Case Study - Film Poster 1

The animated film has both elements of comedy and fantasy. It is based from another fantasy adventure 3D animated film from DreamWorks Animation. The lighting and colour scheme is very bright and colourful. This automatically grabs the audience’s attention. The use of the long shot captures all the action and helps explain the storyline and themes of the movie. It also displays the main characters which gives the audience a little glimpse of their personalities and their roles in the film. The main image is both creative and mythical as the characters you expect to be in a fairy tale are not usually an ogre, donkey and dragon. This therefore challenges the stereotypes of a fairytale. On the other hand, the sky is blue which is positive and connotes a happy ending and the fairytale castle is in the background, to show they do follow some norms of a fairytale storyline. The framing of the image is very important to the storyline. Shrek is positioned at the front as he is the main character. He looks built and strong which represents his strength and power. Fiona and Donkey are positioned either side of Shrek at the same level connoting they are competing for the spot to be Shrek’s partner, either romantically or friendly. The dragon is further in the background to indicate they are likely to get away from the beast. The fairytale castle is in the distance to suggest Fiona is escaping from her tower. Princesses are expected to stay in their castles as they are portrayed in a magical wonderful way, however, Fiona is running away from the castle which tells the audience a lot about what happens in the film. The main image tells the audience a lot about the characters and themes involved in the film. For example, the princess is wearing a gown and has a tiara on, which is the usual attire for royalty. However her body language shows otherwise. She is in a fighting position, suggesting she is not as innocent and calm as princesses should be. Also, a fire breathing dragon and talking donkey add an element of humour and fits the fantasy genre which will appeal to the target audience, children and families. The title is bold and colour coordinated to indicate the main character, Shrek the Ogre. The tagline/slogan “The greatest fairytale never told” is how the film describes itself. “Never told” suggests an original and untraditional storyline, as fairytales are usually told with a happy ending. However, Shrek follows a unique quirky storyline whereby the characters are not your usual princess and prince charming. One major difference between this film poster and mine is that this includes cartoon characters. Therefore the animated film is more likely to use a colour scheme of bright bold colours to attract the younger audience. This film poster relates to my style of film as the main storyline shows the journey of two very different characters slowly but surely falling in love. I will use similar elements of this poster when creating my own, such as the main characters facial expressions and body language saying a lot about their characters and what we expect to see within the film.