Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman
In case you
missed the initial post concerning this topic, I suggested how movie
posters can help to suggest plots and identified these guidelines for
anyone who might like to try this approach to plotting stories:
If the
poster you select promotes a movie you have seen, pretend it does
not, and don't reference the film, even in your thoughts, as you
analyze the poster. The poster should speak for itself, as it were.
We are
taught to read from left to right and from top to bottom. Graphic
designers know this and use our training to their benefit in
creating designs and art and in communicating to us.
A poster
is likely to have a central image, and this central image will be
emphasized in some way—through its position, just off center;
through color or intensity; by being of bigger than other images. It
is obvious that the artist wants the viewer to focus attention on
this central image. Text and other images, if any, will relate to
this central image and help to develop its figurative aspects.
Most art
employs various “visual” figures of speech—metaphors, similes,
allusions, personifications, exaggerations, understatements,
symbols, puns or other plays on words, synecdoches.
See all
there is to see—not just size, but color, intensity, depth,
balance, negative and positive space, shape, texture, size, density,
position, arrangement, patterns. facial expressions, hairstyles,
costumes (i. e., the models' clothing), age, sex, gender, class,
income level. Also consider whatever props might be displayed.
Analyze
visual evidence of behavior: care, neglect, attendance, abandonment,
support, and so forth.
Consider
the other four senses, too: what sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile
sensations does the poster suggest?
The text
is the key that unlocks the visual imagery's figurative meaning.
With these
guidelines in mind, start by describing the poster. Start at the top
and work your way down. Include quotations of any text you encounter.
Be detailed, but don't be flowery. At this point, be a camera
operator, not a sketch artist, an objective viewer, not an
interpreter.
After
describing the poster, use the elements you identified to complete
this table. In doing so, stick to the poster itself.
WHO?
WHAT?
WHEN?
WHERE?
HOW?
WHY?
Next, question
yourself about each of the six phrases you entered into the table. In
doing so, make observations; draw inferences from what you see and
read in the poster. Look for potential relationships among the
poster's elements. Look, also, for possible connections between your
own thoughts, between your own feelings, and between your own
thoughts and feelings. Ask yourself how the answers you listed in the
table could be “flipped,” or reinterpreted.
As a result of
this process, you may develop an idea for a story or even a synopsis
of a plot for a story. At the same time, you will have a sequence of
elements that are logically related and which, together, form a
narrative thread upon which, by the questioning process and the use
of your own imagination, you can embroider, or develop further.
Statues of saints stand on pedestals connected to the same walls,
farther along.
THE OFFERING
Text above the image
reads, in blood-red letters: “The chosen will be sacrificed.”
Hanging, apparently from
the ceiling of the cathedral in which their suspended bodies hang,
visible from the knee down, are three corpses. They wear slips,
skirts, or dresses, which suggest that the bodies of those of women.
Blood trails along the wall on either side of the bodies.
The title of
the film, The Offering,
appears across the middle of the image, diving it into an upper and a
lower half. The bodies of the women and the cathedral's ceiling and
walls occupy the upper half of the poster. Below the title, the
statues, blood-smeared pews, and a bloody cross appear. The blood
trailing down the walls link the upper and the lower halves of the
poster. The aisle between the ranks of pews is saturated with blood.
Observations
The women's
legs seem to be lacerated; they have bled. They also appear to be
scarred. Although they may wear skirts or dresses, it's also possible
that they wear only slips. Although their legs have bled, they have
not done so profusely, but the volume of blood in the cathedral—on
its walls, pews, and aisle—indicate extreme blood loss. Even if the
women bear wounds in their abdomens, it is unlikely that three of
them could have shed as much blood as stains the cathedral.
The
cross is neither the Latin cross of Protestant denominations nor the
Catholic crucifix, but a Levithan
cross (also known as the brimstone symbol, Satan's cross, the
cross of Lorraine, and the Patriarchal cross). In some cases, the
crossbeams (arms) of the cross are of different lengths, with the top
arm shown as being shorter than the lower arm, but the crossbeams are
also shown as being of equal lengths. The cross has various mystical
meanings and associations.
WHO? The
corpses of three bloody, scarred women
WHAT? hang
WHEN? during
the day
WHERE? from a cathedral ceiling
HOW? by unknown
means
WHY? sacrifices of a diabolical cult.
