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Jaws – In this poster you can clearly see what this film is going to be about due to the huge shark taking up half of the screen. Also, the title, ‘JAWS’, foreshadows the whole film by linking the title with the main antagonist. The dominant signifier in this poster is the shark. The poster is made of two key components, being the signifier (the printed poster itself) and signified (the shark). The title also acts as anchorage as it gives you insight to what the movie is about.

Iconic Signs:

• Surfboard
• Ocean
• Shark

Black Widow – In this poster you can see the main protagonist being ‘Black Widow’ which hints a lot of action and combat during the film. The characters shown in the background acts as an anchorage to give viewers a small insight of who may be involved in this film. Indexical sign ‘MARVEL’ acts also as an anchorage to help attract viewers due to Marvel being very popular and well-known.

Iconic Signs:

• The characters in the background
• Weapons

Guardians of the Galaxy – In this poster you can see the main group of 5 protagonists who are all holding some sort of weapon which hints the film will involve action and combat. The title ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ acts as an anchorage to give the viewer an idea of what the film is about. The dominant signifier (being the 5 protagonists) illustrates a good idea of who are going to be the main characters throughout the movie.

Iconic Signs:

• Planets
• Spaceships

Zombieland Double Tap – By taking a look at this poster you can understand that the four characters shown as the dominant signifiers are going to be the main antagonists in the film. The use of the word ‘Zombie’ in the title gives the idea that the film is going to be about an apocalypse. Indexical signs of actors names acts as an anchorage as they are popular actors which could help consumers be influenced to watch the film.

Iconic Signs:

• Weapons
• Fire
• Smoke

Spiderman Into the Spider-Verse – In this poster you can understand that this film is targeted towards children due to it being a cartoon. The dominant signifier in this poster is the main image of Spiderman in the middle. The use of the word ‘Spiderman’ in the title can help the audience easily understand that the film is about a man who has something to do with a spider which could act as an anchorage as it gives the viewers an idea of what the film is about. Indexical sign ‘Spider-verse’ connotes to science and could further hint action.

Iconic Signs:

• City
• Different Spiderman’s
• Miles Morales

Parasite – Through the denotation you see people facing the camera, but as you look longer you notice that there is a person lying on the floor

The Terminator – This film poster has anchorage to it.

Wreck it Ralph – Signification is done instantly through the angry emotion on Ralphs face. Its an index of the 8 bit art, the choice of font is old school. And the Disney logo gives anchorage to the picture

The Lorax – The dominant signifier is the Lorax. This film poster is quite reactionary.

Life of Pi – The icon is the tiger.

Spectre-This moving image sequence includes a variety of camera shots, we can see an establishing shot which is where we are made aware of the location of which it is based, this is normally taken at a wide scale. An example of this would be the first shot we are shown which is a landscape view from up high of buildings in a city.

Another element we can see within this moving image is the element of action, this is the shot we can see 11 seconds into the sequence of which we can see the main character James Bond pointing a gun towards a window and then the building blowing up a few seconds later. This may be described as the rising action which means the events leading up to the climax.

Uncharted- This moving image sequence also includes a variety of shots. An example of this is a shot/reverse shot of which we can see around 39 seconds into the video, this shot runs from a wide angle master shot that is at a 90′ angle to usually two characters, in this case the two characters are Nathan and Victor.

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Twilight- There are three main characters centred at the top and are captured close up, whereas, the villains are in a smaller shot beneath them suggesting that they have less power than the main characters leading us to believe there is a reason as to why that is.

John Wick- We can see the dominant signifier who in this case is the main character of John Wick taking up most of the poster, there are also some sub signifiers in the background which are also characters in the movie. 

Terrifier- This poster is a sign as it made of the key components which are the signifier aka the printed poster itself/physical existence and something signified which in this case, is the idea that this is film is more thrilling than others.

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SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

Kill Bill: The iconic dominant signifier is the katana, this carries the connotations of death, blood and a samurai, by doing this the poster gives a short insight of what the film may be about, the reason they may have chosen to have the dominant signifier carry connotations linked to the main themes of the film is because the katana is the focal point. The symbol of the Japanese characters in the background may act to set the scene of the movie. The katana and the characters then form a paradigm with signification.

