Denotation and Connotation of a movie poster.

The genre of the film above, is thriller.

Codes and conventions of a thriler are:

• Quick shots and varied camera angles.
• Music that helps to build up the tent.
• Dark lighting.
• Suprises and twists in the storylines.
• Usually from the antagonists point of view.
• Frequent use of stairs.
• Flashback scenes are usually seen.

Key signifiers that a film belongs to the Thriller genre would be the use of the colour back for a background of an image for a theatrical poster. The colour black signifies darkness which adds the feel of mystery and fear.

Denotative levels of the poster are the faces of a woman and a man which take up a lot of the photo. This tells us these characters are obviously significant to the film and are main characters. Below the faces are who appear to be doctors standing around a man lying on an operating table.

Connatative levels of the poster are that there are people around an operating table and the man lying on the table appears to be the main characters whos face is show above on the poster. The title 'awake' suggests the character undergoes some sort of surgery.

The image on the poster itself actually says quite alot about the film. The people displayed at the top are obviously significant to the film and the scene below their faces tells us that the film is in some way medical and suggests a surgery of some kind is performed. The fact the setting is dark suggests to us that something goes wrong during that surgery and that the film is centred around that.