Thriller film collage

Creating a collage of thriller film covers gives us an insight of how we could present our poster and magazine covers as part of our media coursework. The images presented are the only that have caught mine and Becka’s attention the most, they have directly given us a positive outlook on how we could possibly create our other media sources, the inspiration rises from the images used as we’re still unsure how we’re going to feature our film on a poster or magazine cover. This collage features various thriller films with all different narratives, time periods, settings and characters. The real images have also heightened our knowledge of how it’s possible to present a thriller film to provide pre-conceptions for our viewers to give away the genre of the film. It’s made me more aware that the character featured in the film cover is usually the element that entices the audience in, the covers we’ve used in the collage show various poses from the characters; most of them staring directly at the viewers to lure or entice them. It becomes a significant feature of the cover and the eyes essentially act as the focal point of the image, however some covers use the ‘gaze’ as the alternative option to create the impression that something within the film is drawing them away such as; an investigation, a problem, a mystery or something that the main character featured has to conquer. The cover images in my collage where the main character isn’t looking directly at the camera include a bit of background which is featured within the film, this gives the viewer an idea of the type of film is and what to expect within it. The focus is then divided amongst the character/s and the background featured; the viewer then becomes dependent on the colouring, lighting and background to have an idea of the film they’re viewing. I believe that the text acts as a big giveaway to what the film would be, I feel everyone has certain associations with what font/text is used, and the colouring and the film it’s paired with. I believe red to be associated with horror or thriller, the horror font it’s usually in a way: creepy (like the film The Orphan’ whereas film genres that are based on romance use fonts which are quite girly and typically calligraphy. All of the fonts used in the cover text on the collage act as a giveaway, all look quite hard to suggest that the film doesn’t necessarily have a smooth, uplifting storyline, each is presented in either black, white or red which I feel is typical of a horror or thriller film. The similarity amongst the entire collage of cover images is the use of dark colours, dark backdrop and poor lighting; this reinforces the idea of the conventions of the thriller genre, lighter colouring of each feature may give the audience a false perception or pre-conceived idea that the film will be elevating and positive; which thriller films aren’t usually until the end.