The colours used in this movie poster for 'American History X ' are either black or white presented on a white background, this may display the idea of good and evil , white vs black , or even suggest the saying ' things are either black or white .. never grey ' which could identify conflict within the film itself . The use of such a starch background in contrast to the bold etched body of 'Edward Norton' connotes the idea oF innocence corrupted and brought forward by the character presented toward us . We can immediately identify that he is to be the main character as he stands alone looking stating to the audience , and so identify him as the instigator of the film already . The etched, almost drawn ,bold lines which outline his body could also represent the idea of innocence being tarnished and brought to attention. The way in which his tattoos are evidently shown could also represent the fact that he himself is the innocent party and where the bold blackness of his tattoos could represent this tarnished idea from either the past or by others . Because of the tattoos and shaved head we automatically believe this character to be a rebel as well as identify his most prominent tattoo being the Nazi sign on his chest. this leads us to believe racial violence is to be involved within the film . The way in which he is standing straight ahead towards the camera lead us to believe that he wants to talk to us the audience himself and by the expression on his face to feel empathy towards him and he tries to connect with us. The way in which he hold his chest on top of the Nazi tattoo could symbolise to us the audience that he either feels very strongly about his belief keeping it close to his heart or by the way the hand is positioned hiding it away in shame that we identify through his facial expressions . all these visual representations of character hints to us the audience at the genre plot and obviously the character we are met with, and so curious into his story . there is very limited text presented on the poster and the majority of it is underneath the main picture suggesting its unimportance to the film and instead making the picture the main focus . the only names given are that of 'Edward Norton' and 'Edward Furlong' which are positioned right by 'Edward Norton's' head at the top of the poster again reliving its unimportance but also connotes the main characters are because the names are so close to his head are drawn back to the picture itself. The title is placed right at the bottom om the poster right by his hand. written in black capitals conveys the idea of importance and the use of red on the 'X' suggesting danger . these features like the main character being the main focus point on the posters is a generic trait within the drama genre which is used also in taxi driver.
Again the main characters face and name are shown as the main focus point of the poster as on the American history X poster . the colour of the actual poster reflects the title 'taxi driver ' being American taxis are yellow . again another generic convention of the drama genre is the looking at the camera from the subject int he picture . the stare almost looks crazed and the way the title cuts through half of his face suggests a spilt personality . using the title and director as well as the main photo as a focus point is a convention of the drama genre focusing all our attention as an audience on the actor and recognition of the director . the poster in its self gain is not crowed with names or pictures regarding the film just one single shot of the main character or what we perceive to be the main character , the poster ,therefore is less busy and more focused on the subject at hand that is the character and his/her story generally recognized within the drama genre .as well as looking at movie posters connected to the drama /crime genre i secondly looked at the ways in which DVD covers are used to portray the genre plot and more importantly attract an audience into buying them.
just as both movie posters memento uses the same technique in the use of extreme close ups of what we perceive to be the main characters. the covers shows as picture within a picture foretelling and connection or story between the two characters shown. we automatically realise as guy pierce is the first and biggest picture him to be the main focus of the movie. the background behind him in his Polaroid frame is bright and out of focus suggesting firstly the idea of the light to show him as the Innocent party within the film and secondly the idea of the background being out of focus suggests his mental state or his story to be disordered and out of focus its self, lastly the denotations of his close up has been used to not distract us as the audience from the main focus which is him and draws us into him and his face. the picture within his featuring Carrie Ann Moss suggests her accompanying main character her backgrounds is solid black . making us the audience suggest she may cause conflict within the movie from the contrast of her back background to guy's suggesting the idea of good and evil . the way in which both pictures are repeated zooming out as it where also portrays the idea of a story repeating itself of not quite ended , as like the movie posters we are left struggling to understand the plot and so intrigues us into seeing the film . the title is located on the bottom of the cover on the actual Polaroid, written in an irractict way as if scribbled quickly in capitals connotes the pace of the film be echy and disordered. the idea of the writing on the the Polaroid could as well obviously hint at the plot and the way in which these pictures could fortell the story . lastly as not on the movie posters reviews comments are displayed around the main picture written is bright yellow to stand out projecting comments such as 'A master piece ' and ' A new master piece among thrillers' , tempting us the audience and trying to persuade us tho watch the film through its reviews and star ratings
