How To Be Successful In Media

Looking at the style of this still image we may spring to the conclusion the genre that this film will be action and may have a hint of romance but will most likely be a thriller that may be on the edge of your seats instead of a romantic comedy. The question is why do our minds spring to that conclusion how are we so certain of it? The is an example of ‘preferred reading’ and it’s a powerful tool creators use in many sources of media that involves non-verbal communication. It is commonly used to sway the viewers thought through ideology to control the viewer’s interpretation of the source and get their message across. Therefore, in this post I am going to break the certain layers anchoring this collage together to explain it effective for persuading the reader to watch the film I the hope of giving you a minor insight to the world of media.

As the consumer, the first thing my eyes set sight on is the man with the black suite with the gun in his hand. Upon seeing this the consumer would vaguely assume it is an action film as that is what the gun suggests and is the genre it has connotations of but to be certain the viewer must evaluate him even further. If you look at his facial expressions he carries a stern and serious look, his posture makes him look fearless and confident. Looking at his character in a whole I can come to an assumption that he is a serious agent (which is implied by the way he dresses) who is proud of what he does for a living (which is what his posture suggests) and will take on whoever opposes him (which is the aura he is giving off). Now looking at the picture as whole it is very likely he is the main character because of the way the creator has intentionally put him in front of everything, the act he has appeared on the cover of this advertisement foreshadows we will be seeing the most of him in the movie. That is what we can get from the first layer of this collage and with that note I will move onto the next.

Behind who we believe is the main protagonist appears a woman in in a light blue dress. The way the way they are positioned gives the consumer the impression they have got each other’s back which is ironic. They look like partners and work together because of the same facial expression meaning that we may see them together a lot in the movie and may get the same amount of screen time but the way she is positioned behind him suggests otherwise. They really seem to stand out in this montage because of the colours of their clothes. Furthermore, the colour of the dress has connotations of with depth and stability; symbolises trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence faith and truth. Whilst dark blue is associated with depth, expertise and stability. This is a huge breakthrough and must be the best implicit piece information we might get from this image as a whole because of the fact we can relate it directly with charactristics of people in the image. These colours would have intentionally been chosen by the creator of the collage to implicitly hint details about the type of people they are which is a very important to possess in the world of media. From what I have gathered she may play an important role in the movie and will most likely be a love interest or loyal friend of the male in the photo which seem to be the most reasonable archetypes for her character at this point. This is often the trend in movies that have a male and female on the advertisement poster.

The next and final layer I will be evaluating is the text that is placed at the very back of the collage, despite its location on this image it still an important factor as it gives you missing information such as a title and helps round up the image. In incredibly large bold print we can see what seems to be '007' which some consumers may interpret as random numbers but if you look closely the seven has taken a shape of what looks like a gun. Once again, a gun is brought up again which is not just a mere coincidence, the creator has intentionally placed it there to empathise the importance of this tool in this movie. Upon further evaluation of these numbers you should make out a skull mask in the unit ’7', skulls have connotations of mostly death and a mask is the preferred item of a villain when committing a crime. The creator behind the idea wants to make sure the consumer that is aware the movie will contain a strong mix of violence and death as a skull has an indexical sign of death as it is a weapon and the gun is a signifier of violence; a great use of iconography. Also, the fact that the creator found a way to fuse them makes me certain of this.  Under the '7' is the word Spectre which most likely the title of the movie due to its unusual font in capitals which is eye catching as it stands out due to its contrast with the white background. Under it once again are the numbers '007' in a smaller font reminiscent of a water mark, it being missioned again makes the consumer doubt that they are random numbers but rather a code. Going with the theme of the movie and general knowledge the consumer would conclude they are the agents/assassins name or code number, which explains why it has been adapted into a gun; to show how lethal he is. It is all comes together perfectly! 

In conclusion, the creators in charge of projects like theses take lots of time and effort to leak as much as information from their work to attract and grab the attention of their target audience with their given mode of address and to do this they result to using techniques common in the world of media. An example would be ideology, which are a set of ideas or beliefs held acceptable by the creators of media text that most groups in society believe in. That means if they feel they must put an object or text in their media product to grab the attention of a majority of their target audience they will. That is how the consumer gains interest in the product (because of their beliefs) and why they will consider further action gain more knowledge on the topic (like watching a movie in the cinema because of its poster). It all depends on the consumers 'preferred reading' and to be successful in media you must find a way of hacking it.