Analysis of Movie Posters (Pirates of the Caribbean) - Essay Example

Analysis of Movie Posters Movie posters are advertisements put out to sell a movie and to invite people to show up at a specified venue to watch the movie. Posters are meant to promote a movie among its intended target audience and create an urge among them to watch the movie (King 201). The posters are usually prominently displayed on billboards, magazines, local movie theatres, shopping malls, on busses, and on the internet. Good movie posters have a very big impact on the viewers in creating a desire to watch the movie. Apart from the advertisement value of movie posters, they are also highly regarded for their artistic value. Many movie enthusiasts buy the posters and hang them on their walls for their artistic values (King 201). Museums also have gallery sections solely devoted to poster art. In order to be very appealing, the posters have to be designed with great artistic skills with knowledge of how different elements of art affect the viewers (King 221). In analyzing a movie poster, one has to assess whether the poster meets its intended objective of promoting the movie as well as the aesthetic value derived from its design (Noble 117). Movie posters vary in content depending on what the designers what to put out for the audience to see but there are basic elements that have to be present. These include the movie title, names of main actors, a catchy slogan, the venue and date of the movie. The posters use a variety of fonts, colors and images appropriately in order to bring out the mood and tone of the movie. This essay will analyze two posters for the globally successful movie, The Pirates of the Caribbean. The Pirates of the Caribbean is an epic movie released in 2011 with instant global success. Several posters were put out to promote the movie. Two posters of the movie have been selected for analysis in this essay; the main poster will be the primary poster for this study while the subsequent poster will be secondary. The main poster for Pirates of the Caribbean is very amazing. This poster was designed specifically to announce the debut of the movie and the first screening. This poster was created in the US to help create awareness of the new movie. The poster is a typical representation of movies of this genre characterized with a lot of graphic images. Its design, the use of color and images is completely attractive and persuasive for one to go see the movie. The most standing out features of the poster include the title, which has been written in a large artistic font at the bottom of the poster; names of the main actors placed at the top of the poster, a large image in the foreground of one of the main actors and a background image of a ship in stormy water. The date of the movie, which is written in red color at the bottom left corner of the poster and the name of the institution behind the movie as well as the available formats for the movie are also outstanding and give the audience something to look forward to. The poster has mainly used dark colors such as black and grey in the background to create a psychological effect of war (Noble 135). The background image of the ship in a stormy sea represents a scene in the movie that takes place when the ship is attacked. This image has been used to create an urge among the viewers to go to movie theatres to watch what exactly happens in the scene. The date for showing the movie has been written in red color for it to stand out. This would enable people o easily know when the movie will be showing. It is the only red color on the poster and could also have the psychological effect of expressing danger thus indicating the extent of violence in the movie. The formats of the movie such as digital 3D and Imax 3D have been written in large font at the bottom of the poster to inform the viewers of the various forms of the movie so that they can decide on their preferred option. The title of the movie stands out as having the largest artistic font together with an image of a human skull with two swords to indicate the dangerous nature of the movie. The intended audience of the poster is supposedly English speaking youths who have an interest in epic movies depicting various historical events. This is because of the use of the English language and the use of images depicting the main actor dressed in ancient clothes and swords which were the main weapons of war in ancient times. From the images and the colors used in the poster, one can easily infer that the movie is historical and involves a lot of graphic images depicting wars. The poster also uses the title and the foreground image to grab the attention of viewers. The design of the poster is superb and gives a lot of aesthetic value to the poster. The framing of the poster plays an important role in persuading viewers to go and see the movie. The positioning of the objects within the poster creates a frame that appeals to the audience to see the movie. This is because the main actor has been presented attractively wearing ancient robes of the Caribbean pirates in order to present the movie as being real. The use of the images and color in the movie poster paints a dangerous mood of the film which is coupled up with a lot of graphical images (Noble 167). The images also portray the serious tone of the movie due to the scenes of war. The tone of the movie has been expressed through the background image of a ship in a stormy sea to imply the seriousness with which the battles of the pirates extent to. The second poster is that of the movie was released to promote the movie after its debut. It was meant to keep people interested in the movie and invite those who didn’t make it for the initial screening to get a chance of viewing the movie at subsequent shows. This poster was mainly intended for the international audience outside of the US. It therefore differed significantly from the first poster in order to have an international appeal. It shows a lot of diversion from the film’s genre which was preserved in the first poster. This poster is conspicuously different from the primary poster in various respects. It features the title of the movie at the top in large font followed by the names of key actors. The image of the main actor is replaced with images of some of the scenes from the movie. The background image features an image of the pirates in a war ship ready for a battle while the foreground image includes pictures from other scenes of the main actors carrying bloody swords. This is meant to indicate the graphic nature of the movie and persuade the lovers of action thrillers to see the movie. The use of dark colors, black and grey on the poster symbolizes the dark nature of the movie thus creating the psychological effect of death and horror (King 261). These two posters have been greatly designed and are both successful in appealing to their target audiences to see the movie. The primary poster bears a lot more aesthetic value due to its great design and the motions it elicits. This primary poster was responsible for the instant recognition of the movie upon its release. The subsequent posters were had much less aesthetic value as they mainly consisted of scenes from the move in order to persuade people to get to watch what happens in those scenes. The secondary poster can also be said to have been successful since a lot of people were still attracted to the movie even after its initial screening. The first poster is the best representation of the movie and is highly regarded as being iconic in both the US and beyond. Works Cited King Emily. A Century of Movie Posters: From Silent to Art House. Barron's, 2003. Noble Ian. Up Against the Wall: International Poster Design. Mies, Switzerland: RotoVision, 2002. Primary Poster Secondary Poster Read More