Poster research and drafting

Today in our media lesson we were given the task of researching some movie posters of films that had similar storylines/ themes similar to that of our film. The films I chose were 'My Sister's Keeper' as it focuses on the completely different quality of life that the two girls experience, similar to the two girls in our film; although for the girls in our film this lifestyle difference stems from financial aspects rather than health issues. However after finding a picture of the film poster for 'My Sister's Keeper' there wasnt an image of the two girls, rather it was an image of one of the girls and her mum. However I then found the book cover of it and found an image similar to the idea that we want to convey - an image of the two girls that shows a clear contrast in their lives (i.e. that one of them is bald).

But, because it wasn't a film poster I couldn't analyse it properly, but will still use it as inspiration for our poster :)

The 2 posters i decided to analyse in the end were:

1. Atonement


The first thing I noticed about this poster was how prominent the film title is, as it runs across the width of the middle of the poster in clear, dark capital letters. This is very eye-catching and clearly identifies to the viewer that this is the title of the film.

The two main actors of the film are the only people that feature in the poster - James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. As McAvoy's character is attired in a war uniform and looking down to the picture of Knightley below it is made clear that in the film the man goes off to fight in a war/battle but misses a female companion back home. Knightley has a look of contemplation on her face suggesting that she is indecisive about this relationship in the film. This all suggests that the film is a romance, based on the relationship crisis of the two people in the poster.

The poster itself is split into three sections, with the top and bottom thirds making up the majority of the poster and the middle strip containing just the film title and an image of a young girl. This picture of the young girl is ambiguous; it could be a relation of one of the two antagonists on the poster, or their daughter or it could be the young version of Keira Knightley's character. The top half with McAvoy's character has the man in his army uniform with an image of a busy town in the background with fires burning in the street - clearly a war environment. The bottom half has Keira Knightleys character with a bright poppy feild in the background, a stark contrast to the image above, this conveys that in the film the lovers live in completely different environments and also that the film may cover certain issues of an historical war.

The text contained on the poster is just the film title, the slogan and the actors names. The slogan is very catchy and evokes alot of interest and curiosity in the reader - "You can only imagine the truth." This immediately makes the person reading the viewer want to go see the film in order to find out this "truth" This also suggests that there are elements of secrecy and mystery in the film, and that huge revelations occur in it.

The poster, as well as containing the billing board at the bottom of the poster detailing the actors, directors, producers etc, it also mentions that the director of the film is also the maker of Pride and Prejudice - Joe Wright. This is an important aspect of the poster as it offers another incentive for people who liked Pride and Prejudice to go watch the film, as it will be of similar quality.

I think this movie poster is persuasive as it includes the names of the high profile sctors/actresses and director that are involved in the film, offers a catchy, intriguing slogan and conveys enough information to clearly show the genre of the film (romance/period), making the poster viewer eager to see the film.

2. Red Road