Textual Analysis of a Movie Poster: The Eye

                                   Textual Analysis of a Movie Poster: The Eye 

The eye is a Remake of a Hong Kong film named “Jian Gui” and is citified a 15. It was produced by Peter Chan, Roy Lee and Doug Division and released in 2008. It features Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola, Parker Posey, Tamlyn Tomita and Chloe Grace Moretz. The Eye was directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud.

Synopsis: Since a childhood tragedy, Sydney has become blind; she decides to go through a Cornea transplantation (eye transplant) to restore her vision. Little did she know her new set of eyes will cause her to have strange visions, Sydney now has to look for the donor of her eyes and try and find out the truth behind her unexplained visions. 

After producing a film, one/more posters can be made to attract the audience to go and see the film. Film posters are used in cinemas, on the internet, on billboards and magazines and even the side on buses.

In the poster of The Eye we can see a extreme close up of eye. The eye is of a woman who is of a white complexion and from the eye we can also see a hand holding onto the eyelid from the inside of the eye.  At the bottom of the poster is the written information about the film.

In terms of Mise-en-scene, we notice that High key lighting is used in this image as we can see the brightness shone onto the eye with a bit of a shadow just above the eyelid.  The fact that the poster does not have a prop which is usually used to show the iconic weapon of the film, this suggest that the antagonist does not have a prop that he uses in order to attack/kill his victims.  As the main image is of a extreme close up of an eye, this does not allow the audience to see the setting of the model used. This could connote that the film is more centred on the victim(s) and what their feeling or going through, other than what is happening around them and where.

In terms of Non-verbal-communication, the way the image of the eye looks suggests to the audience that the model used is frightened as her eye is wide open, giving the impression she just uncovered something or is frightened of something she has seen or possibly even heard. The hand that is holding onto the eye from the inside of the eye could also symbolise how the victim is trying to escape from the world she has been made to live because of her new eyes. It could also suggest that because of her new eyes, someone else is trapped inside her and is trying to escape.

The image used for this poster was taken from a straight forward angle. The image has a asymmetrical composition which connotes a senses of imbalance. From the poster we can see that the outline and inside of the eye is defined and has a sharp focus, this could have been done as to direct the attention of the audience to the eye itself and not its surroundings.

<!--[if !vml]-->There are only a set of colours used in the poster, each which could have different connotation. The two mains colours used are black and white, these are both conventions of a horror movie. The white colour used could symbolise the purity/innocence of the victim. The grey shades that blend in with the white colour could however symbolise the connection between good and evil and decay of her eyes and possibly wellbeing. We also notice that there the colour black is used, this could be used to symbolise the dangers associated with the victim’s eye implant. It could also depict emptiness, fear and darkness. The lris of the eye may appear to be brown, however when looked at carefully, as the film is of a horror genre, this could change the perspective of the audience. Instead of thinking it is a brown colour, they could decide to see it as the same colour as or a ring of the flames of a fire.  The fire in the eyes of the victim could symbolise danger, from a psychologist point of view the fire could however symbolise the process of a psychological transformation, which the victim could be going through due to the mystical events that are happening to her because of her new set of eyes. On a brighter note the fire could also be used to depict the fact that fire destroys but also purifies and cleanses. The shade of the bright white lighted dot that is at the left hand side of pupil could also symbolise that after all the trouble there may just be some light at the end of the tunnel for the victim. The shadows that are just below the eyelid could be used to symbolise that there is a darker side of the victim or the person trapped/created within her because of her new eyes. Around the sclera are lines, these lines found in the eye could be used to symbolise how shattered she becomes due to the stressful events that are occurring in her life. 

The layout of the poster is quite simple, we have the eye on the middle of the page and all the words/captions that anchor the poster positioned at the bottom of the poster. All the words and captions included on the poster are all written in the same font. The text ‘Jessica Alba’ is written in a sans serif font and positioned at the bottom of the poster in the middle just above the title of the film. This is the only actor that is mentioned on the poster, which could have been done to attract the audience to go and watch the film as she is a well known actor. Below her name is the title of the film in a larger font size however the word ‘The’ is not bold whereas the word ‘Eye’ is. This could have been done as to highlight the importance of the eye in the film.  After the title of the film we notice that the production companies and websites are all written in a smaller font size.

Overall I like the poster as it is simple and does attract the audience by making them want to go and watch the film. The poster does this in a simple way by just putting across through the image used. Even though it is simple idea it does give the audience a sense of confusion as to why there is a hand coming out of an eye as this is bizarre, which is good as ‘The Eye is a horror film.