Film Posters – Conventions by Genres (Part 1)

As a group our classroom looked at a number of different film posters and briefly analyzed in notes when conventions are used for each poster to help represent and exhibit there genre.

House of Wax

·         Lifeless Body

·         Wax dripping heavily like blood

·         Colour: Primary :Black

·         Tag Line: PREY. SLAY. DISPLAY.

·         Title : House of Wax

The posters conventions basically show that the film is a horror genre based film. The lifeless body shows symbols death, which is ties in well with horror, as a horror film would not be a horror film with our death. Also I believe the body was designed to the point where viewers may doubt if it’s a real body or just wax which may be important to the story line of the actual film. The wax dripping of the body also symbols that there will be bloodshed within the film but also that wax plays an important point with in the film. The heavy use of black which can be seen as symbolizing power, submission, death and mystery/fear. Black in media and also society is often linked to mysterious such as black holes, or submission such as western Christian priest wear to signify dedication and submission to God.  Well known horror villain Dracula is always seen where black often. The tag line connotes clearly that someone or a group of people will be preyed upon by someone/group, and then slayed easily like cattle and then likely to be displayed like trophies as the Tagline is “PREY. SLAY.DISPLY”.  The title was most likely the theme to the poster.

American Pie

·         Young people laughing and having fun

·         Boy topless

·         Image of a Apple Pie

·         Tagline: “There’s something about your first piece”

·         Colour: White and Red

·         Title:  American pie

The American pie poster shows that the film is teen comedy which may focus on friendship, relationships and sex. The poster shows a group of teens with roughly equal number of boys and girls therefore showing that a relationships maybe important as you could pair girls and boys with one boy to spare, who is likely to be the playboy/player of the group.  The male who is topless stands which shows that he may be the main protagonist as he stands out, this may also symbolises that the lack of clothing’s may mean that he has a mission to an intimate relationship. There image of the apple pie and the title refers back to a scene where the main character is caught masturbating with a pie after previously being told that “third base feels like warm pie”. The tagline “there’s something about your first piece” also is not clear if it’s talking about sex or a piece of pie pretty much like metaphorical innuendo.   The poster main colour white which is mainly used to signify purity and virginity, where as the secondary colour red signifies passion, desire and love. White denotes that the characters are likely to be virgins which are often seen as pure, especially in America. The red also denotes that some characters are desire a relationship and love.