Codes And Conventions Of Short Film Posters
Short Film Posters
The Lethal Innocents - Kirsty Cam
eron - 2007 - New Zealand
"Rita, a 15 year old girl who dances to a different beat, is relentlessly bullied by the queen bees. When they kill her cat, they go one step to far."
Analysis
The main focus of the poster is of the lead character Rita. She is placed centre in centre of the frame and depth of field has been utilised to blur the characters behind her. This technique makes her stand out from the crowd and is a reflection of her character in the film and the way she is represented in the film. The fact she is framed in the centrally and her image takes up a large proportion of the poster shows her importance to the film. In addition her gaze is directly at the vie
wer. This eye contact combined with her facial expression creates a sense of unease in the viewer. The above techniques provide the viewer with an insight to the genre and feel of the text.
The title of the film is placed midway down the poster. As a result the name of the film isn't as immediately obvious as the close up of Rita. The misaligned, almost hand drawn, title further reflects how the character doesn't conform to the norm of society. Thus the audience is shown the personality of the character and due to conventions of genre, the audience can depict from her character profile that the film will be of the psychological drama genre. This is of a similar genre to my short film.
Must Peeter - Pritt Paasuke - 2008 - Estonia
Similar to 'The Lethal Innocents' poster, the 'Must Peeter' poster has a centralised close up of the main character of the film. However in this poster the camera angle is much lower and the actor isn't looking
at the camera. This shows the character to be powerful and mysterious. In addition the character is smoking and his facial expression is unclear. In British society this representation is common to the working class. I believe this to be similar to society in Estonia. This character profile is common to the codes and conventions of drama based films. The black and white image also provides the audience with an insight into the characters mood and feelings in the film further emphasising the drama genre of the text.
Unlike 'The Lethal Innocents' the title of ' Must Peeter' is in a bold serif font and takes up a much larger proportion of the poster. In addition the title is placed at the top of the image and doesn't overlay on to the main image of the character. This makes the title stand out much more and is much easier to read and recognise.
Guantes Blancos - Claudia Caballero - Spain
Unlike the previous two posters the 'Gauntes Blancos' poster contains full body images of the three main characters. In addition the images have turned from bitmap photos into cartoon like vector images. This style is a common to the crime drama genre. In addition the background of the image is in a similar vector style however depicts a city scape. Furthermore the characters are depicted in their full costume and holding their weapons. These are also common conventions of crime drama as well as the city location.
Similarly to 'The Lethal Innocents' the title is printed in a rough, worn looking sans serif font. The title is placed midway down he poster is similarly again to 'The Lethal Innocents' placed over the image of the character. This reinforces the fact the character is integral to film and in addition the character profile is one that you would commonly find in the genre of the film.
Shared Codes and Conventions
Each of the above posters are different in many ways. However some common features appear in them all. All of the posters contain images of the main characters in the film. Generally the main character is positioned centrally in the poster. Furthermore the lighting, colour scheme and position of the actors is a reflection of the characters in the film. Also the codes and conventions of the film genre are reflected in the layout, font choice and title positioning of the poster.
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