Movie Poster

Here is my first submission for the movie poster assignment

Poster Summary

Hello
Here is a piece about the movie poster for the film 'Gasland'

            I chose to analyze the film poster for ‘Gasland’. The poster contains an image of a man in the center wearing a gas mask. He is also playing a banjo. To his left and right are natural gas extractors. In the background is a mountain landscape with the sky.

            There a handful of ideas that are represented on the poster. One element presented is the idea of power. On the poster, the man is in the foreground, which causes him to appear larger than the natural gas extractor. Perhaps this is to show that we as people are ultimately the strongest, and that it is up to us to standup to the natural gas companies.  

            An additional element present is that of the “mirror image”. The man in the middle of the poster is meant to represent the “average joe”. He is wearing a plain white T shirt, a baseball cap, and playing a banjo, all of which are fairly common cultural artifacts amongst working Americans, particularly those who would be geographically more likely to work in the natural gas industry.  This is meant to cause the viewer to identify with the man and understand that it is the common persons responsibility to enact change to help save our planet. The lack of facial identity makes it easier for the viewer to identify with the subject of the shot, or perhaps see themselves in that persons shoes. The article explained how personally identifying with an image can cause the viewer to feel alienated, since they are stuck between how they view themselves in the real world, versus how they view what they could become. Perhaps this relates back to the movies intended message of getting people stand up against fracking, by seeing themselves living in a world where energy is green.