Woman in Black-Poster Analysis

Purpose of Posters
Film posters are form of advertising that help to raise awareness of an upcoming film
release. Posters often follow a variety of conventions including having a striking image, the
film title, actors/actresses names, the release date, age certificate, and director or
production names. These details provide a consumer with all the information they need to
know about the film and the style and appearance of the poster will help audiences identify
what the films genre is. Film posters can be displayed in a variety of places from being on
street billboards, and buses to featuring in magazines and online.
The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black has a variety of film posters meaning that these can appeal to a mass
audience. Similarly, from first impressions when looking at the series of posters available
and having previously analysed the trailer, the style of images, text and atmosphere used in
this poster are consistent to the film trailer, reflecting how the poster supports the trailer.

Colour
The most noticeable aspect of this poster is the choice of colours that have been used. By
using only grey, black and white, a negative atmosphere is created as the poster appears
dull and ghostly. This instantly allows an audience to be able to identify that the film is of
the horror genre and implies that the supernatural will play a significant role. This is shown
through the white and black shadows that form a ghostly figure in the background.
As the protagonist is in the foreground of the poster, he is unable to see the figure behind
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him therefore; this could be an example of dramatic irony as the audience are aware of
what may happen whereas the character is not. Furthermore, the lack of colour can be seen
to reflect the Victorian era that the film is set in as the greyness suggests that this is set in
the past.
Image & Character
The image used for this poster is a close-up of the main
character that features in the film. The choice of using
a close-up shot allows an audience to see the
characters emotional state which here appears serious
and quite distant as he shows little expression. Through
the rule of thirds, attention is drawn towards the eye
and this is highlighted through the faint hint of blue.
The connotation of the colour blue in this context
portrays the idea of coldness and sadness which is
fitting to the films storyline. Furthermore, the image of
the main protagonist, Arthur Kipps, has a grey shade
surrounding him, perhaps highlighting that this
character is distant and the greyness foreshadows the
ghost that dominates the film.
The actor chosen to play the main protagonist can be seen to represent the target audience
as he too is a young adult, like most of the consumers of the film. The age certificate of the
Woman in Black is as 12A, so by using a younger actor, audiences can be enticed to go and
view the film as the character is more relatable to them in terms of age.
Lighting
Lighting on this poster is successful in creating an eerie atmosphere. The light highlights the
character which not only makes the eye go to him but portrays an idea that he is quite pale
and drawn from the shadows that are created which is fitting to the ghost story.
Similarly, the darkness in the background suggests danger and the unknown as the mist
makes it difficult to see anything that may be coming.

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Text Style
The text used appears simple yet bold as the capital letters and
white colour allows the writing to stand out against the grey
background. Furthermore, the white emphasises the ghostly
theme in the style and colour as the reflection of the text
creates an eerie atmosphere of feeling cold and haunted.
In an article by Chris Frost, How to Design for Newspapers &
Magazines, he lists a series of text colours and backgrounds that are
readable, a black or dark grey background with white text is fairly
readable but if the white writing is too bright, light is reflected from it
and it becomes difficult to read. Therefore, the text used in this poster
is successful as the white has been dimmed down slightly and the
background has also been made lighter which means the text is readable.
Language
The use of a rhetorical question, do you believe in ghosts? creates the feeling that the
poster is directly talking to the consumer. By placing this text next to the faint outline of the
ghost in the background of the poster enforces that ghosts and the supernatural will play a
significant role in the film. This encourages audiences to view the film as by using a
question, a sense of mystery is created as apart from knowing that a ghost is involved, no
other information is revealed.
Furthermore, by using Daniel Radcliffes name on the poster can also persuade consumers
to view the film as he a well-known actor and with this being his first role outside of the
Harry Potter franchise, audiences may be intrigued to go and view the film in which by
including the release date, encourages audiences to watch.
Layout
The placement of the image on the left hand side of the poster makes the character have
very little breathing space and creates a feeling of claustrophobia and unease as a sense of
entrapment is created.
By having very little in the background connotes that this character is alone and this is
fearful for an audience as they are aware of the ghostly figure forming whereas the
character is not.
In an article How to Read a Film Poster by Tom Brownlee, he explores the concept of
anchorage which is considering whether the pictures match the words of the poster and in
this case the image and text do link together as they both have a ghostly feel to them but
even from analysing the image and the text separately this supernatural atmosphere is also
created particularly, from the colour and lighting.
Influences
From this we have seen how affective the use of colour can be as the use of grey, black and
white is successful in creating an instant ambience which makes it easier for the consumer
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to identify this film from the poster as a horror. Therefore, the choice of colour will be
something that we carefully consider when creating all of our media products.
Furthermore, the shot type used and the positioning of the image achieves a claustrophobic
atmosphere as the layout of the poster gives the character very little breathing space in
which this suitable for the style of the film and foreshadows the plot as the protagonist
becomes trapped in the house. From this we have been influenced to carefully consider how
we arrange the elements of our poster as this analysis has shown how everything can
communicate a message to the consumer.

Hesham Abdelhamid