The Passion of the Christ is a film, released in February 2004, documenting ‘the last 12 hours of Christ’s life on Earth’. From visiting the official website- www.thepassionofthechrist.com , a clear identity of the film is shown to audiences from the moment they enter the home page, introducing the site.
From a first glance, the colour scheme of black, yellow and white, captures the eye and draws the viewer into the imagery displayed on screen. An iconic biblical image of the three crucifixions, immediately re-establishes and enhances the theme to this film of religion and biblical connotations. The crosses are placed strategically in the upper left hemisphere of the screen. As the audience is drawn towards the male character, depicted obviously as Jesus, they follow his gaze towards the sky and to the crosses. The typography of the text is clear and bold. The golden yellow colours stand out against the backdrop of the screen and grab attention and interest. ‘ENTER SITE’ is shown on the left of the image, giving a clear instruction to those wanting to view the official website.
From clicking on the 'ENTER SITE' hyperlink, the audience is taken to the main body of the website. ‘THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST’ is situated in the lower segment of the screen, however captures the audience’s attention due to the bold, large text, with the contrasting yellow colour against the backdrop of the black. From scanning the page it is clear that the colour scheme of yellow, red and black has continued on from the first page of the website. Half of the image is taken up by 3 main elements,-an iconic, biblical motif of a cross, the male protagonist and a cluster of other characters. The cross is a clear and strong element to the page. It symbolises the predominant theme of religion and Christianity, emphasising the connotations of the film’s meaning. The male protagonist is illuminated, showing his wounds and sense of helplessness. The image provokes questions to the audience; perhaps asking them to wonder how the character obtained the injuries. As you scroll over the titles such as THE FILM, CAST & CREW, a drop down, selection hyperlink is displayed. The audience can easily see where to click, and the website is a clear guide to the components of the film.
From clicking on SYNOPSIS from the drop down selection of THE FILM, a scroll-like document is shown, overlapping the moving picture on screen. The graphology to the page is vintage and biblical. The simplicity and ease of use, conforms to the conventions of old style film. ‘A MEL GIBSON FILM’ and the DVD is shown in every step of the website. This promotes the film and advertises it to the audience. The moving image shows unique selections of the film, persuading the viewers to purchase and view the film.
From viewing the website, there are a lot of elements in which we could take inspiration from for the layout of our blog. The colour scheme is simple yet eye-catching, and the use of a drop down menu and iconic symbolism, reinforces the genre and theme to the film. It is a well-rounded and informative website. Everything conforms to the codes and conventions of religion and Christianity and the promotional techniques entice the audience to view the film 'THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST'.
'RED STATE' - Film Poster
Brief overview of 3 deconstructions on the film posters of 'RED STATE'. The posters were chosen due to their clear motifs and link to biblical religion. From analysing the 3 images, a few key characteristics from all of the posters are clear to be seen:
Symbolism: each contains the iconic biblical cross image in the centre of the picture. The cross is the main dominant focus and where the audience's eyes are drawn to first.
Colour scheme: red, black and white conform to the codes and conventions of a horror film. In this instance, red can be linked and associated with hell, satanism and death.
Clear typography: 'RED STATE' is featured in capital letters in each of the posters. The cross draws eyes towards the title at the bottom of the page. The simple, understated look to the font makes it stand out and captivates the audience's attention.
Overall, there are a few elements to each of the posters which we can draw inspiration from. One of which is the 'upside down' cross featured in the first poster. This gives a twist to the iconic symbol and could create a unique identity and motif for our teaser trailer.
Deconstruction of Tyler The Creator - Yonkers/Hanging
Poster Ideas - One Missed Call
What attracted us most to this movie poster was the face emerging from the dark background. This was an idea we had for our poster as the mask the killer wears in our trailer is a main prop throughout the film. The colours on this poster are typical of the horror genre (black, white red) and it's simplicity is what is intriguing. It may take the viewer a closer look to see that he eyes on this face are actually mouths which are open as if they are screaming. This gives the poster an odd look which adds to the fear element. What we mainly wanted to take away from this poster is how the face looks almost mask like because the eyes look like holes.
Our first idea was to have our mask emerging from a dark background like "One Missed Call". We also wanted to make sure the motif could be seen clearly as that was a main feature of our trailer. In this picture we used red light instead of white to conform to the traditional colour of a horror movie poster. However we are reconsidering this as it does cast the rest of the mask in to shadow and it is important for us to have the whole mask showing.
