Codes and Conventions of DVD covers

The Woman in Black
Front; The first thing that catches the audiences eye is the actor at the front. He is looking straight ahead to the audience to make them think why his eyes and face looks in pain. Behind the main actor there is a screen grab of the town with houses in the background. In front of the houses there is a black figure which looks ghostly which suggests they will come and haunt the main actor at the front that looks terrified. At the top of the cover there is only one actors name which is "Daniel Radcliffe." He is known for being in a superstitious film, which are normally fantasy/horror or action. As we know this we are not surprised he is in this film with ghosts and fantasy characters. The tag line  "She'll never let go." which suggests the ghosts and fantasy characters are going to follow the other characters during the whole film and also gives the impression they want to hold onto someone. There is a rating at the bottom of the cover that is from the daily mirror and shows the audience that the film has been reviewed from a professional prospective.The font and the colour for the title is very effective in my opinion, because the font is smudged and rigged which suggests unexpected moments and suspense. The colours overall on the cover are dull colours (reds, dark blues and blacks) which makes the audience immediately think its a horror.


Back; The first thing that catches the audiences eye is a brown old coloured screen grab at the bottom corner. The image is of two children and both of their eyes have been scratched out. At the top of the screen grab it says "what did they say?" this suggests they have seen something horrific and something the audience could see throughout the film. At the top there is two ratings from a website and a newspaper. This shows the film has been reviewed and when the audience see what they think they want to see why they said it. For example "A spine - tingling tale" the audience would want to know why its scary and is a good use of a exaggerated phrase/ metaphor. In the middle there are special features that come with the DVD. This DVD has added special features because they have competition with other companies that let people watch films online for free. By adding special features this gives a reason for the audience to buy the film so they can see extra parts and see what the actors opinions are. The image at the top is a repeat of the black figure. Although it looks the same image the house behind the figure is in front of a different house. This suggests the black figure is on the run again and wont let the victims run or hide.