Genre Specific Research for Film Posters

Genre specific codes and conventions in posters for Crime (with elements of

thriller/action/comedy)

By Shope Adejare

End Of Watch

Both the characters faces are focused on a particular thing that the audience cannot see.

A gun symbolising the violence that will be involved in the film. Guns always completely conform to what will be in a crime film.

The text style used in this poster is white showing purity.

There are various blurs of light throughout the poster. This signifies inconsistency and uncertainty because the words are lacking clarity because they are blurred out.

Lip biting- showing his seriousness as a policeman.

‘Every moment of your life they stand watch’ tagline shows that they are focused policeman and they

Featuring the well known actors faces & their names boldly on the poster will always attract an audience.

Side Effects

There is a first aid symbol in the middle of the poster which usually links to an ambulance and the idea of injury which suggests the upcoming violence and injury which is constantly involved in this film.

All the characters have severe expressions on their faces. This can already foreshadow the serious/distressing events destined to occur within the film. They are looking intently in different directions with solemn, observant expressions. In addition to this, their expressions also hints at suspense and mystery.

There are four different characters being separated in the film poster suggesting that there is more than just one main character and emphasises the importance of them all. The four main characters all play very important different roles.

The tag-line ‘one pill can change your life’ is evidently a very gripping feature in the poster.

The main and evident colour being represented through this poster is red. Red signifies can signify many things such as blood, danger and even love. These things are all represented throughout each character and you can see this emotions being presented through the faces of the characters in the poster.

Now You See MeThe title of the film is encrypted into the background of the poster.

All the main characters that feature in the film are walking through the title. This is showing how they are very brave characters.

Very dull/dim colours are used throughout this poster. The colour that stands out most is the intermediate colour of black and white, which is grey. The colour grey can signify formality.

‘The closer you look, the less you’ll see’ tagline

With the colour grey being the foremost colour projected in this poster and the characters dressed in suits, this shows that they are important, high class people.

Although they are criminals they are still presented as people who would be of at least a demographic B in the film which is significant as it really subverts the stereotype for how we would expect criminals to be dressed. This is a main reason for why the audience would be attracted to watch this crime genre film from just looking at the poster.

Tower Heist

‘its not just robbery. Its payback’ tagline shows that this is straight away a crime film.

Males are clearly represented through this poster. Black people are also represented through this poster as you can see their personalities reflected through the picture alone as they stand with more attitude compared to the Caucasian people.

The colour pallet used for this poster is full of very warm colours such as orange and brown.These vibrant warm colours signify strong violence and anger. Due to the fact that males are more involved with violence than women, this is exaggerated through the poster’s colours pallet. These colours have an impact on the target audience because it shows to them that this film will feature violence in it even though the two main cast of the film are predominantly comedy actors.

The Dark Knight Rises

‘A FIRE WILL RISE’ tagline really illustrates the poster well because it shows a massive fire in the background with Batman emerging at the front.

Batman is the only character shown on the poster despite the range of characters involved in the film. This shows the powerfulness of him as a character and although he is the antagonist he is also almost made to look a protagonist as well with the way it is laid out.

Danger and dangerous things (such as the fire) are typically things that will be involved in a crime film with a sub genre of action so this is the reason why something like this has been put in the poster, it will really attract the target audience’s attention.

Attractive cast featured on the poster that female audiences will be familiar with.

The colour palette for this poster is very dull and dreary, with dark blue and grey oil pastille colours. The poster is spilt into half with the top half showing the three main characters in the film.

Whereas the bottom half shows a stilled image from the actual film. Ryan Gosling’s character on a motor bike a night portrays a type of ‘bad ass’ look to the film.

The Place Beyond The Pines

Three main characters have sharp beady looks in their eyes.However each of their looks clearly portray different clarifications for why they look like this.Eva Mendes looks worried, Ryan Gosling looks lost and Bradley Cooper looks annoyed. This automatically gives an insight to the audience about what their characters will be like in the film.

The Bling RingThis poster shows that the film is aimed at a much younger audience.

The clothing that the characters are wearing is very youthful and designer looking. Appealing to their target audience. Audience will be attracted to the glamour that is presented just through their clothing.

All of the characters wearing sunglasses shows they are hiding something

‘Living the Dream, One Heist at a Time’ This tag line will suggest to the audience about how they are living a glamorous lifestyle but are doing it illegally with ‘One Heist at a Time’

The colour pallet for this poster is very colourful. All the clothing that the characters are wearing ranges from different colours.

Parker

This poster has gone for a very simplistic approach.

They have only named two of the main characters on the poster because they know that these are recognisable names for all audiences and this will straight away attract them to the film.

Jason Statham and Jenifer Lopez are presented together in one picture on this poster. This shows a representation of both the characters however because Jason Statham’s image is much clearer, and Jenifer Lopez’s character is presented more as a silhouette.

‘TO GET AWAY CLEAN YOU HAVE TO PLAY DIRTY’ tagline shows that this movie is of a crime genre because it talks about getting away with something.

Seven Psychopaths

‘They Won’t Take Any Shih Tzu’ tagline shows the comedy element to their film despite how serious many of the events throughout the film are.

The main colour used in this poster is green. Green is a very balanced and safe colour. It signifies growth and nature. However the poster is not 100% green as it has elements of acid black all around and through the poster. This can suggest the disorientation in the film of how it is both comedy and crime based.

21 Jump Street

The words ‘senior prom’ in the background suggest that this film is solely aimed at a teenage audience.

The tag line ‘The only thing getting blown tonight is their cover’ helps to suggest to the audience that they are policemen even though through the visuals of the poster they look like teenagers as they are dressed up in prom suits and the banner and the background hint a ‘prom’ vibe as well. However the fact that they are holding guns hints to our audience that this is a crime based film.

The fact that Channing Tatum’s character is holding his gun up whilst Jonah Hill’s character is holding it down suggests that Channing Tatum’s character is much superior in this film.

The colour pallet for this poster is blue and white. These are cool colours which show that the film won’t be as intense with crime due to the fact that its aimed at a teenage audience.

Spring BreakersShocking imagery and colour used to create the vibes portrayed throughout this movie through just the poster.

Tag line ‘A little sun can bring out your dark side’

Two guns being held which immediately tells the audience that this is a violent, crime film.

Spring Breakers title is written very vibrant and looks electrical/futuristic. Showing that this is a very current and ‘now’ film. This shows the audience that its definitely a crime film however it is much more modernised compared to typical crime posters that you would see.

Colour pallet is very fun and vibrant with colours of pink and again, this is because the target audience is teenagers.

James Franco is known for being able to play any type of role in various films. He is also very attractive. Target audience of teenage girls love him and will therefore be more convinced to watch the movie after seeing him in the poster.

Teenagers that have grown up watching people like Selena Gomez (far left) and Vanessa Hudgens (far right) on Disney channel. They will look forward to watching this film to see their transition.

The edginess of the characters and the Mise en scene is something that totally stands out in this poster.