The document analyzes three film posters: 1. World War Z poster uses dark colors like grey and black to portray the film's genre of action and war. The red letter "Z" stands out against the dark background. 2. The Last Song poster features images of Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, and a family to portray the film's themes of family, love, and coming of age. Soft colors create a calm feeling for the romance genre. 3. The Possession poster uses an image of a sinister hand emerging from a girl's mouth to create fear and suspense. The dark tagline hints at evil forces, hooking the audience's curiosity.

1. Analysis of 3 Ancillary
Products
3 FILM POSTERS

2. The colours mainly used in this poster are dark –
greys and blacks. The colour grey is considered to
be an unemotional colour, it is detached and
neutral. The colour the both motionless and
emotionless, it is solid and stable, manufacturing
a sense of calm and composure, an escape from a
chaotic world in which World War Z is set in.
Black is also used in the poster, this colour is
associated with darkness, evil, mystery and the
unknown. It tends to follow negative
connotations (‘black death’ etc) but it also is a
sign of authority and strength. Black is also a
symbol of grief which reflects the lives that have
been lost within the film. The background of the
poster shows blue skies just visible through
clouds, this could connote the promise of a new
beginning (referring the film’s outcome) and a
potential safety net to fall back on as blue has
connotations for calm and stability. Finally the
letter ‘Z’ stands out from the rest in a deep, bold
red. Red is colour of depth and holds many
connotations. Red is colour of blood and is often
associated with war and power. It is a very
intense colour and stimulates the senses as it is
used often to warn people. These colours
together portray the film’s genre and action.
Overall, the colour scheme is typically dark and
includes red, black and grey.
World War Z is a 2013 apocalyptic film,
with sub-genres including dystopian,
horror and action. It starred well-loved
American actor, Brad Pitt and had a
budget of $190 million and took $540
million from the box office.
Destruction and chaos of building and
skyscrapers which shows the
consumers the action of the film and
communicates the dystopian theme
within the film, with people dying and
society falling apart, the world
apparently coming to an end. The
mise-en-scene within the poster
includes helicopters and gun all of
which are associated with the military
and war and are common
conventions in apocalyptic and action
films.
The typography of the film in bold,
it’s all capitals in order to make it
easier to read from a distance and
makes a much bigger impact upon
the consumer. The title of the film
is placed at the bottom of the
poster, the red ‘Z’ behind the
‘World War’ also makes it stand
out against the dark background,
the brightness of the text also
contrasts with the darkness. Brad
Pitt’s name is used at the very top
of the poster in order to attract a
wider audience, those who are
fans of Brad Pitt and his films are
more likely to watch the film. He is
arguably the film’s main attraction
and is a reason for it’s success.
The poster’s camera shot shows a
log shot of Brad Pitt, facing back to
the consumer and looking out at
the destruction and chaos. His
body language could be considered
heroic and reminds me of the Dark
Knight poster slightly. His pose
suggests that he will be the one to
save the hysteria almost giving the
impression that he will be doing
this independently as he is a lone
figure in the poster. From this shot
the buildings almost look inferior
to Brad, making him appear to be
much bigger and suggesting that
he has a huge impact on the film’s
outcome.
The target audience for the film,
communicated through the poster’s
colour scheme and mise-en-scene, is
generally leading more towards males as
guns and destruction are shown. The fact
that the film will be shown in 3D will also
make the audience much wider as 3D is
quickly becoming a revolutionary
technology for cinema and is an effective
means to attract large audiences.
Females will also be attracted to the film
perhaps because Brad Pitt is starring in it
and will be a reason for them to want to
watch it. Additionally, the film’s wide
range of genres will appeal to a much
larger audience, thus manufacturing a
larger target market. Teenagers, young
adults and adults will be intrigued
through the inclusion of zombies within
the film, a popular character in cinema in
films such as Shaun of the Dead.

