Poster Influences

Poster Influences

For our ancillary tasks, we were told that we were going to make a film poster. Therefore, we decided to take influence from posters both from our trailer influences and more. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Since me, Iain and Daniel are all huge fans of the Harry Potter series, we had seen the film poster before and really liked it. Therefore, we decided to take an analytical approach to find ideas for our own poster. The poster instantly struck us as the idea of rivalry is clearly addressed; both Harry and Voldemort have their faces close-up to one another. The battle between these two characters had been awaited for many years so by using them as the main image, the idea of rivalry is shown clearly. We like the idea of having two main characters facing one another to suggest an epic battle.
     The colours are also well-used. The colours are rather dark, using tones such as blue and red. The blue could be for iconography as the older Harry Potter films are generically blue. Also, the blue/green could be used with the red as the battle consist of Harry's red spell and Voldemort's green spell. The darker shades have ominous connotations as dark colours can represent death, sadness and grief. This could be to hint at themes within the film. Moreover, the red can imply blood and danger. Also, the wand has a white spiral around it. This could be to suggest hope, innocence and the ghost form that Harry takes once killed. We realised that colours are very important to suggest genre, themes and narrative so we wanted to create our poster using the right colours.
      The tag-line states, 'It All Ends 7.15'. All of the fans of the films/books will know that this is the final film so a simple tag line is very effective. All the books/films have built up to the epic battle between Harry and Voldemort so by saying 'end', the audience will know that this is the finale. The poster also gives a clear date, which we thought was important for a poster as the audience needs to know when they can see the film.
      Both Harry and Voldemort seem to have injuries and dirt across their face, reinforcing the battle idea. This is effective as it is suggestive of themes and differentiates this film from the older ones (appears to have more violence).
      Within the middle of both characters is a wand. This not only represents the genre (fantasy) but uses iconography. It also suggests that the wand (the Elder wand) is the one thing that stands in the way of Harry and Voldemort as it is placed between them both.
      At the bottom of the poster the website written. 'Www.harrypotter.com' also markets the film virtually as well as through a poster. This is to gain a wider audience and allow people to find more information about the film. Finally, the poster mentions 'IMAX' and '3D'

Things we liked about this poster and what we may use in our own:
1. Two main characters facing each other
2. Well thought out colours
3. A good tag line
4. Having a website link

Individual posters:

The Harry Potter posters all have other teaser posters. For instance there are ones that have individual images of the characters on them.             

                                                                                                                                                                       The teaser posters use the same tag line as the main theatrical poster ('it all ends July 15'). We liked how the main characters were the central image and how they were not using direct address (looking at the audience.) The colours are themes were very similar to the main poster. We thought that these teaser posters worked well so we considered using this idea for our own posters.                                                                                      
I Am Legend

We decided to look at the ' I Am Legend' film poster as it is an apocalyptic genre resembling them theme we wanted to do. The golden colours within this film poster are very prominent. This could be to represent the apocalyptic sky to suggest the genre of the film or it could be to suggest hope as white and yellow can symbolise this. The background holds an abandoned/destroyed city, once again suggesting the end of the world theme.The biggest copy on screen states, 'WILL SMITH' and this targets one of the USP's of the film. Will Smith is a well known actor so by having his name at the top, the film sells itself through him. Also, it could be used as the film only has one main character so by using just Will Smith's name, shows how his character is alone. The tag line states, 'The last man on earth is not alone'. This is cleverly used as it suggests the genre of sci-fi/apocalyptic as there are other beings on the earth that aren't humans. It is also open ended and questions the audience as the poster does not show images of other life forms. The central image is Will Smith; in comparison to the empty sky, Will seems quite small on the poster. This could be to show his vulnerability and his loneliness. Also, since he is the main character, having him central helps to show this.
The title 'I Am Legend' seems  to become bigger as it follows the path; it almost looks like Will Smith is going to walk through it. This emphasises the word Legend, suggesting that he is going to do something that he will be remembered for. The date is quite small at the bottom and we didn't like this as it doesn't stand out. We decided that we would want our date to be more noticeable.

Things we liked about this poster and what we may use in our own:
1. Colours to represent the genre
2. A good tag line to interest the audience
3. The destroyed landscape

Tomorrow When The War Began

The first thing we really liked about this poster was the group shot. This shows many characters and has the main female protagonist at the front. The group could go in order of importance (main character at front and less important towards the back.) We liked the colours used as they are quite dark and use shades of red and yellow. This blends with the background as there are explosions. This is suggested of violence to refer to the word 'war' within the title. The characters are also wearing dark clothes, implying that they may have to do bad things to survive; it could also suggest death of others and themselves. We liked that the poster states, 'based on the bestselling novel' as we think that it adds it helps to sell the film as it involves people who have read the book. This is my least favourite poster as it is quite dark and I dislike the chunky copy.

Things we liked about this poster and what we may use in our own:
1. Group shot
2. Suggestive violence

The Road 

The Road poster is very dark with colours of black and grey. This represents the themes of the film: sadness, loss, death. It could also be to suggest the narrative as something happened including ash to end the world. Grey is the colour of ash and is also often used throughout the book. The background is very faint which could suggest that the characters don't exactly see where they are going. The main focus in on the father and his boy which reflects on the narrative as they are central to the story. They are also wearing old clothes to suggest the time frame of the film (it has been a long time since the apocalypse). We once again like the idea of 'based on the novel' as it involves a larger audience. The copy is white suggesting that the road within the film may be hope for the characters. 'Viggo Mortensen' is copy at the top of the poster; he is known from 'The Lord of the Rings' so this could be used to market and distribute the film.

Things we liked about this poster and what we may use in our own:
1. The use of colour
2. Costumes to represent the time frame
3. Copy to say it was based on a novel

The Hunger Games:

We did not find the main poster for 'The Hunger Games' very influential, however we thought that the teaser posters were well made. We liked the close-ups of the characters as we imagined our narrative to be quite dramatic therefore the close-ups show the intensity. 
We also like that Katniss is facing the opposite way to the other characters, this suggests that she is different and will break the cycle (she starts a rebellion.) The dark background emphasises the colours of each character; each stand out differently. This is effective as it suggests that each character is different with individual traits to add to The Hunger Games. We considered using character close-up for our own posters.