Taking a look at movie posters

   As mentioned in my previous post, this week my blog postings have focused a lot on the visual aspects of my short film. For this post, I wanted to take a look at movie posters to garner some inspiration in the creation of the movie poster cards I have to make for this project! This post is just as much for me as it is for you, as this is mainly the research I have been doing to give myself ideas and I thought I should write out my thought processes here.

  Immediately when I was thinking about the visual aspects of the movie poster and short film in general that I wanted to achieve, I thought of the poster for the film Moonlight (2016) directed by Barry Jenkins. Everything down to the color scheme and this idea of threes are a similar concept to what my project will be presenting. Firstly, my color scheme is somewhat similar in the idea of blues and purples. What's also noticeable is that the image of the man is split into three parts, each part having a different color. In each part the man is a different age. In the first segment, it is a deep blue, and it is clearly a young boy. In the middle, a slightly older boy about early teens, is seen in a pink kind of purple. Finally in the last segment, an older man is shown in a more calm kind of blue.

  This shows what the movie is about in essence without even giving you the synopsis. It is coming of age movie about a Black boy becoming a man. The three different age ranges in the poster are also present in the film, and the poster highlights this by making each segment where the man is a different age, a different color. From the get go the poster already gives the audience an idea of what the film is about, and is such an artistically beautiful picture that draws them in and makes them curious to see what it's about even more. Additionally, this color scheme not only draws attention to the split image showing the three different phases of this man's life, but it shows the kind of color scheme that is consistent with the color scheme in the film. It matches well and that is also highly important.

  There were quite a few different posters for this film but I managed to find one with similar themes to Moonlight's poster. Even down to the font we see this theme of bold fonts and neon colors within them, which is something I'm now considering for my own posters because it really draws attention to both posters and goes well with the colors scheme. Again, it shows a portion of the main character's face with the blonde hair as in the title of the movie, and she has a serious expression so it communicates the idea to the audience that this is an action movie. 

  The title is also a play on words, atomic bomb with atomic blonde (another hint.) The color scheme in this poster, like Moonlight, is consistent with the color schemes in the movie. There is a consistent use of neon lights, and the colors blue, pink, purple, and some red. I'm not sure if this was intended, but throughout the film we see some bisexuality within the main character and in these scenes this color scheme of blue, pink, and purple are present. These also happen to be the colors of the bisexual pride flag. Regardless, the poster shares similar themes to that of Moonlight and both capture the visual themes that inspire the visual themes of my own. Both have heavy color symbolism and are consistent with the use of color in both the poster and the film itself.