Research into Film posters for chick flicks

Mean Girls

This film poster has three main features: the title, the main character and the ones who we are meant to dislike (peers).  The colour scheme has been kept throughout.  Pinks and purples have been used, which is one of the conventions of a chick flick.  In the title, 'mean girls', the word 'mean' has been written in bold to make a statement and draw attention to the audience.  The font is simple, but affective and continues in the colour purple.  If we look at each of the characters, we can see that the three girls are in the background and so less important than the girl who is on her own.  Each of the three girls are wearing heels, which connotes 'girlishness'.  The girls are also wearing pink and this makes them look like your typical 'barbie' girls  The main girl on the left is looking over to the group of girls, which could suggest that she is either influenced by them or intimidated by them.

Confessions of a shopaholic 

Here is a different approach to a poster for a chick flick.  This poster only features the one character, but is interesting to see a different layout for our research.  The colours this time are pink and this is featured in both the text and the character, including one of the shopping bags.  Once again, the actress' name is featured at the top of the poster in bold and black.  The name of the film is in a simple font, but the word shopaholic really stands out and will attract a female audience.  The expression however on this poster suggests a dilemma with this character which intrigues us to watch the film.

Julie and Julia 

Another poster we looked at shows another approach to a layout.  The two characters are above each other instead of next to.  The images are large and show two different types of characters and we can also see this from their expressions.  The one on the bottom looks mischievous, which we could maybe consider with our characters.  The text and information is in a black box in the middle which is bold and attracts us.  The colours are neutral but affective.  The font is also more fancy than the others and more girly, from looking at this poster we think it is more for an older audience rather than young teenagers or girls.

Bride Wars

Looking at the 'Bride Wars' film poster the first thing we notice is the title. The title has pretty font used for the word 'bride' which connotes the elegance that comes with a wedding and the simplicity along with the white of the background and wedding dresses. The word 'wars' has different representations to the audience as it is bold in capital letters connoting aggression with the colour red as anger but also passion which these women obviously are for their weddings. The title has been done in this way to show the audience how these women are going to vicious war with each other over being a bride. The title text ties in with the actresses names of 'hudson' and 'hathaway' which are both in the bold red giving the connotation that hudson and hathaway go to war with each other in this film and that the other words are of less significance to the audience. The film poster is split equally into four sections each with a head and name in the top quarters and in the bottom the cake cutters wedding dresses and title giving symmetry. The next thing we see in this film poster is that there is a blond and a brunette which I believe has been done purposely because their is an idea that blonds are innocent which is given off by the colour of the wedding dresses as the blond has a whiter dress than the brunette, this could also give the connotation of her being more of a princess than the brunette as we can see her large engagement ring on her finger and we cannot see the brunettes leaving the questions of 'is she richer than the other bride?' Additionally both women are battling in the centre of the poster with the cake slicers being like swords in a dueling action. This has the audience thinking how aggressive does the film get, if the cake slicers will be used as daggers or if it is a simple stabbing in the front creating the irony from the 'stabbing in the back' used in society. Both women have a sinister look on their face like they may sabotage each others weddings. The brunettes dress is a slight off white colour which could lead to the questions of whether she is not the innocent bride as innocent is represented in the colour white or that she has less wealth than the other due to the dress looking older and perhaps second hand. The caption in the centre 'Even best friends cant share the same wedding day.' gives the audience an insight into the film plot as well as looking at all the other connotations in the film poster. This line is catchy and simplistic like the white in the wedding dresses and how idealistic a wedding day should be, all the items in the poster having a link in which they tie together. Finally the colour scheme of the background is centred so that it has an off white grey colour in the outside and a bright white spotlight on the two main characters as if they are constantly fighting for the spotlight in the film.

