Textual Analysis: Film Poster 9

When analysing the 'Blackfish' documentary film poster, the feature that stood out to me the most was the choice of image; this caused me to question why the image was chosen and what was the intended purpose/desired effect on the audience. The image appears very symmetrical through the white markings of the Orca; this creates an eerie undertone as the markings allude to an expression of anger and intimidation, therefore suggesting that the content will be shocking and at some points distressing to view. At first, the image of the Orca was unidentifiable to me- it seemed like a black shape with white eyes and a white frown; it can be argued that this is symbolic of the idea that the mammals are stripped of their identity within the featured footage. There is a very evident use of low-key lighting in order to emphasise the dark narrative and moral message, however, it can also be said that this is used in order to reflect the nature of the ocean- mysterious, unknown and yet to be entirely explored.

The mise-en-scene, typography, positioning and framing of the sequence comes across as very simplistic in layout, somewhat highlighting the seriousness of the topic. The tagline 'friend. outcast. killer.' is very effective in arousing the emotional responses of the audience- the contrasting language juxtaposes itself, therefore causing us to sympathise with the mammal despite it possessing the title of a 'killer'. The title 'Blackfish' is centrally located and appears in the same font as the tagline- this is uncommon in relation to the other posters I have analysed as normally different fonts/colours are used. The black and white theme is maintained throughout as the text appears in a tone of off-white on top of a black background; the consistency of the typography and the lack of sans-serif further alludes to the genre of a documentary as the poster appears rather harsh and realistic.

There are very few credits featured, but those that are present appear in very small font size and are practically unreadable- there is also a strong use of intertextual advertisement as there is reference to a website, twitter and Facebook page in relation to the film.