Paperclip: Poster Influence
The main purpose of a film poster is often to advertise and market a particular movie – film posters also vary according to the international country or area they are marketed in so that they can cater for a variety of audiences. In most cases, the film poster carries with it the overall impression of the given film, the information needed for the interested audience to go and watch the film, as well as enough narrative enigma for viewers to act on their interest to watch the film. Certain genres of film can also have conventional themes and images throughout their posters, which is no different for the Indie film genre.
Shown above are a few of the Indie film posters which fit our film’s theme and image such as “Lars and the Real Girl” and “The Go-Getter”. Our group felt inspired by some of these Indie film poster conventions and aim to use these in our own poster for ‘Paperclip’. One of these recurring themes which we found in these posters was the use of real life images and hand-drawn images or sketches, such as part of the background or in doodle form as part of the poster. Most of these poster images also use hand-drawn images in the form of the title, such as that for our film trailer ‘Paperclip’. This creates an intimacy with our film as if the characters in the film have taken part in the poster and so creating a bond or relevance between the film characters and our target audience of teenagers. The use of hand-drawn images also gives the sense of childhood innocence that has not yet been outgrown, relating to the theme of mixing reality with fantasy in the narrative – it gives the effect of the self-discovery and growth in maturity that the protagonists must yet and will experience throughout the narrative, which is also a recurring theme amongst all Indie films. Our group planned to use these doodles by intergrating striking images from the film with the poster, such as a drawn train ticket, birds or a path to signify the journey the protagonists will take. This could also signify Beatriz’ tendency to be a daydreamer and her creative nature to doodle.
Likewise, the use of mixing real images with imaginary images was to blur the boundaries between what is supposed to be real or not, thus allowing the audience to decipher themselves just like for the film. By combining the side by side image of a ‘real’ image of Beatriz and then Caleb being sketched or slightly faded will raise questions amongst the audiences on whether the characters themselves are also real or imagined – a frequent theme throughout our film and other Indie films.
Our group also aspired to use the convention of bright and vivid colours to create a striking poster, such as the pallette of colours we used in our trailer so that we can keep a consistent image across our media products. Dark- redish hues for example or a slightly altered colour scheme would relate to the idea of what is reality or fantasy, if the colours are manipulated in such a way, the audience are led to question whether the world that the protagonists exists in is imaginary as well.
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