The Film Title:The Final Destination (3D) Year of Release: 2009 Director: David R. Ellis Producer: Craig Perry Production/Financing company: New Line Cinemas, Practical Pictures, Parallel Zide and Flipzide Pictures. Actors: Bobby Campo, Shantel Vansanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella, Justin Welborn, Stephanie Honore, Lara Grice, Jackson Walker, Phil Austin… Films Origin/Info: Sequel/follow on from ‘final destination 1,2 and 3’. Synopsis: The final destination films are about a serious of misfortunate events which take place within a group of friends/ people connected in some way. ‘The Final Destination’ all starts in a race track where many cars crash into one another and set alight then the stands start to collapse killing everyone who was there and all of the people who survive think that they have cheated death when all reality it’s all just started as they all end up being followed by these unfortunate events resulting in them loosing there lives also in gory, brutal ways. Although the trio Janet, Lori and Nick the three survivors or so it seems have premonitions throughout the whole film of how the survivors will lose their life so there faced against time to save these people and stop the premonitions from coming true.
Denotation: the main image of the poster is of broken mirror shattered in pieces on the floor. There is an image of a terrified girl merged with an image of a skull to create the full image. The image has low key lighting, and has the use of dark, misty colors. Connotation: the use of shattered glass in the image gives the poster more of a scare factor. The use of a sharp object and making the pieces into a triangular shape has given the geometrical shape a connotation. With the glass being sharp our mind tricks us into thinking that something bad will defiantly happen making the poster have more of a scare factor. This is where the use of a sharp edge in a poster than a soft one is more abrupt and to us more harming so without the audience even realizing the hidden meaning behind using a sharp edge and not just seeing it as a piece of glass, there mind has already made it more scary and appealing without them even acknowledging it. The use of a skull represents death, giving us an indication from the poster there will be at least one death.
By looking at this poster for the final destination I personally would recommend that the age group for this film would lie within the ages 16-24. I think that would be the target audience, who it would most appeal to. I believe the film would reach out more to the male gender rather than female due to the fact it does look quite scary, although saying that this sort of poster would really appeal to me as I love my horror films, so really it is all dependant on the person and what they enjoy.
You can tell this poster is for a horror film in the fact that it is all in a dark mysterious colors. The use of black throughout this film poster creates more of a mysterious feel. Black is known as a mysterious color represented with fear and unknown which normally gives it a negative connotation. Where ‘The Final Destination’ is written in white but the use of the two thin white stripes behind the writing makes it look like a blade which opposes to the actually meaning of white which is purity, goodness, cleanliness etc… also where it is bright it reminded me of the myth when people say when you die you see a bright light indicating there will be death.
‘Rest in Pieces’. This is a very clever caption to put onto the poster.
1). you know someone is going to defiantly die.
2). The use of the word ‘pieces’ instead of ‘peace’ goes perfect with the picture and the shattered glass which is also in pieces but not only that all of the deaths are brutal and very gory in the fact that they get squished into small pieces etc... So the use of this caption is actually very clever in how it goes with the image and the actual meaning behind it.
The font used for the poster is a serif font yet it is very plain but bold. Even though it has been written normally the use of it being in capital letters and defined lettering does make it stand out.
The convention this poster does follow is what I touched on earlier with the triangular shapes. This is almost used in every horror/thriller poster of this day and age. The reason for this it subconsciously gives it a dark feel to the audience. Tagged with the dark mysterious colors really does follow all the conventions of a horror movies poster.
The images used for this poster could be quite disturbing for some people, with that in mind it lets us as the audience know that the mood of this film is going to be quite grim and scary.
This film poster doesn’t visually show any of the actors that are in the film or state any of their names on the poster therefore we know that they are trying to sell us more who are in the film, and telling us that isn’t the most important part of the film. Also by doing this it can create more of a buzz around the film as it would get people researching and seeing who will be in it and making them go to see the film too see what it actually is all about.
The poster I have chosen to do is actually a teaser poster; as there is no release date on it although the release month is stated. So the only credits on the poster are ‘August’.
