Poster and website

analysis
Maddy Thomas 13D1

Poster analysis 1
This poster of Spring Breakers shows four girls wearing bikinis, seductively
positioned around the only man in the poster. The props used include guns,
denoting violence and connoting a wider theme of crime and rebellion. The
costumes are revealing and provocative, thus suggesting a sexual element to the
film reinforced by their bent over posture and one of them sticking their tongue
out. The bright colours of the over all poster, as well as the costumes, title and
hair of the girls, emit an air of vibrancy and excitement. The title is written in a
firework-like font, which may symbolise a party. The man is fully clothed and has
sunglasses on, serving as a binary opposite to the girls, as while they are all very
explicit and revealing, the mans identity is hidden and covered up. The fact that
the girls are young and are stood next to a clearly older man, renders them
vulnerable and naive. The mans gun represents his power over them and
perhaps an insight into the theme of dominance. This threat contradicts the
happy looks on the girls faces, thus highlighting their need to look happy, but
perhaps covering sinister undertones of the story in which they are forced to fake
their true feelings.

Poster analysis 2
This poster depicts five teenagers all sat around each other. Their subdued
and blank facial expressions give nothing away, thus making them endearing
to the audience. The fact that they are in close proximity of each other, with
some interlinking and one lying down, suggests their lives interlink somehow.
The long skirts, denim jacket and hairstyles give away the fact that this film is
old, but still popular today. The writing at the top gives away the five
categories of the teenagers that they each fall in to. This is stereotypical of
young people as the youth are commonly separated into groups e.g. jocks etc,
perhaps out of misconception of costume for example. The line They only met
once, but it changed their lives for ever is short and snappy, intriguing the
audience into how it changed their lives. The words broke the rules implies a
form of retaliation, also typical of young peoples presentation as rebellious,
but also intriguing the audience into what it is they break. The title is in
capitals and takes up the whole horizontal length of the poster, in a dark
colour against the lighter background, thus making it stand out. Also, the plain
background puts the emphasis on the characters, hence highlighting they are
the main focus of the film.

What I will take from these

Over all, from these two posters I have gathered that I would like to take a picture of the main characters within the film as it not only
emits the themes of youth and a focus on relationships between young people, but it also adopts a rather simplistic approach, thus
making the background plain-coloured and the title stand out more, hence grabbing the audiences attention. I will ensure the
colours complement each other within the photo, text, title and background in order for it to be aesthetically pleasing. I have taken
from The Breakfast Club the bold, capital and big font sized title which I will create in my own production work. From Spring
Breakers, I would like to exploit the use of props like they did in order to connote certain themes within the film, for example, a knife
implies danger and crime, or a test tube connotes chemistry. I would also like to have the title font in something that links to the
target audience, for example Spring Breakers is in writing font which resembles bright lights/fireworks, so for mine, I may use
graffiti style writing or scruffier writing to appeal to the younger target audience and evoke the themes of delinquency and struggles
of youth. As both represent, I would like to think carefully about the proxemics and positioning of the characters in the image in order
to focus on the relationships between them and intrigue the audience to know more about them through their postures and facial
expressions of dominance, love and fear, for example. I would like the costumes to resemble young people of today precisely, in order
for the audience to build a rapport with the characters, thus relating to them and fulfilling their need of being part of a community.
Therefore, because The Breakfast Club is older, I will take my inspiration from Spring Breakers as bringing up the current issues of
male dominance and female sexualisation, (much like the poster) through provocative clothing for women. As both posters
demonstrate, they have a catchy phrase which leaves the audience oblivious to the plot, yet given some insight, enough to be
intrigued. So, for my poster work, I will invent a succinct phrase which best represents the film, while leaving the audience wanting
to know more. Through the facial expressions and costumes of the characters I hope to purposefully conform to stereotypes of young
people which categorise them (e.g. chav, goth). I wish to do this in order to mock societys presentation of the youth and also bring to
the surface the repercussions of putting young people into groups, in which they adopt a self-fulfilling prophecy where they feel they
have to take on their name as a thug to perform crimes, for example.

Website analysis 1
http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/fish-tank/
The first one I analysed was Fish Tank (link above). The web page displayed a teenage girl with the costume of a stereotypical
rebellious girl wearing a hoodie, hence connoting a need to hide her identity. This unknown secrecy intrigues the audience to know
more. The simplistic font and colour (white) of the film title emphasises the photo as the main attraction to the audiences eye. The
sidebar includes social network icons with links to Facebook and Twitter, clearly utilising synergy to promote their production
work. I then researched the correlation between social media marketing regarding films and the amount of cinema tickets sold. I
found a survey which asked participants whether they found information online, regarding film releases. Prior to this research, I
was a strong believer that social media networks were the main attraction to ticket sales, however, only 17% participants
answered Facebook or Twitter, while more said IMDB. Only 5% however said that they didn't look online, proving online marketing
is essential in the promotion of films. In regards to Facebook pages, 94% 12-17 year olds have a profile. According to the survey,
studios are spending time and money updating these pages [for] interaction with fans and 20.5% of the participants said they'd
liked a film FB page in the last 6 months, with the 19-25yr old demographic reaching 41.1%. There is also a link to watch the
trailer which is accessible and opens in a new tab, thus making it easy to return to the homepage. Moreover, the link to the trailer
reads WATCH NOW. The fact that it is in bold and capitals, stands out to the reader and commands them to watch the trailer. The
main body of text is black and in an easy-to-read font which eludes an informative website,rather than merely aesthetically
pleasing. Also, the fact that the website includes the awards its won clearly outlines the success it has achieved within the film
industry. At the bottom it also has a link to Instagram which is another widely used social network and a hashtag of fishtank
which links to Twitter on a new tab. In addition, the text reads the names of the actors with links to their profiles, which would
appeal to certain members of the target audience who may be big fans of one actor in particular which draws them to watch the
film. Below this, there are roughly 5 critics quotes about the film which fade in and out in a rotation, with positive feedback from
prestigious film critiques and magazines like the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly which are going to be reliable. Also,
the brief description of the film gives the reader insight into whether it arouses their expectations or subverts them.

