Friday 25 September 2015

Poster analysis


The bold Film poster to the movie ‘Red’ uses multiple cases of mise-en–Scene and other vehicles to connote ideas.

The main color featured in the poster is red, which has a connotation of aggression, blood and danger. Also, the color repeats and emphasizes the title. The feelings and thoughts we connect with the color red are all definite trademarks of an action film, which is defined as “a genre wherein physical action takes precedence in the storytelling. The film will often have continuous motion and action including physical stunts, chases, fights, battles, and races. The story usually revolves around a hero that has a goal, but is facing incredible odds to obtain it.“ 

The Poster designers made sure that the audience is aware of the film being action themed, by incorporating mise-en-scene props like the guns, ranging in sizes, and presenting them in an actively used way. Also an ‘unfeminine’ font was used to catch the male audience’s attention. The Font is bold, simple and presented against a black background, which again the contrast of Red and black creates a connotation of danger and death.

As a persuasive technique to attract an audience, the producers of the poster used the famous actors and their genre label they are famous for. The list of the celebrity cast is located horizontally along the top of the poster; listing stars like: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker and Helen Mirren. This provides the viewer with trust in what quality and what type of film they are dealing with. The actors are used as USPs, by displaying their names and huge prints of their close ups.

The poster introduces the main character by portraying them photographically, with strong facial expressions that makes the viewers project the stereotypical characteristics, related to the genre, onto the characters crating outlines of their personalities and their fore of the style and tone of the film.

The primary messages conveyed by the poster are verbal since the poster reads the catch phrase: ”STILL ARMED. STILL DANGEROUS. STILL GOT IT.”  The phrase indicates that the characters featured in the movie are of a certain age and professionals in their professions. Another nonverbal but visual aspect of the poster is the way the characters are placed in the for and background, their spacing indicates their importance in the film.

Another effect the actors have on the film poster is to express how big the budget of the movie was and therefor what quality can be expected. This is simply another way to comfort the audience, since the viewers enjoy knowing what to expect before seeing the movie. Displaying the production company creates the same effect.

The poster also displays the date of release, which is obviously an important piece of information; in this case it is the 15th of October.


I personally think it is a simple, however well planed poster; fulfilling the desired effect of stating the genre and attracting the according audience. I find it to have a very powerful and well-composed use of colour and its connotations, which is one of the main attention hookers. Also I like how it is sectioned of into three segments, to allow the display of different illustrations and characters.
Anne Braatz Media

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