Research

I have decided to a do a psychological thriller film. Films of this genre are almost a hybrid genre of drama and horror, a lot of them do tend to be considered 'scary' as there is always a character for is considered insane and performs actions that the audience find 'scary'.

The film 'Obsessed' was out in 2009 so it is quite recent. I personally have watched the whole of this film and was kept intrigued by the narrative. The synopsis of the story is a love triangle between Sharon, Derek and Lisa. Sharon and Derek are married and Lisa is a temp at Derek's work, she becomes obsessed with Derek and believes that are romantically involved, eventually she kidnaps Sharon and Derek's child and breaks into their house. The film has a dramatic ending as Sharon and Lisa fight in the house, Lisa ends up falling through the ceiling and a chandler landing on her. The film has conventions of a horror film at the end and thriller conventions throughout the rest of the film.

Part of my coursework is to produce a film poster for my chosen film. As i am doing a psychological thriller this film is good to analyse as it is a recent film and has the same target audience as mine will have.

This poster doesn't follow the main conventions of other posts. The text of this poster is slanted, this could be because it connotes at the fact that the film isn't your standard drama film and that there is a 'twist' about it, having the text like that basically gives the audience a clue about the films narrative. Also it splits the characters up, keeping them on 'sides'. Also the obsessed is over Ali Carters face which connotes that she is the one who is obsessed. However the poster does have the same convention of using the actors names on the poster. This attracts the audience to watch it as they are already familiar with the actors and are willing to see them in something else as they associate them with quality (if they like the actors anyway), Beyonce Knowles however is known as a music artist, therefore this gives the film another twist as there is something else in the film you wouldn't suspect to be there. Fans of Beyonce's Music would probably go and see the film as they want to see and hear everything she does and at the end of the day the whole point of making a film is to make a profit and produce quality. 

The positioning of the characters I find interesting and very clever. It creates enigma to the audience, by having them dressed in black and the background black it forces the audience member to focus on their facial expressions, both Beyonce and Idris are facing the same way and have similar expressions, Idris has a slightly menacing look and has 'watching eyes' which are turning to face Ali, Beyonce has a more relaxed look than that but is also watching Ali. Ali on the other hand is facing in the other direction looking back at the other two. The lighting in her eyes makes her eyes look cold and piercing, the red lipstick makes her seductive and connotes blood as well. 

Also all three of them are positioned into a triangle shape which connotes to the audience a love triangle. As the audience looking at this would of not seen the film, as a film poster is supposed to promote the film and get people to go see it, it creates enigma of the narrative. The audience see that there is drama between all three and also sense that Beyonce and Idris are together on one side and Ali on the other as the positioning. 

I believe that this poster is successful in delivering in getting the audience to be intrigued and go see the film. It is also successful in suggesting the films plot and storyline without giving too much away. It also shows the audience the genre quite clearly from the image and the Title of the film which is equally as important as if the film title was too scary sounding or too light then it would give a completely different message to people, for example if it was called 'The Psycho' it would make the film more menacing and scary whereas if it was called, 'love triangle' the audience would believe it was more of a romance drama film.

Taking all of this into consideration it gives me a better idea on how to produce a quality poster keeping in fit with my genre, however I will need to look at other posters to get a complete overall idea.