Image

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Esther is centre framed in a medium close up, filling the majority of the frame except for the spacing for the tagline at the top. So, this again draws the attention of the audience towards her, even more so considering she has an effect of a soft blur around the rest of the photo except her face. The audience learn her importance to the plot, which she dominates, almost immediately.

Colouring creates similar effects. Two colours stand out the most, her dress coloured blue and the ribbon around her neck - which matches the red text. Additionally, the effect of the ribbon standing out adds to the future narrative that is revealed towards the end. (Self-inflected scars from trying to escape a straight jacket in the past). The rest of the colour pallet is quite dark and neutral colours of browns, greys and blacks, again making her stand out. The background includes dark colours, which is a typical convention for thrillers and horrors, particularly if the film involves death or danger. For this specific narrative, the background colour of dark green may be referring to the dark envy the Orphan has in the film.

Overall, without knowing about the clothing being a part of the plot twist at the end (she's actually over the age of thirty, but trapped in a younger girls body), she seems young, yet old fashioned - as if the photo isn't from the 21st century. The pig tails also add information about her ethnicity, which is Russian as well as demonstrating childhood. This does seem to develop a theme of innocence that is typically associated with children yet is juxtaposed with her stare, opposing the idea of innocence that her clothing and props form. Used to include visual clues to the film, making the audience question their meanings.

Titles

The Taglines

Compared to the other titles, the film name 'Orphan' has a different text style. Which looks as if a child had drew it, which complements the photo. Yet also builds onto the idea of manipulating the theme of innocence that is associated with children. For the audience, they understand why the text was made this way, to connote childhood yet it also stands out more for them due to the font change.