Film Poster Analysis - Paranormal Activity 3

 

One film poster that I will be analysing is the advertisement for the horror film ‘Paranormal Activity 3’. This horror film is the third movie of the four that have been released to date. The family of follow on films belong to the Supernatural sub-genre within horror. I chose to analyse this poster because the image that shown looks very realistic; an average child’s shared bedroom. The two young girls are shown to be innocent, vulnerable, and mentally young reinforced by the fact that they are asleep whilst potentially in danger.

Moreover, this illustrates the fact that the main aim of the narrative of this film; is to convey realistic horrific mysterious footage to an intrigued loyal audience (who most likely would have seen the first and second movie before hand).

I believe that this film poster is a teaser because the image does not give away much of the films main plot/ending. The focus of the main image is the shadow on the wall situated between the sister’s beds. This leaves the audiences mind straying; in wonder of what the shadow could possibly be. Another reason explaining my reason for liking the film poster was the fact that it correlates to the narrative of my new horror film; I have two sets of sisters within my film. This therefore attracted me the image and the advertisement of Paranormal Activity 3. The film poster is advertising a horror film, however I think this poster was created to evoke curiosity from the target audience. I will now analyse this film poster further and give details on the image and the general conventions that feature on the poster.

After taking a first glimpse at this film poster it is evident that it unusual however at the same time unique. It can be argued that the image looks like it has just been placed onto a black background however the reason for this is to enforce the narratives projection; which is showing live footage filmed on a hand-held home camera, similar to CCTV.  This film poster therefore seems to have broken some of the common conventions of film posters due the placement of the main image and the fact that it only takes up half of the page size; including the background of the image.

Other than that the poster does feature the typical conventions such as the film title, slogan, release date and website address; which you can visit to find out more information on the film advertised.

The main image on this film poster is in a boundary/border of the shape of a rectangle. It is portraying a still shot from CCTV footage. This image depicts that this footage was caught on a held hand camera during the night. There are a number of reasons supporting my claim.  Firstly the girls are sleeping and the image shows that all the lights are off in their room, also no light coming from a natural source; intensifying the audience’s thoughts. More importantly the bottom right hand corner of the image displays the date and time of when this footage was captured. The time shown is 01.18am. 01.18am is the time where the majority of young children and working parents are in the start of their deep night’s sleep. This is a dark and quiet time in 24 hour day attracting unwanted living beings into family homes to, in this case play tricks on the mind; this suggestion of mind games comes from the fact that this film is from the Supernatural sub-genre.

The image is set in the two girl’s bedroom. This setting is typical for a horror film as action within Supernatural horror films takes place in the characters own home where they belong however they are then made to feel uncomfortable by the unexpected being in their surroundings. It could possibly a spirit; a symbol from the diseased. A bedroom which contains all the belongings of two young innocent girls is a perfect and effective setting which should attract an audience that enjoy the emotions evoked by enigma.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier the lack of lighting used in the main image, creates a feeling of fear and uneasy mood within the audience. The lighting allows the rather large shadow to catch the eye of the audience and has the power to keep their eye focused. In addition to this, the shadow seems to be a figure of a human being due to the size, shape and height of it.

The dark, pale colours used on the poster, connote the unknown within the dark night and make the audience feel a sense of silence; as if there is no action or movement being portrayed in the image, just a still essence of shock.

The characters from the film, featured in the poster are; the two sisters and the shadow representing the unknown. The image is following general film poster conventions as the main character/s of a film are always shown on the film poster. In addition to this if the actor used is largely famous and talented, in what they do, more often than not they are used to further attract a suitable target audience. The film may become more popular due to the recognised actor resulting in it selling and succeeding further.

As the setting is the young girl’s bedroom, there are props used effectively to reflect their age. For example a few cuddly are toys lying around; stickers are randomly stuck on the wall and a lamp beside each bed. These are typical objects that would be found in a child’s bedroom. In addition to this, the bed-sheets and décor of the room also signify the age of the two girls. It can be said that the visible stickers and posters on their wall; portray them as young and childlike.

