Similar Products Research Part V- Analysis of Typical Film Noir Posters

Film Noir posters are fairly generic of Hollywood film posters of the time, although films in the late 50s have a distinctively more Pop Art inspired feel to them, as Pop Art was growing popular at this time. Posters usually include a picture of the main character(s), superimposed (in true pop art style) over a plain/block coloured background.

There may be some narrative give-aways in terms of perhaps what the characters are doing- as on the poster of ‘The Night of the Hunter’ (left), or the props, etc, in the poster. The posters may also feature a tagline, usually with a piece of the narration or dialogue quoted, or simply an insight into the narrative/themes of the film. Often Film Noirs featured big Hollywood names in the cast, and so these would almost always be emphasised on the poster, as on the poster for ‘The Third Man’ (right).

Early Film Noir posters were often intricate in detail, and of a high standard of quality. However, as mass advertising and mass consumption developed throughout the fifties, the quality of film posters began to decrease, and it was more a matter of having an eyecatching poster, in a pop art style that would draw in the interest of a large audience. This shift towards a mass audience also accounts for the emphasis put on Hollywood names on the posters and the presidence the names of the actors seem to hold over even the name of the picture.

Film Noir posters are often 'busy designs' in that there are many images, thrown together, with quite a lot of text to create a complex intricate design. This could be testiment, almost, to the film, in that Film Noir narratives are often complex, confused and intricate. However, in terms of Film Noir posters being reflective of the film, the pictures of the actors, and the busy designs seems to be (in most cases) as far as it goes. A lot of bright colours are often used, even if the film is a dark, expressive gangster Noir, and large, thick, bubble-like writing is often used, even if the film is dark and violent. It could be argued, therefore, that Film Noir posters are often more engineered to be eye-catching, as opposed to representative of the film as a whole.

If we were to create a poster for our Film Noir production, it would be very difficult to create a replica poster of these 1940s and 50s posters. In terms of font and style an emulation of such posters would be not too difficult, but in terms of the content- the painted depictions of the characters, for example, it would be difficult. We would have to modernise the poster, perhaps by using pictures over a block-coloured background.