Adam- Poster textual analysis

  Juno

The first thing that strikes me is the colours that stand out and draw your eyes to the poster. They work well to create a fun/playful mood and the caption above the main title reinforces this as a playful film. This poster in particular, I believe is aimed at a younger teenage audience as they would be drawn in by the colours and light hearted text.


The positioning of the characters shows the main 2 characters being shown clearly to the audience and the lesser characters in the background. This invites the audience to learn more about those characters in the background. The positioning of the main title also actually fits enough so that Juno's baby bump is parallel with the end of the title. The gap between the male character and the end of the title is there to show a contrast to how big her bump is, which shows importance within the movie.
The main male character has quite a timid body language and he looks uncomfortable and his hands in his pockets with the main female character portrays a confidence about herself. This poster works well to create an image of what the characters will be like in the movie through body language, costume and facial expressions.
The text used in the title works well as it contrasts well with the background and also fits in with the colour coding of the characters. The subtext fits with the background instead of contrasting works as it is pleasing to the eye. The age rating is almost hidden away in this as I believe they wanted to get a sense of empty space as they have left the left and right of the poster free of writing.

Brighton Rock
 

 We can tell from this poster that brighton rock is a thriller as we can tell from the dark, serious expressions and the clouds in the background show darkness. The fact that the clouds looks like they are coming toward the light could be implying a 'coming storm' and could imply two sides to the film. The angle of the picture is slightly canted which shows a sense of dissaray which could relate to themes within the film.
The title contrasts against the dark background as well as the reviews, similar movies and studioblock. They are mostly concentrated over the dark part of the poster as I think they may have wanted them to stand out. The functional title is in a similar block capital and I believe they chose this just to simply stand out. I thought that it seemed to impose from the poster and catches your eyes straight away and this must be the desired effect. 
Brighton pier in the background is portrayed in this poster as quite a menacing structure. It almost makes it looks like a prison to me and looks sinister. Being on the dark side of the poster, the pier is made more imposing as the light shows up against the cloud. Brighton pier being a landmark sign of Brighton it shows that this film could portray a darker side to Brighton than the viewer may be used to. 
The characters also draw the eye as they all have interesting facial expressions. Helen Mirram's character looks concerned and had a serious expression which shows she may be under threat within the movie. The male character looks menacing and certain techniques are used within the poster to portray this toward us; for instance he has a shadow on his face, is dressed in an imposing suit and he looks straight toward the viewer of the poster which adds a personal touch, the viewer may feel threatened. The fact that the women are standing behind the man and he looks considerably larger than them, could show a traditional representation of women at the time the film was set (40s). 


We can tell straight away that this film would not be for audiences under 15, even without looking at the age rating. The dark nature of the poster with serious facial expressions would immediately turn off a younger audience as it is immediately made clear it is a serious film. Helen Mirram's presence in the poster shows us that it must be an upclass film as she seems to select her movies carefully. 


City of god


City of god is a film about 2 kids growing up in the brazilian slums of Rio de Janeiro as they both follow 2 different paths. I chose this poster as it is quite a low budget movie like ours and I believe the poster shows a lot about the movie just from looking at it. 

The two images show us what the main themes of the story are: romance and violence. These are both portrayed in a different sense for instance the top image shows a picturesque scene, shows happiness and also has a sense of warmth around it. The light reflecting off of the characters gives this warm tanned feeling and gives us a sense of freedom and being young. The lower image portrays a different view of the movie; the haziness of the image gives me a sense of being too hot. This could imply the frenziness of the situation and the way that everyone is pointing their 'guns' toward the viewer of the poster could be intimidating and may interest them. 
This poster seems to keep with it's running theme throughout the poster as the main title font and the review at the top of the poster are almost identical. The font is also shown in the tag line instead it is white instead of a yellow colour; Ibelieve it is white to stand out against the black background, the fact it is also in the center puts more attention on it. 
The main characters are not immediately obvious as they aren't facing the viewer so it could imply that it is more of a movie concentrating on the slum gangs rather than main characters. It could also be a technique to make the viewer want to see the movie to learn more about the character as you don't see much of them. 


The rough look around the pictures may show that the film could show rough elements and implies poverty as it gives us an idea that the poster is crudely done. The rough font that the title and other sub text is in reinforces this idea as it looks very raw and messy. 


I think this film would be aimed toward a plus 15 target audience as it clearly shows aspects of poverty and living in desperation through the poster. It shows quite dull colours which would not attract attention from a child but would most likely interest an adult as they would want to learn about the sepia feel to the poster. 

 This is England
This is England is a film by Shane Meadows about a young boy who goes into a group of skin heads and makes some wrong choices.

  From the poster, we can tell that this is England is a drama clearly set in England because of the title and the flats in the background are noticeably English. We can also tell it is a rough urban environment in which it is set as they are all leaning up against a metal wall in a back alley it looks like.

From this and they way they are dressed, like skin heads, we could get the idea they could be up to trouble. The characters are all facing toward the screen and this is quite imposing for the viewer. Their body language seems to be quite mixed with some people very relaxed, people looking angry and people looking malicious and this shows that they have a mixed group of friends. We cannot tell who the main characters are as they are all lined up equally and I think this is because the poster is meant to give the idea that it is one big gang. 


The different colours in the title could be there to stand out as the tag line is about standing out from the crowd. There are also the colours of the english st georges flag and the union jack which gives it a distinct British feel and could give the impression it is quite a patriotic film. Because the title looks rough and chipped away it could give an impression it is reflecting the lower class side of England, representing a poor community. Other text such as the review and who the film was by is done in a way that looks like it's a pen drawing and make's it look like graffiti which reinforces this aspect of a lower class representation.


The colours of the poster seem to mainly revolve around blue which is considered a calm colour so the poster could be implying they are quite a friendly group unlike the poster suggests. The dark blue 'ENGLAND' in the title and the 'winner best film' work well to stand out from the much lighter sky blue and reinforce this them of blue in the poster. The spacing of the poster works well as it used rule of thirds to produce a poster that is pleasing to the eye; the use of a large space above the main focus of picture works well as the title and other subtext could be placed there and look good. 


We can also tell this film is not going to portray traditional representations of women as the women are dressed in quite a boyish way and look like they stand from the ground. This could be a contemporary representation as they seem to have strong and confident body language which helps us create the idea that they could have a hard personality. The main thing this poster is showing is that the small boy has joined their group as he is noticeably shorter than them, this allows us to concentrate on him. This raises some enigma codes about the film and could encourage someone to go and see it.