ENGLISH MEDIA - ANALYSING TWO POSTERS OF DIFFERENT GENRES

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Analysing two posters of different genres.

In this essay, I am going to analyse the two posters Pleasantville and Pirates of the Caribbean, individually. I will be analysing the gesture codes of the actors, the clothes, location, mise-en-scene, the use of objects and colour. The tag lines any written information about the director/cast or studio, as well as many other things. On the whole I will explain how the posters convey meaning to the audience and how they attract interest in the film.

Analysis of Pleasantville

In Pleasantville the film poster has connotations that represent the genre of the film, also gesture codes of the actors’ shows the genre too. For example, they are standing in an embrace, showing their feelings. This denotes they are showing each other their feelings of desire and it tells me that the film is going to be romantic and affectionate. The gesture codes symbolises the era of the film. The characters appear to be standing in an old fashioned street, which is in black and white. This symbolises the period of time that the film is in by the old fashioned barbershops which have canopies/ornings over them and the old style cars. Also there are old fashioned oil lamps which give off the impression that the film is set in the 1950s. In addition the era of film is also shown by, the way the man and the woman are standing, the man is bigger than the woman and he is dominating her. He is also holding her in a respectful embrace his hands are positioned around her back it give the impression that he is holding her up. This represents the 1950s as men respected women and respected their wishes. Another point to make is that the woman’s hands are on the mans chest showing boundaries of  how close he is going to get to her, it also indicates the sentiment that she is in charge. This brings us again to the period of time the film is set in as in 1950 men never pushed women into things that they didn’t want to do. They are facing each other, with their back to the audience; you can’t see their full face. This might be because they want to keep their love a secret and they don’t want to show it to everyone. Also they are covered with the embrace that they are in. It is an over the shoulder shot lures the audience in by the fact that we can’t see them. By the way that the characters are positioned the audience is in the same position as the women. Moreover, it is a special technique which sews in the audience making them feel apart of the poster. Besides that the characters are positioned in the middle of the poster this attracts the audience as it is the first thing that you see on the poster.

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The clothes that the characters wear tell us the era of the film. For example the woman is wearing a pencil calve skirt, a blouse and a pair of brogue shoes, also the man is wearing a suit. This indicates the time when men wore suits for everyday wear and when women always looked their best. Naturally, the women has got her hair in an old fashioned pinned back style, however this style is quite stylish for the era this conveys that the characters are middle class. The location or the mise–en–scene is indicated as an old fashioned setting, ...

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