Monday, 11 October 2010

Tiffanys Dead Snow Poster Textual Analysis



Dead Snow

Director – Tommy Wirkola

Release date – 31 August 2009
This poster was found on google.

Dead Snow was released at different times throughout the world. In Norway it was released 9 January 2009, 19 June 2009 in the US and 31 August 2009 in the UK. Releasing the film at 3 different times of the year could help to bring the maximum amount of profit to the film, it helps the film get constant publicity throughout the year. Two companies distributed dead snow, Euforia Film in Norway and IFC films in the US.

The chain saw with excess blood on it and the head with blood splattered on snow convey that it is a horror movie poster. The blood on the chainsaw and head gives away that it’s a slasher type of horror movie. This poster abides by typical horror movie conventions by showing the killers on the poster, the eyes of the head on the floor stare straight at the audience which makes you feel quiet tense or like hes is coming for you next. Also the fact that the eyes are so wide open means that it is a zombie. I think this is the effect that the poster producers are trying to do, make the audience feel tense. Although there is a head of the zombie there is no sign of the zombies body, this leaves the audience to wonder.

I feel this poster would attract a predominately male audience, the whole war and slasher affect would attract males slightly older than the normal 16 – 24 age range but maybe a 24 – 32 age range especially because of the nazi aspects. This film may not have been released in a country such a Poland because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Bold font is used on the poster, this is typical because most film poster use a bold font. It makes it eye catching for the audience to see.

The title ‘Dead Snow’ is in a bold font, inside the font you can see scenes from the film or photos spefically taken for the film posters purposes. I feel the pictures inside the titled would be more suited for an action film than a horror, however I like the fact that it adds a new element to the poster. The title is very eye-catching especially with the people inside the title.

There are three colours used in the colour scheme, all of theses relate to each other and all have reason to be there. You have the off white colour for the snow which relates to the surrounding. The blackish grey clothing represents the SS uniform that is based on the nazi theme. The red colour on the snow and chainsaw let the audience know that it is a horror movie, excesses blood on a poster is always a sign of a bloody horror.

We see various characters in the poster. In the background we ca see zombies heading to the font of the poster or in war positioning. It’s all very distinctive that all the zombies are dressed in war/military typed uniforms. This gives away that the film is related to war. The uniform what the zombies are actually wearing are SS nazi uniforms which relates to the nazi zombie theme. The zombie head on the ground with its eyes wide open tells the audience that it is a zombie, because normal the eyes would be closed if the person were dead. The man holding the chainsaw who’s face we don’t see if wearing more clothing this conveys that there is a showdown/war between normal people and the zombies. You can also see two other weapons in the man holding the chainsaws pockets this shows that there is a good fight between the zombies and humans, all the weapons also shows that the zombies are hard to kill.

I feel this poster gives quiet a bit away about the film, you see the uniform, from the skin of the head you can see it’s a zombie and the cabin there in is also revealed. From the poster you can see the main parts of the movie, most of the movie is set in the snow or in the cabin, the only thing that the poster is missing is the victims.

At the bottom of the poster we see typical actors names, directors and writers which conveys by the usual conventions of a movie trailer. The is also a link to the dead snow website at the bottom, this is in red to make it stand out against the names of the directors and writers.

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