Analysis of film posters

Borat

The text in the movie poster says the title “Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan”. The use of incorrect grammar parodies Kazakhstani people suggesting they are ignorant and that they cannot adapt to western culture, and yet continue to try to copy it. . Putting the lead actor's name at the top of the poster is the only commercial attempt to market the film to fans of Sacha Baron Cohen films. For example, the title will attract fans of the Ali G TV show, which Borat was in as well. The font is important because it’s illustrating to the audience that it’s a comedy film, and it’s making fun of people from foreign countries.  

Borat has a funny looking smile in the poster. Therefore this is displaying that this movie is going to be a comedy because of his facial expressions. If the main protagonist did not have a smile on his face, this would have changed the whole approach of the film, and made movie goers mislead what this film is about. His smile is also displaying some of the characters personality traits from what we may see in the feature film. In the comedy genre, the main protagonist should be full of life and exciting for the viewers to watch, but should also be an object to be laughed at, which is definitely the case with the ridiculous and out-of-place Borat.

Borat has a very scruffy looking suit. This tells us that he is a person who stands out from the regular crowd. The suit does not probably fit him because his trousers are quite baggy and too big for him. His hair style is important because it’s implying the characters personality more to the audience. Overall this represents the character to be badly dressed, not very intelligent, and different to the whole crowd. 

Borat is also holding an American flag. This is ironic because the font of the title was implying to the viewer that Borat is not from America, he’s Eastern European. This is suggesting to the audience that he will be in America exploring the country, and making fun of the locals there. The film is therefore a combination of parodying both Kazasthani people and American culture, particularly their prejudices.

This advert is constructed to appeal to its target audience which is fans of the comedy genre, and patriotic Americans who like to see their country in cinema. However, they will not be happy when they are finished watching that film, as Borat consistently highlights their prejudices. The poster also attracts fans of more generic comedy through his ridiculous expression and silly, outdated fashion. 

The Silence of the Lambs

In this poster, the dominant colors are black, and white. With the exceptions of the eyes, the butterfly, and the title, which all appear as red-orange.

The title is not bold, large, or capitalized, and doesn’t take away all the viewers’ attention, so that instead they can focus on the content, and specifically the face of the woman.

The face appears unnatural because a butterfly replaces the human mouth. This links to the title of the film because the butterfly is creating the silent element for the viewer. Another factor that contributes to the unnatural appearance of the face is the framing of the face and that fact that is not well defined. It is as if the face has no blood, which connotes that the person might be dead, and people have been known to go pale when they are frightened, which points towards the horror and shock of the film.  The fact that the face blurs into the background makes identifying the woman difficult, adding to the mystery and threat of the unknown.

The face in the poster also has very wide eyes. This is another trope of someone who is experiencing fear, and specifically it is a fear for the audience of the unknown because we are not allowed to view the horror she has witnessed.  It is also the kind of fear that is so horrific she can’t speak about it, which is emphasized by the lack of a mouth.

Teaser Trailer Analysis #3 - Borat

This is a teaser trailer for the 2007 comedy film, Borat starring Sacha Baron Cohen. The length of this teaser trailer is 18 seconds long.

What is presented in this teaser trailer is a sneak peak of Borat with a man. We learn that Borat is quite clumsy, and doesn’t have good spatial awareness. This is usually aimed to make the viewer laugh. This is relating to character comedy which I spoke about in my comprehensive analysis about the comedy genre.

This teaser trailer is unlike the vast majority of Hollywood teaser trailer, even though it was a commercially successful film. There are various reasons for this. The most important is the fact the director wants to make it seem like an actual documentary, and not like Hollywood fiction.  One way in which the director achieves this is through the lack of music.  Most teaser trailers have music and Borat wants to distance itself from idea of a franchise and also big Hollywood films that use music to create atmosphere.  For example, the new teaser trailer for Star Wars: Rogue One uses music familiar to fans to connect them with the new film.  Borat on the other hand isn't part or a franchise so doesn't have a well-known soundtrack to draw on.

How Mise-en-scene is used: All the characters appear to be wearing very light colors in the teaser trailer, to make them stand out in the clip. Very bright colors are also used in the clip to set a light tone for the teaser trailer to appear to fans of the comedy genre. If they used dark colors it could put the audience off the film, and depict it as a different type of movie.

Both characters presented in the teaser trailer have different tones to each other. Borat’s tone is quiet but has put on a bit of an expression to exaggerate because he’s a foreigner and people from different countries usually have different accents. They have done this to make him stand out in the scene as “different” and usually in comedy movies, the person who stands out is classified as the main comic relief. The other man has a very normal and calm tone. This is put in because you can’t have Borat being funny and the other guy being funny because another cliche that is used in comedy, is the characters reaction when someone does something funny. 

The set design is presented in the teaser presents the fact that it is a furniture shop. The reason being for this is a lot of vases, lamps are placed around the whole shop, this is all equipment which is used for furniture and design for someone's house. 

Teaser Trailer Analysis #2 - Batman vs. Superman

·         The teaser trailer for Batman vs Superman has a darker tone than the first Batman and Superman films made in the 1970s and 80s. The director has put in darker colours to the costumes. The effect of this is that the target audience is now more mature, whereas before it was more aimed at children. They went from a very colourful patriotic theme like in Captain America to one which is darker and grittier. The actors playing Superman and Batman are not depicting them as amazing human beings, in some cases they are depicting them flawed, and as a threat. In the next film in the DCEU, Suicide Squad, the director has decided to show the criminal's point of view when facing Batman, rather than Batman’s own point of view. Ben Affleck's Batman has taken a much darker turn, and he is no longer seen as the force of good, they are starting to question his morals and to even present him as a villain.

