Ancillary Task Deconstructions

Paranormal Activity

The main image of the poster is that of the couple pictured on the bed looking frightened. The image looks as if it is taken from the night vision camera footage that is used throughout the movie. There's a show on the door that the couple are looking at that has no visual cause so it allows the audience to figure out that the shadow is created by something that isn't human. This allows an insight into what the movie is about.

The idea of having the couple in bed is to show the audience that even in the safety of your own home, your own room you are not safe from whatever is haunting these people. This raises fear and intrigue as the audience wants to know what the movie has in store for them but also raises the fear factor as they will no longer feel safe in their own home.

The title of the film is in a font in which is similar to that used on a video camera that shows the date and time. This links in with found footage from the video camera and also having it in bright red is also eye catching and shows the dangers within the movie. 

The black borders used on the top and bottom of the poster lets the audience know that this is mainly set at night and also the black allows the audience to know what darkness is in the movie, awaiting the audience to watch it.

There's two tag lines, one being a question pulls the audience in as the wish to find out an answer. It also tells the audience not to see it alone which is almost a challenge in some ways.

The Purge

The main image is of the films antagonist in his mask to add an eeriness to the image as it removes all human features form his face replacing it with a fake emotionless mask with a large grin. His head is tilted down slightly allowing his eyes to become slightly hooded by the mask. The eyes are the window to the soul and blocking them also dehumanizes the man making him far more terrifying and intrigues the audience because they want to know who is behind it. This is a different approach to the Paranormal Activity poster because it does not show the protagonists. 

The title of the film is in all capitals and not very large. The main focus is meant to go to the main image, however the title is not unnoticeable as it falls over part of the mask so once the audience's eyes fall the mask they will then go to the title.

There's minimum background in this photo, only showing a sliver. This lets the audience know that there's a bigger picture that is only revealed if they see the movie.

Unlike the previous poster this one advertises the release date and the company involved in making the movie. This will be incorporated into our own poster.

The Conjuring

Out of all three posters this one has inspired our poster the most.

The main image is that of the main protagonist and antagonist. However the protagonist remains faceless as they are looking at the doll/antagonist while they are looking at the camera as if to stare at the audience. In our poster however we will only be using the antagonist like The Purge poster.

The title is at the bottom rather large and a bright white to catch the eye of the audience. The tag line is then placed under it which tells us it is based on the files of a real life couple known as the Warrens. This intrigues the audience as they know it is based roughly on a true story which also increases the fear factor. 

Like the previous poster this one also advertises the company that helped make it and a few other companies that helped in the process.