Movie Poster Evaluation: Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman

                The blue-grey lighting gives an eerie cold feeling showing that the film is quite dark, much unlike the title ‘Snow White’ would suggest. The opposition of the title being a fairy tale and the spooky atmosphere is intriguing.

            We can connote that Charlize Theron’s character is the queen because of her crown. Her costume is black and gothic signifying that she’s a dark and sinister character. The crows coming off her and surrounding her symbolise death, again signifying that the film is dark despite it being a fairy tale and that the queen is the villain. We also see that she is bad because she is holding a dagger, which signifies she wants to kill someone (presumably Snow White). The costumes of the other two characters are softer in colour. The brown gives a warmer feel to them, signifying that they are the good guys. The colours are coordinated to show how they are both on the same side.

            The Queen is bigger and placed higher up than the other characters, signifying that she has the most power in the film. It almost makes the other characters seem helpless against her, which makes the audience want to find out how they try to overcome her and whether they succeed. Both Snow White and the huntsman are level with each other which, signifies that they are both on the same side and that there is no power struggle in their relationship. They are both in the foreground, which makes the audience feel closer with them than with the queen, making us like them more than her. Having the queen in the background, behind and over the good characters gives the feeling of a chase. This tells us that the queen is hunting down the other two characters. Snow white’s serious facial expression is directed towards the queen, signifying that she has a relationship with that character. Judging by the actual expression, she feels hate for the queen and presumably wants to kill her. This makes the film even more intriguing because there’s the idea of a two-way hunt.

            The camera angle facing up to the characters puts all of them in a position of power. This makes the movie attractive because the characters are given a sense of awe. The hunter’s stance signifies that he is a fighter, and the fact that he’s on a level with Snow White signifies that he protects her.

         

Movie poster Evaluation: Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead

Red colour symbolises blood and gore. The white lettering on the red background is very vibrant and attracts attention. It also gives a ghostly deathly feeling which against the blood red colour signifies death or living dead a.k.a zombies. The letters are slightly faded which makes them look like they are messy with blood. This signifies that the film has an element of chaos, gore and is scary.

Shaun is the only one in colour. This signifies that he is alive while all the other ‘people’ who are lit in sepia are ‘dead’. It also singles him out as the hero of the film. The zombies’ white eyballs with the sepia colouring signify that they are in fact zombies which classifies the film as being a horror.

            The flowers are ironicly placed in the picture because they are normally associated with beauty and life. Doing this relieves some of the tension from the poster and signifies that though the film is horror, it’s also comical with a little romance. Similarly, Shaun’s facial expression shows discomfort but not –typical of a horror movie- distress, also indicating that the movie is light-hearted as opposed to intensively scary.

            The huge pub doors indicate the main setting of the film, unusual for a typical horror film as pubs are usually associated with alcohol and relaxation.The tag line, ‘ever felt like you were surrounded by zombies?’ , is funny because it is a common saying that in this case s taken very literally. It reflects on how lifeless people look in everyday modern life which signifies that the film is a parody of our modern lifestyle.

As Thriller Analysis: Stac1e

Stac1e

Instead of typically starting with non-diegetic 'scary' music like most thrillers, the film starts with upbeat diegetic music from a commercial which gives the viewer the chance to get engaged with the film before so that when suspense is later created, it has a much more dramatic effect. This reflects on the actual story where a very attractive and popular 'product' called Stac1e turns and kills its buyer. This signifies that 'just because a product seems attractive to a consumer from an advertisement doesn't mean it'll necessarily be the same in real life'.

We first see an advertisement for 'Stac1e'. The background looks like pixels so we think of electronic technology. We therefore connote that Stac1e must be some sort of machine, though there's a sense of mystery since we never find out exactly what she is, which relates very much to the thriller genre.

Though suspense isn't technically created from the beginning, the film starts with an uneasy feeling given from the advertiser’s Brooklyn accent, often associated with Mafia symbolizing violence. Then we feel even more uneasy at the idea of selling a humanoid.

We realize the film is more thriller than science fiction when the non-diegetic sound comes in. Everything seems to go smoothly with the man relaxing watching television until the shot of a knife cutting a carrot simultaneous with a non-diegetic ‘creepy noise’. We understand the person chopping the carrot must be Stac1e. The carrot symbolizes the male sex and the cutting of the carrot signifies women ‘cutting men down’, ironic since so far in the film there has been an imbalance of power between men and women whereby women are shown to owe servitude to men.

The room where the man is sitting watching TV is very darkly lit which evokes mystery as well as fear, again a link with the thriller genre. There is use of expressive lighting, a blue hue in the room making the room feel cold and hence foreshadowing the upcoming murder scene. This is a reminder that Stac1e is not a warm-blooded living being with any feeling. It can also signify the stereotypical idea that women are ‘cold-hearted’.

When we first see the knife cutting, the simultaneous ‘creepy noise’ signifies danger and anger. We know then because of the tension that’s been established that the man watching TV will have provoked Satc1e by waving his glass at her. The knife stops chopping steadily and cuts down slowly, showing her frustration. This acting begs the question, ‘if we construct a machine that’s supposed to be as life-like as possible, can’t we expect it to react like a human?’

On one hand, Stac1e is presented as the ‘bad guy’ because she commits a murder. She’s ironically wearing a pretty white dress symbolizing innocence. However, the man watching TV is shown as lazy and rude to Stac1e, depicting the idea of sexist behavior in society and making us feel sorry for Stac1e.

Analysis: Hanna's escape clip

Hanna's escape

The laboratorial setting immediately gives the feeling of being experimented on, or in Hanna’s case, interrogated. The bright light and white room give a cold clinical feeling, which signifies that the people around Hanna are not ‘friendly’ like they act. Hanna’s costume, an orange jumpsuit, signifies that she is a prisoner and also singles her out among the other characters because of the bright orange colour. It draws attention to her by making her visually more interesting and hence puts us on her side.

During the shots inside the lab, we hear diegetic white noise presumably coming from the machinery. The sound isn’t heard during the shots of Marissa in the control room. This makes the viewer more aware of the different rooms and the different atmosphere in the rooms. Marissa in the control room is calm and safe so there no noise in the background where she is while Hanna is much more nervous and is in a much more disconcerting room. The white noise helps us to feel this.

The close up on the agent’s lips when she says ‘prague’ sticks out among the usual shot/reverse shots which signifies that that meant something to Hanna who then works out the agents’ system.

As soon as the neck is snapped, there is a build up of sound which though is diegetic, is clearly specially arranged in order to mirror the rise in tension and the rise of Hanna’s adrenaline since we know from that moment that she has to run. The said build up of sounds reaches a climax whereby non-diegetic techno music plays. The music has a very strong pulse which signifies Hanna’s feeling of panic and need to run. The techno genre relates to most action thrillers which use similar music when characters are forced to run.

The sound of her heavy breathing is diegetic but made significantly more audible which makes us feel her sense of panic which makes the action feel more real. It also makes us identify with Hanna and want her to escape, also common in acton thrillers.

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About Myself

Hi there! My name is Darcy, I am 17 and English.

I have lived my first two years in Germany, 10 years in France and 5 years in Cyprus.
I currently go to Hurtwood House in England and I study English, Psychology, Media studies and Theatre studies. I aspire to go into Performing Arts after school.

I should really say what my favourite things are but to be honest I don't really believe I favour things in particular, by which I mean I don't really have a favourite band, film, book, show or colour. I like different things depending on my mood. I'm open to all types of music because it has such a vast and exciting variety that I value every genre to some extent.