Website analysis 2
http://www.curiousonstage.com
The colour scheme of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time website is dark blue and a yellow-orange. These colours are both
bold and so together, contrast well by standing out to the readers eye. The fact that the word Curious is in a contrasting colour to the
other words in the title not only emphasises the audiences curious nature to find out more, but also the fact that the word is isolated in
colour from the rest, reflects the traits of detachment seen in autism - the key exploration within the play. Although this is not the
marketing for the film, but the play, it is still useful to analyse and be inspired for my own production and is helpful to compare the
differences in styles. This is produced by the National Theatre, and like Fish Tank, has a fade in and out rotation of critics quotes praising
the play. I liked how the words curious, incident, dog and night-time were significantly larger in font size than the insignificant
words, thus highlighting the main themes of the play. In addition, the use of glow behind the white text really makes the words stand out. I
love how you can technologically interact with the plays advertisement by scrolling through the various images, each with a different
purpose. While aesthetically pleasing to the eye, each slide contains important information like the best availability to see it, and links to
Find out more or Book tickets. With reviews from the Daily Mail and Evening Standard, alongside the 5 stars clearly visible on the web
page, this play boasts success and popularity, thus luring readers in. The brief description touches on the subject of autism and in order to
appeal to fans, advertises interviews and documentaries, hence exploiting media synergy in order to promote the production work. This
marketing technique is solely utilised to appeal to the consumer, as well as the use of social media marketing, particularly for the younger
demographic. The use of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram are cleverly used as links to inform and excite a wider breadth of
people. The scroll of tweets and Instagram-related pictures shows that talk of the play is still occurring, thus emphasising its lasting
popularity and impact on the public, thus encouraging readers to visit the page to perhaps hear others opinions. Cleverly picked words
like Join the conversation makes the reader feel part of a community and the Latest from Instagram makes them feel like theyre
updated on the newest information. They also appeal to a varied audience as they provide the soundtrack, thus appealing to a versatile
target audience. Finally, the links to other sites are in yellow, thus keeping within the colour scheme, and lastly, the websites different
pages make it easy to use as it is separated into Home, Gallery, etc therefore making it easy to access various things the website offer
with a clear layout.

What I will take from these

I was incredibly inspired by the existing film/play websites I analysed as they truly gave me insight into what is successful to include
on a website and how to lay it out, approach matters like colours/fonts and which synergy is most successful among my target
audience to link with. I really liked the plain and simplistic colours and fonts used in Fish Tank as I liked how the image was the main
focus and conjured imagery which the audience could only imagine, thus intriguing them. I also liked therefore, how there were only
2 main colours used and the title was minimalist against the image which gave off clues regarding the films themes. Although Fish
Tank does bring up many issues within society like abuse, crime and bullying, the colours were quite pastel-based and light,
subverting the conventions of more dark colours like blacks and reds. I liked this reverse of normality as the ambiguous image which
will exude connotations of crime within my own film, the colours and fonts will contrast, thus leaving the audience feeling oblivious
to the sinister and unknown undertones suggested in the image and brief description of the film. In regards to this, I will include a
very vague synopsis, so as not to give too much away, but enough to outline the major events and intrigue the reader. In terms of
synergy and social media marketing, Id like to mirror that of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Their webpage not
only had the 4 major social network icons at the top and bottom of the page, but also included related tweets and Instagram posts
that are updated and recent, hence highlighting the lasting impact of the production. This is crucial for my demographic of 15-mid 20
year olds as the percentages suggest in the survey,the younger field of ages appreciates media synergy and use social networks
more. Both websites had technologically based critics glorifying the film/play which gives the film a good name and rating if
someone prestigious has critiqued it, therefore Id like to do this also. Furthermore, both websites had links to the trailer, which I was
inspired by and never thought of previously, but whereas the Curious website replaces the homepage, Id like the link to open in a
new tab, so as not to lose interest from the reader. In addition, I liked the idea of putting key words in a bigger font size and placing
persuasive words like Watch or Listen in bold or capitals so as to grab the attention of the reader to the imperatives. I was also
inspired to include interviews with actors, which will definitely appeal to a younger audience of teenagers who may aspire to be like
an actor/actress or them serve as an idol, thus feeding their desires to be informed.