Analysis of Poster- Jennifers Body

Typeface
The typeface for a poster is an element which can represent the film genre or target audience. In this particular film poster a varsity college typeface has been used, and this strongly highlights the target audience. This known typeface is seen to be used in American colleges and high school and college when representing sports such as American football, baseball and cheerleading. This typeface is used for the main title, as well as the tagline and staring names along the top of the poster. As a result clearly signifying that the target audience for this film is young people aged 15-23.

Image and other links
Typically of a film poster, there is one central image. This image is the visual communication for the film to represent itself to the audience and this image will most likely become an icon for the film. The image has been taken in a Mid- long shot, showing the location and central focus. The location within the image is in a classroom. This is obvious as there is a blackboard and a school desk, which is placed at the centre of the image with a girl sitting on top of it. The blackboard has the words `Hell yes’ written at a diagonal angle in parallel to the characters head. Because of its positioning, the audience would look at this writing then look at the girl and make direct links between the two, maybe forming an opinion that the girl is hell.
This not only makes a direct link to the text written on the board and the character, but also the wording of the text is extremely significant. The words are in capitals which signify dominance within the image. In terms of the actual word, hell, this can be seen as a direct convention to the horror genre.
Hell has many connotations such as fire, sin and the colour red. This colour is shown in the image as well as the text. Red is used for the shoes and top of the girl which in one way could represent her femininity, but in another way could again link to hell, death and sin.
Overall the costume of the character in the image gives off a significant amount of sex appeal. The costume consists of a mini skirt and strap top, with red heels. This outfit is feminine, however to many can be seen as slutty, which highlights what kind of character will be in this film, as well as what audience type is targeted, in terms of looking at the image the age of 15-20 still applies, but we now get the sense that this film is aimed towards more of a young male audience.
The character is holding one prop in her hand, books which again represent the fact that she is in education. Her body language is quite flirty and womanly, as her legs are crossed and she’s slanted back on the desk, which can show her openness and confident personality. Her facial expression is of a slight grin; however the position of the girl makes it hard for the audience to see the full face from a front view. In terms of the position at which the girl is faced, it seems to have been purposely done to add mystery. We see the girls face from a side view, of which she is only slightly facing the camera, however her full face is kept out of the shot and this could draw attention to the fact that she has a split personality.
In terms of the characters hair and makeup, it again is very feminine; her hair is down and curly which can add to the sex appeal.  

Another aspect of this image is what the girl is sitting on. We see her sitting on a school desk, however if you look closer to that desk on the left side, you are able to see a hand coming out. This is a considerable aspect of the image as it subtly conveys the horror genre. From the use and position of the hand we can gather that she is sitting on someone that she has trapped in the desk, The fact that they can fit in the desk means that the body has either been broken up or squashed. The position of the girl sitting on top of the desk so openly highlights her dominance as a female character, which can be a countertype compared to most horror films, where the females play victims.

Text and layout
In terms of text, the colours used on this horror film poster are red and white, whilst the colours in the image are similar; a faded green to gray colour is used. These colours are very simple and in many ways can symbolise the characters personality. For example, the red can highlight the sin and evil in the girl, whilst the white is used to underline her angelic, innocent side.

In terms of the layout, it’s of a typical film poster, with the credits placed at the bottom and the title of the film placed just above the credits.

The text of the tagline reads `she’s evil...and not just high school evil’ This tagline can work well to draw the target audience in. If the audience see the word high school, they are able to relate to it.  High school evil would refer to being a popular mean girl, playing pranks, making fun of people and being vain and arrogant. The tagline clearly states that this character is not just these things, but she is generally evil.