POSTER ANALYSISThe Girl On The Train

THE VISUAL GRAPHICSStarting with the visual graphics of this film poster, the dominating feature is the main character of the film. This is a very common thing to do, advertising the main character and making them known to potential audiences. They’ve allowed this image to take up the entire poster, filling the background completely. I believe this a very successful technique, especially in aim to draw people in. By making the picture quite close up to the characters facial expression clearly, we can see she is glancing, looking sad towards something in the near distance. This connects the audience to the character and makes them want to know what they are feeling and why. Also weaved into the visual of the poster, are elements of mise en scene. Using settings and props, the train and the reflection of the house that Emily Blunt’s character obsesses over in the film, are shown in the visuals. This cleverly connects the poster to the film and its narrative in a subtle way, giving detail about the film which isn’t just focused on the main character. In this instance it gives them an idea of setting and a glance into the narrative.

THE COLOUR PALETTEAlongside the visuals, the colour choices used in the poster are very important. These are something that connect the poster to the film’s aesthetic. In the poster they have kept the tones and colours quite dull. This matches the overall mood of the film, and therefore is mirrored effectively in the poster through the colours. The poster has used colours such as grey, turquoise, black and various different shades of blue. This altogether creates quite a sad and scared mood for the poster, which corresponds perfectly with the actual film. Additionally, they’ve made the characters skin complexion very pale. This has a dramatic effect, linking into to the personality of the main character and interesting the audience into why she looks this way. Her eyes also incorporate the themed colours of grey and green. Even through the most simplistic editing, they have ensured her eye make up is smudged to a grey colour which is very similar to that of the outside of the train. Her eye colour is a muted green, which ties in perfectly with all the tones used in the poster.

THE TEXT CHOICEA very simplistic, yet effective text choice has been made for this poster. Starting with the colour choice, they’ve used a combination of a muted green and white for the text. Keeping it consistent, they’ve shared the colours by alternating them between every other piece of writing. The writing is extremely basic, a slim font with every word written in capitals to just draw in the right amount of attention. I think they’ve chosen to keep the writing minimal in order to focus everyone's attention onto the visual part of the poster. Placing the text across the middle of the poster in order to not block the main image, attracts the audiences attention to the picture first and then to read the details below. One part which I believe was extremely successful, although very subtle, is the effect they’ve put on the main title. The have used a sweeping effect to making it look as if the title is moving with the train. This is effective in keeping cohesion between the all promotional materials. Lastly, they have used the tag line which is used across all of the film posters and in advertisement of the film “what did she see?”.

POSTER ANALYSISGone Girl

THE VISUAL GRAPHICSThe visual graphics for Gone Girl are quite complex, but give off a minimalistic look. They include several components, and show off both of the main characters. The basis of the visual is the female main characters face. This has been put on a very low opacity so only her eyes are subtly visible. Her face has been blended onto the background of a sky, river image. Although this setting doesn’t relate to the film, it contains colours which are suitable for the poster. Another element of the visual is the male main character. He is placed at the bottom of the poster, and made to look as if he is part of the landscape picture. He is of a small size compared to the female character (although her face is barely visable), this could have some significance in regards to character importance. Some other details of the visual graphics include the floating cloud, and the low opacity overlaid graphics from a news reel included throughout the film. The cloud is mixed in with the title, emphasising the essence of the missing girl. Lastly, the layout of the poster, contains a white border. This gives the visual an almost polaroid picture look, possibly implying use of pictures within the narrative of the film.

