1. Outcast: The poster of this film conveys the message that this film is going to be action/horror/suspense. The animal hand/claw tells the viewer that the villain resembles a wild animal and is chasing two people in a city. The Animal hunts at night since the lighting in the poster is dark and the atmosphere is gloomy. The type of font that is used for the title of the film suggests that the film has religious content too. The cross signs instead of 'T' and the pentagram in the 'O' of outcast further more gives the impression that it is related to Christianity. The blood stains on the font tell that the film contains bloodshed.
2. Who Killed Nancy: The poster of this film is a little confusing, its hard to judge whether the person who was killed was innocent or guilty of something. A female was killed (may be a young woman) the portrait gives this idea. The pictures of the men indicate they were gangsters/drug dealers and the murder might have taken place at a hotel or may be something important in the film happened in a hotel. The poster leaves the viewer puzzled, inadequate information is given in the poster for the viewer to understand anything except for the basic theme of the film i.e. murder.
3. Atonement: The pictures in the poster convey that the film is about two young adults (male and female), the phrases "Joined by love. Separated by fear. Redeemed by hope." tell that the film is a romantic tragedy, the clothes of the hero are of the army so the audience may think that he went to army and Keira Knightley kept on waiting for him and eventually they never reunited.
4. Blitz: The poster says that this film is an action/adventure film through the gun the man is holding, the expression on the face of this man. There is only one main character. The main story revolves around a cop killer and a killer cop. This is a typical Hollywood adventure/crime/action film where the good guy goes after the bad guy and one of them or both of them end up being dead, with a tragic and heroic ending.
5. Chico & Rita: By only looking at the poster of this film a few things that come in mind are:
- The film is about black people.
- It is an animated film.
- Its a love story.
The market that is shown in one of the pictures in the poster demonstrate that the film is set in Africa or a third world country like Cuba. The woman on the poster is dancing and there is a phrase "love is a song you never forget" so may be the film has some musical element in it as well.
6. Gnomeo & Juliet: The name of the film directs the audience mind direct to one thing that is the film is romantic. This film is also animated as shown in the poster and the main character of the film is standing upside down which means the film is also a comedy film. It is about strange looking little human like creatures and the film's basic plot is about a garden.
7. In the Loop: According to the poster this film is a comedy feature. It is a political film (may be) because the ties the two men are wearing are the flags of USA and United Kingdom. They are connected through a telephone line and the messed up wire suggests that they can not communicate with each other clearly and there is a lot of confusion and the situation is very serious as the sentence says "The fate of the world is on the line".
What I learned from analysing a few of these posters is that the genre of the film is easily identified by the poster, the important cast is known, the main theme and story line is guessed by the audience and the publicity of the film is also done through posters in the cinemas etc. The catchy sentences that are written on the posters make the viewer want to watch the film, in the poster above almost every poster has its own line that speaks for the movie.
The posters that I have chosen above are from British films and I have not seen most of them, I chose these posters so that I could analyse them without my personal opinions about the films, I wanted to analyse them from the eye of an audience so that I could understand the clear meaning of the poster and by analysing them I think posters' main aim is to make its audience curious and confused about the movie. Every human being wants answers to clear their head from any confusion.
