Codes and Conventions of Film Posters

Intro I have been asked to analyze in detail two posters of my choice and to consider following: content, Written Language, Typography, Photographs and illustrations, Representations, Colours schemes. Film posters is a way of promotion just like a film trailer. Film posters can be promoted in different places such as billboards, bus stops, buses and train stations. Film poster are used to catch people’s eyes for them to read the information and make them interested in the film.

Content The Hunger Games is a story about 12 districts all located in Panem but once there were thirteen, every year two people are chosen by the capitol to represent their districts in The Hunger Games by fighting till death. The district of Panem rose in rebellion against the ruling capitol. The capitol controlled the country, after they easily won the war; because of the rebellion the capitol destroyed the thirteenth district completely. The genre of this film is science fiction, Action and Adventure. Only one character is shown, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is also shown to be very important, being positioned central in the poster armed with a bow and arrow ready to fire the arrow. This also suggests that she has power and isn’t afraid of combat when confronted. The target audience would be young women and teenagers due to the weapons being used and the fact that she is a female, therefore this movie would attract more women than men. the line (Catching Fire) is bigger than the name of movie, making it stick out and grabbing the viewers’ attention. The flames in the background which looks like it has exploded tell the viewers that something bad has happened. Fires represent danger, war and pain. In the film, William cage (Tom cruise) is an officer who has never seen combat. He was assigned to NATO forces that have united to create the UDF, which functions as a high-tech globalist super soldier army, geared towards battling recent alien invaders. The characters on the poster look very strong and intimidating because of the number of weapons, they are holding. The mixed red and orange in the background indicates a fire that lashed out maybe because of the aircrafts in the sky, these people don’t seem to know what is happening up in the sky, but this also means that a war is going on. The robots that are revealed to us in the bottom corner maybe enemies that were harming others. The target audience would be young boys and men who enjoy watching action movies, a lot of violence and all sorts of gadgetry and different types of machinery.

Written Language On both posters we can see the credit that are seen in a movie poster. At the bottom of the poster it tell us the main actors, the writers, the directors, the producers and the company. The production company for the hunger game and edge of tomorrow are Lionsgate and Warner Bros.

Typography The tagline at the top of the poster, Remember who the enemy is, suggests that it’s related to the theme of war. The title is large and bold, the names of the directors or actor/actress is smaller than the tagline. Catching fire title is bigger than the hunger games title, catching the audiences attention. The tagline in the middle of the poster Live, Die, Repeat. Also suggests that it related to war, but in we get the sense that we can go back in time because of the word repeat.

Photographs and illustrations In the huger games poster, you can see that Katniss Everdeen the actress will be the main character throughout the movie. She is the only character revealed to us in the poster. In the edge of tomorrow poster, we see Tom cruise and Emily blunt as the main two in the poster and throughout the movie.

Representations In the hunger games poster, the character Katniss Everdeen is portrayed as strong and defiant woman. In the movie she is intelligent and independent who doesn't’t rely on anyone. Katniss Everdeen has more male traits than anything else, she hunts and hardly shows her emotions. She’s always concentrating and ready to battle for her survival. In the edge of tomorrow poster, the character Rita is portrayed as a tough female a bit like Katniss Everdeen from the hunger games. Both characters have similar traits.

The Hunger Games Colour Scheme The colours in the poster are red and orange. It tell us that the moods are serious and intense, because of the use of fire and the bow and arrow being pointed towards the audience. The font is also bold, Fire is often seen in the poster which indicates danger. The colours in this poster all relate to the Sci-Fi and adventure genre. §

Edge of Tomorrow Colour Scheme In the background we can see a lot of smoke and intense fire. The colours in the poster a mixture of yellow, orange and a bit of red. The colour were well contrasted, it stand out.