Result: The
corpses of three bloody, scarred women hang, during the day, from a
cathedral ceiling by unknown means, sacrifices of a diabolical cult.
Questions
Why and by whom
were these three women in particular “chosen”? Did they “sin”
against the tenets of their “faith”? Are their deaths meant to
appease an angry deity or spirit? If so, how and why? If not, what is
the purpose of their sacrifices? Who benefits from their sacrifices
and how? Have they been left hanging so the blood would drain from
their bodies or as a warning to other congregants? Were the women
sexually assaulted before they were killed? Were they beaten or
tortured? What caused their deaths? Why are the women's upper bodies
not shown? How did blood get on the walls, pews, aisle, and Leviathan
cross? How did blood from the Leviathan cross form two other crosses
(or did this blood form the capital letter “H”)? Is the
cathedral, a center and a symbol of Christian faith—and a house of
God—being mocked? If so, by whom and for what reason? How can the
story line be “flipped”?
SLITHER
Centered at the
top of the poster, against a shadow in the form of a cross (the frame
of a window), the shaved, bent right leg of a young woman appears
above the side of a white porcelain bathtub located next to a tile
wall; the bathtub is half filled with soapy water.
The scene is
framed by the left jamb of a doorway and by the open door to the
bathroom. On the edge of the bathtub, a red creature resembling a
cross between a snail and a gigantic sperm cell perches, as a second
creature follows it, through its trail of slime, leaving a trail of
slime behind itself as well.
Below the
second creature, a third lifts its body and appears to attach its
head to the side of the tub, preparing to follow the other two
creatures up the side of the tub. At least eighteen more of the
creatures gather on the floor, near the tub.
Observations
The shadow
could suggest that the story has religious significance or religious
undertones. The cross formed by the shadow is Latin in design,
suggesting a Protestant denomination. The fact that it is merely the
a shadow could imply that the young woman's faith is insubstantial.
The door is
open, although one would expect it to be closed, since the woman is
bathing.
The creatures
resemble gigantic sperm cells in shape, but they are meaty, red, and
“raw” looking, both meat (phalli, perhaps) and sperm. Their
appearance is disgusting, and it, like the number of the creatures,
seems menacing. They seem intent upon attacking the young woman, as
if they are parasites in search of a host. They are large, too, if
they are intended to represent phalli. Long and thick, they might
cause pain. Despite their sperm-like appearance, none of the
creatures exhibits testicles, which makes them perverse as well as
disgusting. The slime they rail behind them resembles semen, but,
considering that the slime is behind
them, it wouldn't be fecundating fluid, unless the creatures exude
more of it during their assault. (The number of the creatures
suggests gang rape.)
The
film's title, Slither,
emphasizes the method of locomotion the creatures employ, which is
one shared by snakes, a smooth movement “over a surface with a
twisting or oscillating motion.” The verb's synonyms suggest
additional associations, “squirm,” “wriggle,” “snake,”
and “worm,” which, in turn, suggest such qualities as furtiveness
and evil (like “dragon,” “worm” and “snake” were
associated with the devil).
In
religious ritual, bathing is a means of cleansing one's soul, of
washing away sins. The young woman's nudity suggests there may be a
relationship between it and the devil, that her body has been an
instrument of fornication, a sin against God, and that she now seeks
to cleanse herself spiritually, albeit in vain, since the slug-like
creatures resembling sperm cells have invaded her home, her bathroom,
and appear to be about to invade her body as well.
The
open door reveals a private act—the cleansing of the soul—making
a personal and spiritual action a public spectacle. Despite the
woman's attempt to gain absolution, the poster seems to suggest that
her sins will be revealed and she must suffer for her indiscretion.
WHO:
A naked young woman
WHAT:
is about to be assaulted by bizarre creatures
WHEN:
as she bathes
WHERE:
in a bathtub in her bathroom
HOW:
with soap and water
WHY:
to cleanse herself and her soul after having had sex.
Questions
Is
the young woman devoted in her religious faith? Why is only her leg
shown? Why is the door to the bathroom open instead of closed while
she bathes? Who opened the door? She? Someone else? The creatures?
(Was the door locked or only closed?) What are the strange creatures?
What are their abilities? Why are there so many of them? What led to
their bizarre appearance? Why are they attracted to the young woman?
Are they a menace to her? How could the story line be “flipped”?
Like
to try the approach yourself? Here's a poster to get you started: