3. Actors - Names
There are no actors names on this film poster. This is probably because the
actors are not known well enough to be a selling point for the film. So instead of
cluttering the poster, they could put in things such as critical praise which might
encourage people to go and see the film more than if they were to see the
names of the actors which they probably wouldn't know.
This would be the case with my film poster because neither me or Jamie (My
group member) are known for acting and this seems a convention for small
independant film posters which is what ours is.
5. Actors - Picture
There are not conventional pictures of the actors on this film poster. There isn’t
a picture of all the actors lined up facing the camera like the ‘This Is England’
film poster.
We are introduced to two of the characters:
1) The silhouette of a soldier - We
are not shown the actor but the
outline of a character. This also
gives the audience an
indication as to what the film is
about and possibly genre
2) The side profile of a face - We
are only shown part of a face but
no body. This is not a silhouette
like the other so we can see who
it is.
6. Main Image
The main image of this poster is not conventional due to it
not being a photograph but rather a cartoon image. The
text on the poster covers almost every part of the image
apart from the soldier in the center.
7. Genre
We can tell the genre through a few things on the film
poster. The first is that the silhouette if the character shows
us that he/she is a soldier holding a gun which would imply
a thriller/drama hybrid due to guns and war being a
convention to both of these genres. Another is the direct,
Sean Ellis who produced the film ‘CityLights‘. This film was
a drama/thriller as well as most of his other productions
showing that this is the theme/genre of films he likes to
shot
8. References to Other Films
There are no references to other films. This could be because
the other films that the director has produced have not been
successful enough to use on the film poster to entice an
audience because they might not recognise the other films.
This would be the same for my film poster because i have not
made any previous films which have been even remotely well
known. Because of this there would be no point in putting these
films on my poster because they would not be recognised.
10. Cultural References
This film won the audience award at the sundance film
festival.
By putting this on their film poster it might attract more
people to go and see it because it must be good in order to
win that kind of award. Mainly, only smaller independent
films win awards at film festivals and so this would be good
to put on our film poster because it is a small independant
film
12. Tagline
The tagline in this film: "desperate men take desperate measures" tries to
create a hint towards the storyline and build excitement through enigma. Its
also a way to link a phrase to the film so that people can remember it. Every
aspect of the poster tries to get their target audience to go and watch their film
and this is one of the least affective one.
Most low budget independent film posters don't actually have a tagline so I
don't think that it is nessicary to put one on my film poster
14. Website
This poster, like quite a few others, has a website which their audience can go
to to find out more about the film such as release date, trailer and so on.
What this poster has also done which a lot of independent film posters do is
create a Facebook and twitter account which people can then either like or
follow the page to get constant updates on thinks such as reviews and new
trailers etc.
16. Critical Praise
This poster has two kinds of critical praise. The first are reviews from
newspapers and film magazines and the second is a star rating out of five. Both
kinds of critical praise are used to try and make people go and see the film. The
reason why it works is that the reviews are from well established film critics who
know a good film, so if a critic likes a film and there is a general consensus
between many film critics then it must be a good film, so people will then go
and watch it. I am going to put these kinds of reviews in my poster to try and
increase ratings
18. Size: the title as always is the largest
part of text on the whole poster. This
is to try and make people remember
the name so that they feel a
connection to it and whenever they
hear about or see the name they
know that they recognise it which may
increase the chance if them going to
see it
Font: This is a very normal sans serif
font the only thing strange about it is
the letter 'A' in Manila. I have not
seen, or know anything about the film
so I can only guess from what I can
see that it matches the style of the
poster. The whole design of the
poster is based on horizontal lines
and that's what this letter is doing
Title
19. Style: the style is very plain, it is not
made to colourful or too extravagant
to take away from the rest of the
poster
Colour: same as the style, this is not
made to stand out to take away from
the rest of the poster
Title
21. Credit Block
The credit block is a legal requirement for film poster so it came as no surprise
to see it. It tells the audience who and which institutions were involved in the
production of the film and gives them credit for it. There is a conventional fint
which pretty much all posters use and it is usually kept out the way of the
poster so not to be seen
22. Age Certificate
There is no age certificate on this poster. However, there
will be one because it is a legal requirement from the
BBFC. A lot of the smaller film posters i have analysed
have not had the age certificate on and so i don’t think that
it is a convention and therefore i am not going to put one on
my film poster.
24. Release Date
The release date tells the audience when the film comes out to make sure as
many people go and see it in the cinema because lots of smaller independent
films don't tend to come out on DVD after they have finished playing in the
cinemas. Because of this they need as many people to know when it is in the
cinemas as possible and what better way to do that than letting the audience
know the date of release
