Ancillary Text Research (Film Poster) - Poster analysis

Ancillary Text Research (Movie Poster)

Film Posters and how they began

A film poster is, as the name says, a poster that advertises a film. These posters have been around as long as films themselves as they needed to be advertised to get people to watch them - the first narrative film was made in 1899. Movie posters normally contain an image with text - today's posters often feature photographs of the main actors. However, prior to 1990, film posters often used illustrations instead of photographs. Here are examples from the 60, 70s, and 80s, repectively:

The text on the posters usually contains the film title in large lettering and often the names of the main actors. It may also include a tag line, the name of the director, names of characters, release date, etc.

These posters are put up in places like town centres and outside cinemas. They are also placed on public transport such as buses and the underground. For example:

Furthermore, posters are of course put up in and outside cinemas to advertise the current billing:

Studios often produce several different posters to cater for different markets. One example of this is Shutter Island's posters. The poster on the left is the one most commonly seen, whereas the one on the right is not commonly seen and I am unsure of where this poster was used:

From my research, I have found out that Film posters used to be produced solely to be used by studios at exhibitions etc, and had to be returned to the distributor later on. Now, posters are mass produced for advertisement anywhere, and they also can be bought by anyone such as fans and used as decorations/collectors items.

The National Screening Service in the USA, which printed and distributed most film posters would recycle returned posters to be used for future posters. Any posters that were returned may have been thrown out or sold on to collectors due to them being fairly rare at the time.

Versions of film posters and sizes

Lobby cards

Lobby cards are similar to posters but they are smaller, usually 11in x 14in, also 8in x 10in, before 1930. Lobby cards are collected and their value depends on their age, quality, and popularity.

In the UK, sets of lobby cards are known as "Front of House" cards. These, however, also refer to black and white press photographs, in addition to the more typical 8x10 inch promotional devices resembling lobby cards.

Teaser poster

This is an early promotional film poster, containing a basic image or design without revealing too much information as to the plot, theme, and characters. The purpose is to incite awareness and generate hype for the film. Taglines are often included. Sometimes, these posters are issued a long time before the film goes into production. One example of this scenario is Quentin Tarantino's upcoming western, The Hateful Eight, as a teaser poster was released a bit before filming began - over a year before release:

Here, we can see that the only information given is the director's name, the year of release, and the title. This is because this film is a homage to old spaghetti westerns from the 60s when this kind of poster was prevalent.

Character posters

For a film with an ensemble cast there mat be a set of character posters, each featuring an individual character from the film. Usually it contains the name of the actor or the name of the character played. It may also include a tagline that reflects the quality of the character.

First Edit - Scene #2

Possible Places My Film Could Feature

YouTube - The primary place my film feature is YouTube because it is the largest video-sharing website on the internet and there is a big presence of short films on there. Having a YouTube channel and uploading your films to it is an excellent thing to do because you can build an identity as a filmmaker as all of your films will be in one place. People can share the film easily with their peers on facebook, twitter, and other social media very easily, and it will directly link people to your content. Also, audience feedback is easy to collect due to the comments section of YouTube. It can also ignite debates about about the film and get people interested and talking about it. Here, Christopher Nolan's new film, Interstellar, is being marketed through YouTube by having its own YouTube channel featuring short advertisements and different trailers.

Twitter - is used by many independent filmmakers, Hollywood studios, and directors etc, to promote their films. One example is David Fincher's new film, Gone Girl. As seen in the screenshot, the studio (20th Century Fox), has created a twitter account for the film which releases pictures of the actors, links to trailers, hashtags, etc.

I could use twitter to promote my film in the same way, either by having an account specifically for the film, or my own to promote myself as a filmmaker. Twitter is better than YouTube for getting people talking about a product because all tweets about it can be linked via a hashtag (#GoneGirl), therefore I can enter a hashtag, such as #GoneGirl in the search bar and instantly see audience feedback.  






Facebook - is also used by many independent filmmakers and Hollywood studios to promote their latest releases. This is much the same as what they do on twitter, but Facebook now has an appeal to the older generations - not just teenagers, so there is a bigger audience to attract.

Facebook could be very useful in the promotion of my film because it can reach a large audience quicker than on twitter as when a post is 'liked', it is shared with that user's Facebook friends, on their timeline. Also, users can directly share the page or its posts with their friends in a few clicks. Furthermore, Facebook does not update as often as twitter so posts on people's timelines stick around for longer, meaning there is a greater chance of them being seen.

