POSTER ANALYSIS - The Blair Witch Project

As we are also analysing The Blair Witch Project trailer, and designing a poster for our film is a part of our brief, we thought we should also analyse the poster to go alongside the trailer. When first viewing, this poster appears to be very basic but it was actually crafted together very carefully and every minor detail has been included for a reason.

In the background of the poster we can clearly see the silhouette of trees which instantly sets the scene of the film as the audience will know that this film is going to take place in the forest. A dark forest brings connotations of isolation, fear and mystery which is exactly what the viewers would experience when watching the film. The target audience would be instantly drawn to the extreme close up of the characters eyes, by just focusing on her eyes and not the rest of the face allows the audience to empathise and see deep into the fear she is experiencing. This technique is simple yet very effective as it allows the audience to focus on the fear as opposed to being distracted by gruesome images. The direct mode of address is intriguing the audience as they are going to be curious to find out what is causing this woman to appear so distressed.  The fact she is completely engulfed by darkness suggests she is completely alone. This allows viewers to decide whether she has always been alone or if there were other characters, it is then up to them to decide whether they want to watch the film to find out if their guesses were right as the simplicity of the poster allows them to use a little imagination and get them thinking.

The whole poster follows a monochrome colour scheme except the symbol above the text and the website in small font at the bottom of the poster. The use of red highlights these two aspects of the poster and so the audience automatically assumes they are worth their attention. The symbol that is highlighted is a sign which the audience won’t be familiar with but it instantly brings connotations of witchcraft or voodoo, especially with the title of the film ‘The Blair Witch Project’. The fact that the website is also highlighted, although in a very small font at the bottom of the poster urges the audience to visit the website and after engaging with this poster they may well go on the website to discover more about the film. 

The text featured in the centre of the poster is the only insight the audience has into the storyline of the film. It’s an introduction to the events that take place but ‘A year later the footage was found’ ends the paragraph, it encourages the audience to view the film and view the footage themselves. The footage itself will determine the nature of the film but from the image on the poster we can clearly identify this film as being of the horror genre. This is an interesting feature to use on a film poster as it is setting the scene for the film as the image used is simple but if we decide to have a more intricate image on our poster, similarly to ‘The Strangers’ poster, only a short tagline may be necessary.