This document provides an analysis of the movie poster for "The Woman In Black". It summarizes the key details of the poster including the cast, production companies, release date, director, budget and box office numbers. It then analyzes several technical aspects of the poster including the shot type, composition, layout, and typography. Symbolic elements of the poster like costumes, props, and lighting are also discussed. Finally, it examines how the poster establishes narratives and mysteries to intrigue audiences.

1. Introduction
In this essay I will be analysing and investigating the Woman In Black
Poster. The title of the film is “Woman In Black”.
Full cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet Mcteer, Ciaran Hinds, Liz White, Sophie
Stuckey, Jessica Raine, Shaun Dooley, Lucy May Barker, Roger Allam,
Emma Shorey, Misha Handley and Alisa Khazanova etc.
Production Companies for the film: Cross Creek Pictures (presents),
Hammer Film Productions (presents) (as Hammer), Alliance Films
(presents), UK Film Council (presents), Talisman Productions (as
Talisman), Exclusive Media Group (in association with), Film i Väst (in
co-production with) (as Film i Vast), Filmgate Films (co-production),
Filmgate (in co-production with) and Hammer Films.
Release Date:
10 February 2012 (UK)

2. Introduction Continued
Director of the film: James Watkins.
‘Fear Her Curse’ is the tagline for this film suggesting the film will be in the
horror type genre.
Crew: Jane Goldman – Screenplay
Marco Beltrami – Music
Simon Oakes, Richard Jackson & Brian Oliver – Producers
Nigel Sinclair, Tyler Thompson, Guy East & Roy Lee – Executive
Producers
Jon Harris – Editor
Kave Quinn – Production Designer
Tim Maurice-Jones – Cinematographer
Keith Madden – Costume Designer
Karen Lindsay-Stuwart – Casting Director
Box Office:
Budget:
$17,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
$20,874,072 (USA) (3 February 2012)
Gross:
$54,322,273 (USA) (27 April 2012)

3. Introduction Continued
I expect this film to be watched by the C2 and D demographic group
because I expect the film to be more appealing to these sort of
demographic groups and the people that are in these groups I would
expect to be maybe in late teens to in their late 20’s. This demographic
group of people would probably stop at the poster and look at it. I
think both Males and Females would enjoy this poster so I’ll say both. I
this main poster actually conform the genre conventions because this
horror poster is like your typical poster in the way that it is set in a dark
mysterious place with the final survivor character in the centre of the
poster with the villain looking at them from behind them.

4. Technical Codes
For this poster they’ve used a medium shot, this shows only half of the
main characters body but in this shot it also has a little bit of a
background that shows as well. They’ve used the rule of thirds for this
poster and It will be shown in the next slide. They’ve used a ghost style
for the typography to implies that maybe the Woman In Black is a
ghost but its like an enigma, is she a ghost or a living woman and it
makes you want to go see the film and get your questions answered by
watching the film. On the poster they have layed it out so that the
main character is centred in the middle just behind the Title and to
both left and right they’ve put different stuff like the actual Woman In
Black sitting to the right, A massive tree to the left and the house on
the right too.

5. Technical Codes (Rule of Thirds)
As you can see here to the right of
the poster in this half we see the
actual Woman In Black looking like
she is sitting on a rock with a cross,
the cross maybe a grave of a relative
or maybe the Woman In Black was
religious? Also behind her is
something which looks like a
abandoned mansion. Her cape is
black which maybe suggests evil and
that she is a very dark character.
To the right of the poster it shows us
a massive scary looking tree with
braches extending out to the other
half of the poster. This looks like it
resembles something important in
the film, its almost like a enigma,
what part will it play in the film or is it
just a normal tree placed there to fill
the space. This makes the audience of
the poster more excited for the film.
In the middle of the poster we get a look at the main character himself,
they’ve put him in the middle to show that he’ll be the last person to
survive or the last to die in the film because making him the centre of the
poster and made him the only actual person in the poster because the
Woman In Black looks like a ghost on the post but you can’t actually see
her face or body but just a cloak sitting on a rock. The typeface for the
poster is directly in the middle and in front of the character in the middle.
The text looks like a ghost styled text.

6. Technical Codes Continued
The meanings behind the technical codes. Shot type is when your
camera is a placed in certain place for example in the poster they’ve
used a middle shot to show a lot for the poster but they’ve only shown
half of Daniel Radcliffe’s body and when they only show half of
something it’s a middle shot. Composition is like features they’ve
added to the poster like positions for example when I was talking
about the rule of thirds, that’s a composition. The layout is when
they’ve placed characters and props in certain positions e.g they put
Daniel Radcliffe in the centre and the Woman In Black is to the right of
him. Finally the Typography is when basically the font and colours of
the title it self talking about what the font of the title symbolizes like I
said that the title was like a ghost styled font so it may have implied
that the woman in black was a ghost.

7. Technical Codes Continued
Passive audiences would see the poster as just seeing Daniel Radcliffe,
the Woman In Black and a massive tree but an active audience would
look at the same things and start thinking why have they placed a
massive tree there?, why is Daniel Radcliffe there?, is he the main
character but they would see his name above himself and they would
know he is the main guy. They would see the cross in the background
and they might think that it’s maybe a grave but who's grave is it?.
Finally they would also see the massive abandoned mansion in the
background quite far away from him.

