Poster ideas

Original Film noir Movie Posters:

Brick:
This poster is from quite a modern film noir so may not have the authenticity we are looking for. The poster is quite simple, the picture is a cartoon hand of an obviously dead woman lying in water. The simple colours of the picture, mainly white blue and green, gives the poster a really sombre image - while the bright blue bangles against the pale skin really grabs the audiences attention. The writing is quite simple and mostly all the the same white/grey colour, the movie title is in quite a simple to read font and is the largest text on the page which i think is really important to a movie poster. Also the smaller writing at the bottom has to be there usually for legal purposes, however the audience doesn't usually actually read this text so it is not as important that it is in a font needing to stand out on the page.

Gilda:

Now this movie is slightly older and i really like the layout of this poster. The tag line at the top "There NEVER was a woman like Gilda" really catches the readers attention and tell the audience that this woman is going to be a strong main character of the movie. I also like that she is the only focus on the poster which really brings out her dominance of the film. The white text also looks very nice and stands out against the black background to make it easily readable. However i also love the red text on Gilda and it really makes the title seem to stand out (also the title of the movie again being the largest text on the page) - this also matches the hint of red lipstick that you can see the actress wearing which (like our own film noir) is very conventional of the main femme fatale of a movie and brings a hint of sexuality to the film and therefore to the poster. It also has the actors and actresses names on the poster which i think is very conventional as an audience usually likes to know who is going to be in a film that they are going to watch.

L.A. Confidential:

This again is a slightly more modern film noir, and the film was shot in colour (dim colours) which is highlighted through the poster as they are photographs rather than cartoons. Again the main female character/the femme fatale is the main focus of the poster, the white dress really makes her stand out against the background and it matches the text on the page (which is all in a white font). All characters are looking directly at the camera which really draws a readers attention to the poster. The female character has on red lipstick, like in the 'Gilda' poster, which i again quite like as it draws attention to them. Like the Brick poster is also has the small hard to read writing at the bottom in white, this shows as films have progressed they have more laws about what to put on posters, like the production company names and dates etc. Also i like the men in the background as they are all in suits which is very much like our own film as it if conventional of this era and genre of movie. The poster is again mostly black and has the actors names at the top which gives it a hint of darkness around the actors.
Black Dahlia:

These two posters are from the same film, Black Dahlia, however the first one is the English version and the second one is the Spanish version (we know this as the main title has changed from 'Black Dahlia' to 'La Dalia Negra'). The first poster is very powerful and very simple at the same time, the black background like the other posters brings a darkness to it, but also contrasts nicely with the pale face of the lady. This lady signifies the femme fatale of the movie (as with LA confidential and Gilda she is also wearing the red lipstick, however in a darker colour which may signify death over lust) - she does not look straight towards the camera, has a white flower on her head and a paled over eye meaning the woman might actually be dead. The red and white text at the top of the actors names stand out really nicely and I really like the different heights on the page of the two lines of the film's title. Again at the bottom is the large amount of very small sized legal text which is (like the other movies) conventional of all modern movies.
This movie poster of the same film in Spanish is somewhat similar to the LA confidential poster with there being a selection of character on the poster, i quite like this idea and may play around with the pictures i have already taken to see if we can re-create this. It is obvious in the one that the main character is more likely to be the man as he is first, however both women look very strong (both wearing red lipstick, definitely signs of passion/lust). I also like the large title at the bottom, the red really makes it stand out from the white background - however the poster almost seems to pale to be for the dark film noir genre of movies so i will probably not use white as a background colour. The is also a photo of a scene from the film under the shots of the characters, it seems to be a murder investigation which gives the poster a slightly sinister touch to it. Again the actors and actresses names are at the top of the poster in a small yellowish font to make it stand out from the black background. The main male character is dressed very much like our own main male character (Detective John Carter), especially with the use of the hat. We will use this in our posters because it is a big symbol within our movie.