The poster doesn’t seem to have a tagline on it but the title is a giveaway that it is a sequel from the other 3 final destination films.
There are no quotes on this poster as it is a teaser poster it wouldn’t have been viewed yet by any journalists.
The horror magazine front cover I will be doing a textual analysis on will be the Virus magazine front cover. I think this is a great cover to do an analysis on and for me; it seems like a very effective horror magazine front cover. Virus magazine is a very popular horror magazine for dark culture, it covers films, music, games, people and more, I believe it is a very high quality magazine. Masthead: Virus’ masthead is very distinctive; the colour of the writing is white, and there is no drop shadow but just a bold masthead. A very simple font is used for the masthead but with added affects it looks distorted and messy like how viruses are. Parts of it a broken off and it looks damaged. This really allows the masthead to standout and be very effective with its original design. From looking at the cover we can see that there is a close up shot of a man in the centre of the image with his head lent back and his mouth wide open with a drill facing down into his mouth. We can see an expression of anxiety and fear in his face. The top of the drill is blocked by darkness and by the masthead; the colour of the magazine is bronze, brown and black. Only one half of the man’s face and body is visible. We can see that the movie Hostel is the focus on this magazine front cover. The masthead is in big letters and at the top and has a damaged effect, also the word virus is written again underneath this in italics. All the cover lines are at the bottom of the page apart from the main one about the film Hostel. Also the different section titles such as ‘Movies’ are all in orange and a similar colour to the image and the rest are all white. These other cover lines show the main topics of this magazine which are different films and games and people and such which relate to the horror genre. It shows words that say “the dark side of entertainment” and in the letter S we can see that this is issue #10. There is German words at the top that translate to “pain-causing tenth ausgabe”, I believe this has to do with the tenth edition of the magazine. Also there is a barcode in the bottom right corner which is positioned vertically. Connotation: From looking at the cover I can connote many things. The man with his mouth opened wide with the drill keeping him in that position connotes fear and submissiveness. While also adding fright about the two coming in contact with each other. This cover may also give some people the “cringe” factor because we all know what will happen if that drill touches the man. From the split of light and dark on the image, we can connote a sense of disorientation Mise en scene: Lighting: There is both high key and low key lighting in the image, this allows for us to see the character and what’s happening to him. The darkness lets us know he’s somewhere dark and connotes fear and conceals his identity. Also all the words are in brighter font than the image so stand out and allow the image to be separate and more noticeable. Setting: From looking at the poster, we can only see a close-up shot of the man and none of his surroundings; this may be because they want us as an audience to concentrate on this part of the man and nothing else. However, he is in a dark place, probably a basement, which is a convention of where victims would usually be in a horror. Considering all of these points I would suggest that the target audience for this magazine would be 18-35 year olds, who have a niche interest in reading about this genre and movies and such associated with it. It would mostly have a male audience as males generally have a keener interest in this genre than females, due to its dark nature.
Actors: Josh Stuart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Juan Fernandez
Synopsis: When the Chase family moves to an isolated house in the middle of nowhere in Detroit, Arkin is hired to fix the windows and the doors. Later he meets his daughter and his wife that has a debt with dangerous sharks and needs money, but his week payment is not enough to pay her debts. Arkin plots to heist the safe of Michael Chase during the night to raise the necessary money. However, when he arrives in the house, he finds that a sadistic criminal has imprisoned the family and planted traps everywhere. Arkin seeks a way out of the deadly house to save his life.
