analysing film posters

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Analysing Film Posters

The main purpose of film posters is to attract the targeted audience to watch a particular film. Film posters try to be as intriguing as possible and use many techniques to persuade the audience to go and watch the film. Some of these techniques are using bold colours which stand out from the background, persuasive language such as reviews form critics and pictures of the central characters. A successful film poster will accomplish attracting the target audience and persuade them to come and watch the film. A film which tries to achieve what is mentioned above is ‘Bend It Like Beckham’. This film concentrates on how a young female who is growing up in a traditional Indian family, struggles to achieve her dreams of becoming a successful footballer due to her parents strict traditional values. This essay will analyse how effectively three posters emphasize different aspects of this film.

On the first poster, there is a central image of a woman who has her back turned to the audience and is holding a pair of football boots behind her. The audience may feel a sense of secrecy involving the lady as she is trying to avoid revealing the pair of football boots. We can assume that the central image has some sort of connection to football but is unable to reveal her interest in it. It appears that she is wearing a pink traditional Indian saree which is very womanly, however, as she is also holding a pair of football boots, this may connote that there is conflict between her tradition and her desire to play football. In the background we are able to see the sky, which represents her ambitions to become a footballer. Also, the sky shows that someone may be able to rise up into the sky, and in the central characters case, to fulfil her ambitions.

The contrast between the boots and the Indian clothing may suggest that she cannot completely break away from her traditional values. The words “Bend It” written on the poster means to literally bend the ball into the goal, however, it may connote that the central character has to ‘Bend’ certain things for her to achieve her ambitions; this is most likely to be her family. Under the film title we can see that there is a review made by a critic ‘A winning comedy’ which is an illusion as in football one team either wins or loses.

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Correspondingly, we are able to see the two central characters in the second poster ‘Jesse’ who is played by Parminder Nagra and ‘Joules’ played by Keira Knightly. They appear to be wearing western clothing which shows their interest in football. The mood of the poster is happy and upbeat as we can see both characters holding each other and laughing, this illustrates that their relationship in the film is very close. The way they are standing is sort of an angle which a ball may bend towards. It is clear that this film has a lot to do with ...

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