3. There are three images within the poster and
altogether are the focus images for promotion for
the poster. One of the first images that catches the
consumers attention is the image of Miley Cyrus’
face and because of this the consumer guesses that
she is the protagonist in the film. Liam Hemsworth
is placed to the right of her, suggesting that he is
her love interest. The opacity on his image has
faded slightly, suggesting a potential separation or
distance between his character and Miley’s. The
poster shows an establishing shot of a beach, which
tells the audience the location and setting of the
film (the beach adding to the romance element of
the film). In the background, the sun is seen setting
which has associations with love and calmness. The
third image shows the family element within the
film – Miley’s character embracing the father as
they walk along the beach and, along with the
tagline, suggests that the theme of family plays an
important part in the film.
The Last Song is a 2010 ‘coming of
age’ teen drama romance film
based on the book by Nicholas
Sparks. It had a budget of $20
million and received over $89
million from the box office.
“A Story about Family
First Love, Second Chances
and the Moments in Life
That Lead You Back Home” is the
poster’s tagline. Typically the tagline
is a one liner but this poster instead
almost explains the plot’s main
ideas.. ‘family’ ‘first love’ and ‘the
moments in life that lead you back
home’ are all themes within the film
and relates to the ‘coming of age’
element and also relates to the
film’s target audience of teens who
may have similar experiences of
‘firsts’ in their teenage years. It
makes the film seem relatable,
realistic and encourages audience to
watch it.
The colours used within this poster
are neutral, including soft oranges,
yellows and blues. The blue is
shown in the sky and the beiges
represent the sweet and calmness
of the film’s characters and
romance. Soft colours are a typical
convention for romance and drama
films in order to give the audience
a sense of the genre. These soft
colours create a calming effect to
suggest that the audiences will be
experiencing calm and relaxing
feelings when watching the film as
opposed to a blood stimulating
horror film. The typography used is
serif, making it simplistic yet classy,
it gives the poster almost a old
school feeling of older romance
films such as the Notebook and the
Walk to Remember. ‘The’ is shown
in italics which makes the poster
aesthetically pleasing to those who
enjoy the genre. The title of the
film has been placed in the middle
third of the poster, meaning that it
is the centre of interest and
ensures that it catches the
consumers eyes
The poster’s layout follows the
general conventions of a film
promotional poster. The institutions
and actors name are shown at the
very bottom of the poster along
with the release date which is all the
extra information needed for those
who are interested in watching the
film.
The poster uses high-key lighting through filter lights. This effect makes the image appear
more soft and realistic and makes the poster appear more sunny. However towards the
bottom of the poster, the lighting is much more dim and these contrast with one another.
This contrast between light and dark is not very pronounced by still visible. This type of
lighting makes it more realistic.
The film already has a wide audience – from fans
of Miley Cyrus to those who are readers of
Nicholas Sparks’ books and viewers of ‘The
Notebook’ and ‘A Walk To Remember’ and by
including these facts within the poster reassures
the audience that this particular film is worth a
watch.

4. “Darkness Lives Inside” this tagline is set to hook in
the audience as it adds suspense, terror. This enables
the audience to question what is meant by ‘darkness’
and does it mean that it ‘lives inside’ of us? It tunes a
sense of curiosity and fear in the consumer.
The Possession is a 2012 supernatural horror
film. It had a budget of $14 million and earned
over $78 million in the box office. Interesting,
this poster was banned in some countries as it
was deemed to be unsuitable, which arguably
brought the film more attention as more and
more people talked about it through controversy.
The main image within the poster
shows a unnatural, inhuman and
sinister pose of a hand emerging from
a girls’ mouth. Though the image
itself looks unnatural the hand
appears to be of a human, adding an
element of the realism shown in the
poster, making it much sinister and
scarier. The hand in the poster is the
dominant object, taking control and
appears to be attempting to escape
from the girls’ screaming mouth and
in addition making the hand hold
much more tighter. This tight grip
makes the poster appear violent
(which perhaps could have been why
it had been banned) and conveys the
violence of horror films. The hand is
slightly grey in colour, suggesting
either old age or that this could
perhaps be the antagonist and is
something evil. What is interesting
about the main image is that the
model nor the hand appear to have
an identity, no face is shown nor
body. This gets the consumers
imagination running at a fast pace
and builds up a sense of fear and
creates enigma.
At the very top of the poster is
‘based on a true story’ this is
sometimes considered to be an
important selling point for films as
audiences are aware that the plot
may be true and adds to the real
horror of the film, evoking a high
sense of fear when audiences
believe that something like this
was actually true. The audience
knowing that the plot is not
fictional and really suffered from
the tribulations that are shown
within the film and the trailer also
create sympathy, in turn making
them even more scared when
putting themselves in the
characters’ shoes.
The poster follows many of
horror’s general conventions,
including using a female to be the
victim as they are generally seen as
the more weaker and vulnerable of
the sexes.
A typical convention for horror
posters is dark lighting and dark
backgrounds to create an idea of the
unknown and an air of suspense. This
poster however breaks these
conventions as the lighting is rather
bright and vision is very clear, this
could have perhaps been used to
show the detail within the poster and
make it look more realistic, provoking
more fear from the consumer.
Written in a blood red are the films release date.
The colour red is associated with danger, blood
and anger and is also a stimulating colour which
immediately draws the consumers attention to
this typography. The colour choice of red could
also be seen as a warning to the audience.
The main image shows a girl, who completely
dominates the whole of the poster which suggests
that she plays an important role, perhaps the
protagonist of the film. She is placed in the middle of
the page and appears isolated, reinforcing the
importance of her role. This poster again breaks film
poster conventions as typically direct mode of
address is included, a model facing directly towards
the consumer, but this model not facing the audience.
That does not mean that the poster is not effective as
the supernatural looking hand draws in the attention
of audiences and intrigues them.
The costume on the model is very bare and simplistic
and not very well shown and doesn’t have a
significant part in the films mise-en-scene. The
clothing is a dull grey that blends in with the white
backgrounds – both dull colours are conventional to
horror. The costume almost looks like a dull hospital
gown, suggesting that perhaps the film's events could
play out in a hospital and again creates sympathy and
empathy for the characters.
The films website is shown at the
bottom of the poster, where the
consumer can find out more
information about film including
trailer and additional cast and plot
information.