Key Changes-Posters

Name: The silent Village Synopsis: The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.

- The product portrays the limited use of technology within theposter during the 1940s due to the use of black and white and theuse of the poster being hand drawn.

- The contrast between white and dark represents a binaryopposition and, further connotes an enigma as the audience willwonder what the ‘mysterious’ darkness could represent.

- The rule of thirds has been centred around the image of thecharacters, possibly connoting the hero/ villain (8 propcharacters).

- The typography of the title is very clear and takes us a significant amount of the poster torepresent its importance, moreover, due to the use of the colour white, the title representspotential innocence that the film holds, a of it being a ‘true story’.

- The product represents the bitterness countries had with one another as of the product beingbased on what countries done to one another throughout the war.

Name: Good Will To MenSynopsis: Anti-war cartoon. Remake of Peace on Earth.

- The product is a cartoon which could portray how much of asensitive subject the war was during this time, due to cartoonsbeing short and snappy.

- The poster portrays neutral earthy colours, for example, the bluerepresenting the sky and moreover, the snow connoting thenatural weather conditions. Creating a link to the war as of itbeing fought on ‘natural ground’.

- The typography further represents the time period due to thestyle in which the main heading has been written in, this type ofstyle was very common for important documents during thistime.

- The image has been hand drawn, connoting the limited use of technology- The contrast between the dark colours of the brown trees and the light colour of the snow

connotes a binary opposition, creating a villain and hero (trodovs 8 prop characters) within theproduct and, furthermore, it causes an enigma as the audience will wonder how a war canrepresent ‘good will’.

- The title has been portrayed within the rule of thirds, enticing the audience to look at the title, thetitle will bring the audience to want to watch the product as at that time countries were very bitterto another, whereas, the product represents ‘peace’.

1960sName: The Great EscapeSynopsis: A group of Allied POWs devises a plan to escape from aseemingly inescapable Nazi prison camp. After they escape fromthe camp, the POWs are faced with the daunting task to get out ofoccupied Europe with their lives.

- Very much like the previous poster the colours are very earthly,signifying the territory on which the war was fought on.

- Moreover, a close up shot has been used of a characters face,representing their importance and, moreover, the emotionalcontent they hold with what the war has lead them to feel.

- The typography has been represented within the colour white,implying that although war is portrayed as immoral, peopleinvolved are seen as innocent. However, the red around thetypography could connote blood, portrayed through the killingsthat the war causes.

- Though the picture has not been completely hand drawn, elements have to stay within theconventions of war time period dramas. Due to some elements not being drawn, there's arepresentation within the significance of the change of technology.

Name: PattonSynopsis: The story of WWII General George S. Patton. Hisunconventional tactics, tough as nails exterior and sheer arrogancemade him a wild card during missions. He was feared and respectedamongst allied and axis regimes alike.

- This poster holds the same significant conventions like the previous posters which have been analysed, for example, there is still an importance in the use of neutral colours, for instance, the greens, blues and greys.

- Furthermore, the use of the image being drawn has faded throughout the years, however, the use of shading through technological advances portray a drawn element.

- The rule of thirds represents the title and half of the soldiers face, enticing the audience to look into the emotional aspect of the war.

- We know the character represented is of a soldier due to the use of him wearing theconventional soldiers helmet and, moreover, by having the stars on his helmet.

- The poster is very minimalistic which could represent the isolation and loneliness that the warcould and does uphold.

Name: Casualties Of WarSynopsis: During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village byfive American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifthrefuses. The young girl is killed. The fifth soldier is determined thatjustice will be done.

- Throughout the 1970s-80s the brightness of colour seems tofade out that has previously been represented. More neutraland dark colours have been used, potentially to signify thedarkness of the war and what actually went on. Previously theposters about the war seemed bright and colourful ascountries needed soldiers to fight but now that the war wasover, the devastating disasters where hitting home.

- The difference of colours still, however, portray binaryopposition from good vs bad, connoting an equilibrium withinthe narrative.

- Emotional connotations of the war have begun to come into posters over the last twenty years asseen, this represents the drama element of war products and further entices a mass audience asthe product sways from being emotionally touching to the actual war, leading to various reasons ofwhy to what the product, for example, due to entertainment, educational and potential escapism(uses and gratification theory).

