Film poster deconstruction

Here I have completed a deconstruction of three film posters from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Lucy and Les Miserables. Through this research, I wanted to understand the conventions of film posters.

•Tagline- “The Rebellion Begins” gives a hint of what the film would include. “rebellion” connotes Good vs Evil.

•Title typography- well known franchise at this point but it still gives hints to the genre of the film. The ‘P’ has a lightning effect on the bottom and lightning connotes magic.

•The image- The characters adhere to the ‘golden rule’ Ron or Hermione’s face lure’s the audience into the middle of the image which is Harry, which also signifies that he is the main character. The image also shows some of the characters still in school uniform and holding wands which also hints to the genre and narrative

•Colour palette- the poster uses very dark greys and blacks with some white highlights which could connote dark magic. It could also be used as a metaphor, especially with the poster’s background that the darkness creates the idea of something looming of foreboding but the white light, is the end is nearly here like a white light at the end of a tunnel. 

•Tagline- “the average person uses 10% of their brain capacity. Today she will hit 100%”. Gives a hint to the narrative of the film with also the hints to the genre of sci-fi.

•Title typography- this bold type of typography is commonly used for action films so this gives a hint to another genre cross over. The end of the ‘Y’ also seems to be exploding or has dissipated, which highlights that the genre would be a action/sci-fi cross over.

•The image- The character of Lucy’s face takes up most of the poster, which shows that the whole film is solely about her. The eye that is visible is quite bright and golden, which gives the impression of her being artificial and not quite human anymore. The low key lighting of the shot could also suggest a dark concept in the film and maybe hint to a thriller genre as well.

•The director credits would promote the film also because fans of their previous work would most likely want to see this film also.

•Tagline- “fight dream hope love” all leave hints/summarises the film. positioned at the top so the whole poster is used efficiently.

•‘golden rule’- the character of Javert is at the top left of the poster and lures in the eyes of the audience which then carry down through the faces of the characters and down the bottom to the scene of the revolution and the flags bring the gaze up to the title.

•The colour palette- the poster is mostly reds, blues and whites which correlate with the French flag. The reds also show connote the feeling of power and rebellion.

•Images- the different images of the characters also give an idea of the scenes from the film, it allows you to have a brief understanding of the characters as Javert is shown to be powerful with his uniform and expression which contrasts from the character of Fantine is wearing a light purple dress which connotes purity and poverty. The placing of the images especially Javert and Jean Valjean connote a good vs evil binary.

In conclusion, our film poster would have to have an image that reflects what our whole film would be about. We would also have to think about a tagline as well as the title for our film as this is a convention.