Quiz #4 blog

My two movie posters are The Devil Wears Prada and The Deer Hunter. In both of these posters, design is used to speak to a target audience in two very different ways. However, these posters do share some things in common. First, the backgrounds in each poster are very plain. One is white and the other is black, but there is nothing happening beyond the main image. This forces our attention to the shoe and the man. Another common trait is the use of the color red. Without the red, both posters would be black and white. Even when looking at the red in each picture, both the shoe and headband have some black mixed in allowing the objects to look more realistic and three dimensional. One final common trait is the actress Meryl Streep appears in both of these films and her name can be seen on both posters. This allows the audience to know that these two movies share a common actress.

These two posters may have several things in common, but overall, they are vastly different. These two posters speak to two very different audiences, one to females (The Devil Wears Prada) and one to males (The Deer Hunter). In The Devil Wears Prada, there is a big red high heel shoe that is the only image in the entire poster. This relates to another female dominated genre of fashion. Another indicator of the role that fashion plays in the movie can be seen in the title with the use of the word Prada. This is a reference to an upscale designer company. This poster is geared towards females because the actresses that appear on the poster are both females. The actors/actresses whose names appear on the poster typically play the lead roles. So in this case, in The Devil wears Prada, the two lead roles are both female. Now one image that can be masculine is the pitchfork, however it is depicted as part of the heel of the shoe. If this were meant to be a masculine, there would probably be fire behind it or a devil holding it. So being that it is a part of the shoe, it cannot be viewed as masculine.

In the poster for The Deer Hunter, there is a man who looks very masculine. His face is covered with dirt, his hair is messy, and he has a red headband on. He is holding a gun to his head and he has an almost crazed look on his face. The gun relates to the targeted audience because the majority of gun owners are males. Another connection to the male audience is the title. Again, just like gun owners, most hunters are males. By looking at the poster, one can tell that a crazed man will play a lead role and that guns will be used in the movie. Both these details speak to the male gender.