Movie Analysis (poster)- The Others:

It has become aware to me that after conducing research that most movie posters use the same codes and conventions in order to attract potential consumers to spend their money and watch their film. The film poster that i will analyzing will the The Others (starring Nicole Kidman) which is a personal favorite of mine.

The Others was established in 2001 and was categorized under a sub genre of horror this being psychological horror, and was directed by Alejandro Amenabar. The film won a number of awards including Best Film, Best Director ,Best Screenplay and many more. The film accumulated a gross of $14 Million alone on it's opening weekend, so it was obviously well conducted and had successfully reached it's audience, and it was generally a good film and its still mentioned today eight years after being produced, hence our reason for deconstructing it.

From looking at the poster first of the first thing thats meets the eye is the women and straight away the viewer gets a sense that she is the protagonist, the lamp that she is holding in which the is partly illuminating her face and the other part if faded, this photographer that captures this appears to have used an ambient lighting effect which gives a sense that she is alone, the picture will be analysed it more depth later in this essay. I then notice the slogan situated on the upper-part of the poster which is presented all in capital letters. ' Sooner or later they will find you' this gives the impression that she again is alone/running away from something, after picturing this in mind it later appears that the character on the poster looks anxious and unsettled, which matches the slogan.

*Colour*

Within the poster there appears to be a colour scheme present. The main part were the colour is being generated from seems to be the oil lamp, again ambient lighting is being used here as there is no external/ artificial lighting, all the light is simply coming from a lamp which the character is holding, although simple this effect if gives a mysterious and pondering image. The title the others has been edited to match the lamp and again is lightened and this is another prominent feature of the poster, interestingly after thinking about it portrays that this character is not alone, there is someone else/other people out there and this accompanies the picture. The actors name is placed above the title in capital white letters making it clearly visible. Overall the colours that are being used seem to be deep,rich and bold colours e.g. the yellowness and brightness of the lamps light, the whiteness of the protagonist's skin. The background is black which is normally a colour associated with negative things, and the unknown plus most bad things happen in the dark e.g. robberies, murders in films. Then the blackness lightens slightly to show her face as it gets nearer to the lamp. Like the majority of the posters, the directors and other peoples name such as stunt performers, make artists are placed below which isn't a strong part of the poster but is still visible.

*Font*
Like i said above the slogan at the top is placed in white and is all in capitals, althoguh with the full stop makes it appear to be blunt, objective and absolute and that it isn't not someone's opinion or a suggestion its factual...it's a statement!


*Focus Picture*
The picture that is the main feature of this poster may appear simple at first glance but when looking at and deconstructing it, there is more to it than meets the eye. Intresting features include;
- The main characters eyes appear to be glancing towards the right, this indicating that she is looking out for someone/something her lips and teeth are shut tight and the muscles/skin on her neck is tense emphasising that she obviously does not want to be there and is nervous. Her hand is clasped tightly around the lamp conveying pressure and unwillingness. it is almost as if she is searching for something that she does not want to be there, that someone...that 'other'. The detail of this picture of so detailed that the de-constriction can come down to ever her wedding ring, which most would not notice, this leaves the view with a mystery and enigma is she is married why is she alone? where is her partner? is he alive? is he dead? if so how did he die?. Even stuff like this which to most people wouldn't really matter has been executed in such a way that it leaves the person wanting to know more, inciting them to watch the film, which i think is extremely clever and could be used for our film.