Good Night, and Good Luck Film Poster Analysis

Katie Charman

The Poster:

The Image, Including Lighting and Camera Distance

flag and his role of running the country.

The lighting on the image of the characters face is Chiaroscuro as only one light source has been used to illuminate one side of his face and leave the left side in shadowed darkness. The adds a sense of mystery to the character as it appears he is light and innocent on the light side and then the use of the shadow makes it seem as though he is mysterious and hiding some sort of a secret. This fits with the narrative as he is the president making a speech, he may be telling the public one thing but keeping government secrets.

The shot type used is a medium close up of his face. This is a main character within the film as it is based around his role as president, the image is used because it would wish to convey that to the audience without giving too much away. The stars and stripes behind his head one again represent the American

The Text

The text within the poster is in a sans serif font as the edges of the letters are slightly rounded.Interestingly, no capital letters have been used and this could be an ironic hint at the narrative as the characters are journalists. The tracking used for the poster is close together.The actors names and the written text at the bottom has the same text and background colour, this shows that these are all technical aspects of the film.Only 4 colours have been used throughout the poster; red, black, white and grey. They are all alternated within the layers.

The Narrative

The red sentence in the middle of the film is a quote from the film, this adds to the narrative and shows that people within the film are sticking up for one another.

All the writing on the poster, the anchorage and the title are quotes from the film. This is because if you look at the poster itself it is hard to create meaning from it. The narrative is created through these quotes.

The recurring motif of the American flag and the stars and stripes adds to the American feel of the film.

The ColourThe colour scheme within the poster is red, black and white.Red could represent the passion within the narrative of the film as the journalist team plan to expose the president. The black could represent the strength that they have to complete the articles to go against him. The black and white together resemble the look of a newspaper which links again with the narrative of the film as they are journalists. The red and white together could perhaps be a link to the American flag as they are some of the colours and as the blue has been replaced with black it could mean that there is darkness ahead within the narrative.

The Anchorage

It is quite common for film-noir films to include an anchorage on their poster. This is because it is hard to sometimes understand the storyline solely through the posters image.

The Anchorage for this poster is a quote from the film that is also present in the films trailer which creates a link between the two.

The Layout

The layout of the poster is interesting as it has the picture at the bottom and then the different layers of black and white building up on top.The black and white blocks could again represent the stripes that are in the American flag which the film is based around.The blocks are all different sizes apart from the three at the top which make the poster look more professional as it gives the actors names two at a time.George Clooney is the most well-known actor within the film and therefore his name is posted in a grey font on a white background which makes it stand out more compared to the other actors names.

The Written Text

The written text on this poster is different to normal as it appears above the image and not right at the bottom. This is due to the posters unique layered layout.The production companies are shown in the written text, for this particular film Warner Independent Pictures produced it and therefore the audience can tell a lot from this such as the genre because other film-noir films have been produced by the same company.