Contexts:
Director - Spike Lee
Writers - Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
Key production companies - Blumhouse Productions, Legendary Entertainment, Monkeypaw Productions
Distributor - Focus Features
Budget - $15,000,000
Box Office Revenue - $93,300,000
Main Cast - John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace
Genre - Biographical Crime
Theatrical Poster Analysis
The poster for the film is very conventional for mainstream films. The major draw of the poster is in the copy, which acts as an enigma code with its use of descriptive language and encourages the audience to find out about the film while telling them very little. The poster also utilises some of the key names included on the film to encourage people to learn more. People may see this film just because they see Jordan Peele's name connected to the film as they are fans of his. A major code on the poster is that of the American flag, which has been turned upside with the colour changed to black and white. This can be considered either a semantic or symbolic code as the flag turned upside down is symbolises distress, and in recent years has been used as a way to protest issues in American society. By having this on the front cover it immediately sets the key ideologies of the film as it immediately infers to the audience that this film will have something to say about modern day America. It also acts as a referential code to many protests across America in recent years, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests in the NFL by people like Colin Kaepernick.
Banner Poster Analysis
Like the theatrical poster, this poster also focuses on getting across the key ideologies and tone of the film across to the audience. Again, to do this the poster is littered with various different referential and symbolic codes, from the white hood symbolic of the Ku Klux Klan to the African-American iconography of the comb and the Black Power gesture. This visual oxymoron also allows for the satirical and comedic tone of the film, and also acts as a binary opposition of 'black vs white'. Another key similarity with both posters is that of the representation, with the only person on both being the protagonist, a black male 1970's police officer. This film presents itself as challenging race conventions and other things by having an African-American protagonist.
Comments