Ella Duncan

Taken

Taken 1 was released in 2008 and directed by Pierre Morel staring Liam Neeson. The film is about a CIA agent who travels across Europe after hearing his daughter has been abducted from her hotel room by human traffickers and sexual slavery in France.

The film is a thriller action film, relating to the genre and sub-genre based in my production.

The print media used for the film was useful because it allowed the film to be advertised to a wide range of people rather than just being online and on TV. The posters allow the film to be promoted to a mass target audience making them aware of the film roughly two weeks before the trailer is released. The posters I found during research each showed the protagonist character Bryan Mils (Liam Neeson) either in action during the film of a still shot of him. This therefore introduces audiences to the characters and allows them to grow an interest in the film as the posters do not reveal a lot of information about the plot of the film. The posters mostly follow the same house style with low key lighting and bold fonts that stand out well and entice audiences.

Print Analysis

This poster denotes the protagonist in a still action shot that has clearly been taken in a photo-shoot on a green screen. The protagonist has been then placed on a background where there are smaller images of different shots from the film. This allows the audience to see the main character and some of the action, however it does not give away the plot of the film. The house style is low key, dark greys with the title in a big bold font that is continuously used throughout all of the advertising media. The white font that is used for the release date and the main actors stands out from the background making it clear and enticing for the audience as they may see the poster on a bus and billboards in the street. The tag line used at the top of the poster allows creates an enigma for the audience as it gives the audiences an introduction to what the concept of the film may be. “He will HUNT them, He will FIND them and he will KILL them” is stated at the top of the poster which links to a quote said by the protagonist Bryan Hils, however audience members would not eat be aware of this therefore they are forced to question what this means.

Poster

This poster shows an extreme long shot of the protagonist as he runs through the streets. The poster is a French poster, implying that it was used in France in order to attract a wide range of audience members to watch the film and be made aware of it. The red font used for the title is an eye-catching element of the poster and allows this aspect to be the eye-catching central part of the poster. White font is also used to show the main actor, Liam Neeson and also the director, Pierre Morel which stands out well against the dark, mysterious blue background which makes it clear for the audience to see. This poster would be clear for audiences to see in the street on billboards, busses and trains in France. The poster also allows the audience to get some ideas about the film because we are able to see the Eifel tower in the back of the action shot, introducing audience members to the setting of the film. This is also means that the action is not given away to the audience and creates a sense of mystery and an enigma because they are only shown one character.

Poster

The final poster is the most simple poster but allows the audience to become aware of the concept that could be included in the film. The use of the dark black background creates the feeling of absence and absorbs all aspect of light. Therefore with the ark grey font used to portray the quote stands out more but also fits the house style of a dark, mysterious colour. The use of the orange font for the title “TAKEN” allows the focus to be on that title, meaning the audience are made aware of the title of the film so they can find out more about the film and are aware of the name of the film so they can watch trailers. This orange font also matches the range font used for the main actors name, this allows any members of the public who like Liam Neeson can see that he stars in this film and will be more likely to go and watch the film, meaning a bigger mass of audiences are aware of the film and will watch the film at cinemas etc.

Poster

Overall, the print media used to advertise the film Taken, was a big part of the distribution process of this film. By having a wide range of posters, it allows the audience to

become use to this new film as the different posters would be used in different places such as busses, tubes, billboards,

magazines etc. The films all allow ait of information to be given to a mass target audience about the film, but also creates a huge amount of enigma because none of them

simply give away a great deal of the plot that the film consists in the film. Print media allows the film advertising to be promoted to a wider range of people, meaning more people are aware of the film and will watch the trailer and

will hopefully then be interested in the film itself.

Posters overall

E-media was used to a huge extent for the distribution of the film Taken in 2008. The use of E-Media allows the film information to be spread all over easily and keeps people up to date with the process of the film. This also attracts other audience members to show an interest in the film. Different e-media advertising techniques that were used to promote the film included Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

E-Media Analysis

Facebook was used in order to promote the film meaning it can be seen by Facebook users. The Taken facebook page was used to promote the film to a wide range of audience members as they constantly posted teaser 30 seconds trailers and photos. This allows the audience to be made aware of the film so that they can then go and see it in the cinema. This also allows people to be able to share the film with others on their Facebook, easily and quickly therefore meaning it can spread globally.

FaceBook

20th century fox also created an official Taken website which again helped the film to spread to a wide range of audiences all over the world. The website also shows links to other social networking sites such as twitter, Facebook and Google, allowing audiences to get updates and means the film is spreading around to different social networking sites. The website also posted different action shots taken from the film allowing the users to get closer to the mise-en-scene and the plot of the film before the official trailer was released.

Official Website