RADIO DRAMA/MOVIE POSTERS – ANALYSIS

To help create my poster for my radio drama, i have analysed a few posters to demonstrates a few forms and conventions that were used relating to the theme or the actual story. As my radio drama belongs in the thriller genre, I researched a few existing thriller genre movie and radio drama posters.

1 – THE INVISIBLE MOVIE POSTER

  There are several conventions used to classify the film as a thriller film. The tone of the poster looks very dark and mysterious as the character is shadowed and hardly see his whole appearance. The rain complements the dark element to the poster. The title used in the middle blends in with the rain, making it more mysterious. The tagline used; “Life, Death and something in between” exposes little of what the film is about, which could interest the target audience which is mainly male around 18-40 years in the western culture. A promotion strategy is used; adding the crew involved who has other films “The Sixth Sense” and “Batman Begins”, which could interest other audiences who like those films and also could relate to the film as The Sixth Sense and Batman Begins belongs in a thriller film and because they had box office and critical acclaim, it might make the audience believe it will be good. As the poster does not give much away, I think this is a sophisticated poster that works well.

 

 

 

 

 

2 – TAKEN MOVIE POSTER

There are lots of conventions used in this poster that would classify the film as thriller film. First of all, the props and costumes also used indicates that it’s a thriller film; man wearing a suit and holding a gun. There are only two colours used as a font; orange and grey, and the orange font really stands out as the whole poster itself is very dark, and the orange font used for the lead actor and the film title itself works very well. The lead actor, who also done other successful films like Schindler’s List and Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, helps promote this film well and the fact that it stands out with the orange font draws attention and a great example of mode of address. The tagline, assuming is a quote from the film, gives away what the film is about and clearly indicates it’s a thriller genre; story about a man killing people in order to find his daughter.  The target audience is mainly male in the 18-40 year group, mainly in the western culture as the tagline indicates how much violence and brutality there will be in the film. The poster didn’t need to add the crew involved who has also done other well known films that other people might be familiar of as the poster itself is professional enough and is a great example of mode of address. Overall, it is an effective poster.

 

 

 

 

3 – TORCHWOOD: THE DEAD LINE RADIO POSTER

There are several conventions used to classify the radio piece as a thriller but it’s quite hard to indicate. The poster doesn’t give much info about the story, but some conventions is used. For example, the characters in the poster is wearing smart and sophisticated clothing except for the female character, which gives little indication that it’s a thriller radio drama. I think the target market is men and women in the age of 18-40 as the characters are both male and female aged 25-35 and they could relate to the characters. With the cast listed at the bottom of the poster, the audience might have known them from other projects. I think this is a sophisticated radio poster but it doesn’t give much information.