THE MACHINIST - Poster Analysis #4

THE MACHINIST

Media Language

Representation

Audience

Narrative

Genre

The Machinist a British film which was released in 2004 and was not successful in box office, was very successful with critic reviews and audiences. Although this film had a $5 million budget it is classed as a low budget film which has a very interesting and busy film poster. The layout of the poster can represents multiple perspectives on the narrative, conveying many meanings and messages that the poster designer wanted to reinforce and generate for audiences. 

The composition of this poster focuses on the films main protagonist, Trevor Reznik, played by Christian Bale where he is scattered and fitted along the top of the poster. Not only does this suggest he is the protagonists and main character but also could connote that the film is going to explore all the different sides to Trevor's fragile personality. This can be represented through his various facial expressions in his different images on the poster. They vary from the first face on the left looking bewildered and then the last face on the right looking very vulnerable. This unorthodox approach showing four images of Trevor's face implies that this film could have some physiological themes to engage spectators and to change their perception of reality. 

The light and dark colour scheme that is used generates a low-key light effect across the whole poster, however giving it some contrast with the lighter blues to create differences in the poster, otherwise it could be too plain and boring. These two contrasting colours may suggest that these images that we see on the poster are from flashbacks of Trevor, which is another typical psychological genre film convention. The unorthodox elements that are being applied in this poster generates enigma around this character, leaving many raised questions from spectators. The target audience from what I can see from the poster would be aimed at a mature audience of both genders, however I wouldn't say that this film was  targeted towards a younger audience, especially if it has heavy psychological themes. I have learn't how important lighting is for a film poster as it can reveal many hidden messages and hints to what themes and genres are involved in the narrative. I will definitely incorporate these techniques and ideas into account for when I come to design my poster for my film.

In this poster, a tagline is applied which is a tiny post note of an unfinished game of hangman with only two letters found at the end of the word. Next to the post note it quotes "Trevor Reznik is four letters away from the truth." This represents and can reveal some of the themes of the film, for example, he may be searching for something important and significant to himself. The title also uses the hangman effect, this continues to tease the audience by connoting that the main protagonist, Trevor is being shielded from finding out the truth, which can also be considered as having some genre conventions of a thriller. Therefore we are positioned to root for him and for him to find out the truth, although we still don't know the full context of the film, we only guess from the film poster.