What are the classic examples of film posters?

How have posters developed over time?

It is very clear that film posters have changed over time, for several reasons. Over the past 60 years there have been vast changes in the way film posters have been produced and where they have been seen by the public. The techniques used to attract an audience to a film poster has changed dramatically over the years, introducing different sorts of techniques to appeal to the public with a film poster. In the 1970’s and 80’s posters were hand -drawn, and were what the artists’ interpretation of the film was. The focus of the film poster many years ago was not who the “main star” was, but it was the title of the film and who was producing & directing it, that appealed to the public. The hand-drawn posters were held by the producers of the film or sent back to the studio, and sometimes destroyed when the film had ended.

Though now some of the original film posters which are rare and exclusive are worth up to millions of dollars and are sold to people who find these film posters to be part of a unique collection. From the 1930’s - 1980’s, the use of white space was a particular big trend, with big bold typography, then moving on to having all had various styles added to them such as shadows and strokes, giving the typography a three-dimensional element, instead of it just being plain bold. In the 1950’s we then start to see a little more vivid colour in posters, instead of the washed out style (seen in posters like Casablanca) that had been seen before in film posters. Another trend of the 1950’s that we can see is the  developing use of grid design for film posters, (Seen in Lady and the Tramp). The 1960’s saw a great trend of using borders to pull the whole piece together tremendously well, and brings out the colours in the poster very well. Other poster designs in the following section made use of white space and designing on a grid. In the 1980’s a few affects started to be used on film posters to draw attention to a main image if the background image was boring.

From the 1990’s - this present day, film posters started to focus more on the “main star(s)” instead of just an overall illustration of the film. Hollywood, realised that it was the main/favourite actors of the public that attracted them to go watch a movie. From then, the stars of the movie were placed on the poster to appeal to the audience, that if they really liked that actor they would go to see the film. This created a whole new era in the film industry, as A-list actors were constantly plastered on the film posters to grab the attention of the public. As America and Britain start to get more celebrity crazed,  so the image of a main star is great branding for the film and the audience will immediately recognise them, wanting to watch the film because of them. The sources of where to find film posters has also grown, as nowadays film posters are plastered everywhere we can think of, bus stops, train stations, billboards on the motorways, London buses and especially on the internet which means that film posters can now include audience interaction and multimedia content by having flash film posters to attract the public more. 

The 1990’s saw a trend (that is still used today) of minimalism, which is using a lot of whitespace to draw the attention of the public to the title, and characters of the film which can be seen in posters like ‘Antz’ and ‘Toy Story 2’. Other than this, in present day film posters have come along way, as computer-based software is used to create incredible, rendered characters and scenes for film posters. Present day have started to see montages be used on a film poster, 3D structures and even now moving pictures and holographic layouts for modern day film posters, An example of this is Romeo and Juliet. The great development in technology and ICT software has allowed film posters to take a drastic change in the way there are presented, being more advanced and vivid compared to many years ago. The introduction of photo software’s such as Photoshop has allowed the making of film posters to move up a whole other level, as there is picture manipulation, editing and formation that produces more creative, striking and appeal able posters. The quality of film posters have certainly taken a step forward, producing precise and high rendered pieces of film posters. 

Examples of classic film posters from the 1940’s are:

'Casablanca' - It is clear just looking at this poster that there is a stark contrast to modern posters of today. We can see that the poster is hand-drawn and hasn’t used any computing software. The use of a great trend from those days is used – The borders. The colour in this is dull, obviously showing the authenticity of the poster. The popular trend of using great white spaces is used so the focus is on the colours of the poster which is shown through the main picture and the eye catching title which is in red. A dark colour surrounds the two protagonists and this in combination with their facial expressions of anxiety and helplessness gives insight to the plot: that they are in need of some help. As their two cheeks are close together, touching in fact it shows that they are in a relationship of some sort, and the facial expressions show there is a dilemma within the plot that could ruin this close relationship. The production team and name of actors are in bold, with the production company of ‘Warner Bros’ by itself in a space of its own to highlight the importance of production companies in those earlier days instead if the actors being the main focus of the poster. It is clear that ‘Warner Bro’s is used here to attract the audience, being a well branded and global production team that people would be very familiar with. The Large writing of the title in red could be the colour of red, to connote the loving relationship they have or from their facial expressions it could represent the upcoming danger they are placed in, in the plot of the film. 

