Film Poster Analysis

Film posters are an important part of film and media in terms of marketing the film to the audience and create interest around a film. There are some conventions to a film poster that are usually followed and here I am analyzing the classic film Star Wars' film poster.
                      

In this poster we can immediately tell what the film is called as the title is written in the most prominent font. The writing is slanted inwards, almost like it is moving towards the future, reflecting the story line. Viewers can tell what genre the film is, this is due to the science-fiction iconography that is present within the mise-en-scene, for example the setting of space with a spaceship and the robots in the background.Other film conventions that have been followed here include the tagline "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." which serves the purpose of drawing in the audience into the plot of the story and the credits at the foot of the poster which include both cast and crew members.

The poster appeals to a wide range of movie-goers, such as those who like action, as we can infer that some kind of battle is going to take place as one character holds a powerful weapon in his hand and the other also has a gun. In the background you can see lots of smaller spaceships flying toward a bigger one, these may be opposing teams. There is also much appeal to both sexes as our protagonists are both attractive, scantily clad and there is one of each gender.

There is a lot of detail here which gives an insight into what the film is about, it is seamlessly formatted to include several major points within one mise-en-scene. We can see the main antagonist is the largest feature on this poster, as he is the evil character, he is mostly in the dark or shadows, his face or mask is not human, giving him a sense of mystery and a monstrous quality. The protagonists are smaller in size, however they are dressed in white, denoting their purity and conveying that they are the "goodies" of the film. There is a halo surrounding them, giving them a celestial look, and the weapon in the males hand is producing some kind of force which is in the shape of a cross, giving some religious reference. They are below the "baddie" in the poster, portraying the hierarchy of characters.