Film Poster Analysis

This project involves an analysis of a Film Poster and what we as the audience can tell from viewing it.

BABY DRIVER POSTER

How does the mise-en-scene and camera angle/composition within the poster communicate concepts and connotations to the audience?

This poster for the 2017 movie Baby Driver, directed by Edgar Wright, has three main focuses levelled out throughout it. The main one in the image is our (supposed) main character’s face, then all of the characters seen in the reflection of his sunglasses, and finally, the car at the bottom with smoke coming out of it. This in itself already efficiently sets up this movie’s main three focuses - the main character, his relationship with his bosses/coworkers/romantic love interest, and cars.

The overall poster has a baby pink hue, particularly around its highlights and a deep purple for shadows. The colour pink has connotations of romance, suggesting this film will contain a love story. The pink is especially concentrated around the main character’s face, which hints at him having a love interest.

It is drawn in a cartoon-esque style, this is seen around the stylised and minimally drawn smoke coming from the car and heavy shadowing around the characters facial features. This could suggest that the film is styled in a vintage comic aesthetic - it reveals that it is not too concerned with realism and rather values it’s heavy stylistic choices. Most of the whites are yellow toned and blend in with the retro look, except for the character’s earphones, which are a bright white that lift them off of the screen, the way they stand out could hint at this movie having some strong connection to music. The comic-esque pop art style of the drawing also suggests it is set in 1950’s America. However, the modern car and earphones place this film in modern times, but the overall American influences stand out and allow us to place it somewhere in the US.

The close up of the face takes up the overwhelming majority of the poster, which indicates that this is the movie’s main character. The way his face takes up most of the action suggests that the story is very centreed around him and perhaps his work life - which we can assume has to do with cars, according to the title of the movie ‘Baby Driver’ and the long shot of the car, which he appears to be calmly looking over; it’s smaller size and lower positioning than him could mean that he has some form of power and control over it, suggesting he is knowledgeable and confident about cars. He is sat in a relaxed position, with his head resting on his hands against a table, this shows that the character’s general demeanour is very chilled out and pensive, as he is seemingly just sitting and watching action unfold before him

The rest of the cast is shown in a mid shot through the reflection of the main character’s sunglasses. The fact that they are shown through his reflection indicates that we are, quite literally, seeing the world and the people in his life through his perspective. The girl in the right lens appears to be the closest and largest image, which implies that she could be particularly important in the plot - her similar age to the main character and general perceived fear and innocence could place her as the story’s love interest. The rest of the characters seem to all have hostile and concentrated facial expressions and are holding up guns, ready to shoot. This reveals the action genre of the film - allows us to know to expect a lot of violence and fights throughout it; all except for the man on the very right, who stands with good posture seemingly looking over the rest of the characters, he is gently smiling, almost with pride - this could suggest he is in a position of power over the other characters and is perhaps their boss or leader. The pride and the fact that it is an older man could hint at him being a potential father-like figure to the main character.

It is interesting to note that while all of the male characters seem to be dressed in hard and practical materials for fighting, like a leather jacket, and the boss on the right is in smart business attire. The two women seem to have less practical outfits - the woman on the very left is wearing an open fluffy pink coat over a tight white shirt showing her figure. Which would be a perfectly acceptable display of her femininity, except in this case she is risking getting hurt or shot by wearing soft and brightly coloured materials that attract attention to the potentially illegal group she is a part of. Her hair is also styled and curled outwards, delicately framing her face - which raises the question of how her hair would stay untouched and perfectly styled even after all of the fights and action they supposedly go through every day. The girl towards the front on the right lens, the supposed love interest, has her hair up in a practical bun, and is wearing what appears to be a more conservative uniform-like costume. This could be an attempt to frame her as the more desirable character who is innocent and not linked to crime - this unjustly implies that she is the more desirable woman simply because of her appearance and innocent afraid demeanour.