The shortest trailer of the movie begins with a man driving to a house; he breaks in, it then cuts to words saying “a thief broke into this house”. He is then seen trying to break into a safe in the house when he hears a scream come from a nearby vent. Then it cuts to words that say “But someone worse, was already inside”. There is then a vertical pan to a birds-eye-view shot where we can see the robber and The Collector on two different sides of a wall. The robber is then seen walking through a dark secluded place with a flashlight, he looks up and someone (most likely The Collector) grabs him from his right. We only see their arm, its then goes dark, we hear the robber breathing fast, and we then see half of someone’s bloodied face. A female then says to him “My family’s in here”, there is then a pan shot of the family pictures and The Collector is shown in a reflection and walks away. There is then a low angle shot of the robber looking down a dark staircase with a flashlight, a woman then says “you can see them” as the robber lights a flashlight. There are then many quick cuts from The Collector running, tightening his mask and looking to his left. There is then a medium close-up shot of a very afraid woman dropping to the ground. It then says “From the writers SAW IV V & VI, there is a low angle shot of The Collector turning around with a shotgun in one hand. There are then many different shots of parts of the film. It then shows the Film title.
The trailer is dark and mysterious, this connotes feelings of suspense and fear, the words that come in at times add to the suspense of the film and no narration makes the suspense even greater. There are only ever night time shots; they keep the mood of the film the same. The short trailer manages to show a transition of the robber from a character of low importance to the protagonist. This teaser gives us a decent amount of information about the film while also keeping to the teaser convention of only letting us see a few parts of scenes. Also The Collector never makes any sounds or doesn’t say anything, this technique keeps him anonymous to the audience and the trailer tells nothing of how he got there or why he is there. The moment where there are many quick cuts raises the tension of the trailer and leaves us with many questions. We are also shown words that the writers from the Saw series worked on the film; this adds prestige to the movie and raises the audience’s expectations as they may have seen the Saw series.
Mise en scene:
Lighting: There is much low key lighting throughout the teaser; this is a common convention of horror movies and horror teasers. Also there are times when the only light source is a flashlight or a small bulb. This connotes vulnerability and bewilderment because the characters knowledge of exactly where they are is disorientated due to the darkness, so this adds to the horror convention of loneliness and being prone to unexpected events. Also the lack of light makes the person and ourselves have to rely on our hearing because our vision is restricted.
Setting: The setting throughout the trailer is within a house; this is a common convention and limits the horror and suspense to one foundation, so it adds the feeling of the audience wanting the protagonists to escape the secluded place, which in this film is the house. The house has lower and higher floors; this is common as characters in a film tend to go deeper into the building and usually down some stairs. The idea of going down stairs in a horror film connote going into darkness, into some sort of evil place, like traditionally hell is downwards, so going down represents going to a worse place where the antagonist may reside.
Costume: The protagonist is wearing robber clothing due to him switching to the good guy and so is dressed similarly to The Collector. The Collector is wearing tight black clothing and also a mask which covers his identity; this is a common convention of horrors, as an unidentifiable antagonist, in some peoples view, is more scary and frightening than an identifiable. Also concealing of his identity keeps the audience questioning and demanding answers to who he is, what his story is and why he’s doing what he’s doing, this a common horror convention of us knowing nothing about the antagonist.
Sound: The teaser begins with a quick sound and then Foley nocturnal natural sounds and a constant wind like sound, adds tension straight away, a good quality for teaser trailers. The sounds go as the man enters the house, and a stormy sound appears as the text comes up, this adds a spooky feeling, another good quality. Also as more text comes up the sound goes, and then unexpectedly comes back as we see the two main characters in a high angle shot, these surprise sounds keep us intrigued with the trailer. Also later on as the protagonist is in a dark basement with his torchlight we only hear diegetic sounds of him walking on a wood stairs/floor, this is a nice spooky touch as creaking wood is a convention in horror movies. Soon after this a quick paste sound comes in as someone grabs him and it fades to darkness and we only can hear heavy breathing from him and a female. This adds to the tension and doesn’t reveal much to us. Music then later comes in and many shots are shown while still revealing only a little bit of information to us.
Editing: With the editing there is many quick cuts and text describing the baseline of the story, these quick cuts add tension to the teaser and keep to the teaser convention of restricting information from the audience. The trailer begins with a birds-eye-view which fades to a slightly closer birds-eye-view shot, and then an establishing shot of the spooky looking house. Also there are many fade transitions which add tension which builds up to faster quick cuts. The title of the film then come up and soon after an unexpected shot is thrown at us, where The Collector slams a door on some characters, this is a great finishing shot for the trailer as it leaves us intrigued and wanting more.
