Film Poster Analysis

Film Poster Analysis

Les Miserables
•Les Miserables was already in theatres before it was made into a movie therefore it’s already well known.
•The poster uses the colours of gold, navy blue and white to connote a dark but hopeful storyline. The colours are not too extreme and almost connote some sort of patriotism, which is a key theme within the story.
•The dominant of the poster is a young girl, which the film is centred around - therefore allowing the target audience to be rather young as this is a musical after all. The emotion of the young girl also suggests sadness and loss withn the fim as she looks out towards us directly from the poster. In additiomn, she looks rather srcuffy so we only infer that she has been through a hard time or that she lives in poverty of some type.
• The four words underneath “Fight, Dream, Hope Love” consolidate the focus of the film and what themes are likely to be depicted. This way, there is not too much being given away about the story of the film.
•Just underneath the title the word “phenomenon” is used to suggest that the film is remarkable and it also helps advertise it. The release date is also placed underneath in a slightly smaller font and this is key to any film poster.

Jacob's Ladder

•From the name, ‘fatal attraction’ we can understand that the director, Adrian Lyne has a reputation for directing horror films.
•At first glance our eyes meet the blurred image of a face that remains centred but slightly to the right as if being pulled by something else, connoting possible disequilibrium in the movie.
•The choice of a black background depicts that it isn’t necessarily a happy, light hearted comedy but quite the opposite as black connotes death. The black also mirrors the hidden depth of the story line that is revealed as the story itself is unravelled.
• Similarly, the three colours used are black, white and red the traditional colours for a horror/ thriller movie.
• The writing at the top reads “from the director of ‘fatal attraction’ allowing the target audience to be able to have a reference to some of his previous work and make a knowledgeable suggestion about what this film entails.
•Without the text, the image would still be able to depict the genre of the film however the writing underneath that reads “The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer’s nightmare, is that he isn’t dreaming” reiterating the horror genre. The dark colours aim towards a must more older audience possibly from late teenagers and older as the image alone may be quite discomforting to a much younger audience.


World War Z
•Unlike the previous posters, world war z has a bit more of a complex image as its focus.
• The dominant is clearly Brad Pitt, the lighting directed towards him outlines his left arm, left cheek, left leg and the inner part of his right arm highlighting his strength and protection his character may bring.
• The rest of the image focuses on the destruction that has become already so the audience can already tell that the film will be action based due to the corruption that the poster illustrates.
• Similarly, to the Jacob’s Ladder poster the three colours, red, white and black are used, the traditional horror/thriller poster colours.
• Unlike Les Miserables, the target audience would be older, aiming it towards late teens and older although 50+ may find it distasteful due to the gore that horror movies do bring.
•Unlike, both Jacobs Ladder and Les Miserables, there is no tagline; instead ‘Brad Pitt’ is written across the top to draw people to watch it as he is a well-known actor.
•Although, for an audience without this knowledge, they could only assume that the genre of the film is action as nothing from the image really suggests that it is a horror film.