THE COLOUR PALETTEThe colour choices for the Gone Girl film poster are very minimalistic. Including mainly shades of purple and blue, it has a very gentle effect on the poster. As a sky is incorporated within the visual graphics of the poster, a blue gradient is used that fades into a light lilac colour as it flows down the page. These choices of background colours create a very mysterious atmosphere for the audience. The colour of the main title text and the subtitles is a dark shade of purple and blends nicely into the colour palette. They have also used a soft white to create a range in the colours used. The names of the main actors of the movie at the top are in a very light lilac/white colour. This doesn’t make them stand out obviously to the audience, but I believe that was done purposely in order to draw attention to the visual graphics instead. The white colour used in the cloud separates the colour of the main title from the background colours, allowing it to stand out to an extend. The light lilac colour is again used for all of the credit information at the bottom of the poster. This has been done in order to not draw attention to it, as it is not the most significant part of the poster.

THE TEXT CHOICEThe text used in this poster isn’t very bold or bright and eye capturing. However, it’s subtle look captivates the audience with a minimalistic approach. The main title ‘Gone Girl’, is the largest piece of text on the poster. It is a deep mauve colour, and matches the aesthetics of the background of the poster. Although it has been purposely faded into a cloud, it is still visible and can be clearly read. All of the other text on the poster is very small and in faint colours. For example, the two main actors names are written at the top of the poster, in a very light lilac colour. Even though we can see these titles, they don’t stand out. This means it isn’t completely clear to the audience who is starring in the film. They’ve also used small text to present the tag line for the film which is situated just underneath the main title. This is again in a very faint colour, and thin font, blurring into the background of the poster. In regards to the names of companies, those involved and release dates, they are at the bottom and in a light grey colour. All of the choices may have been purposely chosen in order to make the visual graphics stand out, instead of making the text bring the attention in.

POSTER ANALYSISSouth Paw

THE VISUAL GRAPHICSThe poster for South Paws is absolutely my favourite, in terms of visual graphics. It’s tones, colours and visual appearance perfectly correspond with the genre and mood of the film. The main actor takes up the entire visual. A side profile of him looking down has been enlarged and covers the entire background on top of the black basis. His character, a boxer fighting to gain his daughter back, is the key part of the poster. The colour of the image has been tinted to be slightly more grey toned, in order to relate to the harsh mood. It shows the main character in his most bruised and punched up state, which is effective in drawing the audience in to find out why he looks like this. Including an image where blood is used also really influences audience interaction, getting them to question why that blood is there. Putting the main actors image on a black background instantly draws attention to the main image, making sure there is no other visual distractions. The outside edges of the poster are frayed with white, to almost look like they have been burnt or ruined. This relates to the theme of loss within the film.

THE COLOUR PALETTEThe colours used in the South Paw poster are very dramatic and dark, fitting to the heavy thriller genre of the film. A harsh black colour has been used for the background. This could relate to the main character feeling that nothing is real, and that he has a black cloud following him around. The block colour may have been used to also draw the visual of the main character to the attention of the readers. They’ve also used the corresponding colour of red throughout the advertising campaign. The main title, tag line and ‘written by’ are all in this colour. This brings a pop of colour to the poster, and also could be significant to blood which is present a lot during the film and on the poster. White has also been used in various places throughout the poster, to interject the dark colour palette. Mainly we see it through speckles over the graphics, which I think is meant to give a edgy, old and used effected. Lastly, to fit in with the dark tones of the visual, they have made the photograph of the main character very grey toned. This adds to the theme of pain and hurt.

THE TEXT CHOICEJust like the whole aesthetics of this poster, the text is very minimal and kept in the bottom right hand corner of the poster. The title of the film is written in a bold red colour, using capital letters. This makes it stand out, yet it isn’t too overwhelming. Both the main title and the names of the main actors are positioned facing down. This has been done to create an effect with matches the visual graphics, making it seem as if the main actor on the poster is looking down on the titles. This could relate to him looking down on and being ashamed of his own life. The size of the titles of the main actors names, directors, writers etc are quite small. They are still readable, and have been written in a white text to ensure this; they clearly wanted to make the visual the main attraction of the poster. The tag line used on the poster states: “believe in hope”. This relates extremely well with the film, as the main characters surname in the film is Hope. They’ve only included only a year for the release date and again it is small writing in order to not draw attention away from the visuals.