Kiss of the vampire analysis

Kiss of The Vampire (1963)

GENRE: Horror

SUB-GENRE: Gothic & Vampire


Layout/Images

This poster can easily be identified as a film poster due to the credits at the bottom of the poster. The main image is featuring two vampires and two victims and several bats appearing in the background. The colour “red” connotes blood and blood sucking. This deepens the thought of killing, murdering and alternately death. The pathetic fallacy in the poster (dark clouds), suggests the mood and atmosphere to be dark and evil which describes the vampires.


Conventions

The conventions of a vampire have been repeated throughout the years, as when I think of a vampire, I think back to centuries ago. To this day, the image of vampires has differed but remained original.


Conventions of a vampire include:

o   

    Sucking blood

o   Seductive romantic figure

o   Pale and Tall

o   Fangs

o   Black cloak

Within in the film poster, the conventions include:

o   Moonlight

o   The colour “red”

o   Blood

o   Castle

o   Bats

o   Black & Red

o   Cloaks/ Capes

o   Fangs

However, this poster challenges conventions as there is a male victim normally, the females would be the victims as a down stressed. This is where in a film a male hero would appear to save the female. This poster also has a female vampire featured which challenges representation of females in that decade. As men were the powerful dominant ones and the females were seen to be weak and sensitive. But vampires were sometimes shown to be a duet and featured as a husband wife or a couple working together as a team to kill.


Theory

Zoonen’s theory that men and women are represented differently in the media, as the female in the poster is seen to be distressed and the male is shown to be powerful as he’s sucked his victims’ blood. The power of the media has created stereotypes and certain representations of both genders that we now associate with their genders. The audience would be disturbed, by the fact there is a female vampire as normally the females ae being killed.


Neale’s theory that everything is made up of repetition and difference e.g. horror = darkness. Throughout the decades in media, the image and conventions on vampires have been repeated but differed as well for example: vampires are supposed to hate sunlight however, in ‘twilight’ the vampire’s glow in the sunlight. Some conventions have been altered so the audience is pleasured, and suspense occurs as it’s not what they originally thought.

TIDE advertisement

TIDE Advertisement

Layout/ Images

The main image is in the direct eye line of the printed text. There is a main image of a female hugging soap powder, the audience would easily identify the soap powder as the product. There is also other images like in the bottom right corner, it shows that these two females had no struggles with the highly-boosted soap powder.

 The main image is of a 1950’s housewife. The female is seen ‘hugging’ the soap powder box and the heart animation connotes she’s in love with it.

Text and language

The triplet used helps promote “Tide” as ‘the world’s CLEANEST wash!’  etc. There are several exclamation marks to exaggerate the soap powder of how much this housewife loves it and that this is the best soap powder in the market.

 The skyline shows the advert is directly aimed at women “No wonder you women buy more TIDE than any other washday product!”

This advert is clearly directed to women the direct mode of address of “you women”.

Colour

 The colour used is red, this colour is bold and bright to grab the reader's eyes. The colour corresponds with the soap powder’s packaging colour and the female’s lipstick.

Representation of women

Women are represented to be 1950’s housewives due to the costume, makeup and hairstyle in the advert. The female has glamorous makeup on, a polka dotted dress and a sleek clean hairstyle.

Context/Theory

Zoonen’s theory of that men and women are described differently in the media, this links with stereotypes in the current world and era in the 50’s as women were meant to look after the kids, cook and clean whereas, the men were meant to work to earn money so they could pay for the bills.

Barthe’s theory that all media texts have codes that need to be read. Within this advert, the audience will de code this advert as some text/images have different messages.

Gauntlett states in his theory, that we use all the internet and other media texts to help us create an identify.