Film Poster Analysis (2)

COLD COMES THE NIGHT – FILM POSTER ANALYSIS

This poster is advertising a crime film that is soon set to be released. The analysis of this poster will include what effects the decisions have on the poster and a possible answer as to why these decisions have been made by the creators. I have chosen to analyse this film poster as its crime genre is similar to our genre of Crime-Drama and I believe it will benefit me when it comes to creating my own film poster.

The first thing that drew my attention in was the title as it has been written in a large, bold font so it is obliged to stand out from the rest of the poster and it dominates the other factors. It has also been placed just down from centre to represent the fact it is part of the main focus. The capitalisation also emphasises its importance on this poster. The title of the film is obviously an important factor and the conventions of film posters say that a title should be placed central to the poster and using a distinct font and size. This poster is an example of this as it has been written in a large font, capitalised and almost central of the page. This has been chosen so that it is eye catching and easy to remember for the audience.

This poster follows the conventions of a Film Poster as it not only has an image of the main characters as the main focus, the poster is also captivating. It is also evident that there is a billing block at the bottom of this poster. A billing block consists of the companies, actors, directors, producers, and other crew members that were involved with the film so they are given credit too. Billing blocks could be seen as a key aspect of a film poster as it is important to some viewers that they know who was involved with the whole process. Also, in the red text below the billing block, there is a date of release to show when the film will be out, in this case it is a specific date as it has given us the month and year it will be released. This needs to be added onto a film poster otherwise the audience will never watch the film as they will be unaware of the release date. A final convention that this poster has followed, is the fact it has listed famous actors that people will be familiar with and shows who is in the film. This could be seen as a USP (unique selling point) as people may want to go and see this film as it includes an actor they like.

With regards to a film poster using an image as the main focal point, this factor allows the poster to be more captivating and eye-catching as it is the first thing the receivers are likely to look at first. The image on this poster acts as an indication of the crime genre by the colour palette that has been used and the expression on the actors faces. With the colour palette, the darker, colder colours have been used to show the harshness of the film. The grey, icy colour could suggest the cold-hearted action being made by someone in the film. In respect of the colour red that has been used, not only for some of the text but also as a screen on the actors glasses, could be a representative of the crime genre as it is a stereotypically connotation of crime as red signifies both danger and blood.

In the red text just next to the title, we see two short declaratives that give the audience an insight as to what may happen in the film. It reads: “She found a fortune. He found a target” this suggests that the film is also following the stereotypes of the crime genre as it is usually the male who plays the role of the antagonist and the female being the protagonist. As we read into this, it shows that the poster is being accurate in trying to lure their audience in as it gives an insight of the action, but uses words that make the viewers want to see this film.

Overall, this film poster is a good example as it does follow the typical conventions.