Research into General Film Posters

Harry Potter

 

This film poster is from the fantasy genre. It has been split up into thirds on the image with each third containing a person. The colours have all been put into a blue-scale to create a sense of power that the colour blue connotes. You pick up this sense of power in the way the characters have been positioned on the film poster. The main character is on the right hand side, which we can tell because he is more dominant out of the three on the page. This character is holding his jacket out in front of the girl giving the stereotype of how females are the weaker gender who need protection. He is also staring straight at the audience to keep the continuity of the dominance that this character has over the others. But from the female character she also fights the binary oppositions of being weak in comparison to the male characters because she is the central character who is more dominant than the boy on the left hand side with a fearful look upon his face who looks as though he needs her for comfort. The text is in an unusual font with the letter 'P' in 'Potter' being the same shape as the scar we can see on the main male character on the rights forehead. Additionally behind the the lead male their is a bright light behind his head as if to represent heavenly or god like figure to the others, this could connote to the audience that he is the hero in the film along with the positioning of him in the trailer. If we look into the background of this image we can see the shape of a person behind the timid male on the right hand side. This leads us, the audience wondering what relevance he is to the film and that his positioning in looking down at the main characters could mean that he wishes to be dominant and therefore could be the villain in the film. Furthermore, if we look into the more timid males hand he his holding some sort of rat like animal, this leaves us as the audience to think what relevance this animal has to the film and that maybe this character needs this animal as his 'pet' for support. The tag-line to this poster says 'Everything will change' which is a strong statement and as this film is in a series of films the audience knows that this film may be a catalyst for strong change within the film, this also is bold so therefore attracts the consumer to want to go watch the film because they are left with questioning what is going to happen within the film.

Sherlock Holmes

                       

Sherlock Homes is a Mystery/fantasy genre of film. We can instantly tell this by the colour scheme that is used throughout the poster as it is in a washed out blue colour which can connote eeriness. This instantly makes the audience think that the film is of past times by the colour and the items that have been placed throughout such as the top hat worn by the male character on the right which would be worn in traditional past Britain, which also makes the consumer know that this film is of British genre. The film poster can be sectioned into quarters, this then shows how the positioning of each character is extremely important to the poster. In the top right corner is a male with the top hat on and a woman who as we notice is the only character on the poster who is in colour that isn't blue or grey. She is dressed in red which connotes love, this suggests to the audience that she is a love interest in the film poster but is also quite dominant as if we look diagonally down the page the male character is lower down and faded out more in the distance than her, this fights binary oppositions that males are dominant than females.  In this same corner is the second main male in the film which we can tell he is not as dominant than the other male with the positioning again of the characters. The other male we can work out plays Sherlock Homes in the film with the positioning of him being in front of the male with the top hat on. With this the character we have now labelled 'Sherlock' is glaring at the audience with a mischievous expression on his face, as if he causes trouble while solving the mystery that we have gathered the genre is from the colour scheme used. This character's clothing again connotes that the setting of the film is in the past and not present day and that the character likes to dress smart so therefore could have this sense of smartness and mischievous within his personality from simply looking at his facial expression and outfit. The other male on the front we can gather due to his positioning  as he is slightly behind the other character with the stick in his hand that is positioned with him holding this behind his head as if to swing like a baseball bat, this connotes to the consumer that this character is the other's sidekick and bodyguard as the way he is holding this item could be considered intimidating. Behind the two men is newspapers, this could connote to the audience that the males are both famous among papers for mystery's they have solved, again gathering this information from what we have learnt from the rest of the film poster to connote this information. The title has been positioned in the centre top of the image in a bold font that appears as though it would appear as a headline of a newspaper and this whole film poster could be this newspaper article. The names have been placed in order of importance within the poster but also in alphabetical order of the last names. This is important as each both the main male and main females names have been placed diagonally above them, whereas the other two characters have been positioned underneath their name. Additionally the male in the bottom right corner of the poster we can gather is the villain in the film from his positioning and the way his appearance is set out. He is wearing all black which could connote evil, and also is wearing a collar which covers his face to show that he could be hiding something from the audience. Furthermore, while looking above this character we see a lampost, which is old style lamposts again sticking with the continuity of the past tense of the film, but this lampost has a number on it '221' which could have an important meaning in the film, such as how this could possibly be the amount of mystery's he has solved throughout his career. Additionally, the tagline in this film says 'Nothing Escapes Them' which agrees with all the context represented throughout the rest of the poster. This could also show that within this poster every detail is shown and that we are desensitised by this into thinking that we gather all the information about the film. 

