Friday 2 December 2011

How To Analyse a Film Poster

When analysing any film poster you need to consider the following points:

Begin by identifying the film and date of its release.

• Types of poster:

The Teaser poster -This poster contains basic information to whet your appetite. It often does not indicate much about the plot, but may have a picture of the stars, and the name of the film.

The main theatrical poster- This contains information about the production personnel, the stars, and the distributors.

Video/DVD release poster - This one comes out when the film is released on DVD/video and often has all of the above plus short, one line reviews from relevant publications.

Identify the Genre
eg an action film will nearly always have images of guns/weapons, a Romance will always have the 2 lovers in very close physical proximity... etc...

Character Poster – this one features the main character. Remember that the posters could be a combination of two types.

Images of the key settings and main characters. Title ? Stars? Where are the stars’ names placed? Why? Describe the key images on your poster. Why have they been chosen? Write about the images used and what they suggest? What do you think the film will be about? Who is the target audience?

Narrative: What clues are there to the narrative? What impression do you get of the characters from their expression, clothes, props and genre conventions?

Colours: Are are they relevant to the genre e.g. horror posters generally use dark strong colours especially black and red to represent death and evil. Romance tend to employ lighter pastel and warm colours such as pinks, purples and other warm shades. How do they attract the target audience?

Layout: analyse how the images are laid out. Do you know what the plot, genre and/or theme is? If so, how? Most posters are portrait or landscape in shape. What shape is it? Discuss the title, font, typeface and graphics on the poster.

Written Text: Is there a catch or tagline? Does it state the action and genre? Who do you think is the target audience for the film? Do we get information about who is in the cast, who directed the film, which company distributes it and promotes it etc? ? What does the certificate indicate about the target audience and the content of the film? Is there a website?

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