background The crack in her
similar to the face suggests that
others in the she has some dark
promotional secret that she is
package. hiding and that is
coming to the
Simple, bold surface.
black
typography, Close up of the
giving nothing female protagonist,
away about the heavily made up,
story line. again re-enforcing
the idea that we
are not seeing her
Dark typography ‘real’ features.
stands out against
the pale skin of
the female
Institutional information
character, again
at the bottom of the
the suggestion of
poster in a light coloured
a dark secret.
font - barely noticeable.

12. Simple white typography is used Dark clothes also
Black again, although this time the name
background represent the genre
of the film is not particularly bold. and reflect the
reflecting the
mystery of the package overall;
psychological these clothes are
thriller. similar to the rest in
the promotional
materials.
A long shot is Again, in this
used for this image the female
image, the protagonist is
exact opposite wearing a lot of
of the image make up - hiding
used for the her true self from
theatrical the audience.
poster - a
different
viewpoint?

13. Common features
• Black background.
• Simple, white typography - occasionally bold.
• Main feature is the protagonist.
• Use of make up on the protagonist - sense of hiding who she is.
• Focus on something that is not as it seems with the character;
sudden personality change in the trailer, crack in the face in the
poster and the vacant expression in the magazine cover.

14. Links with Genre Theory
• Lawrence Alloway states that genre boils down to symbols -
character types, settings, props etc.
• A genre consists entirely of symbols used to create a link with
the audience and what they expect.
• This fits with the promotion of Black Swan because it has very
similar symbols to other psychological thriller films; for example,
the use of mirrors is similar to many other psychological thriller
films. Also, the type of character is very similar; a character that
from the outside appears fairly normal, but there is something
dark within.
• Steve Neale also argues that both the audience and the
institution like familiarity in a film, and this is why Black Swan
fulfills so many of the typical conventions of the psychological
thriller – to maintain the audience.