story is completely fictional, it is both chilling and frightening. The advertisement poster does a very good job of conveying this horror to possible viewers. There is an eerie feeling that you get when you view this poster. A grainy, distorted, and murky picture of a dense forest with a red hue occupies most of the page. The picture of the forest fades into black at the bottom of the page. Centered words over the picture read, “ In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary…A year later their footage was found.” Below this is a unique looking stick figure along with the title of the movie. The words a very plain with no special effects. This helps to emphasize the realistic portrayal of some students disappearing in the woods. The advertisement is effective in its goal of invoking emotion and ultimately making people want to go see the movie. It leaves you in a state of wonder and suspense. You are left asking yourself, “Is this real?” “What happened to these kids?” This advertisement undoubtedly makes a statement, but how effective would the message be if either the words or the picture were absent. It is interesting to separate these elements from one another and analyze their effectiveness alone. Images, by themselves, can be very powerful, and contain a great number of strengths. There is a saying that goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words “. In a way, this is true. Many times what can be said in one picture or image, may need a page or two to describe with words. In his essay, “By Means of the Visible”, Stephen Mitchell writes that “ the strength of images is their concision “. Concision is one of the several strengths of images Mitchell describes in his essay. If we were to remove the text from the Blair Witch advertisement, we would be left with the bleak and m...