As an example, here is The Hunger Games' promotional Facebook page:

Influences & Techniques

I have been using the YouTube channel Film Riot to learn more about practical filmmaking. This channel is very useful as they produce tutorials, etc, specifically for filmmakers who have little to no budget. 

They uploaded a Cinematography Techniques tutorial which only use one light source. This has helped me immensely and has made me more confident for the shoot:

I have been inspired by several films and TV shows during the planning of my short film. Some of these include Pulp Fiction, House of Cards, Reservoir Dogs, Gone Girl, Se7en. 

I have been influenced by the cinematography of David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino, such as in Pulp Fiction during the famous 'Ezekiel' scene, as this has links to my own interrogation scene. I like the low key atmospheric lighting of Fincher's Se7en, and the soundtrack of Gone Girl, also by Fincher. I will be using tracks from Gone Girl because the eery atmosphere created by the soundtrack in GG is something which I wish to emulate in my short. 

Risk Assessment

Health and safety risk assessments are extremely important when producing any film as they can prevent serious injury to the cast or crew, or even in some cases could save a life. As an example, my production involves a hammer being swung near someone's head so all the possibilities need to be identified to make sure that they do not happen.

By identifying specific risks that could potentially end up causing injury, however small, I can put procedures in place to prevent such an accident happening and ensure the production of my film runs smoothly and safely.

Applying Todorov's Equilibrium Theory

Tzvetan Todorov (1977) stated that every film follows a certain structure having an equilibrium, disruption, the recognition of the disruption, an attempt to restore the equilibrium, and finally, the restoration of the equilibrium.

Equilibrium

Todorov says that in a state of equilibrium, everything is normal and as it should be - two opposing forces are balanced.

An example of an equilibrium within a popular film is in Captain Phillips. In this film, the state of equilibrium is when the crew of the Maersk Alabama are sailing across the ocean with their cargo and everything is going as planned. At this point there is no evidence of a possible equilibrium, other than general warnings the captain receives via email. These emails give us an indication that there is going to be a disruption of the equilibrium. 

Disruption of the equilibrium

The theory states that there is always a disruption of the equilibrium. During this there is an inciting incident of some sort. Examples of such incidents include murders, bank heists, and girl breaks up with boy. In Captain Phillips, the disruption of the equilibrium comes in the form of four Somali Pirates catching up to the ship in their skiff, and storming the ships. As they have automatic weapons, the ship's crew are unable to stop them and the disruption of the equilibrium can be complete. However, there is a further incident after this initial incident because the crew tries to get the pirates into the lifeboat but the pirates trick Cpt. Phillips into getting into coming with them by getting him to show them how the boat works. They then shut the door and slide down the ramp into the sea.

Recognition of the disruption

The recognition of the equilibrium is pretty self explanatory as it is literally recognising that there is a problem of something bad has already happened and it needs to be resolved. This tends to happen at the same time as the disruption of the equilibrium. This is certainly the case in Captain Phillips as the crew are left with almost no doubt that the ship will be boarded by the pirates because they do not really have any way of protecting themselves and the ship. Also, the later disruption and recognition are realised at the same time because they see it happen.

Attempt to restore the equilibrium

There is almost always an attempt to restore normality to the situation within the narrative. As an example, in a typical 'boy meets girl' film, if they have separated, one of them will try to get the other back - sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. An example of the attempt being made but being unsuccessful is the lifeboat scene in Captain Phillips which I have already mentioned. Here, the attempt to resolve the situation and restore the equilibrium was made by the ship's crew, however, the pirates tricked them and the situation worsened. In this film, the severity of the situation stays the same for most of the film until the end as the Navy arrive to attempt to resolve the situation again by using Navy SEALs and numerous war ships.

Restoration of the equilibrium

The majority of films have a happy ending where the equilibrium has been successfully restored and there is now a state of normality again. This could be conveyed by a boy and girl getting back together at the end of a rom-com, or the hostages being freed and the hostage-takers being killed/arrested, in a bank heist thriller. In Captain Phillips, the restoration of the equilibrium comes when the Navy SEALs shoot dead three of the four pirates as they persuaded the leader to board the warship to negotiate a ransom, however, this was just a ploy to make the other three weaker, and also make it easier for the Navy SEALs to take them out with snipers. As the three are shot dead, the leader is arrested immediately, and Cpt. Phillips is rescued. This concludes the narrative and the equilibrium is restored.