Wild Child 

This film poster is again split into four sections in quarters which fit diagonally. The top quarters both contain main characters as the main character is large on the right hand side and the other characters in the left corner. The bottom left corner with the word 'wild' fits diagonally with the main characters face as the letters are gold and sparkly just like her hair colour earings and sunglasses, alongside the right bottom corner with the main characters outfit which has the purple of the word 'child' in the title in it which show the opposites in the main character and the diagonal opposite of the other characters outfits being more plain and the same as the other persons in uniform suggesting school, such as the main character stands out from the rest. The title 'wildchild' is separated into the two different words 'wild' and 'child' the with the word 'wild' standing out with spotlights and the word 'child' being a purple colour which is connotated as a warm and cool colour which immediatly suggests to the audience that the main character is a show off with the 'wild' word being very glamourous but inside she is cool and a warm person which people will get to learn in the film. This film poster has a pink boarder such as a photoframe would, the main character is breaking out of the frame which leads the audience to question whether she breaks out of the school, or whether she is wanting to fit in but doesnt. The whole poster is full of pinks and purples in fonts and the border, these are typically stereotyped 'girly' colours which would show a chick flick and that the target audience would be teens and young girls from these colours. The main characters outfit is interesting because she is wearing accessories and a different outfit to the other girls, with car keys and a keyring that says 'I [heart] LA' which connotes that she is from a different place and maybe wants to go back to LA in the film. We know she is in a different place from the outfit the other girls are wearing due to them being in uniform and the main character not being in the same, they have school uniforms on, suggesting they are from England as English schools wear uniforms compared to the main character who from her outfit, hair style being down, handbag and keyring that she is the stereotype of an 'Hollywood girl' who wants to be famous. The other girls have the uniform on with the audience being able to see how the blond girl at the front is the typical 'mean girl' that is in every convention of a chick flick due to her unifrom being slightly different with the tights on instead of the other girls socks, her blazer being bottoned up and her face looking down giving the body language to suggest the lead mean girl. The girl to the right of her has the same body language to suggest that she is the mean girls follower or 'yes girl'. The other girls give the connotation that they would be friends and might be friends with the main character as they have the same pose as her with the hand on hip. The woman in the centre gives off the conotation of a teacher or therapist due to being dressed smartly, due to this being based in a school we can assume that she is a teacher and the colours she is wearing connote that she is a warm person alongside the smile on her face. The text 'New girl, new school, new rules' is in pink to represent the convention of a chick flick and supports the image with the frame as this could now be a school photograph that the main character is being introduced into. Also the text 'a new term for trouble' is catchy and leaves the audience with the questions of which character will be causing the trouble and how its a school term, set in England rather than the seimester they have in America. In the bottom left corner is what we can only assume is a school badge but this is purple giving the connotation that the school is warm and can be cool. It is also important to notice that in this film poster there is no male characters showing that this film is a female film that girls will want to see and how the school is an all girl school that they attend.

The Princess Diaries 

This film is again aimed at teenage girls which we can tell as soon as looking at the cover and title, it is known that young girls wish to be princesses. The title is cleverly designed from the walt disney logo being in a silver/white colour which has the appearance of a tiara hovering over the main title, the word 'princess' is in a royal text that is curly and girly in black which can connote seriousness and conventional which a royalty would need to be, also the colour black can connote sexy, rebellian and sophisticated which could show the two sides of the character or what is expected from her in the film. The text of the words 'the' and 'diaries' is more simple and plain to bring out the word princess for the audience and also this could go with the two different black connotations as the text is different being both serious in the words 'the' and 'diaries' and sexy in the word 'princess'. This text links in with the image of the women. The woman on the left of the image we can assume from the age is the queen as the other is young as the stereotyped image of a princess is. The queen is dressed more sophisticated showing linking with the text of the sophistication involved with parts of the writing, she is dressed in a blue/white colour which connotes patriotism, power, richness, superiority but also fun. This dress could represent this character in one look, showing how she loves her country (being a queen) but also has a fun side that comes out once in a while. This character also has her tiara on while posing like a queen would on a postage stamp as to be correct in the public eye, this is the opposite of the character on the right, which we can now assume is the princess. This character has a tiara on, connoting royalty, but has sunglasses on with headphones on and a grin on her face. This is the rebellian of the black of the title connotation being represented in this character with the headphones on adding her own style to the formal connote of how a princess looks. The princess has red lipstick on which links to the line at the top saying 'from the director of pretty woman & runaway bride' which are both successful chick flicks that teen girls have enjoyed for years before the release of this film. The red also links with the text at the bottom of the poster which reads 'she rocks, she rules, she reigns' with the allitteration of the letter 'R' being used three times with the rule of three that is used in media. This is a clever play on words that suggest that she is a unconventional princess but following the conventions of a chick flick with the colour red being used. The names of the actresses in the film are at the top of the page with the actresses name above the actress themselves. The order of these names can be to great importance as the character who plays the queen is the first to be read, just as she would be the first to take the throne in reality and she would be the first in the family tree. This film poster links in well with each connotation being used throughout each part of the poster.

Ideas for film posters
Idea 1  

Here our first idea for a film poster for our trailer.  As we have not decided on a design yet, we have not gathered a selection of photo's.  We have based this idea on the Julie and Julia film poster.  The gorgeous girl will be at the top and will show he personality through her expression and she is at the top as more dominant.  The text will be the hot pink and black as used in our film trailer.  Then we decided to have the geeky girl at the bottom as she is less dominant and again her image will demonstrate her character. We also want to show how there is comedy in the film by doing this.  The actresses names have been featured on different sides of the poster to show the parallel between the who characters which fits with the name of our film 'Parallel Worlds'

Idea 2

Our second idea is similar but the title of the film is on a diagonal which we thought fitted with the idea of the characters being parallel.  We decided to still have the gorgeous girl on the top as this does show her dominance in the film.  The information about the film could be in heart shapes or a star which would go with the conventions of a chick flick and the colours would run the same throughout like previous.

Idea 3 

Our third idea.  The heart we decided to use the same pink which is used in both the title and the film trailer itself.  The name of the film in each of our idea's would be the same text as the one in our trailer to keep the fluidity of each item.  The rest of the text would be in black and legible.  This time the images are next to each other and the line down the middle we would try and do as a mirror which is featured a lot in the trailer.