Name: Schindler’s ListSynopsis: In Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler graduallybecomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing theirpersecution by the Nazis.

- The colours are still represented as dark and mysteriousconnoting a sense of enigma within the product. This hasbeen an on going convention since the 1970s.

- The rule of thirds portrays two characters holding hands, thehand above seems to be pulling at the child's hand, possibleconnoting the young character ‘slipping away’ from him.

- The young character is represented wearing an orange topwhich symbolises prisoners, potentially connoting theconcentration camps during WW2.

- The typography is represented at the top of the page and notwithin the middle, signifying the importance of the mainimage.

- The colour of the titles typography is of a white/cream colour, this connotes potential innocent andthe colour is not pure white.

- The list within the background of the picture represents the title further due to the ‘list’.

Name: Letters From Iwo JimaSynopsis: The sister story to Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers,""Letters from Iwo Jima" tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima fromthe Japanese forces perspective through letters written home.

- The colour scheme from previous years is still very consistentwithin this poster, for example, the darkness filtering through tolightness, representing binary opposition and a potential dis-equilibrium within the product.

- The main image within the rule of thirds Is of the male characterholding a walking stick, due to him looking into the sun it portraysthe potential goodness of the character.

- The title is represented as less important due to it being centred tothe right and not right within the audiences eye.

- The title has been portrayed as white, connoting innocence andpurity, this has been further connoted due to the title beingcentred where the bright light is shining through.

- The most dominant colour is the dark, connoting badness and evilness which could be representedthrough the immorality of war.

Name: War HorseSynopsis: A friendship begins between a horse named Joey anda young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. Whenthey are forcefully parted, the horse moves through the FirstWorld War, changing and inspiring the lives of all those hemeets -- British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmerand his granddaughter.

- Within this poster colour begins to come through morethan the previous posters that have been represented,however, the poster still stays within the conventions thatcolour fades from dark to brightness.

- Emotional content has been significantly used within thisposter, for example, the rule of thirds emphasises both thehorse and characters facial expressions enticing theaudience to want to watch the product.

- The title typography has been represented in black, whichconnotes emotional hurt or pain.

- An enigma has been represented throughout this poster as the audience wonder what the

characters are looking at and why they have the sadden look upon their face.

The layout of the posters represented all have similar positioning of the content itupholds, for instance, the image has always been portrayed as the main focus, due to itbeing represented within the rule of thirds, the audience are directly drawn to look at it.Colours within the poster filter through representing a potential narrative, for example,the bright colours could represent the begin of the narrative, portraying the start of theequilibrium, as the colours filter through and the shades become sharper could portraythe unbalancing of the narrative, causing a dis-equilibrium to be portrayed. Each posterrepresents a narrative and each have more than one colour portrayed, however, themost common colours are that of blacks, browns and oranges, staying within thestereotypical conventions of a war time drama poster.Moreover, the image in each poster represented dominates that of the test, the titlesare either portrayed at the top or the bottom of the poster, by placing the title at thebottom the audience have no choice but to look through the entire poster to find outwhat it the title of the product is, furthermore, by the use of having the title at the topof the poster the audience are able to instantly identify (uses and gratification theory)with the image and are able to make the connection between the two.Additionally, posters before 1960 were hand drawn due to the limit of technologicaladvances, however, after this time period elements of posters were hand drawn and orthe effect of a hand drawing was established through the use of technological advanceson software's such as Photoshop.

Conclusion

Conclusively, Although some of the posters were not short films each one portrayed a conventionwhich will be represented within our product. For example, throughout the posters theconsistency of representing colour has been a main convention. Each poster uses neutral, earthycolours to represent the war being fought on natural ground, moreover, throughout time theposters have changed slightly, colours became darker and furthermore, mysterious. The coloursfilter through from significant shading of dark to lightness. Additionally, from the 1940s posterswere hand drawn, however, during the 1960s technological advances began to become in tact,therefore, changing the way in which posters were created, however, the shading used createsthe effect of posters being hand drawn staying within the convention of war time posters.Therefore, in order to stay within the stereotypical conventions of a war time period drama, wewill be incorporating all the features spoken about in the previous slide.