From analysing and watching many teaser trailers I’ve come to realise and understand that a teaser doesn’t and shouldn’t reveal a lot of, or any, in some cases, of the plot. This is because the aim of a teaser is to simply tease, to make the audience seek more, to obtain answers and want to see the film. The collector trailer does this fairly well despite the duration, as nothing is really revealed. Also I’ve come to realise making a teaser trailer is a very complex task, as what content to have in it is vital as it contributes towards the marketing and advertisement and decides the potential audience who will look out for the movie in following months/weeks to come.
Film title: The Collector; Directed by: Marcus Dunstan; Year of Release: 2009. Synopsis: When the Chase family moves to an isolated house in the middle of nowhere in Detroit, Arkin is hired to fix the windows and the doors. Later he meets his daughter and his wife that has a debt with dangerous sharks and needs money, but his week payment is not enough to pay her debts. Arkin plots to heist the safe of Michael Chase during the night to raise the necessary money. However, when he arrives in the house, he finds that a sadistic criminal has imprisoned the family and planted traps everywhere. Arkin seeks a way out of the deadly house to save his life.
The poster and trailer I will be doing a textual analysis on are the ones of the movie called: The Collector. I chose to do this movie because I believe it has a good poster and trailer which draw the crowd into wanting to see the movie and makes them raise curious questions. I will be discussing the mise en scene, techniques used, denotations and the connotations of both. The poster: The poster of the movie shows a medium close-up shot of the antagonist, but he is facing the other way. We can tell that he is the antagonist because of his dark clothing and the concealing of his identity. There is a house in the background, he is tightening a mask. There are words at the top saying “he always takes one” and the film title and the rest are at the bottom. The name of the film lets the audience know or believe that people are going to be taken by this person, or at least attempted to. The words “He always takes one” open a whole new side to the film for the audience to comprehend by conveying a story and past behind this antagonist. I think that the concealing of his identity is a good touch to the poster as it gives the audience a sense of suspicion and allows us to imagine what his face is like, and so go and see the film to find out. I believe this is one of the techniques used by the poster designer. The font used is a basic font in white colour which compliments the composition as a whole and is at the top and bottom of the poster. The title stands out in its big and bold font. The mask of the character is very detailed tightly around their head. Mise en scene: Lighting: The only light in the poster is coming from the house; it creates an outline of the antagonist and lets us know that it is his destination and he plans to do something there. It connotes him as the darkness which is going to invade the light. Setting: The setting in the poster is seen to be outside a big house, possibly in the front garden, this lets us know that the majority, or the climax action scenes, of the film will be set in this house. This is good because it keeps the film confined and together in one specific place which adds to the intensity. Costume: The antagonist is wearing a black top of some sort and black gloves, these are common conventions for a robber who will try and blend into the darkness. So this lets us know the guy is going to do some sort of robbing, and also it being called The Collector begs us to believe that he will be taking actual people. He is also seen tightening something which covers his head, this is obviously a mask. This lets us know that he is concealing his identity, and probably has an indecent face which we will be curious to see and so will go to watch the movie. From looking at the poster I believe the intended audience is young adults who like these types of realistic horrors. They would be interests in this text because it is an original poster, so it appeals because it is different. I think the purpose of this poster is to make people question and bring up summaries in their minds as to what it is about. Also from looking at this poster I can see that the man’s tight grip on the strings connotes aggressiveness, also his mask connotes evil and mysteriousness. The big house also connotes a well off family, who possibly could be hated by this anonymous man, and also connotes society’s tension between the working and middle classes. So ultimately, the poster has much to offer to potential audiences of the film and lures them into wanting to watch it; this is due to such elements as the originality of the poster and the endless questions it raises as to what the film is about. The poster encourages the audience to go and seek these answers by the only effective way possible, seeing the film.
The Film Title: The Final Destination (3D) 