Idea 4 

This is idea 4, we decided on the idea of parallel, with the door seperating but the idea of the characters being parallel in this film poster. The colours used within this would be pinks and reds following the wildchild conventions and the title parellel worlds will be following the convention of the wild child poster with each title representing the different characters.

Our Final Idea for a Film Poster

For our final idea we decided to go with the idea of number four in which we decided to make the main characters parallel to each other following the connotation from the title. We decided to adapt the fonts from our film trailer with the word Parallel and Worlds being both different fonts and different colours, using the same fonts as our film trailer. We researched into each connotation for colours and items we used to create the correct effect for the consumer to see. We were originally going to use the colour green for the geeky girl, connoting jealousy but it also had the connotation of being beautiful and elegant which wasn't the correct connotation we wanted for the geeky girl to have, so instead used the colour red, which represents love and the possibility that she could find the love in the film and not the chique girl, who we decided the colour pink would surround her due to pink being the immediate colour the consumer would think of for a chick flick genre.

 Design 1

This is our original film poster. We changed it slightly by adding a tag- line because we noticed while looking back at our research that the chick flick posters have all got catchy tag lines that explains the film to the consumer.


Design 2

OUR FINAL FILM POSTER

 Deconstruction of our Final Film Poster

This is our final film poster for the chick flick 'parallel worlds'. For this we looked at our ideas and followed the plan we made on idea number four, making alterations along the way. We started by taking photographs, then edited the photographs on photoshop by cutting them onto the same white background. We used the same font for the text as in the film trailer with the pink colour scheme keeping continuity. We edited the characters to make the colours the correct connotation as we stated while doing our ideas. Originally we had a pink border around the edge of the poster, to create a frame like a mirror, as wildchild had used the frame like a photograph frame. Like the mean girls film poster we wanted to keep it simple and effective and the frame looked too unrealistic for a film poster. We then decided to adjust this frame idea to a tag line at the bottom of the screen being in the pink, again keeping the continuity of the colour throughout the poster. This was then to read 'Summer 2011' in the font we had used for the word parallel in both the film trailer and poster title.

When deciding how the characters should look, we decided the gorgeous/chique girl should be wearing heels to create authority and a girly feeling to her, as high heels can be seen as being one of the conventions of a chick flick. In addition to this, we decided she should be holding lipstick and a handheld mirror to create vanity in this character. She is pulling a seductive face to engage the audience into thinking she is the dominant female character (top dog) of the film. We decided that she should have simple coloured clothing on to create the classy feeling about her.

When looking at how to make the geeky girl appear, we decided she should have the hair removal cream on her upper lip and spot cream on her spot on her cheek. We also decided she should wear glasses as this can be a representation of 'geekyness'. Her hair is tied back because this is less glamorous and an easy style to create, giving the connotation to the audience that she doesn't particularly care about her appearance. Her facial expression is an embarrassed/confused look that gives the audience the representation that she is tired of being the outcast and not particularly posing for the camera. She is holding a book because we decided this is a contrast to the lipstick as she is more focused on being intellectual than on her appearance like the other character. The geeky girls outfit was to be a basic red t-shirt to keep with the colour scheme we planned, she would be wearing plain trousers with this to show she doesn't want to stand out, giving the sense of irony because red connotes love. The socks give a childish representation because they are patterned and silly looking, this also could suggest she is a clumsy character (clown like). Following this, she has toilet paper stuck to her foot, this is to continue with the clumsy feel of the character and the stupidity of her not noticing, with the irony of her intelligence of reading the book.
The title is at the top of the poster because it is the most important thing about it that should be noticed straight away and grab the audiences attention. We used the different fonts throughout the poster following from the film trailer. The actresses names are on parallel sides to the black line to show the parallelism between the two characters even though they are completely different in their appearances. The black line down the middle of the trailer is to represent a mirror, it is to break up the poster so that we can see the opposites and similarities between the geek and chique sides.

This goes along with our tag line, we used this tagline as it has been used in our film trailer. The word 'parallel' was in a simple font and placed on the geeky side of the poster to combine with the boring geekyness of that side of the geek's world. The word 'worlds' is in a fancy, curly, sophisticated font to show the characteristics of the gorgeous girl to combine with how we dressed her. The hearts on the poster are very girly and we decided to place these here from idea three. We placed two hearts on the gorgeous girls side, that are both big and bright pink because this suggests how she is overpowering with her girly ways compared to the geek whose heart is much smaller to suggest that she still has the girly sense but it hasn't come out yet and that maybe it will in the film. The gorgeous girls hearts are again pink to follow the continuity of the pink on her side and the geeky girls heart was red to follow the continuity of red on her side, however we then changed the geeky girls heart to a drawing of one with a name scribbled to create the immaturity to her character with this heart, it also looks more tacky unlike the gorgeous girls heart. The names also follow this because they are pink on the gorgeous girls side and plain on the geeky girls side. The names also have black font to follow the way the title is written with different colours throughout and a constant parallel theme.

Finally we decided to make the film a 'PG' rating as the trailer and our film would be. We went on the BBFC website and our storyline would be suitable for the criteria for a 'PG' film.