ANCILLARY- Poster Analysis 2

COPAIN (2015)

Big blockbuster film posters will differ from short film posters. As my product will be a short film, I felt it essential to analyse a short film poster and also see how it compares to those from Hollywood.



Copain is a French drama short film, following the story of a teenager stuck between his conservative, wealthy family and his lower class friends, but until he falls in love he is able to keep these worlds separated.

The poster in general has a very simplistic theme, which is common for a short or independent film poster. This is typically due to the fact that with big Hollywood move posters, their primary selling point(s) is their star vehicle(s) and the focus of the poster will tend to be on that particular actor/actress. Other selling points may include certain crew members (the director, producer etc) or potentially the franchise (e.g. Star Wars, The Avengers). With short and independent films, both of which have significantly lower budgets than that of a Hollywood film, this is not the case. A simplistic theme is to be expected of their posters. Short films will also have a shorter narrative (obviously) which tends to equate to having a simpler narrative, making a simpler looking poster more appropriate. With posters such as the newest Avengers film's, Infinity War, they have a significant amount of characters meaning it's a much busier poster. Short films have a tendency to focus on the narrative of one character meaning they can properly develop on their personality and background. This means their posters usually just include one character.

I love the colour palette in particular on this poster as only a small sample of colours are actually used and it's so basic, yet so effective. It makes it look visually appealing and the blue connotes almost a calm tone, complementing the idea of water very nicely. The use of darkness for the character almost contradicts this idea as it is common knowledge that dark colours connote a sort of potential evil. The darkness at the top is especially powerful as it creates the sense of darkness and danger surrounding this character, clashing with the calmness associated with the lighter colours. This juxtaposition really sets a mysterious mood and will leave the audience wondering why this character is in danger. By having the plot in mind I can appreciate the cleverness of having the character dark in a light area, next to an area dark like him. I feel this connotes the character being part of his wealthy family (represented by the light), but his darkness links him to the darkness at the top of the poster, which I feel represents his lower class friends and lover. The darkness of the character also highlights his isolation within his family and his struggle to keep his worlds separate. I personally think that with Hollywood posters they can just get away with showing off their actors, but with short film posters so much more thought goes into every single detail of it. This also follows Barthes binary opposition theory. He realised that words merely act as symbols for society’s ideas and that the meaning of words, therefore, was a relationship rather than a fixed thing: a relationship between opposing ideas. In this poster the relationship between light and dark, and in the film rich and poor, is so important. Barthes also recognised that one side will be more valued than the other, and in this case it's rich.