1) What are the main colours used in the poster and what do they connote?
The only main colours in the poster are white and red. The white background helps emphasize the importance of the title ‘Dawn of the Dead’, due to how the title is red itself, making it clearly stand out to viewers and catch their attention. This is done to help the name of the film stay in the minds of viewers so that they’ll be persuaded to watch the film when it is released. The beige colour of the zombie also stands out in the white background, catching viewer’s attention so that hints of the narrative can be given out on the film, that it’s a zombie horror film.
2) What symbols are used in the poster? Do you need audience foreknowledge to decode the symbols?
The zombies white pure eyes symbolizes death, due to when someone is dead their eyes become pure white, due to there being no blood running through their eye sockets. The blood stained clothes and dried blood on the zombie face yet again symbolizes death. The title of the film ‘dawn of the dead’ symbolizes the zombies due to how they’re dead but they’ve risen back to life, linking in with the words of the title of the film ‘dawn’ and ‘death’. After analyzing these codes, I can say that audiences don’t have to have foreknowledge to decode the symbols due to how they’re plain obvious, helping audiences realize the narrative of the film clearer.
3) Are the messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal, or both?
The messages in the poster are visual and verbal. For the verbal message it uses the title ‘Dawn of the Dead’ which establishes the film being about death, giving more hints to the narrative of the film. For the visual message, the mid camera shot of the zombie with blood on his face represents death and zombies, giving away the message that the narrative of the film is probably based on zombies, linking in with the title of the film.
5) Who do you think is the intended audience for the poster?
The poster doesn’t give an age certification for how old you have to be to watch the film. Instead, the film shows a zombie with blood all over him suggesting that the film is aimed at older audiences, due to how the use of blood suggests that the film may be gory and violent, making it aimed at older audiences who are 18 and over, female and male.
6) Given that all movie posters have the same purpose - to get audiences to go see a movie – what persuasive techniques are used by the poster?
The poster doesn’t use a large range of persuasive techniques to entice viewers to watch the film; however, it does use an image of a bloodied zombie to sell audiences the idea that the film is a zombie horror flick. This entices audiences to watch the film, due to how zombie horror films are a very popular and conventional genre which movie goes tend to watch. Another persuasive technique is the use of a slogan which says, ‘When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth’. This slogan helps showcase the narrative of the film more, revealing the film to be controversial with Christianity, due to how it relates to hell. Apart from theses persuasive techniques, there is a lot the poster is doing to entice viewers to watch the film when it’s released in the cinema.
7) Is a star used as a USP (unique selling point)?
The poster doesn’t showcase any well known actors in the poster, but mainly focuses on the idea that the film is about zombies. This suggests that the film may have no star power in it but instead well performing actors, to offer realism in the hopes of making the film more believable to audiences so that they’ll watch it.
8) Are ‘expert witnesses’ quoted?
There are no quotes from magazines showing what top film reviewers think of the films such as Empire, Sight and Sound, etc. Viewers have to believe that the film is good by looking at what’s being shown in the poster, which in my opinion isn’t a lot.
9) How is attention gained (humor, shock, surprise)?
The image of the bloodied zombie is the main centre of attraction in the poster which catches the attention of audiences due to how it’s something audiences don’t expect to see in their normal lives. The clothes the zombie is wearing would be associated as common clothes an older male would wear but by the zombie having blood on his face and clothes and having white eyes, his image becomes disorientated and disturbing.
The title of the film is another technique used to gain audience’s attention by standing out from the white background by being red, so that audiences will hopefully remember the name of the film when they go to the cinema. The slogan also catches audiences’ attention by being controversial by mentioning Christianity through talking about hell. This helps reveal more information on the narrative of the film which audiences will be interested in, helping grab their attention.
