Poster Research

Shutter Island
 

This poster clearly tells us this is a thriller through its use of thriller conventions to give the poster dark themes. It uses low key lighting on Leo's face, with a match being the source of light. This gives the character enigma. The character also wears a serious facial expression, which tells the audience that this film could get dark. The island shrouded in darkness also creates enigma; it makes the audience wonder what the island has to do with Leo's character. The lighting on the island also tells us nothing about what happens on the island.

The tag-line 'some places never let you go' might be a clue to what the film's narrative is about. It makes me think that the narrative is about what happens to Leo's character when he arrives at the island. The tag-line and the release date have both been put in a red font. Red is a colour that is linked with danger, blood and love. The red being used on this poster could be linked with either blood or danger, adding to the dark feel of this poster. The title of the film itself and Leonardo's name are both in white on this poster, and in a font that implies dark themes and a chilling narrative.

The poster layout puts most of the information and attention to the centre of the poster. The layout also splits the poster into to two sections: the top half attracts possible viewers with the images, the name of a big celebrity and the title. The bottom half contains more information about the film (release date, credit block and producers) if the viewer was hooked by the top half. There are no reviews on this poster, so I can't really talk about target audience. But I can say it's probably not for younger viewers.

Happy Hour

Happy Hour is a short film poster. This film is hard pin a genre on, though the red text and font that looks like handwriting may tell us that this film is a thriller. It's not a horror because there isn't any indication that the film has anything supernatural. The poster is very simple but quite effective. It consists of just one image that takes up the whole poster. The image shows us a girl with a scared facial expression looking at someone coming up the stairs. We don't know who it is that's coming up the stairs, but we can see there is an out-of-focus glass in the unknown person's hand. This could imply that alcoholism is a main theme of the film. The girl's costume and hair tell us that the girl represents the theme of innocence. From this poster, I think the narrative involves an alcoholic (father perhaps) getting drunk and abusing the little girl (who may be his daughter). The poster follows some of the conventions of a thriller, mainly the fact that we can't see the face of the man who is holding the glass. He is also wearing black, and he is out of focus in the frame. These add enigma to this character, as we have no idea who he is ad we can only guess his relationship to the girl.

The title of the film has been put in a red, and put into a font that looks like handwriting. Red is a colour associated with blood and danger, which is why it adds a darker tone to the short film.

The film layout puts most of the attention to the centre of the poster. The space between 'Happy' and 'Hour' is wide enough to fit in the bottom of the glass, which they did so it is clearer to see what's in the person's hand. The title and credit block are put really close to the bottom of the poster, so we can see the whole of the image above. The image attracts the potential viewers to look at the rest of the poster.


I Saw The Devil

I Saw The Devil has a different layout to the other posters. The tag line of the film ('Abandon all Compassion') is right at the top of the poster. The film title is the main attraction of the poster, and it's what will catch the eye of someone looking at the poster first. It takes up most of the poster and it's colour and font set the tone for the rest of the poster. The title has been put in red, which could symbolize blood and danger. The font of the title looks like handwriting, which tells us this film could be scary. The tag-line and all the other titles in in white and a more serious font, which is more conventional for a thriller or horror film. The The title is also covering some of the faces in the background. This gives us the idea that the title was drawn on top the poster, like a scary message written in blood. The only other piece of red text is below the credit block, which says 'coming soon'. This adds emphasis to the point and draws the audience's attention from the white text.

The faces in the background are tinted with red, which also adds to the scariness this poster is trying to show us. Liam Neeson's face on the right has low key lighting on his right side, which adds a sense of enigma to his character. Both characters are wearing serious facial expressions, and we see these faces at a medium close-up or close-up distance. This brings us close to these characters and we can see that these characters have seen a lot of evil.

I think this film is more a horror than a thriller, because the title refers to the devil, who many believe is a fictional monster. Whether or not it is a metaphor or they actually come across Satan we cannot figure out from this poster. I think the narrative of this poster is about one or both of these characters confrontation with a demon, either in a physical form or a personal demon, and we see how it torments them. This film poster is aimed at a more mature audience because of it's dark themes and the way it is presented.