Black Swan - Poster Analysis

  Black Swan is one of my favourite psychological thrillers, and as our film is the same genre, I thought it would be interesting to look into the posters used to advertise the film. There were actually about five posters for this film, however I had two favourites. This was one of them, because I find the image to be so cinematic and creative. Artistically, it manages to give an overview of the film plot just by an image.

  The colours here are again conventional for this type of genre, featuring white, black and red. I think that the contrast between the dark black and the pure white  is very eye catching, but also cleverly represents the story, in that there are the personalities of the white and the black swan. The main character is clearly a ballet dancer, apparent by her stance as well as her costume, and a combination of this and the actual title, 'Black Swan,' clearly inform the audience that the film is about/related to Swan Lake. However what I find most interesting and clever is the use of the cinematic black feathers that float around her. They not only represent her personality as the Black Swan, but also the idea that her life is falling apart around her due to the role in the ballet, which makes the link quite literal but so artistic.

  The title of the film sits conventionally towards the bottom of the poster, in a formal font to suit the story, in white to stand out from the black part of the costume. Above are main cast members, which were not included in the Silent HIll poster, but are definitely common and conventional, which I will include in my own poster. By flicking through various posters, I found that on average a poster features around two or three cast members, depending on the unique selling point, as if one actor was the USP, his name may be the only one featured on the poster.

  Another feature that is common in film posters is the advertising of the film's director, as a USP. This broadens the target audience, in this case suggesting that if one enjoyed 'The Wrestler' or 'Requiem for a Dream,' one will like this film too because it is directed by Darren Aronofsky. This is something that I will take into account when creating my own poster.

  A billing block will be vital in my own poster, and the one featured on the Black Swan poster is a typical version, however it is quite clever in that it works around her red arm. Although it is interesting to manipulate the billing block like this, I am not sure I would be able to do so for my own poster in order to achieve the best mark, as I have to follow certain rules and restrictions. However another thing that interested me about this billing block was that the font is different to the norm, as it follows the font of the main title, where as most are edited so the letters are slim. Company logos, age restriction, release and the website are all featured below, which I must recreate for my poster.