Conventions of a Film Poster and Noir

Josh Clarke

Our Final Film Poster and Conventions of Noir Main actors, these are listed at

the top of the poster and typically, actors will sign contracts that give them a percentage of the poster for recognition.

This is the title, it is large and centered to draw the audiences eyes to it.

The tagline is short and snappy, it should intrigue the audience and make them excited about what the film will explore.

The alignments of the characters gives insight into who they are in the film and how important they are. The larger sized female implies she has great importance, the male in the bottom right corner is slightly more solid than the boy implying he has more importance than the boy.

The larger date of the film implies it has importance, it should be eye catching to let audiences know when it is released.

The credit block is used to give insight into the institution side of the film, if audience members are interested in this side of the film, they may be enticed if they find something familiar or likeable in this part of the film poster.

Our Final Magazine and Conventions of NoirColour scheme – this is something we chose to keep across both ancillary tasks, not only for familiarity and pastiche to classical noir, but because of what the binary oppositions (Strauss) represent, the fight between good and evil.

The use of cigarette and cigarette smoke is typical of noir as smoke connotes mystery and deception, whereas cigarettes connote crime in the sense that cigarettes are usually associated with bad people, this is a typical theme of noir.

The facial expression of our character in the poster is one of subtle smiling, this could imply her acknowledgement of her power over the characters, and how she can bend them to her will.The reflection of the title is

symbolic of the reflection of ones self, this ties really effectively into noir as typically, there is a pivotal moment in noir films where the protagonist looks at himself and asks the question ‘why me?’

The cityscape in the background is typical of noir as the setting that noir films are based in are usually urbanised settings, this is no different with our practical.

Examples and influences for our film poster

Nightcrawler was influential to both our trailer and our film poster, the cityscape in the background in this gave me inspiration to implement it into our own poster.

The Dark Knight enforced the use of city-scaping in the background. The tagline is also short in this film poster, but it also entices audiences to explore what the film will look at.

Albeit the German version of the poster, this is for Double Indemnity. There is a clear influence from this trailer with the femme fatale dominating the poster but still with the inclusion of other main characters.