8. Technical Codes Continued
This poster conforms the convections in the way that it uses a medium shot but also I can’t see
any rule of thirds. The main character (Maybe the main character but placed in the centre) is
placed in the middle of the poster, she is maybe the Orphan and looks like she maybe the villain
in this poster by looking at her eyes its like starring into darkness. Although on the Woman In
Black poster the evil villain is to the right her victim so its different as there aren’t any victims in
this poster, but because she looks like she's the main character so they’ve placed her in the
centre which is the same as the Woman In Black. The typography looks like its been scratched on
which must something to do with film it self which is similar to the Woman In Black poster
because the title on the poster is made as a ghost sort of font style to symbolise that the Woman
In Black is a ghost.
This The Grudge 3 poster conforms to the conventions of the Woman In Black poster,
although this poster uses a sort of wide shot for this poster. Even though we can’t see very
much of this villain, she is still on the right of the poster which is also similar to the Woman In
Black poster as she is on the right of the poster as well.

9. Symbolic Codes
Daniel Radcliffe's clothes are very old but stylish, what I mean is that
back then the clothes that he was wearing were modern and
stylish/fashionable. Although the clothes are fashionable they’re very
ripped, this makes him look scruffy. Some of the props such as the the
cross in the background and the mist really sets the scene as dark and
scary, its makes you feel like you don’t want to be there. The costume
of the ghost is just a black cloak which is so simple yet genius in the
fact that you cant see ghosts or well as far as we know we can’t see
them but we can see what they’re wearing. The light is shining on the
Tree, Daniel Radcliffe and the Woman in Black herself. The colour
scheme is dark colours such as black dark blue, sea green and others.

10. Symbolic Codes Continued
Passive audiences would see the poster as just seeing Daniel Radcliffe,
the Woman In Black and a massive tree but an active audience would
look at the same things and start thinking what details have they made
to make the tree intimidating, why is Daniel Radcliffe in the spotlight
and what is he wearing, why have they shown what the Woman In
Black in so much detail why don’t they leave it as a surprise to what
she looks like.

11. Symbolic Codes Continued
This Orphan main character girl looks very mysterious and her clothes are old but not stylish
they look more like old school clothes like a dress which is completely different to the woman in
black her expression is more evil than Daniel Radcliffe's and unlike Daniel she is much cleaner
and her clothes aren’t wrecked or ruined. Spotlight on her face as well conforms the Woman In
Black poster because the villain or creep has also got a spotlight on her as well. Both females.
This challenges the Woman In Black horror poster.
Can’t really say too much on this because you can hardly see her body or
the clothes she is wearing although we can’t actually see any clothes on her
at all so this may suggest she is naked or has a sleeveless dress but we just
can’t tell because we can see nothing. Lighting is just on her which is similar
to The Woman In Black because she has a spotlight on her as well being the
villain. Both females. Overall I think this challenges the Woman In Black
horror poster.

12. Narratives
The title and the tagline doesn’t do a lot for an audience, it says “Do
you believe in ghosts?”. As you can see it obviously gives you nothing
to go on. The Title is in a ghost type font gives off a lot because we
couldn’t tell if the Woman In Black was a ghost or an actual Woman In
Black clothes so the typeface suggests this that maybe the Woman in
Black is a ghost after all. The poster does have an enigma in fact it has a
lot of enigmas for example The questions maybe “Why is Daniel
Radcliffe there?” or “Who is the Woman In Black?” or “What does that
cross and tree symbolize?” or “Why is there a massive mansion in the
background?”.

13. Narratives Continued
The area or place that they’re are shown to be at is a setting full of
spooky things such as the Mist all around the actors and props you
can’t even see the ground around them. They’ve used the props like
the tree and the cross to give it a scary graveyard feel to the location.
Dark skies gives a scary feel to the picture really setting the mood off.
The Archetypes- Daniel Radcliffe: The Hero but although he looks to be
the hero he doesn’t seem to look like your normal hero because he
doesn’t look aggressive, strong or interrogating in anyway shape or
form but this is only what we can see from the poster.

14. Narratives ContinuedThere are some genre conventions that are the same as the
Woman In Black for example both have the villain, maybe
it's not the same two as the villain isn’t in the centre in the
Woman In Black poster. Both villains wearing completely
different outfits and this Orphan looks like she is a little girl
yet the Woman In Black is an actual woman.
The genre conventions between the two of the
posters are basically the same between the
comparison of the Orphan and the Woman In Black
poster but we can see the Grudge villain looks like a
ghost so maybe there is some relation in the way
that we discussed on the other poster that maybe
the typeface suggests the Woman In Black is a
Ghost.

15. Audience- For horror films like this they usually have a target
audience in the age group 15-25. It is mostly aimed at men as they
are more likely to be able to interact with the characters on screen.
Women can interact with those on screen to but they would tend
to
react differently.
Institution- Saw is a horror film franchise distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment
and produced by Twisted Pictures that consists of seven feature films and
additional merchandise. You can see the influence it had on the poster is that
they’ve used body parts obviously cut off by a saw.

16. Audience- For horror films like this they usually have a target
audience in the age group 15-25. It is mostly aimed at men as they
are more likely to be able to interact with the characters on
screen.
Women can interact with those on screen to but they would tend
to react differently.
Institution- Sinister is a 2012 found footage supernatural horror film directed by
Scott Derrickson and written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. It stars Ethan
Hawke as fictional true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt who discovers a box of home
movies in his attic that puts his family in danger.

17. Conclusion
The poster is very effective and goes well with its Genre. As soon as
you take a look at the film poster you automatically think horror. This
is what excites people a lot of detail has gone into this poster and I
believe it's one of the best horror posters if not the best poster out of
the four I compared it to. I think it does attract its target audience of
around 12a because although people of a young age may not get the
poster as much they will still watch it because of the mystery of the
poster. In my opinion I believe that it does conform the genre
conventions with the spooky settings, the characters and others.