Analysis of Interstellar posters

Film Poster Analysis 1

Interstellar



The first poster.

The second poster.

Previous Credits	On the first poster for Interstellar there are no real previous credits other than simply saying ‘From Christopher Nolan’. This can be seen as enough for some people, seeing that Nolan is directing a film is a big plus as he has directed many great films in the past. The second poster features more previous credits by telling the audience that it is a film from the director of the dark knight trilogy and inception, which are all critically acclaimed films that most people will know where directed by Nolan. Even f people don’t know who directed these films they might have seen how successful they were and will want to see more form the same director. This acts as anchorage for the poster, pulling people in because it has Nolan’s name on it, acting as a bait to get people to look into the poster and the film more.
Positive Quote	The first poster for Interstellar has the quote ‘MANKIND WAS BORN ON EARTH, IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO DIE HERE’. This sets the tone of the film immediately as being about the end of the human race and an adventure to find a new home or new earth. The second poster has the same tagline indicating that that is the main plot of the film, as changing the tagline might make people think there is more to the film than just saving the human race and finding a new home.
Film’s star	The first poster doesn’t have the cast list on it apart from being mentioned in the credits at the bottom of the poster, the rest of the poster I taken up with imagery and the cast is listed halfway through the credits at the bottom. The second poster for Interstellar has the main cast listed at the top, with an ‘and’ prefix for Michael Caine, due to him appearing in most Nolan films. There could be any reason for this change between posters, but my reasoning for it is to do with the imagery used on each poster.
The title	 The title in the first poster features a stylised text, being placed over what appears to be a rocket taking off, it starts from the top of the poster and is read down to the bottom. The title uses font type Linotype Didot with some of the letters being snipped. The title is also in block capitals, which makes the title stand out more than the rest of the text on the poster. The use of this could be seen as trying to make the text seem older, making it more relatable to older people who are fans of older sci-fi films, like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Halfway through the title it changes colour from white to black so it can be read over the white trail left behind the rocket. This acts as a stark contrast to the background being a black/blue night sky filled with stars. The second poster has the same title, but this time it is horizontal rather than vertical. It has the same font type and colour, but instead of being in front of a rocket trail, it is in front of what appears to be some kind of light discharge from a planet. This can be seen by the shape of the base of the light being rounded like a planet, especially since the film is about space. This is symbolic of a rocket taking off, a prominent point of the whole film, being set in space.
Colour Saturation	The first posters colour scheme can be seen as dark and scary, but it is blue rather than black to represent that it is a dark night sky. This allows it to contrast extremely well against the white light at the bottom of the title, where a house, 2 people and a pickup truck can be seen silhouetted against the light. The second poster uses far more bright and inviting colours, possibly to show the audience that the film isn’t going to be some dark and scary film. The sky is lighter and the ground can be seen as a light dirt colour. All of these combine to make the poster seem far friendlier than welcoming than the first.
Certificate	Neither poster shows a certificate nor age rating, which could be seen to indicate that the film will be for all ages, or won’t be too adult so as to need a specific rating.
Costume, props, Iconography	 There is no way to tell what costumes or props are being used in the first poster as they are all too far away to be seen. It can be assumed that the 2 people, the house and the truck are the same as the ones in the second poster as they all look the same with the same silhouette. The second poster shows the props and costumes in far better light, allowing us to analyse them further. The male character is wearing a normal pair of jeans, white t-shirt and a leather jacket. Combining this with the house and the pickup gives us the impression he is either a farmer or a manual labourer. The younger girl is wearing a simple pair of jeans and a blue hoodie. It can be assumed that she3 is the daughter of the older man, or at least is in his care at the house. There are no real smaller props in the shot used in the poster, but the house and the pickup truck look run down so this could suggest that the people who live here are not the most well off people in the world.
Intertextual references	 The first poster has no real intertextual references aside from the labels and credits at the bottom, however, the second poster references that the film is from the director of the Dark Knight Trilogy and inception, so this can be seen as a sort of intertextuality that is trying to bring in a wider audience of Christopher Nolan fans.
Credits	The first poster has the most credits out of the 2, showing a huge list at the bottom of the poster of who is in the film, who worked on it, what companies invested in and many more. It is basically a slimmed down version of the credits roll at the end of the film. This is actually used quite well in the first poster as it is out of the way but is also used to fill a space that would otherwise just be dark road with nothing going on. This may be the reason there are no credits on the second poster as there is no real room for them since the whole poster is used to sell the film in different ways.

‘Inception grossed US $292 million in the United States and Canada, US $56 million in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta and US $475 million in other countries for a total of $823 million worldwide^. Its five highest-grossing markets after the USA and Canada (US $292) were China (US $68 million), the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta (US $56 million), France and the Maghreb region (US $43 million), Japan (US $40 million) and South Korea (US $38 million).’https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception

The producers will also have looked at psychographics of the audiences for Nolan’s previous films, such as what reviews told the producers the viewers liked the most about the films. For example, The Independent said the CGI, set design and set pieces from Inception where fantastic, so they may have wanted to focus more on this when making Interstellar.

‘Without doubt, Christopher Nolan’s Inception features some of the dizziest images ever seen in a Hollywood film – cliffs made of crumbling towers, Paris folded in half, zero-gravity fights in hotel corridors.’http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/inception-christopher-nolan-148-mins-12a-2029050.html

‘A spectacular fantasy thriller based on Nolan's own original screenplay, "Inception" is the smartest CGI head-trip since "The Matrix." The premise is so out-there, it requires not just a leap of faith but also too much screen time to explain, so do yourself a favor and pay attention.’http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/15/inception.review/index.html