Task:
Select a poster of your choice from the action genre and answer all the questions below.
Posters occupy a space between art and advertising. They
have a clear commercial purpose - to promote an event or product - but they
also have artistic value. People buy them and hang them on their walls. Museums
have whole galleries devoted to poster art. When analysing a poster it is
important that you evaluate both how well it fulfils its purpose (i.e. promotion)
as well as its aesthetic value.
First steps
- When analysing a poster, you should consider the following
broad questions before you start to focus on the details:
- What are the main colours used in the poster? What do they
connote? (red is a colour - it connotes danger and passion).
- What symbols are used in the poster? Do you need audience
foreknowledge to decode the symbols?
- What are the main figures/objects/background of the poster?
Are they represented photographically, graphically, or illustratively?
- Are the messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal, or
both?
- Who do you think is the intended audience for the poster?
Given that all movie posters have the same purpose - to get
audiences to go see a movie -
- What persuasive techniques are used by the
poster?
- Which genre conventions are referred to?
- Is a star used as a USP (Unique Selling Point)?
- Are "expert witnesses" (i.e. critics) quoted?
- What pleasures (gratifications) are promised by the poster?
- How is attention gained (humour, shock, surprise familiar
face of a star)?
- How does the tagline work? (humour, pun, alliteration etc?)
- Who are the institutions involved in production?
The poster can also give you important information about the
production context of the movie:
- How much does the poster tell you about the institutional
context of the movie's production?
- How important is this information on the poster (think about
information hierarchies)?
- How important a part of the whole marketing campaign is the
poster? Where is the poster placed?
- How expensive was this poster to produce?
Critical Evaluation
Finally, you have to pass judgement on the poster.
- Is it a good poster?
- Does it communicate effectively with the audience?
- Are there any alternative readings which might harm the
message of the marketing campaign?
- Is the poster offensive in any way? e.g. negative representation of people or places
Poster Analysis
Analyse three action adventure film posters in the style of the example below. Include as much information as possible. Add a colour palette chart to your analysis.
