Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Putting a film poster through Chandler's myth

We have to analyse a British film poster of a film which has been released in the last 2 years.
I picked Harry Potter, which is technically still British:
Reception

  • The audience sees Harry as the most important character and Hermionie as the least important, this is because of his place at the front and her place at the back. It also distinguishes Ron and Hermionie as support characters because they're isolated to the right of Dumbledore and Harry.
  • Ron and Hermione are shown as equal which implies gender plays no part in the support characters
  • The slanted text is unconvential, as it cuts off some of the text which shows how anyone looking at the poster already knows what 'y Pot' means along with the picture of harry at the front.

Reference

  • The Harry Potter logo is so recognisable that it doesn't need to be shown in full, it only needs to be half-displayed. Equally the characters are recognisable and they symbolise the text.
  • The content of the film is supposed to be darker to reflect the changes in plot (as opposed to narrative). Harry Potter as a series has accumulated a lot of history in the 12 years of it's existence. The later films, of which this is a good example, have tried to steer the direction of the series away from the original young fantasy school setting. After all there's only so many times you can re-make what is essentially the same film. The poster reflects this. It must distinguish this film from the last five which came before it.
  • The same attempt to wrench Harry Potter away from it's fantasy world is evident in the urban skyline in the background. There are no mystical elements such as dragons or castles.
Production
  • All the main characters need to be introduced, and the film poster displays them all.
  • The target audience of the film are all of roughly the same age as the main characters, this is to make the audience identify with the characters. [link w/ reception]
  • The mostly dark tones, semi-saturated colour and high photo contrast denote a melancholic and macabre style. This reflects the content of the film.
  • The dark tones are also related to the target audience. There's a weird train of thought floating around marketing departments which sees colourful stuff associated with children and depressing grey tones associated with teenagers. By making the poster 'grimy' it's somehow adult or mature and therefore attractive to teenagers.
  • The tagline 'DARK SECRETS REVEALED' makes use of the enigma code. It is there to create curiosity which will drive the audience to go and see the film.
  • Dumbledore is shown in a strong wind potentially implying or foreshadowing later events in the story

I will update this post periodically as I get emails from Ben and Claire.

EDIT 03/07/2010: Haven't received anything from Ben, although he did seem enthusiastic, I hope I haven't given him a bogus email address. I wish I had access to his blog.
Claire doesn't know much about Chandler's Myth, and so is floundering not quite sure what to do. I have to declare that I don't fully understand Chandler's Myth, it sits as a hazy and vague concept in my mind. Need to re-read my notes.

Also Chandler's Myth is woefully under-explained on Wikipedia. Come on people, if you don't write this I'll end up doing it, and you don't want your super-brilliant theory being written up by a slightly confused teenager do you?

2nd EDIT: Daniel Chandler wrote a book, and it is available as a word document. Thank you internet!
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