"Titanic" and "The Beach".

Essay by Ian132High School, 10th gradeB, May 2003

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Titanic:

The subjects within the frame are a boat (The Titanic), and in the whole shot you can see the boat, Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), these are the protagonists - at this time I would not have known their names. My eye is first of all drawn straight to the point of the boat, which is going in between Jack and Rose, and behind this boat is a blue cloudy sky.

At the bottom of the picture is the release date and the way this film is being released, "At cinemas across the country from January 23rd 1998." This is in quite large text so the person looking at the poster will be able to see it and remember the release date of it. Just above this is the billing block, it is in very fine text, almost the same colour as the boat which it is printed on.

The designer has chosen to do this because the information is not that relevant but it is the law to have this printed on every poster along with the certificate.

Above the billing block is information about the director, it says that it is the same person who directed 'Aliens' and more. So this means that if the person looking at this poster liked the directors other films then it would be likely they would like his new film, this is a good way of promoting the film and is why directors must keep a good reputation. Directly above this statement is the title of the film, it is in big letters and a font style that would be recognised as a "Titanic Font" so if anyone was to see that word in that font again it would immediately remind them of this poster.

Above the title is the tag line, this has been taken from the film and put directly on the poster, so wen the person viewing this poster goes to watch the film they would recognise this saying and immediately refer back to the poster.

All the prior information has been included with the photo; the picture of the Titanic is pointing up towards the sky and the text has been included on the front of the boat.

At the very top of the poster is a picture of Jack and Rose with their names above them, the names have been put above them so that if a viewer liked them in another film, then they would probably like this film. The two pictures have been taken in a studio on a separate picture, then with a computer the have been cropped out and put onto this poster. The shot size of both pictures are ECU's (Extreme Close Ups) which catches the emotion on their face, in this case it is very unhappy. The angle of the shot is an eye-level one and it has a sharp focus on their face, which again catches the emotion. The photocopied version of this is in black and white but the real version would have been in colour and you would have been able to see the actual colours behind them.

On the boat the lighting is coming from the right, because I can see the shadow on the left, but on the picture of Jack, the light is coming from the left, because there is a large shadow on the right side of his face. Both of the pictures are poses but I think that the designer has tried to make it look as if this picture has been taken straight from the film.

The purpose of this poster is to sell cinema tickets World-wide so people will come to watch the Titanic.

I think that he hidden meaning within this poster is the Titanic that brought them together, hence the picture of them at the top together. Nevertheless, it was the Titanic that prised them apart; I think this because there is a picture of the Titanic going straight between the two main characters so the Titanic is splitting their picture apart, which does happen in the film when Jack dies. I think that if I had not already seen the film then my interpretation of the poster would have been different.

In this poster there is little mise-en-scene, perhaps where the Titanic is a legend, all they needed to do was show a picture of the boat. As the film is a romantic one, I would expect to see two lovers, which are the protagonists.

The Beach:

The subject within the frame is Leonardo Di Caprio (Ricahrd); he is looking up towards the sky with an angry look on his face. In the whole shot I can see Richard and some palm trees in the background, the image has an overlaid red colour, this is to add to the anger effect. The image is composed to draw my eye to his eyes, this shows the emotions on his face, the person who created this poster is stressing the anger shown. The close up view of Richard lets you distinguish all the small details he shows, for example he is wearing a surfer type necklace, this portrays the type of person he is.

At the bottom of the picture there is the title of the film, as this is very important it is in large text. Right at the top of the film is the way in which the film is released (to rent on DVD), this is not only displayed at the top it is also shown all the way round the edge of the poster. At the very bottom of the poster, below the headline, is the billing lock, this is in small text so it is still displayed on the poster but does not over power the designed image. In between the title and the billing block are some reviews of the film, these are important because it gives the viewer a small taste of what the film will be like.

Above the title it says "From the director of 'Trainspotting'" they have included this into the design because it would be important and get people to come and watch the film. If they liked the film Trainspotting, then it is more than likely that they will like this film.

At the very bottom of the poster it has an address advertising their website.

I think the hidden meaning behind this poster is that he is stuck in a world of confusing and anger this is portrayed by the red background (anger) and the look on his face. This image created here will be a big part if you decide to go and watch the film, as I already know the outcome I know that during the film there is a period where he changes. This poster portrays this change occuring.

Best Designed:

I think that overall the Titanic poster is the best, although the Beach has a clever hidden meaning, if someone was to look at each poster quickly then the Titanic would stand out the most because the meaning is easily understood.

Differences:

The main differences between these two posters are the type of release they are promoting. The Beach is promoting a DVD release and the Titanic is promoting a cinema release, however there are some other minor differences with the posters.