The Notebook 

The Notebook is a Romantic genre of film. We can tell this immediately after looking at the image of the poster. The picture is of a male and female positioned where he has his arms around her and she is lifted into a more dominant position being at a bigger height than the male this could be fighting the binary oppositions of women depending on men when it looks like the male is under her control. The female is wearing a blue dress which connotes the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement. This connotation is again supported by the position the male character is holding her in as if he is reassuring her or looking after her while carrying her. Also how this might be excitement for the female character because the  traditional view in a romantic film is that the two in love have been separated so there could be mystery in the film as to whether they will be together or not and the excitement of the love. The male character is wearing the colour white which has a similar connotation to the colour blue the female is wearing, as this connotation would be of peace, purity and innocence, which the consumer assumes might be how the male character is in the film. This adds to the way he his holding the woman as if he needs her and has an innocence to him that as she is positioned higher up being the dominant as the opposite to his innocent ways. The background to this image is the same colours as the characters are wearing following with the continuity of the rest of the poster as the female character is in blue and we have the suggestion that she is the more dominant of the two characters, just as compared with the sky in the background the blue dominates over the white but the sky also looks heavenly. This could suggest that the characters are to be together until they die, in the meaning of romance, following through with the codes and conventions of a romantic genre. It is also appeared on the poster that it is raining, that could represent the sorrow and loss which contrasts with the colours used that could then be the meaning they were apart and are now together, such as many romantic films follow this storyline. Additionally there is green by the male character which looks as though it's grass so this could suggest that the characters have prosperous lives with each other or that the male was in the opposite, jealous of the female, or perhaps a different love interest that we don't see in this film poster that the woman could have and the male be jealous of this suggested love interest. Furthermore, the characters are gazing into each others eyes which immediately suggest to the audience that they are in love and that this film will be a love story between these two characters who by looking at each other in this way creates passion. Also alongside this the characters appear to be about to kiss, not giving too much information away leaving the audience questioning whether this passionate kiss takes place or not.  The title is in a simplistic text that would be found on the cover of a storybook which makes the consumer think that their life together could be like a storybook, this connotation has parallicity with the title being 'The Notebook' and the tagline of 'Behind every great Love, is a Great Story' from the text appearing from a storybook. This leaves the consumer with the questioning of whether the film could be all fantasy and questioning how the love story is. The names of the actors and actresses are also positioned so that the two main characters names are in line with one another, just as Rachel McAdams is underneath Ryan Gosling, both their names beginning with 'R' and the main male and female on the beginning of each line. The males line is the top one, suggesting that in fact the males are the more dominant which contrasts with the view the picture is giving that the females fight the binary opposition given to them. The next two names are alphabetical as these characters mustn't be as important in the film, and this is how we can therefore gather that Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams are the lead characters in this film and the people on the film poster. This also meets the codes and conventions so therefore the target audience would immediately want to go see this film. 

Mirrors

 

Here we are looking at a film poster from the genre of Horror.  Straight away when looking at the poster we can see that the dominant colour is black.  This is accompanied with the colour red which are the two main colours we think of when looking into the conventions of a Horror film.  The image has been placed slightly above center to make the person come across as the victim.  The character is a girl, which is often a suggestion of weakness and vulnerability as she also seems to be young.  She is cleverly faded into the blackness of the background and so only her eyes are the main feature which is where the consumer connects to the characters and can see the fear of victim.  The text has been kept very simple with two colours of white and then the title of the film in a blood red.  The title is larger than the rest of the text to address the film more clearly and grab the attention of the target audience.  The title is 'Mirrors' and they have cleverly rotated one of the letter 'R's so it represents a mirror and is therefore symbolic.  The font is bold and this makes it a statement and more legible from a distance.  The date of the film is also featured at the bottom and therefore we would need to consider this when looking at our film poster.  

Gamer 

 

.   When looking at this film poster for the genre of Action, the colour scheme is unusual, as usually the colours are a lot more brighter, and usually yellows, reds and oranges to suggest fire and action.  The colour for this is a Grey-scale which suggests the gaming and 'virtual', and with the character partially seen in colour this suggests the reality.  Their eye line is the same which means that maybe they are the same person in the film and leaves the audience asking questions about this.  The text is in red and white again, which is unusual for an action film poster as usually this is seen with a horror.  The shape on the main characters face is as if a bullet has gone through his face and almost like a crack.  This is because usually when playing video games there is usually some form of shooting action.  The title is red and split into two with a line going through it again suggestion two characters become one.  There is also a slogan saying 'Who's playing you?' which is a clever rhetorical question which leaves the target audience thinking about the plot of the story, making them want to see the film.  In addition to this, the name of the main character is also featured at the top so we would need to consider whether maybe we should do this in our film poster or not.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

This is a film poster for a comedy called 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' which is written in a cartoon font in a pink colour.  They have cleverly tied in cartoon with the real life character.  The character is holding a cartoon heart which has got a piece missing which has fallen onto the floor.  This suggests clumsiness and problems with love interests.  The text is in white which is simple and has been placed within the heart to keep the surrounding character free, so we just focus on the center of the poster.  The characters facial expression suggests he is fed up with many problems he might be experiencing.  The clothing he is wearing is clothing that is usually seen when on holiday so possibly something to relate to the storyline.  The heart is bigger than him which also could be significant to the problems he has.