The poster includes elements common in film noir - the red lips,

cigarette smoke, rain in the background and use of black,

white and red colour. The colour scheme tells the viewer that the film is from this genre and will likely include dark and gritty

subject matter.

The 'Sin City' font is made to look like that of an old pulp magazine or

comic book, which often contain noir stories.

The poster is only a teaser as there are no characters or settings, only text. The text's purpose is to stand out, draw attention to the movie and reveal the name. The bright colours also contrast against the

dark background, a technique used in many noir films.

A selling point of the movie is that it is an adaptation of Frank Miller's classic comic book. He is also co-

directing it. Miller's name is included to interest viewers and

persuade people to watch it.

The sole image of the poster is of the lips and cigarette smoke,

possibly belonging to this 'dame to kill for'. This gives an insight to the

character in the title and makes viewers question the film more.

The 'A Dame To Kill For' font is more simple, but is bold and

blocky. It has also been edited so that it looks scratched and worn;

this suggests that the story is set in a scratched and worn setting.

The ‘Sin City’ font is different to the ‘A Dame To Kill For’ font, indicating that it is actually a

subtitle. This tells the viewer that the film is a sequel, prequel or continuation of another movie.

The small print (in this case, the name of the two Directors) has

been shifted to the bottom-left of the poster. This is because all the

other text is slanted.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For – 2014

The words ‘Dame’ and ‘Kill’ are enlarged slightly to emphasise

their effect. ‘Kill’ is a very plosive word and ‘Dame’ is

quite old-fashioned. It makes the viewer question the poster.

Drive – 2011The main character is situated in the centre of the poster. His entire

face is shown using a close-up shot, which allows the viewer to

get a better look at the story’s protagonist. The poster is made to look like the wind-screen of a car (the dashboard, steering wheel

and seat can be seen), highlighting the movie’s important car theme.

The main selling point of the movie is its star, Ryan Gosling. We know this by the inclusion of his name

just above the title - coloured white to contrast against the dark background, a technique used in

many noir films.

The 'Drive' font is made to look like that of a 1980s police movie. It is curled, joint-up and coloured hot

pink, referencing movies set in places like Miami.

The tagline ‘There Are No Clean Getaways’ refers to the character’s occupation as a getaway driver. It sparks humour, questioning and

excitement in the viewer and suggests that the characters will face some sort of thrilling and

exciting problem.

The poster is coloured primarily in dark colours however the top-left of the poster is filled with a bright light. This suggests the film’s story and atmosphere is quite positive.

The remaining text is written in a plain and simple font, though it

has been slanted and tinted slightly. This is because the film is a

thriller as well as a drama. The slanted text refers to the film’s car

theme and its tinted colouring refers to the film’s mystery.

The 'Drive' font is made to look like that of a 1980s police movie. It is curled, joint-up and coloured hot

pink, referencing movies set in places like Miami. This indicated

that the film is actually part of the neo-noir genre (a noir film set in a

more modern time period).

The small print for this poster includes the film’s details, cast,

crew members etc. situated underneath the main image, title and tagline of the movie.

This too makes the poster look like the wind-screen of a car.

The Dark Knight Rises – 2012

The poster teases the events of the film - Bane walks away from a smashed Batman cowl. This

suggests to the viewer that the characters will have to face and

overcome such a problem.

The poster is coloured primarily in black, white and grey. This colour scheme is typical of noir films and

indicates that the film will have dark and gothic subject matter.

The tagline of the poster is ‘The Legend Ends’. This is a reference to the fact that it is the final film in a

trilogy. It also implies that the Batman legend will actually end, leading to the viewer questioning

how or what will end. The implication is that Batman dies, catching the viewer’s interest.

The smashed pieces of plastic surrounding the Batman cowl

suggests a main theme of the film is destruction, brutality and pain. The fact that the primary subject

of the poster is Bane highlights this even further. His presence signifies that, being the villain, he embodies

the themes of brutality and pain.

The font used in the poster is quite plain and simple. It is used for the titles and taglines of many Chris Nolan films, following a similar

house-style to link them together.