Like, the Casablanca poster, this poster for the film ‘Gone with the wind’ is clearly hand drawn to the most magnificent detail. The Image of the protagonist in combination with the fiery background image shows that they have an intimate relationship, as he is holding her by her waist and leg while he looks into her eyes with a smouldering look. The fiery background image and the woman’s red dress in combination with the facial expressions of both characters connotes that they have a passionate relationship. The use of white space is again used as it was a popular trend, at the bottom in contrast to the red/orange background image on top of it, highlighting the background image more so that it is noticeable. Within the white space, is the actor’s name and production team, the actors names are in large letters emphasising that they may be well known. The title suggests that the couple are literally ‘gone with the wind’ and are isolated in their own relationship and have had to flee because of some sort of dilemma or danger. 

 

This Film Poster of - 'Platoon' has a background image which shows a whole line of Vietnamese palm tree’s on fire, denoting that this is set in the Vietnamese war and the explosion at the back is a napalm bomb. The fact that the palm trees are on fire is a very big contrast to the normal connotations of palm trees which are set in somewhere exotic, and connote signs being tropical on a remote, calm and tranquil place to relax. The main image is of the protagonist on his knees with his arms raised, which conveys he is crying out from help, is he burnt? The fact that his arms are raised to the air connotes he could be pleading for help from God as he is in despair. Another way to denote that this is a Vietnamese war scene is the fact that the protagonist is in camouflage wear, associated with the army. The film title is in large capital letters, not joined together, to show how hard hitting the film may be. Instead of having two normal ‘OO’s in ‘PLATOON’, they are in the form of dog tags which represent death and are also associated with the army, members of the army are part of a mass group and merely a number/name when found dead. Dog tags are the only form of identification when members of the army die, and this shows an insight into the plot of the film, that there will obviously be a number of deaths. The tagline is “the first casualty of war is innocence”, which is basically saying that the first people to get hurt in war are the innocent ones, showing that this film poster & film are promoting anti-war, as they are showing the detrimental effects of war on the innocent. At the bottom of the scene there is an iconographic peace sign which is meant to send messages of love and harmony, and is obviously used as something ironic to further emphasise the message of: anti-war. Unlike the older film posters, there are no white spaces and Photoshop has obviously been used, colours are more vibrant and more attractable. The billing block is very small, in white at the bottom, as the production team is not of that much importance in this instance.

Examples of more famous, contemporary film posters are:

'Bridget Jones’ Diary' is another contemporary example of a famous film poster. The main image, with the three main starts clearly forms the shape of a triangle which immediately gives insight into the plot, telling the audience that there is a love triangle between the woman protagonist and these two men. The fact that most of the film poster is made of the main image shows the emphasis on what stars are in it, as their names are also just under the image in a medium size font. There is a clear contrast between the two men involved in this love triangle. The one on the left is the more sophisticated and smart one, with his top button done up and a smart cotton jumper, who looks older to connote his maturity.  He is looking into Bridget’s diary, which connotes that he actually likes Bridget as he wants to find out about her and her life unlike the male on the right who instantly looks like the charmer, with his smooth dark hair and slightly smile. His eyes have been photo shopped to a brighter green colour to again emphasise his role as the ‘Casanova’ of some sort in this film. Hugh Grant is known as a very sexual guy in the role he plays, so when the public automatically see this they know he is the more casual guy in this love triangle. Unlike the guy on the right, he is more of a casual guy which is connoted by his open collar. The female protagonist is a saucy character, connoted by the cheeky look of the pen in her mouth, seductive look of her eyes and the pink lipstick. The fact that the Diary is Red, and in the titles the word ‘Diary’ is red, connotes that the film is full of cheekiness and uncensored aspects of life. Bridget’s life is clearly full of cheekiness and outrageous moments, denoted by the red diary. The tagline is: “Uncensored. Uninhibited. Unmarried.” which again emphasises the cheeky life that Bridget leads and gives an insight into the storyline. The repetition of “Un” in combination with the power of three shows how much things Bridget doesn’t have, connoting how care-free her life is, giving insight the genre of comedy. The billing block is of a normal structure, small and thin, showing it’s not of that much importance in comparison to an aspect of the film poster like the main characters. At the bottom in a brown bar it says: “From the makers of ‘Four Weddings and a funeral’ & ‘Notting Hill” which has been placed there to attract the audience even more because the people that made those films obviously have a great brand status and are very well known. Both those films were a great hit globally, so the fact that the makers have made another film would attract more people to watch the film. At the top of the poster it says: “All women keep score... Only the great ones put it in writing”, and in combination with the background image of writing from a diary it shows that the narrative will be based around Bridget and the life she writes in her diary, showing that this will be a light hearted film.