Film Poster Analysis - Mean Girls

As well as a trailer, a film poster was created for "Mean Girls". Here is the poster:

There are many different elements of this film poster that make the film look more appealing to the target audience.

Colour

The colours of this film poster fit in with the target audience of this film which is girls, this is because the title, the outfits and the name of the main character are all pink which is associated with girls. The colour of the background also makes the rest of the colours stand out from the rest of the page as the background is such a plain colour. However, the colour of the text is white and a darker shade of grey which also makes them stand out from the background, but not more than the title or the images of the film poster.

Images

The images of this film poster have the conventions of a chick flick because the images of the characters are only of females and this tells the audience exactly who the film is aimed at. The main character on the left of the poster is also larger than the rest of the characters and this shows that she is the most important character of the film; it also shows that she is an outsider because she is wearing a different colour and style of outfit than the other characters. The position of the character also backs up what is said in the tag line, “watch your back”, it shows that she is the character that needs to be careful and there will be conflict with and the image shows her looking over her shoulder in a scared facial expression. These images suggest a narrative as well as the tag line.

Title

The title of the film, “Mean Girls” stands out from the rest of the context of the page as it is bright pink and this colour represents the target audience of the film. This film poster doesn’t follow the conventions of a movie poster because it is central on the page, however it is vertical not horizontal. However, it is still bigger than any other text on the page and is capitalised like most titles on a film poster. Underneath the title there is also another short tag line and this also tells the audience that the film is a comedy and a romance.

Tag Line

The tag line “Watch your back” tells the audience that there will be conflict between the characters that are on the film poster. The tag line on this film poster isn’t centred on the page like the normal conventions of a film poster, however, the tag line is still one of the first things seen on the film poster as it stands out on the page and it is larger than normal tag lines on a film poster. It also has the release date underneath it in bright pink and this makes it more visible to the audience.

Billing Block

This film poster also has a billing block that tells the audience a variety of different technical information, such as the media institutions the director are the producers. However, it isn’t as large as most billing blocks and is more spread out on the page because it has a longer length. The billing block on this film poster also doesn’t follow the conventions of a typical billing block as this also follows the style of the title; it is vertical rather than horizontal. This leaves more room for larger images and more detail on the film poster. However, it does still have the box underneath the tag line telling the audience the age rating of the film.

Commendation

On this film poster there is no commendation from any media institutions (for example, a quote or a star rating system) and therefore this does not back up how good the film is to the audience because there is no one telling them how good the film is. Therefore it is left to chance for the audience to find out for themselves how good the film is rather than relying on a commendation.