BREAK MY BONES- Tasha Reynolds

BREAK MY BONES

(Short film poster)

Source for this poster

Applying MRANG-

Media language;

The position of the shot is a close up of a girls head at eye-level while she is looking out of the shot towards something. This tells the audience that the shot is also a restricted narration shot as there appears to be other events taking place outside of the framed shot.

MES;

The lighting and colour are both very contrasted as there is multiple tones of light in this poster; the ghostly pale essence of the characters face as well as this continuing into the background. Whereas the image overlapped on top contains dark, depressing tones of grey and blue. Therefore expressing a scary and suspenseful aspect of the film through the medium of the poster. The female’s facial expression instigates that she is in deep thought; this is further implied by the image overlapping onto her head as the image could be a memory of something that she has been involved in. In this context I would say that the memory brings negativity and trauma with it as the colours surrounding the image are dark and gloomy.

Representation;

The representation of gender in this context focuses primarily on females as the central character is a young girl while an image (memory/thought) of another older women is visible as well. The young girl is presented as fragile and distant as her facial expression suggests that she is thinking about an unpleasant experience that she has been involved in and therefore looks overpowered by the emotions this brings to her as she looks disconnected.

Additionally, the older women is not as visually clear as she is consumed by dark lighting and colours. However, from what I can see she gives off the suggestion that she is also vulnerable as her dress code suggests a chaotic and frantic state to the fact that she is tied to the chair she is sitting in; connoting the idea of her being untrustworthy in the eyes of the person who tied her up.

Audience;

The target audience for this short film poster is unclear as there are various possibilities. For instance, the fact that a young child is the main semantic code of the poster, suggests that the film may target children. However, the iconography of the poster suggests otherwise as the poster also supports dark, disturbing semantic codes that an older audience would be associated with.

Narrative;

The story is explored through the visual codes such as the two images overlapping each other; one tells us about a possible iconic memory that is key to the film. Whereas the other image of the young girl suggests to us that she is the main protagonist the film is centred on as the layout and design of the poster revolves around her face.

The theme that is suggested is abuse and trauma because when taking all semantic conventions of this poster into consideration; such as the protagonist’s facial expression, the contrasting lighting and colour and also the title, it conjures up these two themes. Furthermore, the title; ‘Break My Bones' supports this theme as these words relate to the action of abusing another person as well as traumatising them.

Genre;

The genre I think this poster promotes is Psychological Realism as the conventions of this genre are apparent in the media text shown. These are key elements such as archetypes; as in this genre an example of an archetype of a character would be a young powerless girl; such as the one presented in the poster.

Another way this genre is promoted is through syntactic codes as the structure and form of the poster is typical of a poster representing this type of genre. For instance, the editing of the image helps convey elements of the psychological factor as the way the image of the thought/memory runs out carelessly onto the pure white background suggests that the memory/thought is overpowering and is effecting her mental state.

Additional Information;

The design of the title helps convey this theme of psychological trauma and also add to the concept of abuse as the font used is black and white; symbolising the concept of the pure and the sinned. The sizing of the font also helps maintain the viewers focus onto the main visual icons as it is small in contrast to the other semantic codes on the poster.