Chaneesa-Textual Anaylsis of Film Poster

Film Title: Orphan

Year of Release: August 2009

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Producers: Joel Silver, Susan Downey, Leonardo DiCaprio

Production/Financing: Warner Bros.

Actors: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarguard, Isabelle Fuhrman

Synopsis: Prospective parents Kate and John find their lives turned upside down; their marriage is falling apart, and the demons of Kate's past begin manifesting themselves in a series of horrifying nightmares. Deciding that the best means of achieving some semblance of normalcy is to simply adopt, the dejected couple visits a local orphanage. There, they are both drawn to a nine-year-old girl named Esther. But Esther isn't as sweet as first impressions suggest, and almost immediately after welcoming the young child into their home, Kate and John suspect that something is terribly wrong with their adoptive daughter.

Denotation: The film poster consists of a coloured photograph of a young girl looking directly at the camera. It is a medium close up as it stops midway just below the young girls’ shoulders. The background of the photograph is misty and dark but with a light shadow outlined around the young girls’ head. The photograph takes up the whole poster as she is the main focus.

At the bottom of the poster, on the shirt/dress is the name of the film, some of the letters of which are written in upper case, identical to a child like writing. Below the film name is the date of release and a coverline written in red. Above the young girls’ head is the main coverline which is written in white which also relates to the picture.

The title of the film is very distinctive; it is just plain white writing which looks like it has been written by a child who is practicing writing as some of the letters are in upper case. It is a son serif type of font and the writing is also very simple, but it makes a statement. The colour white connotes a variety of things such as light, goodness, innocence, purity, it is also considered to be the colour of perfections. The colour also connotes safety and cleanliness and it has a positive connotation opposed to black, when we think of all these connotations we think of a young child. Knowing the film and watching the film it gives the impression like it’s the complete opposite. It appears like we know what the film is going to be about because of the film name ‘ORPHAN’ although the different coverlines makes it more mysterious because we don’t actually know who Esther is.

The photograph on the poster is of the character Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) who is the orphan in the movie. The picture looks a bit cartoonish which can be somewhat unrealistic, around Esther’s head and bits of her clothing and the side appears blurred and faded out. Esther is wearing a very childlike dress with a crisscross pattern on it; it is somewhat basic and straightforward. Piglets are in her hair finished off with a bow which somehow shows her innocence. There is a mysterious red band round her neck which makes her seem less childlike; overall she has a candid image. Esther has no emotion in her eyes or her face which makes it stern as a normal child would have some kind of life in them or maybe be smiling which tells the audience that something is wrong. The main image is just of Esther and nobody else which refers to the name of the film ‘ORPHAN’ as the definition is when a child has lost both parents, so the poster symbolises that in a way because she is by herself. The poster overall seems to be quite dark, mystifying and very serious.

The main coverline that relates to the main image says:

‘THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH ESTHER.’

This may be referring to why Esther’s picture is so serious and why there is no emotion in her eyes or face. The writing is also plain and simple and makes the audience question whether there is something wrong with this ‘innocent’ looking child. It also makes the audience wonder what exactly is wrong with her. The writers have given the audience a hint of what to expect saying that there is something wrong with her but they haven’t told us as the audience what it is, so it still leaves us in apprehension about what is still to come.

There is also another coverline just underneath the film name with the release date:

‘JULY 24 CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?’

 Asking a rhetorical question seems out of the ordinary and it makes you the audience question what is there to hide, also it is written in red which makes it strange as the colour connotes blood and danger however it also connotes love and passion which says a lot about the film itself, that it is filled with all of these connotations.

Both coverlines use a son serif font connoting that it is reasonably a modern film; it also suggests the film is out of the ordinary as the film name is even written in a distorted format. Considering all these points, I would suggest that the most likely target audience would be people aged 16-25 who like scary, dark, tense films. (Male and female).