The grey and white colours in the image, title and tagline contrast

against the dark background, attracting the viewer’s attention. This technique is used in many noir, neo-noir and thriller films.

The small-print reads the film’s release date (or rather the time of the year). This generates hype and

excitement as the summer is an important time for movies and suggests that it will be an epic

event film.

The title is ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ which is very similar to that of the previous film ‘The

Dark Knight’. This indicates that it is a continuation of a larger

story, a sequel.

The subject of the poster, Bane, has his back turned. This generates

confusion and questioning.

Blade Runner – 1982As this film is older than the others, its poster adheres to

different styles, for example the main image has been hand-drawn

rather than photographed.

The tagline ‘Man Has Made His Match… Now It’s His Problem’

refers to Harrison Ford’s character, Rick Deckard, and his line about

the film’s antagonists, Replicants.

The images on the poster attract the viewer’s attention and inform them of the film’s characters and

settings. The large cityscape image tells them it is set in a dystopian future and Harrison Ford’s image

suggests he is the protagonist. The image of Rachael also suggests there is a love story sub-plot.

Harrison Ford’s name is written in rather big lettering, as big as the

film’s title. This indicates that he is very important and is likely to be

the film’s main selling point.

The small print consists of the film’s cast and crew, as well as a

rating and release date. It is situated at the bottom of the poster to provide space and

emphasis on the main images.

To the left of Harrison Ford’s image is what looks like light

between blinds. This is a reference to the film’s noir

setting. It could also refer to sunlight, something never actually seen in a noir film.

Harrison Ford’s character is holding a gun, suggesting the film will

include dark subject matter, maybe gunfights or chase scenes.

The image of Rachael has been pushed to the far right of the

poster, which suggests she is a supporting character. However, the hero, Deckard, is positioned at the

top of the poster. This choice of positioning could have sexist

overtones – the woman is in an inferior position to the man.

The cityscape image, together with the flying police car image,

provides a sense of spectacle for the viewer. It generates excitement

and amazement, persuading the viewer to go and see the film.

The cover features three of the main characters and some

supporting characters. The reason for this is to inform viewers of the

stars of the film, catch their eye and peak their interest.

Sin City(Empire no. ?, 2005)

The cover uses the same image as the original poster, but coloured

differently (the original was black). This is to attract a different type of buyer, as not many people would

pick up a black coloured magazine.

The cover does incorporate some techniques used in film noir – eg:

white and red colours contrast against darker background, it is raining in the background etc.

Bruce Willis’ character has been placed in a very clear and visible

place on the cover. This is because he is one of the movie’s main

selling points, being easily recognisable and familiar. His

name is also written underneath, which emphasises this. Similarly, supporting cast members Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro and Clive Owen can be seen on the cover

because they too are easily recognisable.

The ‘Empire’ text, as well as the ‘Bruce Willis’ and ‘Sin City’ texts are written in a font that stands out to catch the attention of the viewer. They are big, bold, blocky

and coloured in a way that contrasts against the background,

in this case white and red.

A banner has been added underneath the main image to reveal more information about the magazine without putting it on top of the characters, title,

taglines etc. It explains what the magazine contains, with all the

articles being film-related.

Of the five characters shown on the cover, only Bruce Willis’

character, John Hartigan, is shown in colour, possibly because he is

the most important, the star.

The three main pieces of text on the cover (apart from ‘Empire’) are ‘Bruce Willis’, ‘& The All-Star Cast

Of…’ and ‘Sin City’. Two of the three are coloured in white,

however, because they are the most eye-catching and the most important pieces of information.

Drive(GQ no. ?, 2011)

This is a Men’s Magazine and not a Film Magazine so there is no

mention of Ryan Gosling’s film. Its only selling point is that the cover

features a movie star people consider good-looking.

The cover is meant to emphasise Ryan Gosling’s good looks and stardom. He is dressed in a suit and tie, with slicked-back hair, suggesting he is sophisticated.

One of the cover lines is ‘Ryan Gosling Shows You How To Dress Like A Movie Star’. This suggests

that there is a specific way to dress if you are a movie star, inferring

that movie stars are superior.

