This poster for the 1960 film "Kiss of the Vampire" uses various signs and symbols to convey meaning. It depicts a vampire backing away as a woman protects a man lying on the floor from an attack. The signs like blood, bats, and a castle in the background signify horror elements. The woman fighting back challenges gender stereotypes of the time. Analysis of dress codes and gestures also present alternative meanings beyond the preferred reading, showing how semiotics allows for multiple interpretations.

1. Name: Benjamin Johnson Kiss of the vampire poster
Utopian and dystopian
Codes and conventions
Dress codes
Gesture codes
Signs and signifiers
.
Semiotics
Semiotics is an investigation
into how meaning is created
and how meaning is
communicated. Its origins lie
in the academic study of
how signs and symbols
(visual and linguistic) create
meaning
Structuralism- Binary
opposition (levi Strauss
conventions
Z-line
Rule of thirds
Masthead
Buzz words/ hyperbole/
superlatives
Headings/ subheadings
Use of copy
Use of serif
Use of colour
Bullet points and lists
Slogans/ tag lines
Central image/ main image
Secondary images
Banner
Representation of gender,
race and age?
What stereotypes are being
used?
Product context/ cultural
context
The mass media is a force for
change, the traditional view of
Media Language to use: Represents, Connotes, Denotes, Symbolises, Signifies.
The connotations of this are….
Place image
here
Objectification of women
The male gaze
In the male gaze, woman is visually
positioned as an “object” of heterosexual
male desire.
Gauntletts theory of
representation
The mass media is a force
for change, the traditional
view of gender identity. It
challenges our
perceptions of male and
female roles and creates
new role models.

2. Kiss of the Vampire
Signs and signifies
 Blood.
 Dark Background.
 Title style has a wooden.
 Bats.
 Moon.
 Castle in the background
 People being attacked.
 The title vampire.

3. Dress codes and Gesture codes
 Dress codes are what they are wearing within
the poster, the women are in dresses, the
vampire has a cape and a red shirt which could
represent blood and the other man is just in a
shirt and pants.
 Out of the two girls one of them is weak which
you can see by her laying on the floor with the
light shining over her neck/top of her body, she
is usually represented as the damsel in distress
which is the stereotype of young women back
in the 60’s. But the other women is protecting
the man on the floor which is strange of her
because she's putting him first seeing as she's
stereotyped to be the one who is need of
saving.
 The vampires pose of him backing off
protecting himself signifies a sense of fear
which is the gesture code within this poster.

4. Semiotics
 Within this poster the preferred
reading is that it’s a horror but the use
of the word kiss could symbolise love
instead of blood. The shirt of the
vampire could also symbolise love and
his love for the two women.
 The gesture codes in this poster of the
women could be seen as them being
frightened or In danger but on the
other hand they could be represented
of two women that are willingly
wanting to be bitten by the vampire.
 Some of the bats have tiny bits of red
in their wings which might lead back
to the main vampire as he's wearing a
red coloured shirt, symbolising that
his love is in all of the bats.

5. Representation of age//gender//race
• The representation of women in this poster is that one is being seen as in
peril and one is fighting back but the one in danger easily could have
attacked the vampire but didn’t succeed and that’s why she's been bitten,
the women fighting back could symbolise her fighting against stereotypes
and that she doesn’t agree with them. The representation of men in this
poster could also be seen in two different ways, as the man is laying on the
floor people will perceive him as being weak but it could connate him
sacrificing himself for the women. Vampires are represented as strong
characters who are normally not scared of anything but in this he looks
scared as he's being attacked by the women which could be viewed as
strange seeing how women are represented as being weaker than men.
• Younger characters are symbolised as weak and are normally those who are
being attacked in films where as the older generation are perceived as
being strong and willing to fight back.
• Every person In this poster is white and not coloured seeing as back then in
the 60’s blacks weren’t really accepted by the community.

6. Objectification of Women & Gaunt less theory of
representation
 In the male gaze women are
usually positioned as an
object of the heterosexual
male desire which is
portrayed in the women who
is laying on the floor with the
top half of her body open
which is an targeted at men
which makes them one of the
targeted audience.
 With the stereotype of women
being weak and men being
strong this poster doesn’t
really follow that seeing as the
man is perceived as being in
peril and the women is seen
as protecting him from the
vampire.
 Levi Strauss had a theory
about how media plays on
binary opposites just like how
men vs women, animals vs
humans, the dead vs the living
etc..

7. Product context//Cultural context
Product context
 Directed by Dom Sharp.
 Produced by hammer film productions.
 Hammer films produced a lot of vampire films
like the brides of Dracula.
 They're best known for a series of gothic
‘hammer horror’
Cultural context
 There aren’t any coloured people within the
crew seeing how segregation of blacks were
really bad in the 1960’s.
 Made as a movie because a lot of family
usually went to the cinemas together and many

8. Utopian and dystopian
• An Utopian is when a
good thing happens like
where the boy gets the
girl and everyone is
happy with the world.
This would usually
happen in romantic films
where everyone lives
and nothing bad
happens.
• A dystopian is the
opposite where bad
things happen all the
time just like this poster
where everything is dark
and its not a place you