RESEARCH & PLANNING - Covenant Posters

These are all film posters for the movie The Covenant. In year 12 I analysed the opening of this film as it had a lot of information and classic techniques were used. I am now going to analyse the film posters for it. I have found four posters for The Covenant online, it is hard to tell if the first two are teaser posters or main posters as although they have Little information on them they do still tell the audience a lot about the film. The third poster is defiantly a main poster and the last poster is the DVD poster.



On this poster there is no mention of the director, producer or actors unless it is on the credits at the very bottom of the poster. This could tell the audience that the director is not well known and neither are the cast. However the people who made the poster could be choosing to focus on genre indicators instead, this could show that this poster is a teaser poster. It does however have a tag line- a tag line is a convention of a main poster, this tag line reads: ONLY THE POWER OF HELL CAN HELP THEM. This tag line tells the audience that the film's narrative will include good and evil, also the word 'power' insinuates that there is magic or some sort of paranormal activity in the film. The symbol in the middle is of a large star which is tilted on it's side, this symbol has been used before with an association to magic. The fire around it shows danger and the fact that the flames are going over the four main characters insinuates that they could be in danger or the ones creating the danger.

This poster is a lot like the previous poster but instead of the star symbol and flames there is a different and longer tag line. The tag line reads: IN 1692. FIVE FAMILIES WITH UNTOLD POWER. FORMED A COVENANT OF SILENCE. ONE FAMILY WHO LUSTED FOR MORE WAS BANISHED. LEAVING THEIR BLOODLINE TO DISAPPEAR WITHOUT A TRACE... UNTIL NOW. This tag line tells the audience a lot about the narrative of the film. The image of four men walking also shows the four families are still together and there is enigma to where the fifth family is. The audience can assume that although all the families have power the four who are shown are the 'good guys' and the one who is not is the 'bad' character. The star is still shown in this poster behind the title of the film and the font is the same in both posters including the cross or the letter T. There is again no mention of actors directors etc unless it is in the credits. However at the bottom there is mention on when the film will be in the cinema: IN THEATRES THIS SEPTEMBER. This writing is in red to make it stand out and encourage people to go and see the film. The men looks as if they are light up by the moon, this makes them consumed by shadows and you can not make out facial expresses or anything else. The way they are walking looks as if they are almost floating, this could be done to show the audience that they are part of the families with 'powers'.

This poster has the same image of the four men walking as the others but this times it seems as if they are light up by the sun set instead of the moon, they again look as if they are floating. There is no star on this poster and the tag line has again changed, this time it reads: FOUR HAVE THE POWER. ONE WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO POSSES IT. This links back to the five families idea and that one of the families is the evil one in the narrative. There is a new image on this poster, a large picture on the main character in front on a full moon. He looks as if he is screaming either with pain or anger, the audience can assume that he is either the leader of the four remaining families or he is the fifth member of the covenant. The moon is often associated with the supernatural and therefore it is a good genre indicator. The writing across the pictures is old fashioned and shows that the families have been around for a long time and perhaps that they have to follow a certain rule book or something to that affect. On this poster there is no mention of a release date so the film could already be in the cinema.

This poster is a lot different to the other three. The four main characters are shown above the title and by a full moon, they all wear dark clothes and seem to be light by the moon light, this adds enigma. There is a circle behind the title which seems to be on fire, that colour is the only thing that is different between the rest the the blueish cover. Below the title are two men fighting, one is the the man who is biggest in the picture above, the other in unknown - an audience would assume that he could be part of the fifth family. In this poster they are showing that they do have powers by the blue lightning like ball which is being thrown at one of the characters. The tag line has again changed, this one reads: TO SAVE THE FUTURE...THEY MUST BATTLE THEIR PAST. This suggests that the fifth family are not only a danger to them but to the rest of the world also. In this poster they do not need to be as mysterious as the others as they will assume people have gone to see the film and now they are just trying to get them to buy the DVD.

All of the posters are dark and the light seems to come from the moon - all genre indicators. It is clear from all these posters that the characters are young men (attracts a younger audience and also female) they have super natural powers (sci fi ans) and that there will be fighting in the film (attracts male audience).

Rach.