This magazine cover has no mention of any film, let alone

Drive. It’s sole purpose is to display how the media thinks people

should look. The magazine uses actors like Gosling for this reason

because they reach a lot of people through their films.

This type of cover (or rather, this type of magazine) would be completely unsuitable for advertising a noir or neo-noir film because of its use of light colours and thin, formal font. Also, there is no imagery or references to the film genre.

This magazine exploits the fact that Gosling’s film comes out at

that time to attract viewer’s attention and sell more copies (if Gosling had no film out, viewers

might not buy the magazine).

Ryan Gosling has been placed in the centre of the cover because he is the selling point of the magazine

and the subject of one of the issue’s articles. He is the most important part of this issue.

The style and colour scheme of this magazine’s front cover is

meant to look modern and ‘arty’. The colours include black, white,

red and silver. The black and white are normal formatting colours (for newspapers etc.) but the red adds colour to this. The silver colour of

Gosling’s suit and tie is used to make him and the magazine look shiny and new. His face and hair is

skin colour/brown but has obviously been edited so he looks

even more good-looking.

The Dark Knight Rises (Total Film no. 194, 2012)

The cover’s colour scheme is made up of the colours used by Batman. Blue and white has been used for the background because it looks

like night-time, and gold has been used because that is the colour of

Batman’s belt and batarangs.

The protagonist of the story, Batman, is positioned in the centre of the page because he is the most important character of the film. He

is in an action stance, indicating that there will action in the film.

The cover uses a quote from the main star of the film to attract the viewer’s attention. It also does this

by using the word ‘Exclusive!’

A cover line from the text has been placed in a circle (like many other magazines), but as it is a special

Batman issue, the circle has been edited so it looks like the Batsignal.

The title of the magazine ‘Total Film’ has been written in HUGE

letters to catch the viewer’s eye. It is positioned behind Batman’s head so as to not

remove him from view and is coloured in gold because it is celebrating this special issue.

Rather than stick a banner across, or put a box in the middle of the

page, the magazine has chosen to present information and text at the

sides of the page, in no box. This allows the viewer to see even

more of the star of the cover (even if it is just a little).

The title of the movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ has been placed in

the very centre of the cover as it is the most important piece of

information there. It stands out and sits on top of a photo of the protagonist, which is the second

most important thing on the cover.

‘Exclusive!’ and ‘Christian Bale’ are highlighted in yellow (not gold) to

catch the viewer’s eye on their first glance.

The cover has been made to say ‘Batman’ as many times and in

many different ways as possible. It does this using the photograph, the film title, the film’s star, the

cover line at the top of the page, the batlogo in the corner and the batsignal to the left of the page.

Blade Runner(Empire no. 233, 2008)

This cover’s purpose was to celebrate classic movies. 100

different covers were available for this issue and one straight house style was used, in the style of the first few issues of the Magazine.

A classic line from the movie is included underneath the movie’s title. This provides an insight into

the film’s story and character plot.

Although the different covers adhered to one house style, the

colour scheme used here is rather appropriate. Red text on top of a

black background references early computer monitors, like the ones featured in the movie, as well as

classic scenes from film-noir.

The subject of the cover is the film’s protagonist, Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford. He is in an action stance, holding a gun. This indicates that there will be action and violence in the film,

possibly gunfights or shootouts.

The ‘Empire’ text and the ‘Blade Runner’ text are written in a

font that stands out to catch the attention of the viewer. They

are big, bold, blocky and coloured in a way that contrasts against the background, in this

case red and gold.

This image of Deckard has been chosen because it is the darkest

(there is lots of shadow) and best represents the noir genre.

The classic line from the movie is written in a different font to the rest of the cover. It is written in a

more formal font (possible Times). The quote itself is an example of

the film’s philosophical problems.

There is very little information on the cover detailing what other

articles are in the magazine. This is because focus is on the film and character image – Blade Runner.

The main image is surrounded by a box, coloured in red like the title.

This is to emphasise the film’s importance and attract the

viewer’s attention. It allows the viewer to focus on one thing,

persuading them even more to buy the issue. It also informs them that

is it a special issue, as no other information can be seen.