Film Poster

Analysis Analysing ‘The Lovely Bones’ and comparing the film

poster to the teaser trailer.

https://youtu.be/jvWXV-c2hWo

What do you see on the poster?..

The poster shows the main protagonist, Susie Salmon, projected boldly in the sunset sky - the ghost ambience reflects the passing within the film. There is a black casting of a somewhat dying tree. Furthermore, the tree is a powerful symbol, as the leaves transpire into birds taking flight. Beneath the tree is a girl running, this relates to the trailer in which Susie Salmon is running for her life and further on, running to contact her family.

Less specifically, we also see a tagline stating the general plot of the film, in a basic description. The poster also shows the names of the people staring in to entice the audience by producing big name actors for the casting list. The poster also shows all the details needed to know who the film is created by (paramount Pictures), a brief idea of when it is coming out and the famous director behind it.

What ideas about the film do they give? what do they stress?They show us that the film is going to based around a young teenage female protagonist. The tagline is probably the biggest giveaway as to the plot of the film - the suggestion of life after death that is highlighted through it shows that the film is going to be based around this concept. From the tagline and ghostly image of the girl in the skyline we can successfully assume she will be playing the role of a ghost/dead character.

The dark tree and flying birds symbolise ‘leaving the nest’ which in ordinary terms would mean the growing up and maturing of this young adult, before leaving home and living independently. However, in this circumstance, the birds are leaving the nest because the tree is dying and can no longer sustain life. This poster, I believe, reiterates the idea that she will never get the opportunity to flourish and develop beyond the crop field where she was murdered. The shadow of the girl running suggest to the audience that the girl is running away from something and instantly hints the idea of a chase scene.

How do the colours convey the film’s idea? how important are they?..

The colours used in the film poster are imperative to creating the glowing effect of the protagonist and showing the light she projected into the world, before being taken. The pinky, yellow tones shown here are symbolising the sunset, or sunrise, the start and end of a new day. The contrast between the light and dark colours show the mystery and darkness of her death.

I think the colours used in the main poster (the one pictured here) and the variety of others all take the same format - hereby, intentionally, sending a message of the powerful story behind it. The colours show both coldness and warmth, and I believe this is because the film in itself has elements of happiness and as well as underlying mysterious and sinister tones.

The colour is very important also just to simply catch the audience's eye, without colour on the posters it wouldn’t appeal to many and the marketing campaign (ie the teaser trailer) would not be relatable. The colours are imperative at developing the story and catching the audience's attention.

How does the poster expand on the ideas from the trailer?The poster very much sticks to the teaser campaign. Firstly, by the colours and effects it uses on the film. The murky blue tones representing loss and sadness, and the highlighted, uplifting yellow contrast showing the ‘afterlife’. The poster covers perfectly relates back to the effects and colours used throughout the entire film. Therefore, this increases our knowledge of the film’s storyline, a girl stuck in between life and death, because we can easily relate the emotion in the poster to the emotions throughout the film. It is very clear to see from the trailer that the poster contains the same plot, and vice versa.

Secondly, the shot of Susie Salmon on the main poster is a very similar one the first screenshot above - the poster is continuous and flowing from the trailer, and shows the same degree of emotion. For example, the scenes in the teaser trailer include Susie Salmon running to make contact with her family. Looking back to the first slide, at the main movie poster, we can see how they have incorporated this image as a still shot on the cover - with the girl running from the tree at a fast pace.

how does the strapline relate to the voiceover in the trailer?

The tagline : ‘A story of a life and everything that came after’. The voiceover : ‘I wasn’t gone, I was alive, in my own perfect world.’

Firstly, by comparing the strapline to the voiceover we can make a simple comparison between the two. Both the tagline and voiceover give away the death of the main protagonist and go further to talk about the afterlife she is currently living in. This shows us that for this film, the tagline links very closely to the plot of the story and the narrative of the voiceover heard in the teaser trailer. It gives an even further description of the character as she is symbolically resting in ‘heaven’ and looking down on the mess she has left and the pain she is causing to her family, trying to reassure them that although she is gone, she is still here.