Magazine cover – Links with genre

There is blood on the side of Brad Pitt’s face, this links with the violent theme of the film because it suggests that he has been in a fight.

The serious looks on both of the character’s faces suggests violence when linked with the gritty appearance of them.

The inclusion of only male characters on the magazine cover might be a coincidence but it could also help covey the violence of the film as violence is typically associated with men.

The background of the magazine cover is a dull grey, this could be associated with the lowly theme of the film.

Edward Norton also has blood on his face and has an unkempt appearance, this again links with the gritty theme.

The clothing of Brad Pitt and the cigarette hanging from his mouth gives him a gritty persona and grittiness is one of the main themes of the film.

The shadow on both the characters faces suggests mystery, which is included within the film.

Magazine cover – Appeal to audience

Putting Brad Pitt in front of Edward Norton and having a bigger image of him is used for marketing as Brad Pitt is more famous than Edward Norton and audiences will want to see him more, even though Edward Norton is more the protagonist of the film.

The names of the two stars from Fight Club have their names written in a different font from the rest of the cover line. This appeals to audiences because the audiences want to know about the actors

The title of the film is written in a large, stand out font to capture audience attention.

Poster

The background of the poster is a dull brick wall, showing the gritty theme.

The lighting of the poster is quite gloomy to suggest the lowly elements of the film.

The tagline reads: Mischief. Mayhem. Soap. This is almost a summary of the key components: Mischief and Mayhem are quite literal whereas Soap ties in with parts of the film but the strangeness of its inclusion reflects on the strange inclusions within the film.

The title of the film is on a luminescent bar of soap, this catches the audiences eye but also is a contrast to the rest of the poster. This might be reflecting on the core morals of the film: breaking away from the norm.

Links Between Magazine Cover and Poster

Brad Pitt as main focus, Edward Norton behind.

Use of a dull, neutral and uninteresting backgrounds.

The overall appearance of both characters is both unkempt or gritty.

The clothing of both characters is very similar, if not identical.

The actor’s names are in a bold and eye catching font.

The two characters are the main focus, there are no other characters or anything else in the background

Frame 1

Immediately after the institutions, there is a close up shot of Brad Pitt. This is used as a means of marketing because Brad Pitt is a famous celebrity and the producers want as much exposure of him as possible.

There is a lot of darkness and shadow in the shot, suggesting a dark and lowly theme.

Brad Pitt appears to be wearing the same jacket from the poster and magazine cover.

From the mise – en – scene we can see that it is night time, this is a subtly related to the dark theme of the film.

Frame 2

This is the shot directly after the shot in the last frame analysis. In this shot we see the second character portrayed by Edward Norton. Again Edward Norton is shown secondary to Brad Pitt, just like the poster and magazine cover

The background is the same as the last frame: dark and lowly to suggest the theme of the movie.

The clothes of Edward Norton seem similar to what he was wearing in the magazine cover and poster images: a white shirt.

Both of the biggest actors are introduced very early on in the trailer to attract audiences as these two actors are quite famous.

Frame 3

In this shot there is text in the middle of the screen that reads: From the director of Seven. This is a marketing technique that tries to attract a larger audience by suggesting that this film will be like seven as it is directed by the same person.

In the mise – en – scene of this shot we can see what look like CGI neurons in a human brain. This links in with the psychological genre/theme of the film.

The soundtrack in this shot is an upbeat electronic piece with quite a dark feel to it, this gives connotations of action or violence.

Frame 4

In the mise – en –scene of this shot we can see the main character and a doctor sitting in a hospital talking. The presence of the doctor relates to the psychological aspects of the film.

The colour scheme and possibly lighting of this shot follow the lime like colour scheme of the poster.

During this shot, the doctor says to Edward Norton ‘No, you cant die of insomnia’. This links in with the mental issues portrayed within the film but the doctors body language suggests that he is disgruntled or uncaring towards Edward Norton’s character. This suggests that Edward Norton’s character isn't really a likeable person in the film.

Frame 5

Here we can see the main character lying on the sofa watching TV. This shows him as a lazy person.

The voice over/narrative of this shot is by the main character and states: ‘This is your life and it is ending one minute at a time’. This shows that the main character has a very bleak outlook on life and portrays him as quite cynical, which will allow the audience to predict his actions further on in the movie.

Frame 6

In this shot, there are a group of men watching a fight between two men outside of a bar. This is clearly showing that the film has a violent theme. The fact that everyone of these people is a man might attract a larger male audience than female.

The setting of the shot is at night time and the lighting is dark. The clothes of all the characters are dark as well, this further conveys the violent theme and grittiness of the film

The colour scheme used in other shots also makes an appearance here. You can see that the shot is mainly dark but the lighting gives off a yellowish glow on the ground and to the left.

Frame 7

The main character here has a very unkempt appearance shown by his messy hair, blood on his shirt and cigarette hanging from his mouth. This tells the audience that the main character doesn't really care about his appearance any more and that he has a gritty

nature.

The facial expression of the character is quite blank, reflecting on his cynical or uncaring persona.

The portrayal of the character in this scene creates a persona that the audience may be able to relate to; many people who have office jobs such as this character may feel the need to behave in the way he does. This helps attract a larger audience.

Frame 8

This frame shows a medium shot of Brad Pitt’s character topless after a fight. This is a marketing technique to show use Brad Pitt as a heartthrob to gain a larger audience base (particularly the female audience)

There is no much lighting in this shot, the lighting on the characters in the background is quite dark, suggesting that that are not very important in the film.

The surrounding area looks like a basement, suggested by the pipes and dim lights. This shows the grittiness of the film.

Frame 9

Near the end of the trailer, there are shots of explosions such as this one. This suggests to the audience that the film will have scenes of action within it.

During these shots, the soundtrack to the film begins playing. The song is ‘Where is my mind’ by The Pixies. This song is a rock song and coupled with the explosions created the climax of the trailer and reinforces the thriller and action aspects of the film