Film Poster Case Studies

Chee Lau

The Hangover Part 3

The film poster shows the three main characters of the film in a medium to close up shot

where they are looking directly at the camera, this allows the viewer to see their facial

expressions and body language which are presenting a serious theme, this is linked to the

type of clothing they are wearing, suits, two of the characters are also wearing sunglasses

which gives them a mysterious look. The shot looks like it is set in Las Vegas, America, this

would keep the theme of gambling and drinking relevant and being part of a trilogy, past

viewers will recognise this theme throughout the films, the suits and setting are also related.

The lighting used is most likely artificial thought it could be natural as Las Vegas is in the

desert, you can see there is a sunset in the background which could be linked with the text

at the top of the poster “The end”.

The main text used in the poster is a bright white colour with which has a glowing effect

around it, firstly the main text “the Hangover” and “Part III” is used to signify that it‟s the third

and final film and its also in bold which separates it from the rest, this is because they want

to highlight the film name. They use a conventional theme of putting the main text at the

bottom which includes important information such as film name, actors, producers,

important companies and also the film release date. The date is done in a red text, this is to

stand out from the rest but being at the bottom of the poster it doesn‟t draw attention away

from the picture or film name.

I chose this as a case study because I have used a similar theme of three main characters

in my short film and I have also set it in the comedy genre, I use similar themes of drinking

and alcohol which requires an mature and similar target audience as does this film.

Project X

Straight away you can see the relation between my short film one of my previous case

studies of „The Hangover Part III‟ they are created by the same director which means its

most likely going to use similar types of comedy and target an audience of the same

fashion. The poster features a teenager on the floor with empty cups around him, the

audience would immediately know they signify that a party has happened as they are

commonly seen at that sort of venue, it also links to the teenager lying on the floor,

representing that he has passed out from drinking alcohol. The photo is taken at a

medium range looking down towards the character, this is something that the audience

could relate to, anyone who has watched or seen anything about the film will know that

there are 3 main characters that feature in the film and this could be their POV shot of

them looking down at their friend. The lighting used for the photo is clearly unnatural, the

bright light focuses around the teenager lying on the floor as he's the main focus of the

picture.

The title of the film „Project X‟ indicates that it has some sort of secrecy or classified

information, also the props and body language used in the photo signify that it‟s party,

that would mean It wasn‟t meant to happen or the teenagers didn‟t want people to know

about the „project‟. The film text is in bright, bold white font which clearly stands out from

all the other text, this is the first thing the audience will read, at the top it includes the

information about the director and his past films, this follows a convectional layout for a

film poster, often the film name will be at the lower half of the poster and they will include

actors and the release date or coming soon text underneath.

Superbad

This film poster uses a medium shot of all the main characters of the film „Superbad‟, straight away you recognise their body expressions are all different, this tells the audience that they have different personalities that will be shown in the film, this could be linked to the film name, the two characters on the left and right are showing nervous and tense body language whilst the middle character gives off a confident look. They clearly feature three main characters which I also use in my own short film, this is one of the reasons why I chose this case study.

There is a frame around the poster which outlines the main characters of the film, outside the border there is a header about the director and his previous movies that he created, when the audience reads this they will be able to easily relate to the upcoming film „Superbad‟, they can expect similar quality work from someone they might have seen before. The main title of the film is bold and written in a comic type fashion which are commonly seen in magazines and comic books, this is important because obviously there is a reason why the director wanted to portray this sort of image, it also gives hints towards the film, the actors attitudes might be childish like a comic magazine whilst they try to be „bad‟. They also include common extra information at the bottom of the poster, such as actor information, companies and the coming soon, they have a colour scheme of red, white and black. The important text is shown in red as this is what they want the audience to focus on and look at first.

I think there are definitely elements from this poster that have given me ideas on what to use for my own, I could show the three main actors of my short film in a similar fashion, maybe them on the location even though the plain background behind has a good simplistic effect.