·         Another change of tone is how the characters have developed their personalities.  They have become less friendly and are more guarded than in the original movies. In the original Superman and Batman films there was a general depiction of all heroes as good, despite having a few flaws. In this case, superheroes are seen to be questioned morally both by each other and the government, and the conflict seems to be more internal than directed at an obvious villain. This has become trends in superhero films at the moment.

·         They have also put in voice overs in some scenes on what other people are saying about Superman. The effect of this is to display a darker take on the superhero genre and the voice over makes it darker because it makes the viewers question the motivations of the characters, and you’re not sure who is speaking. They have voiced over what Batman says to Superman saying “Tell me, do you bleed?”

Low key lighting is used in that scene to establish that quite a few people hate him and some people even hate him and have a rebellion against him. The red graffiti is used to establish negativity and hatred and it contrasts with a colorless, lifeless statue. This reveals a small detail that hints at the plot, but in general the teaser is thematic and focuses on the tone of the film.

This teaser trailer is detonating sequences when the character has moody faces.Which is a far cry from the original movies, which would usually have characters smiling and speaking to the public openly. In the new films, they make these iconic superheroes more shy, and not so open as there predecessors.  

This is a still of  Ben Affleck's batman suit in Zack Snyders 2016 Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. This suit has the same layout, dark colors with a utility belt and a bat symbol. This is different to the Michael Keaton batsuit because the utility belt is much darker and the batman symbol is in very dark colors, not in a circle, it just shows the symbol and its much bigger and stands out more, despite the very dark colors. 

This is a still of Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman. This suit is mostly black, but has very bright colors to make it stand out to everyone. For example, the Batman symbol is bright yellow, with a black bat drawing on it, and Batman possess a gold utility belt on his chest. This looks like a more childish and less realistic theme, compared to Ben Affleck and Christian Bale's take on the Batman.

Comprehensive Analysis of Genre - Comedy

There are a lot of sub genres for comedy movies.

Black comedy is adapting disturbing situations like death, drugs, and sexual violence for the a comic story. This is usually targeted for much older and mature audiences. An example of a director who works on dark comedies is Quentin Tarantino. Films like True Romance, Pulp Fiction, and Django Unchained have a lot of heavy themes presented, and Tarantino likes to explore the comic effect of those themes. 

In True Romance, he depicts the treatment of woman as objects, because one of the lead characters in the film is a prostitute and she is beaten up viciously by men, and usually doesn’t have much clothing on her. But he likes to make fun of those themes with cheesy dialogue, and one liners. However the way he gets comedy out of the situations is not mocking women. 

Pulp Fiction makes fun of a lot of serious topics from drug overdoses to racism. A similar depiction of woman is shown in the movie like True Romance. Ving Rhames character sends John Travolta character to take care of his wife, portrayed by Uma Thurman. This is depicting woman as constantly attention-seeking. Later on in the movie, she has a drug overdose and when John Travolta and other characters are trying to save her, the other characters are mocking John Travolta for not knowing where to take the adrenaline shot.

In Django Unchained, they focus on the topic of slavery. The main character Django, portrayed by Jamie Foxx and his wife who is portrayed by Kerry Washington are snatched by middle-aged white men who treat black people like they are objects by selling them to extremely wealthy white people. In the film, the comedy is drawn from the exaggerated fight scenes and particularly the character of Stephen portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson.

Character comedy is another sub-genre of the comedy genre. This focuses on character development and showing the character doing funny things that is actually lighthearted which has the intention to make the audience laugh, not be in shock like what black comedies tend to do. 

One example of a character comedy movie is Borat. Borat follows a Kazakhstan reporter portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen, navigating around America and we explore his approach to life outside his home country. This is kind of a mockumentary as well because other people in the film are playing themselves, not other characters. 

Another example of a character comedy is Dumb and Dumber. Dumb and Dumber follows two friends, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne portrayed by Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels who have seriously low IQs. Similar to Borat, they are navigating around a city which they are not familiar with and are getting into silly situations which a normal person would know best to not get involved with. 

The final example for character comedy is Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day follows a weatherman who is played by Bill Murray. After mocking the seasonal day, Groundhog Day he gets caught in a time wrap in the same day. The only way he can break this time wrap is if he lives the day correctly. Throughout the film, he explore his antics when he's repeating the same day, and does funny stuff which is aiming to make the audience laugh, 

There are many character stereotypes in comedies, however two types have become popular over the last decade. These character stereotypes are:

The stereotype of a “nerd” is they're quite small, wear glasses, very smart, and like mythical stuff. At the start of the movie they are classified as a “loser” no one else is really friends with them and are hated by a lot of people. They are also depicted as working class, does not have enough money and is not very privileged. However, these nerds do have friends who come together due to being bullied and depicted as “outcasts”, there interests in nostalgic franchises like Star Wars and superheroes, and being very smart and favoured by all the teachers/boss 

The people who are classified as “jerks” however, are a different story. They are depicted as attractive, fit, and usually very mean.  They are also depicted as upper class and have more a privileged lifestyle to focus on sport and spare leisure activity. Another general stereotype is they are extremely fit, are good at sports, and have a lot of friends. Usually, their friends have the same personality traits and background. In groups of people who are classified in comedy movies as “jerks” there is usually one boy/girl who is the ring leader of the group, and at the end of the film they are usually embarrassed by the nerd figure, and often lose their friends.