SFX Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis

The above double page review for 'Horns' is quite a conventional double page spread for quite a conventional drama. Similarly to most magazines, the review has comical captions and a few comical comments in the main body of the text. The review includes all the main information about the film including the star rating, cast, director etc. in a short block of text at the start of the review. As this double page spread is a review and not an interview, the editor has chosen to editorialise and has only given this film a 2.5/5 star rating. This is less conventional when an interview with a director or cast member is included in the double page spread, this will normally be a friendlier, higher rated review. This double page spread makes use of a filler to take up white space and provide an entertaining interview for the reader to look at. Also the conventional use of a pull quote has been followed by taking a quote from the main body of text and enlarging it to give an impression of the tone of this review, they have chosen to use quite a critical quote to add to the editorialised tone of this review.

'Cold Souls' Poster Analysis

 

Cold Souls is a lighter comedy but still has some dark characteristics such as breaking the rule of thirds and making light of dark situations such as mid life crisis. Once again without looking at any of the text it is difficult to tell that this film is going to be a comedy but we can tell from the tagline and review quote that this is a comedy film, this attracts the audience of comedy/dark comedy viewers. The effect that they have chosen to use on the main characters face is interesting showing the man emotionless in quite a frightening way. Also the colours used for the background and the man's clothes are quite dark and low key, giving the poster a dark tone to it again keeping the genre ambiguous similarly to most dark comedy posters. Also the text is quite small in comparison to the amount of space taken up by the main character, there is also a lot of white space around his face(s), showing that the film all revolves around him etc. This is something that could be used in my film poster as the whole film is based around the skateboard.

'A Somewhat Gentle Man' Poster Analysis

A somewhat gentle man is a Norwegian dark comedy film about a man released from prison has to fit back in with his son and his new family but he struggles to be gentle. This is dark comedy as it mixes family with murder and violence.

Again, from this poster alone you would not be able to tell that this film was a comedy, which is common among dark comedy posters as it helps to remain ambiguous. This poster uses the police mug shot to clearly show this man is a criminal and therefore gives a tone to the film and the seriousness on the man's face again leads us to believe that this film is not actually a comedy. The police mug shot is something that I could consider using to represent the crime in my film.

However once again the tagline gives away the genre to the audience so that the target audience is attracted to the film. This way the audience knows the genre but also knows it isn't the most typical of comedies and therefore fits into the dark comedy genre.This man being on his own shows that he is the main character and the film is based around him only, something that could be considered when I am making my film poster.

Analysis of 'Rubber' Poster

The above poster is for the dark comedy film 'Rubber' about an inanimate tyre which gains the ability to move and kill all living creatures. This is similar in genre and somewhat in storyline to the film that I am making.

The poster above is an animation of the inanimate object that the film is based around, with an evil eye in the centre to personify the tyre simply but effectively. I could use something similar to this for my poster, just having the skateboard on its own in the centre of the shot with something significant to personify it, although I most probably won't animate the poster, it is more likely that I will use a shot from on set.

This poster also has a comical tagline with a pun to let the audience know that it is a comedy, other than the tagline you would not be able to tell the film is a comedy from looking at the poster which is common in most dark comedy posters, I don't want to give away the genre too much in the poster as I want the film to remain mysterious and ambiguous.