Poster Analysis: Skins

For a segment of our research it was neccesary for us to look into and study an advertising poster for a programme. When choosing a programme to analyse it was essential that we chose one with relatively similar features to that of the trailer we are making for the Soap. Considering this, we felt that using a poster for Skins would be effective as not only does it have relatively similar content to our trailer, but it also has a similar tone regarding it's atmosphere. Our Soap will be set as if it has been on air for a number of years, considering this, we will create the trailer as if their has been an on going story line and now we are hitting a climax of it. The climax, in order for it to be interesting to an audience will therefore have a typically darker tone than the rest of the Soap normally has.

The poster represents one of the major characters from the drama. This can be inferred purely from the fact that he is laying in the bath, and is for that matter actually featurred on a poster in the first place. For instance, it would be inappropriate and for that matter, odd to create a poster featuring a character that would never be featured. When creating the poster for our Soap trailer, we will have to take a similar approach on the matter, and feature either a single character, as pictured here, or a number of characters that are relevant to the agenda of the Soap, and the concerned story line.

The character here is pictured naked, or seemingly. This gives the effect that he is vulnerable, as a typical connotation of not wearing clothes exposes you to vulnerabilities that your clothes would normally protect you from, not only physical; but in a mental agenda as well. Likewise we will represent either one of or, various of the major characters within the Soap in a similar fashion to create a similar effect of exposure. The atmosphere of the image is effectively dark and gloomy in its potrayal, once again reaffirming the mood of the image in that it is supposed to be gloomy to attract a certain type of audience.
The character himself is submerged in water, presumably drowning due to his facial expression. Of course, as our Soap will be relatively family friendly we will not want to have such an extreme poster, it is worth however considering the various different types of posters that represent characters. The character represented here for example is likely to be in some form of trouble, and him being submerged in water, eyes open is an analogy for him being under pressure, and not being able to get out of it, yet still aware of everything that is happening around him.

A notable aspect of the poster is how it features the E4 logo at the top of the image, representing the channel it is featured on. Although this may not seem to be a major element of the image, it is certainly something which will be needed to be taken into consideration when creating our own poster. The logo itself is an abstract looking image, which stereotypically attracts a teenage audience as they subconsciously try to be different to everyone else. For instance, if the logo said E4 in Times New Roman font, it would be completely unattractive, purely because of the previously stated features.