Analysing Movie Posters

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?
• 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. representation of people or places