1. MARK SISON’S POSTER ANALYSIS Analysing: Die Hard Source: www.impawards.com Slide 2: 1 st poster (Left) Slide 3: 2 nd poster (Right) Slide 4: Comparison and overviewwww.impawards.com

2. The placement of the Strap line on the top is quite effective as it places importance on the overall poster. The use of short sentences and ellipsis emphasis each statement. ‘Twelve terrorist’ followed by ‘One cop’ split by a full stop but together in one line, underlines their numeric contrast and the idea of the ‘odds are against’ the protagonist. Develops and establishes the character and story with this strap line. We see the name ‘John McClane’ giving the characters name and that he’s a cop and the last line suggest a heroic, action and machismo type character. The main image is of the protagonist, dominating most of the poster suggest that he is the protagonist. A close-up shot is used to highlight his facial expression. The protagonist’s facial expression is somewhat shocked and nervous, concentrating on something not seen in the poster which builds curiosity to the audience. There is evident sweat on his forehead suggest of fear or suspense. His overall positioning, body facing side ways with gun in a readied position suggest it’s a moment just before the action. The mise-en-scene connotes several meanings within this poster. The gun suggest action and danger within the movie. The most unique part from the poster is what the character is wearing, we see a white vest, which is incredibly peculiar and original, This indicates that our protagonist may be unprepared, due to him not being in proper attire, or lazy or be set in a more casual and homely area. The background suggest it’s setting, we see a city with a possibly dawn or sunset backdrop giving an overall setting for the movie. The format of the poster places emphasis on the main image, as we see it ‘closed in’ between the two black rectangles. This was done to ensure the image was the center of attention. It also holds resemblance to a wanted poster which emphasizes our protagonist being against a whole load of people or being alone. The color scheme of the poster was mainly used ensure each color stands out. The white and the black completely contrast each other so it’s easier to read. The only other color is red, which is the title so it separates itself from the other text. The fonts are conventional for a movie poster, the featured credits, title and star actor all have different sizes. The title ‘Die Hard’ is the biggest, boldest and is red making it stand out completely from the rest of the text. The use of red may symbolize blood due to the gun, or possibly the love our protagonist may be fighting for. It also may represent anger to compliment our characters machismo manner. The overall poster highly develops it’s character and post some ideas of the plotline. It appeals more to the masculine audience with it’s male protagonist and machismo and action demeanor. It doesn’t really seem like a heist film, but more of an action thriller possibly due to no evident Heist conventions.

3. The strap line is again placed at the top of the poster, to ensure it is one of the first things read. It is more about the massive setting rather than then the characters. Using the number ’40’ instead of forty accentuates the scale of the setting. It plays on words such as ‘stories’ associated to the building combining it with ‘sheer adventure’, developing and promoting its setting. A brief description is provided outlining an overview of the plotline. It develops the story and protagonist. Similar to the first, the use of ellipsis places emphasis onto it’s statements as though silence has followed. This description also compliments the main image. The background is black and partially covers the main image for the text to be seen clearly. It diagonally cuts across the image possibly to denote a building blocking the way to show the scale and level of the building in the image. The title is the only color seen, it’s red which fully emphasizes itself and stands out as it is the only color apart from black and white. The title is the only color seen, it’s red which fully emphasizes itself and stands out as it is the only color apart from black and white. Its color scheme only consist of 3 colors, black, white and red altogether allows each other to stand out. The reasons for making the majority black and white can be to represent the night time or the lights from the city. The main image consist of 3 parts: the city, the building and the protagonist. The building being set in the middle shows splitting the protagonist from the city could hint the story, such as the building being the obstacle our protagonist must face to get to the city or that the building affecting both the city and the protagonist. The building itself could attract the action type audience, due to the explosions seen at the top. It provides a level of destruction especially as its on the top and the helicopter looks like it’s crashing. It is the center of attention for both audiences and within the film being placed in the middle. The protagonist’s face is half hidden covered by the building. His facial expression is seemingly shocked and worried as though reacting to the explosion creating some form of tension or suspense due to his wide eyed stare and opened mouth which are conventional in action or heist films. A cut is seen on his eye suggesting violence, or struggle. Being the only person seen reacting to this explosion further suggest he’s the only one who’s going to do something about it. Overall this poster seems to develop it’s story through the use of wording to describe a basic outline towards the audience, the image used is quite effective as it’s eye-catching due to the explosion. It also ensures the title of the movie stands out giving it the only source of color causes the other elements of the image to suffer as it looks bland

4. Both posters feature the protagonist, with expressions related to shock, fear or anger. It’s effective as it shows consistency and enhances the audience’s curiosity to why this heroic protagonist isn't calm and nonchalant as action hero’s are to be. It shows that the situation in the plot is bigger than what the protagonist can handle. Both posters use a black and white format, again for consistency. The red throughout continues the idea of blood, violence, love or anger. However, the left poster seems to represent anger with it’s red title due to his expression and the gun raised. Whereas the right leans towards a violent representation, with the color complimenting the violence seen in the image, with the cut on the protagonist eye and the explosion on the building. Both posters place the actors name above the title, it promotes the poster and attracts audience through Bruce Willis’s reputation as an actor. They both place credits at the bottom, but the right doesn’t feature a release date. Unlike the other, the left poster may attract audience more easier due to the gun evidently seen hinting action, compared to the right poster which due to it’s black and white format doesn’t really show the explosion clearly so it isn’t as evident of the action. I feel that both film posters use the action featured in their film to promote their poster. Despite it being a Heist film, not many elements of a Heist are seen apart from the right poster which gives a basic overview on what the ‘terrorist’ have taken. But it’s description is more based towards action as they’ve ‘declared war’. It may not attract people looking for a heist film or it may due to it’s take on the genre. Overall, both poster’s are OK deploying several movie poster conventions arguably it’s simplicity could be it’s flaws or what makes it a good poster. The problem with the right poster is it’s description, if this was placed somewhere where movement was fast and quick the description would be useless due to it being too long. It can be seen as useful though appealing to those who want to know more about the film. The right poster is a poster that does require more time to be looked at in order to understand the film’s story and character, due to the 3 part image and lengthy description in comparison to the left poster, which uses short sentences and a simple image. OVERALL: The poster I find most appealing towards any audience would be the left poster due to the conventions being kept short, simple and eye-catching.