Research - Poster Analysis

The Zodiac analysis

Colours

The main colours used are black and a dim yellow. The black can connote mystery and bring fear to the audience, since the darkness is covering half of the mans face we can't tell who he is, or see any emotions aside aggression shown through his eye. The dim yellow instantly reminds me of ancient times, which shows that the theme has a long past. (Zodiac signs have been around for a very long time.) This could also connote that the mans intentions are quite deep rooted, and been in his mind for a while as well. The one colour that really stands out is the blue of his eye. This gives the audience a very memorable trait of the murderer, which will probably be picked out and used to throw the audience off guard.

Symbols

The big symbolic icons in the poster are the eye and the zodiac signs trailing up the page. The eye looks directly at you, showing no fear. The killer is confident and sure of himself, not afraid to hide himself. The emotion held in his eye also says a lot to the viewer. It can show his aggression, the cold look has no soft caring feature in it. This will show in the film the killer will have no mercy, and most likely be smart to avoid capture. The zodiac signs also hold a lot to the film, obviously the first expectation is that they will be linked to how or why the murderer kills. The image spans his face, starting centrally by his nose, and circling out. This can show that his whole life, his whole being revolves around this ideal. What should be a sign of birth, is his decision on who he kills, becoming a contradiction for the original idea of the zodiac.

Pleasures

From the poster the audience will get the pleasures of promised mystery and suspense. With the poster not showing the whole of the killers face, they will be able to try and work out the mystery along with the main characters, allowing them to become absorbed in the film.

Tag line

"The most infamous serial killer of our time...is still out there" A gripping tag line, striking possible panic and fear into the viewers. The tag line will draw in their curiosity, "is this really a true story?" "If their still out there... what are they like?" these questions in particular will entice the audience to want to know more, and be playing in their mind the entire film. If they think he's still out there, the ending will inevitably be them not catching him. but, in that time, can they figure out who he is? Can they guess how he works, if it happened to them in real life, would they be smart enough to avoid him?