SEMIOTICS of 4 Working Title posters

Posters can be a little awkward to analyse, as we'd normally imagine any character pushed to the top of the frame to denote the shot type, but these are typically cropped out shots. (Specifically, we used a mix of poster/DVD cover)

4 WT posters were picked, brief points follow two examples ...

In each example, look closely at how basic framing (rule of thirds: place the important action/subject centrally) is used to easily signify the importance of characters (literally central to the narrative!)...

There are multiple obvious anchored preferred readings, but lets focus on the binary opposition...

This is signified through the colour blocks and the light/dark contrast of the two colours and the framing of the two lead characters (same actor).

Whilst this anchors a preferred reading of the brother on the white side as protagonist, and the brother on the blue side is signified/connoted as antagonist, there is also a skilful ambiguiety, or polysemy (narrative enigma!), encoded too: the 'good' brother is partially stood on 'the dark side' and is also wielding a gun! There is also equivalence drawn as it is a medium-long two shot; their gazes are similar, looking sideways off-frame ... though the divide between the two is cleverly anchored by their looking in different directions!!!

The connoted moral ambiguiety (not quite a fully anchored Proppian archetype of the hero) is in keeping with modern values as seen through the cultural impact of shows like Dexter, Sopranos and Breaking Bad and even some of the smash hit comic book adaptations, not least the Dark Knight trilogy.



Again, multiple aspects of a preferred reading are accessible, but lets focus on the anchorage of genre hybridity within this famously triple hybrid of zom-rom-com...

The 'zom' element is simply denoted through the literal use of zombies and the title itself, though their framing signifies who our protagonists are, whilst connoting Pegg as the central protagonist, or Proppian archetype of the hero.

Its a three-shot, not a two-shot, as an over-emphasis on the 'rom' component is not desired, and the 'com' is multiply anchored, including the female holding flowers and the bizarre 'weapons' wielded by all 3 (garden spade, cricket bad and chain), the bright colouring (playing on the blood red) and of course the bubble font of the title and the graphic of the hand within the 'A'.

Anyone who somehow misses the many signifiers to anchor this can rely on the tagline!




Can you apply this to the 2 additional egs below? Look at how Theory anchors serious drama, or how Bridget Jones's Baby anchors its hybrid genre (rom-com), and the primacy of the female audience for this (the com conventionally makes rom-coms more palatable for a secondary male audience!).




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