Thriller Poster Analysis

After discussions during class, as a group we came to the decision of our genre being thriller. This took us quite a long time to come to this decision because we each had different ideas about plots and the type of representations we wanted to give. When we had finally made our decision we all felt that we needed to do some extra research on this type of this genre, this is why I have explored different conventions of thriller film posters. Here are some examples:

This poster has a very dark background which is a contrast to the earlier film poster I analysed which was a Rom com, this is because thrillers are seen as dark and dangerous and black is the most popular colour to show this style and representation. In contrast to the black there is white text and the characters face is in high contrast to make him stand out and helps the audience understand that he is the main character of the film. The houses that are lined along the bottom part are almost like shadows as they are again black and white to fit in with colour scheme. The only text that isn't in white is the release date of the film as this is what the producers want the audience to notice to try and gain as many viewers as possible. The lens of the binoculars is a bright orange and by having the repeated photo in each lens emphasises the fear on the girls face. The boys face is the main focus of the poster and the title of the poster is quite small so it doesn't overpower the poster. The tagline along the top gives the audience an idea of what the film is going to be about but doesn't give too much away which is what engages the audience.

In comparison to the 'Disturbia' poster there isn't much use of the colour black, i think this could be because the character is young girl which is usually labelled as innocent but in this case we know that she isn't going to a 'normal' little girl and this shows how they are using the character to confuse the audience. This is like the Strauss theory of that opposites work to create this mystery and suspense. Like 'Disturbia' the character is in the centre of the poster and there is the use of white font. There is also a tagline along the top again to make the audience want to know what's going to happen. There is a use of vignetting on the poster which helps draw the audience's attention to the focus of the poster which is the girls face.

This poster again has the main use of black and like 'Disturbia' there is the use of the colour orange. The orange illuminates the characters face and also creates a shadow in the background. The light is in the shape of a six which links to the name of the film. Again like the other two posters the font is in white, i think this is because they seem to use dark colours for the background and this is how they will get the biggest contrast. The name of the well known actor is along the top of the poster, this is to show that the Hollywood star is involved in the film and the audience may want to see it more knowing that it has awardwinning stars in it. The poster seem s to be split in half with Bruce Willis' face in the left hand side and the mysterious shadow on the right. Maybe this is to show how the two are connected in some way, with this suggestion it makes the audience want to watch the film.

From looking at all three posters I have learnt that the most common conventions of thriller film posters is the colours used, black and white, and the positioning of the characters on the poster. There is also the common use of a tagline to engage the audience and I feel that we should use some of these in our work to make our representation of thriller genre as clear as possible.