Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Mystery
Lead Roles: Ryan Reynolds, José Luis García Pérez and Robert Paterson
Plot: Paul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.
Visuals:
Type of shot: Canted high angle medium shot. This distortion makes him seem further away, which emphasizes the fact that he is trapped. The extreme low-key lighting and the fact Paul is only small at the bottom of the page creates an atmosphere of claustrophobia and being trapped, which of course is the topic of the film. With Paul holding up a light, looking up (and to the left) with his hand to his mouth shows the stress/panic/distress that he must be feeling. Also the lack of dynamism enphasises how he is trapped and feeling extremely claustrophobic, which we as an audience mimick.
Text: The text is used as levels/steps to represent how deeply underground Paul is trapped. It physically boxes him in, within the poster, emphasising this feeling of entrapment. 'Buried' (in red) runs along side his 'coffin' which emphasizes that this is physically what he is - buried alive - but also that it's the film title, in relation to Paul.
Colour:
The colour scheme that has been used is Black/White/Red, which are edgey bold colours symbolising that this film will be edgey and it will be bold.
The title is in red, which connotes danger/anger/passionate emotions (desperation). This could represent all the emotions that Paul experiences during his ordeal, or what the audience is made to feel with him. However, it is an eye-catching colour, and the only use of colour on the poster, so it more simply draws the attention of the audience.
The black background connotes impending doom/death/mystery. He's literally in an immense hole with no/little hope of survival, he (and the audience) have no idea what will happen, which is what the use of black implies to the audience.
The white text (binary opposite to black) could suggest at Paul's innocence of character, because he was unsuspecting of the attack, he was only a truck driver so he hadn't actually done anything wrong either. However, white can also mean death in other cultures, which, together with the use of black, foreshadows the ending of the film.
The use of Grayscale on the image creates a sense of mystery, because we can't see his facial expression, leaving a lot of work to the audiences imagination. In addition the darkness/colourlessness could represent the fact that there is no hope for Paul.
Linguistics
"A brilliantly twisted suspense thriller that would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud" - Firstly, what a compliment! Hitchcock is well known for his top class (at the time) classic thrillers, such as Vertigo, so this is very persuasive to a film loving audience who will recognised that this must be a good film to be compared with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock.
The lexical field is very persuasive because of all the descripters, 'mezmerizing', 'crazy-good', 'enthralling', 'ground-breaking', 'awesome', 'gripping'. All of these words appeal to the senses of the audience, thus making them more likely to go and see the film.
Visuals:
Type of shot: Canted high angle medium shot. This distortion makes him seem further away, which emphasizes the fact that he is trapped. The extreme low-key lighting and the fact Paul is only small at the bottom of the page creates an atmosphere of claustrophobia and being trapped, which of course is the topic of the film. With Paul holding up a light, looking up (and to the left) with his hand to his mouth shows the stress/panic/distress that he must be feeling. Also the lack of dynamism enphasises how he is trapped and feeling extremely claustrophobic, which we as an audience mimick.
Text: The text is used as levels/steps to represent how deeply underground Paul is trapped. It physically boxes him in, within the poster, emphasising this feeling of entrapment. 'Buried' (in red) runs along side his 'coffin' which emphasizes that this is physically what he is - buried alive - but also that it's the film title, in relation to Paul.
Colour:
The colour scheme that has been used is Black/White/Red, which are edgey bold colours symbolising that this film will be edgey and it will be bold.
The title is in red, which connotes danger/anger/passionate emotions (desperation). This could represent all the emotions that Paul experiences during his ordeal, or what the audience is made to feel with him. However, it is an eye-catching colour, and the only use of colour on the poster, so it more simply draws the attention of the audience.
The black background connotes impending doom/death/mystery. He's literally in an immense hole with no/little hope of survival, he (and the audience) have no idea what will happen, which is what the use of black implies to the audience.
The white text (binary opposite to black) could suggest at Paul's innocence of character, because he was unsuspecting of the attack, he was only a truck driver so he hadn't actually done anything wrong either. However, white can also mean death in other cultures, which, together with the use of black, foreshadows the ending of the film.
The use of Grayscale on the image creates a sense of mystery, because we can't see his facial expression, leaving a lot of work to the audiences imagination. In addition the darkness/colourlessness could represent the fact that there is no hope for Paul.
Linguistics
"A brilliantly twisted suspense thriller that would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud" - Firstly, what a compliment! Hitchcock is well known for his top class (at the time) classic thrillers, such as Vertigo, so this is very persuasive to a film loving audience who will recognised that this must be a good film to be compared with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock.
The lexical field is very persuasive because of all the descripters, 'mezmerizing', 'crazy-good', 'enthralling', 'ground-breaking', 'awesome', 'gripping'. All of these words appeal to the senses of the audience, thus making them more likely to go and see the film.
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