Film Poster Analysis - Paranormal Activity

Film Posters are used as a form of advertising and can help to raise awareness of an upcoming film. Film posters are usually shown in a number of places, such as on billboards or on the internet. They almost always follow conventions which usually include the title, release date, and an image. The reason behind these conventions is the fact that the audience need to know the details of the film, and the fact that they will portray the genre of the film, so that people can decide whether they want to see it or not.

The image used on this poster shows the audience two characters, which will be expected to be the main characters, and the modern setting in which this is all taking place. One of the main things taking place in the image, is the female character pointing to a shadow on the door, which is helping to suggest that the film’s narrative is all about the supernatural figure shown. Both of the characters that we can see in this image are also young, which can help to make the film appeal to a younger audience as they may feel like they can relate to it more. The setting in the image shows a modern looking bedroom, which would usually be associated with comfort or relaxing, but in this image, however, by using the the mysterious, dark figure, and the fact that the characters look uneasy, the setting creates a sense of danger or fear. The overall appearance of the image is different to usual pictures, because it looks like a lower-quality image. This is used to emphasize the use of home-video style that the film has been shot in. This, as well as the timestamp in the corner of the image give the poster a bigger sense of verisimilitude, because it makes the viewer feel like it is actually taken from a video camera rather than taken from a professional studio camera. This image also adds an enigma to the poster, because the viewer will be curious to see what the ghostly figure is, and why it is important to the story.

The minimal use of colour in the image helps to portray the horror genre. The blue-coloured text on the poster matches the colour of the image, and also helps to make the poster seem cold, which once again, highlights the use of the night-vision on the camera image. The use of black is a typical convention of horror, as this is generally associated with evil and danger because it usually resembles death. The use of the white coloured text against the black background makes it stand out, but also creates a ghost-like look to it, which connects to the supernatural narrative. Finally, the red text for the title connotes the feeling of danger, as red usually resembles blood or evil.

The title of the film is written in a larger text when compared to the rest of the text on the poster. This helps to separate the title from the rest of the text which makes it stand out and causes it to catch the eye of the viewer. The title has a blurred effect to it, which again, emphasizes the use of the video camera. The text is mostly in block capitals, which makes the text seem intimidating, which helps to add to the horror genre.

The poster has two slogans on it, both of which talk to the viewers. The first, ‘What Happens When You Sleep?’, makes the viewer feel like the poster is asking them personally, and could also make them question what happens when they sleep. This could encourage viewers to see the film, because they are curious to see what happens to the characters when they sleep. Similarly, the use of ‘Don’t See It Alone’ suggests that the film is so scary that the viewer will be too scared to watch it alone. The poster also use lines such as ‘Scariest Movie of All Time’, which suggests to the viewers that anyone who likes

the horror genre will enjoy it. It also gives the opinions of the critics, which show how they say that the film is ‘bloody disgusting’, which again, suggests that people who like the horror genre will like the film.

The poster uses a simple layout, because the attention of the viewers are automatically drawn to both the image and the title. This happens because the poster follows the rule of thirds, which means people will look straight to the two people, which then leads up to the mysterious figure on the door.

The poster uses little advertising, as the film was created on a smaller budget and didn’t start off as a mainstream movie. It has ‘Demand It’ ‘badge’, which tells people that if they visit a website and ‘demand it’, they can watch the movie in their area.

After looking at this poster, we have decided that the language is something we would like to consider on our poster, because we really like the way that it sounds intimidating and talks directly to the viewer, because we feel that this is more successful for an audience to feel a personal connection to our media product. We also think that we will add a review or a critic’s quote, as we feel that this will help to make people feel like they can form an opinion on our film before they have watched it.