Compare And Contrast Posters

Both the film posters are effective in promoting the film and conveying meaning to the audience. They both use many effective visual devices to do this. The gesture codes are effective visual devices that are used to show facial expressions and body language. Film poster one presents us with a very strong opening image. That of a towering ferocious ape, King Kong. Kong is presented in a crouching pose, shielding the female protagonist from the audience.

His protective state suggests he is acting contrary to his animal roots and protecting rather then killing the human female.

Also on Kong’s forehead we can see a deep scar, showing that even someone as appretnly vicious as Kong can receive harm. This allows the audience to perceive Kong with perhaps not sympathy but definelty a better understanding of his appeal to the audience. The female represents a binary opposite to the posters main focus. Wheares Kong is portrayed as a huge angry ape, our woman protagonist is a small dainty and clearly in some kind of distress.

This plays perfect, as her stereotypical feminity allows the audience to understand her better, and the same applies for Kongs body language, as the stereotypical big caring masculine here, or in this case anti-hero. Our female protagonist does not seem scare, rather in awe of this huge beast. Her body language prompts lack of fear and amazement at her position. War Of The Worlds seems to have no gesure codes, it differs from King Kong as it does not portay the protagonist.

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This is typical of the genre, often Sci-fi films focus on there monster or special effects, rather then there actors.

Poster Genre

By looking closely at the hand of the alien, we can see the hand throbbing with power and strength, thus displaying a strong action code. But by hiding the aliens face it really gives the poster a strong enigma code. The composition of mise-en-scene shows a strong contrast between the two film posters. King Kong places us above Kong, making us feel more powerful then him. Allowing us to realize that even though he is 10 feet tall, he is still an animal. Also by highlighting the vibrant New York city backdrop it gives us a chance to see the wonderland that Kong has scaled.

This adds to the enigma of the poster allowing the audience to see how high he has climbed. The natural colors of the poster also makes this poster seems out of genre. An autumn summery mix of pastel like colours aren’t exactly typical fantasy conventions, especially ape-related fantasy. While ‘War Of The Worlds’ places us at a low camera angle, below the gaping hand that is crushing our world. By placing us below the hand it really makes audience feel inferior and helpless. The pitch black background contrats perfectly with the suspended evil that the hand displays.

By being very sparse and simple in its appeal , ‘War Of The Worlds’ swaps emotion for a strong enigma code and downright fear. This works very well, as most Sci-Fi films do not rely on huge emotional ploys, rather than enemies or spacships. Whereas Kong does rile up various feelings. By seeing Kong on top of a large building, this builds a lot of awe, intrigue and mostly excitement. I believe this poster is a metaphor for the female protagonists love of Kong. Just sheer amazement and wonder.

Both film posters lack what is considered the key convention of film posters, ‘a tagline’ , but for this there is good reason. Both these posters advertise remakes of older classic versions. For this reason a tagline is not really required as the audience has there own ideas about the plot and fore knowledge of picture. Also by not placing a tagline on either poster, it really adds to the enigma codes of both films respectively. Both films intial intrest would be gained via the directors rather than the stars.

Both having Oscar winning directors at the chair gives the films a sense of purpose and prestige. By having there names on the posters, it relieves the audience that these aren’t going to be terrible remakes. King Kong uses its maing star ‘Kong’ to attract the attention of the audience. By placing him at the mainstay of the screen it will surely attract all the previous fans of the series. Whereas ‘War Of The Worlds’ displays no famous stars, but by showing the alien gripping the world this will surely grip sci-fi fans.