Jaws: With the dominant signifier being the shark the poster falls into the convention where a movie poster has the seen or main antagonist be opposed to the protagonist or ‘good guy’. Furthermore, the shark being the dominant signifier generally means that it’s the focal point, by having the shark being the first thing the viewer looks at it may almost guide the viewers eyes to the next thing they see, this poster does this by making the shark act like an arrow pointing to the woman, furthering the convention.

Back To The Future 2:

Task 2:

Research and analyse 5 useful and relevant film posters to help you generate ideas and identify relevant elements that you will need to include. Upload your 5 posters (and your analysis) to your blog.

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Poster 1: Wonder Woman

The dominant signifier is wonder woman knelt down holding weapons. This shows her being strong and challenges the stereotypes of women being weak. It creates the counter type of a woman being a hero and saving people rather than a man doing it in a typical movie.

Poster 2: Dirty Dancing

The signifier is the title which is bigger than the couple their self displaying the importance of ‘Dirty Dancing’ as it tells the audience exactly what the film consists of. It is a radical representation of young adults as they appear very mature dressed in older clothing dancing classical/mature dance styles.

Poster 3: I krig & kærlighed

The dominant signifier is the couple at the front of the poster in medium shot. The audience’s focus is mainly on the woman is she is dressed in white and there is a brighter light on her than the man. The man is in dark clothing and has a dim light on him. The fact the man is kissing the woman’s head symbolises his love for her. The plane and the wheat fields are a paradigm of signs linked to war.

Poster 4: A Star is Born

The dominant signifier is of the couple and also the title. This is because the picture is all in black and white and the title stands out in a gold, signifying a ‘star’ as it is in the title.

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John Wick 3: In this poster we can see the dominant signifier and main character John Wick taking up most of the poster and then some sub signifiers in the background which are also characters in the movie. There is a paradigm of characters related to the movie.

The Golden Eye 007 poster (1995) is seen to have multiple dominant signifiers, these being Pierce Brosman, the two woman behind him and the explosions below him. This displays the importance of all 3 of the characters as well as the action the viewers should expect going in to see the film

Black swan The huge black swan with a women’s delicate position in the middle with red stripes on the wings tells you there is fatality as the red means blood and they way she is captured as falling also giving you more suspicion.

The Dunkirk poster shows a darker way of representing a movie. It shows 1 guy alone on a upside down boat. This shows the disaster that its foreshadowing that will happen in the movie. However it also shows on someone coming to save him on the right of the poster. Which makes the audience think what will happen next.

Jumanji The sign in this poster is the group standing in some sort of cave. The way in which they are smaller than the background tells us that they are less significant than the forest, suggesting that they are to conquer it.

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Lamb : The indexical signs in the film poster is of a lamb being held protectively by a women with a dull expression. The title tells us that the film is focused on the lamb. The mise-en-scene shows mountains in an isolated area, the clouds look dull and moody. It gives off spooky/mysterious vibe with the colours and the title which is the same colour as the lambs nose and ears.

Midsommer: The indexical signs in this films is half of a women’s face with a scared / feared emotion she’s wearing a flower crown which is an important prop for the film. The symbolic signals the small text thats written in caps saying “Let the festivals begin” and links in with the films context. The colours aren’t as mysterious like the lamb poster but the women’s face tells us its a horror film.

Black Swan: The indexical sign in this film poster is the face of the main character, her expression towards the camera is quite disturbing and sinister because her eyes are

Joker:

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Titanic

The film poster clearly shows the two main characters and the so called ‘unsinkable’ ship largely on the cover. The two contrasting each other shows there will be some conflict between both.

Spectre

Having a full body shot of Daniel Craig aka. James Bond presents him as the main character and the gun shows there will be violence and action informing us of the genre of the film just by the front cover.

Star Wars

The way the poster only shows half the character shows potential mystery and power. The unknowing causes you to be intrigued and want to know what will happen next.

Black Swan

The huge black swan with a women’s delicate position in the middle with red stripes on the wings tells you there is fatality as the red means blood and they way she is captured as falling also giving you more suspicion.

Twighlight

The three main characters at the top are captured close up and the villains and their army are in a smaller shot beneath them showing how they have less power leading you to believe there is a reason as to why that is. The colours are quite dark meaning it could potentially be an ominous movie.