Professional Film Poster Evaluations: ‘Shifty’Shifty is a British independent production, directed in 2008 by Eran Creevy. Shifty is about a young crack cocaine dealer in London, who sees his life quickly spiral out of control when his best friend returns home. The genre of Shifty is Social Realist Thriller, and it focusses on themes of crime and violence.

By looking at the product, we can immediately see that it has abided to the normal conventions of professional film posters, as well as applying connotations of social realism.

Several elements of the poster give the audience an immediate sense of danger or warning, as well as suggesting the two characters intimidating and rebellious nature (i.e. the audience seeing the title ‘Shifty’).

Colour and Saturation:

Firstly, the two main colours of the poster are yellow and hard black. The yellow and black combination is representational of police tape in a crime scene, which immediately relates the poster to the narrative of the film. The colour scheme also helps the poster stand out and catch the audience’s attention because of its brightness and luminosity. The simplicity of the two-tone colour scheme is also conventional of other social realist products.

Text Font, Size and Colour:All of the text on the poster, except for the credits, are in italics. This gives the poster an edgy look and slightly discomforts the audience. This was done so that the audience can understand the themes and issues addressed in the narrative, as well as introducing meaning for the title shifty (i.e. the text has been shifted at an angle…)

The film title is in a large and bold black font that is similar to other texts used, e.g. the main actors’ names, the reviews etc. It has been placed almost centrally so that it grabs the audience’s attention the fastest. As well as this, the ‘I’ in Shifty has been edited so that it is a continuous line diagonally across the poster. This has been done with the intent of being indicative of a police security tape or other kind of warning signs.

Other text on the poster such as the tagline and reviews, have been fileld with a duller and less harsh black, with possibly a bit of transparency. This was done so that more attention is brought to the main title of the poster.

Tagline and reviews:It is fair to say that this poster has followed several conventions of other professional film posters, which are not necessarily from the social realism genre. Firstly, the editor has included several positive reviews from highly recognised and/or respected companies that are relevant to the intended audience of the film. This helps convince the viewer that the film is worth watching because highly established companies approve rate it well.

Not only this, but the poster features a combination of written reviews and ratings. The written reviews are more complex and dynamic than the average Hollywood blockbusters’, so that it can appeal to the more intellectual and critically thinking fan base of social realist texts. The star ratings also help follow a standard of professional film posters, as well as helping the appeal for more visually appreciative audiences.

The tagline for ‘Shifty’ - along with most other taglines - is short and to the point. “24 hours to deal yourself out” directly relates to the narrative and themes of the film, as well as creating a sense of tension and urgency, therefore making the poster more exciting and successful as a product’s advertisement.

Original Photos and credits:Most successful film posters have an original image to display either the main characters or a memorable image from the film. In this case, the two

main characters played by Daniel Mays and Riz Ahmed are featured other the top of the solid yellow background. They have been cut out the original photo and placed to look like they are sitting against the background of the

poster. The characteristics of each personal has also been implied in the photo by the direction of facial expressions. For example, Riz Ahmed’s character – the cocaine dealer, has a more intense and edgy look on his face, whereas the other character is grinning and looking away from the camera.

The film’s production credits also follow standards of other posters, where the text is very small and spread across the page in only a few lines. The text colour for this is pale grey so that it cuts through the photo of the two characters as well as the white background. Finally, the logos for funding and production companies have been also been placed at the bottom of the page, which may help entice some viewers into watching the film, because they may enjoy/appreciate work from those particular companies.

Effectiveness as a media product advertisement:In conclusion, the poster is greatly effective at conveying the film’s themes and issues, as well as following the standards and traditions of other film posters, whilst still being unique and exciting for the audiences.