Furthermore the shadow is shown on the bedroom wall is placed the middle third of the page on the poster; the reason is because this is where the human eye naturally hovers. The placement of the shadow conveys that the two young girls are powerless as they’re lying down whereas the shadow is up-right; which instantaneously gives the shadow power as ‘it’ is higher than them. The image forces the target audience to feel like they must look out for the two girls as it seems that they are in danger. There are a number of symbols used within the poster. As mentioned before the date and time that is displayed on the bottom right hand corner of the page in the conventional array, represents the time that the ‘shadow’ will strike. The placement of the title is very specific. The drop shadow on the title is used to make it clear. Lastly the shadow shown on the image is the main focal point. The shadow is Supernatural iconography due to its meaning and representation of fear, danger and the unknown.

The film title on the poster uses the same font as does the first and second poster and again on the poster and DVD cover of Paranormal Activity 4; released in October 2012. This symbiotic link throughout the pieces of media advertising the individual Paranormal Activity films; are used to attract the previous/hooked target audience. This symbiotic link will allow them to easily recognise the film that is being advertised after only having one glance at the film poster.

The text on the film posters include three primary colours; red, white, blue and black. The title is in a Serif font; red and uppercase. The colour red signifies danger, emotion, blood and strength. Whereas the very pale blue used for the number 3, represents purity, ghosts, delusions and almost a blank memory of confusion due to illness.

Red and blue are two very contrasting colours which I feel have been used on this poster to tell a story about the nature of the uninvited spirit/being. The title has the meaning that connotes horror and explains the main part of the narrative; that there will be ghostly unpredictable action occurring at unwanted quiet moments. The title is quite small in size, which isn’t an issue as the colour out shines it and draws the reader to the title because it the brightest coloured element on the poster.

This poster evidently breaks horror poster conventions. The fact it has two taglines/slogans supports this claim. The first tag is rather small, placed on two lines situated at the top of the poster, filling most of the width. ‘Discover how the activity began’ has connotations suggesting that the films narrative may bring the audience back to the past to develop what has previously happened linking to the current sightings of ghosts/spirits. In addition to this the word ‘Discover’ suggests that the audience are going to embark on a journey of mystery where they will experience new features of objects and the spirits of the living dead. The tagline is in a sans serif font as it has a computer font appearance; with feet. The colour of the tagline makes it stand out from the dark black background and matches the Supernatural horror sub-genre as the colour signifies ghosts, loss of the mind and a black unknown canvas.

‘It runs in the family’ is the second tagline. In my opinion this sentence is letting the audience know that they are all in danger and that it this possible ‘mental illness of viewing ghosts/spirits’ could be hereditary. The second tagline differs from the first as it is all in uppercase; making it arise from the background and signifying that this particular tagline has a stronger, more important message to tell the audience. The use of uppercase makes the tagline, which is situated under the film title, more effective.

The tagline says it runs in the family, this anchors the meaning of the image in the fact that the two characters shown are two young girls that are sisters. This may suggest that parents have previously been affected by this mystery object performing/creating ‘paranormal activity’. The taglines and the other text on the poster are placed according to the typical layout of film posters. The only other text that features on the poster website address and the release date; both placed at the bottom of the poster in the centre. October 21^st being the date puts across the fact that this Supernatural horror film will be released in the dark winter; matching the genre and the essence of the film. 

Overall the main figures in the image are represented photographically; the narrative is mostly portrayed visually yet also verbally. Moreover the tagline ‘It runs in the family’ as mentioned before, could also imply that the video camera footage will show the daily life of a family, yet they are being disturbed and mentally affected by either ghosts, spirits or curses. The poster is subtlety effective. The main image leaves the audience creating pictures in their mind of what might happen or occur. To conclude I believe this poster will lure in its target audience because the poster as a whole, acts as an intriguing cliff hanger.