Film Poster - Textual Analysis

The angle used in this poster is a long shot. This show us the main character from the film, who has a mask on and is holding a weapon. This hockey mask has become well known in the horror film genre, as the Friday the 13th films have featured this character in the series of films since the 80's, so the hockey mask has become a part of the iconography for the Friday the 13th series of films. The lighting falls on his mask in the poster which puts emphasis on this iconography and shows the return of the well known character which might invite more people to want to see the film. The series has been going since the 80's, so people who saw the first film might be interested in the remake. 

The long shot also shows the background which is a dark, gloomy forest. The connotations of this when it's included in a horror film's poster is death and murder. A common feature of horror films is a murder in a gloomy forest - it's a common setting for horror films, so the background of the poster gives an overall setting for the film. However, the audience may already be familiar with the setting for the film because it's just a remake. The tagline for the film is "Welcome To Crystal Lake". This is where the first film was set, so they've returned to the same location for the remake. As some people may already be familiar with the place, the creators would emphasise what the viewers already know and include this in the iconography for the poster. 

The camera is at quite a low angle, so the camera (and therefore, the audience) will be looking up at the person on the poster. This means he looks superior over the audience so we're inferior, and the low key, dramatic lighting creates a fearsome representation of him. He seems confident in his stance. This confidence is showing that he's not bothered by anything - he's not particularly daunted by the fact that he has a weapon in his hand ready to kill people. This pushes his fearsome representation of him further because he looks ready to kill. There's a good use on an enigma code here because the audience won't know who he wants to kill. This remake may have similar elements from the original film, but the point still stands that we don't know about characters in this film, and whether or not they'll include original characters, so the audience will want to find out who he wants to kill and why.

The colour red has been used on the film title and the date at the bottom of the poster. Red has negative connotations of death and blood. This is cohesion between the colour palette and the genre of film. In a stereotypical horror film, there will be blood and gore. The use of red on the title emphasises this genre convention. The use of red on the date at the bottom emphasis that the date will be the 13th. Obviously this is cohesion between the date used in the film and the release date, so emphasising this through the colour red not only has connotations of death, but will give the audience a bigger motive to see the film on the release date because it will feel spookier. The number 13 has old superstitions of evil, and the number is believed to be incredibly unlucky, so having the horror film about the 13th released on the 13th is a good marketing technique and will influence people to see the film on that day.

Having "From The Producers of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" placed just above the film title is good use of mark of quality because will influence fans of those films to see this one. The TCCM is a very well-known horror film with a lot of fans, so having the producers of that film work on this film will definitely attract fans of TTCM to see it. 

Print Advert - Textual Analysis

The lighting in this poster is high key. There is a catch light in the coffee's reflection which suggests a strong light source. This strong lighting could be a relation to the strong coffee. The poster is advertising extra strong coffee, so the bold lighting could be a representation of this. The light has been positioned so the owl's tummy looks more 3D, so lighting has been effectively used to create a more realistic model of an owl with coffee beans. 

Owls have big, bright eyes which help them hunt at night. Their eyes always makes them look alert and ready. They also sleep in the day and are awake at night, so both the wide eyes and staying awake at night stands as a reference to the coffee being advertised - that the coffee will help drinkers stay alert like owls. The connotations of owls include wisdom and intelligence, so this advert is using an owl to appeal to their readers and help sell their coffee because it tells the reader that with their coffee, they'll gain wisdom and intelligence just like an owl.

The light green background has connotations of nature because nature has a green colour palette. This could be a reference to both the owl and their relations to nature, or the coffee is natural and therefore healthier. The brand might have to remind their drinkers that their coffee isn't unhealthy because there's more caffeine in their coffee, therefore the light colour green helps to lighten up the advert overall and lessen the heavy, negative connotations that "extra strong coffee" might hold, like unhealthiness and drowsiness.

Glamour Magazine - Textual Analysis

This magazine has Jennifer Lopez on the front. Although she doesn't fall into the target audience of this magazine, she can still seen as aspirational to the readers. Even women younger than her want to look like her, so she is a style icon for the readers. She isn't necessarily sexualised on the cover but she does have a low cut dress on. The typical readers of Glamour (18-35 year old females) wouldn't see the sexualised side to the cover image, but it's been done to attract attention to her style and her look, which can be influential on readers. Her eye contact with the camera (and therefore the reader) pushes the idea further that she is setting an influence on the readers, and this eye contact makes the reader feel connected to Lopez. 

The main colours on the cover are pink, orange and black. The pink feminises the magazine and makes it instantly recognisable that it's aimed at women. The masthead is bold and pink and emphasises the word 'Glamour'. This sets the genre of the magazine - it makes it obvious that it's going to be about glamour and beauty. The cover image makes this obvious as well because Lopez is styled well with her hair and make-up heavily done. The cover lines also set the genre of glamour with key phrases bolded, like "The Shoe Issue" and "1209 Hot High Street Buys". These enigma codes will appeal to the magazine's target audience of 18-35 year olds because this age group is typically interested in fashion and looking fashionable. Another cover line that stands out is "Jennifer, Tells all about her new friendship with Posh". The magazine has used Victoria Beckham's nickname in this cover line, because the readers will be able to already identify who 'Posh' is. Victoria Beckham is someone the readers will take an interest in because she's a successful singer, model and fashion designer, and is also married to David Beckham, so women will aspire to be like her. This serves as another enigma for the magazine because readers will be interested to find out more about her friendship with Jennifer Lopez. They are both very influential women, so putting their names together on a cover line will attract readers. 

At the bottom of the cover, a cover line reads "Buy shoes, lose weight!". There is a big pressure on women from the media to be an ideal weight, and this cover line pushes this pressure further. The magazine doesn't offer a diet plan or some sort of way to lose the weight - it just states "lose weight", as though the magazine is demanding the reader to lose weight. Another cover line reads "How modelling almost killed me". This is an enigma code as it doesn't give any detail into how it almost killed the person, but it could be to do with weight. Just like before - there is a lot of pressure on women from the media to look a certain way, and models feel this pressure a lot. It could be a reference to an illness like anorexia which almost killed her, but the fact remains that it's just an enigma code so the reader won't know. However, this could potentially be a contradiction from the magazine here, because they demand the reader to lose weight, but then they have a story about how someone's modelling almost killed her. Although there is no description on this yet, it could be about pressure from the media.