Initial Research Into Film Posters - Oliver

X-Men Origins Wolverine

In this poster you can see a variety of Wolverine’s enemies standing behind him, holding weapons. The main image in the poster is of Wolverine standing in a vest, showing a lot of muscle, and looking like he is ready to fight as his knives are sticking out of his knuckles. The title of the film is nearer the bottom of the main image, however is still covering Wolverine therefore you know which character Wolverine is as the title acts as anchorage. The image taken is a long shot as the whole of his body is in it and has been taken at a low angle so that Wolverine seems a lot bigger than he actually is. In the background, there is a lot of dark blue and black. This shows that the movie is of a scary nature and emphasises death.

In the background, the villains are holding their weapons in a manner which suggests they are ready to fight. This suggests that the movie contains fight scenes. There is nothing in the poster that suggests the film will be calm therefore emphasising that the film contains a lot of action. The use of weapons and dark lighting also show that the target audience for this film is not young children but teenagers and young adults. The colour of the title is silver and this makes the knives sticking out of Wolverine’s hand stand out more as they are the same colour and on either side of the title. The main character is dressed in ripped clothing, has messy hair and has an angry facial expression; this tells us that he is not going to be a happy character in the film and therefore we know there will be some sort of violence.

You can tell this was one of the first posters released and therefore part of a teaser campaign as it only has the main image, the background of his enemies, the title of the film and the Marvel logo in the bottom right hand corner. There is no date for the release of the film therefore it suggests that this poster was made before the movie was even being produced. Wolverine is a very well known story and therefore the poster relies a lot on what people know about the previous films.

Green Lantern

The background for this poster is of a city being torn apart by a big green strobe of light coming from the sky. The colour of the light is similar to the colour of the ball of light being held in the main characters hand in the main image, and the colour of his costume.  You can also see the skies are grey which connotes a bad day. The main image is of the Green Lantern and you can tell this as his costume is green. However, the costume is dark green and he has a mask on covering his eyes. This portrays that he does not want to be recognised and the use of a dark costume could show that he is not good as superhero colours tend to be brighter.

The title of the film is at the bottom of the bottom in the middle and is in a small white font. This stands out as the rest of the poster is very dark; however, the text is very small compared to the other images. Also the date of the release for the film is underneath the title, also in smaller writing. Through the use of the character logo being on his costume and also being behind the name of the film being the same, you can tell that the person in the image is in fact the Green Lantern. This poster relies on the main image to do all of the work and plays on the fact that this is already a well-known character.

Avatar

The main image in the Avatar poster is one of the main characters in the film. The image is of half her face which emphasises the brightness of her eyes and the little bright silver dots on her face. This connotes a good person. However, the dark blue colour of her face represents an alien nature, something different which we are not used to seeing. The main image was taken through a close up which represents the importance of that character.

At the bottom of the poster the title of the film is written in capitals. The colour of the font is the same as the colour of the character’s face. The background of the image is black and this portrays the secrets that are in the film and shows how mysterious the film will be. Through the use of the text “From the director of Titanic”, the poster relies on existing audience anticipation as the film “Titanic” is very well known. This is playing on the audience’s expectations of films from James Cameron and also creating a relationship of trust with the audience.

Teaser and Theatrical Posters

There are two different types of posters that companies send out to advertise their new film; teaser posters and theatrical posters. Teaser posters are normally out a long time before the movie is released to get the audience excited and talking about the movie.  Most teaser posters include very little information about the film however give away slight hints to what will be in it. The vast majority of films will bring out teaser posters with large images of main characters, the title of the film and dates of when the film is going to be released. Many films have done this e.g American Pie. These posters rely on there being anticipation already for the film, and are there to make the audience more excited for the release date and to keep the film in their minds.

Theatrical posters however contain a lot more information about the film. They are released much closer to the release date of the film. They usually contain images from the film, the tagline, the name of the main characters, release dates, credits etc. Theatrical posters follow the same theme as the teasers however are there to show specific parts of the film which give away key events in the movie. They have a lot more detail and give a little more away.