‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis

Albert Ndoka

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis

SummaryInception is a 2010 science fiction action heist film written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film features an international ensemble cast starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine. DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a specialized corporate spy and thief. His work consists of secretly extracting valuable commercial information from the unconscious mindsof his targets while they are asleep and dreaming. Wanted for murder and unable to visit his children, Cobb is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the planting of an original idea into a target's subconscious.

Inception was officially budgeted at $160 million, a cost that was split between Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Nolan's reputation and success with The Dark Knight helped secure the film's $100 million in advertising expenditure, with most of the publicity involving viral marketing. Inception premiered in London on July 8, 2010, and was released in both conventional and IMAX theatres on July 16, 2010. A box office success, Inception has grossed over $800 million worldwide and is currently one of the highest-grossing films of all time. The home video market also had strong results, with $68 million in DVD sales.

Inception received wide critical acclaim, with numerous critics praising it for its originality, cast, score, and visual effects. The film received eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Art Direction and won the awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Cinematography.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception#cite_note-synop-4

Albert Ndoka

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis Film Poster Conventions

A film poster is a graphical representation of the film and is normally used to advertise its release. The size, content and country of production of the poster all result in the numerous versions of a poster for one film”

Normally a poster will contain at least on main image, the image will be in keeping with the style, tone or genre of the film. Often images are layered into a montage, however sometimes they are left unedited.

The teaser posters do not offer the audience much information as these are generally released during the production of the film. However the ‘full posters; offer the full credits at the bottom and possibly the release information which is either a rough or specific date, this is because the full posters are issued just before film is released.

One of the most important feature in posters in the film title which is usually in large lettering and the names of the actors and director in the film which can advertise the movie. In addition a tagline which is a sentence that summarises and captures the tone of the film. In character posters the name and character are more important as they use the actor alone to sell the film and often with alternative taglines to the one used in the main theatrical poster.

Albert Ndoka

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis

Displaying the actors names on a poster can attract customer

fan base that would pay to watch their preferred actor(s)

in any genre film

The main image takes up the most space and should be extremely eye

catching in order to entice customers to stop and look at the release date

etc. The image will state the tone and genre of the film and usually the image

is an action shot from the movie...

The title of the film is vital because if its a re-release or part 2 of a film the title can attract existing customers. It is also the boldest part of the poster

to attract customers. The title connotation with the genre and category of the film. The use of

language, font and colour of the text or an union of these things help make the title memorable to the audience

The credits are usually placed at the bottom of the poster, they include the studios and companies involved in the

production of the film.

The tagline summaries the movie in some ways a one-line synopsis.

However many taglines do not want to give away to much so some are

very vague to maintain the suspense

The release date shows when the film will be available to view in cinema’s.

In some posters they will give an exact date, however some teaser

posters will keep a sense of mystery and write ‘COMING SOON’ .

Albert Ndoka

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis

Full Credits

Release Date

Title

Actors/Directors names

Main image

Tagline

Albert Ndoka

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis The tagline is at the top of the poster ‘the dream is real’ this is a play on words because a dream is not reality so it cannot be real. It is a very interesting tagline and it gets you thinking!

The main image breaks the convention of posters because we cannot see any of the actors in the posters faces... However it is very exciting and eye catching as the image is full of action this states the movies action filled. The gun in actors hand represents the violence in the film and the stones that are flying towards the audience say that this films got explosions.

In addition the image is very obscure and confusing which is great for keeping suspense and not giving to much of the film away. This idea is reinforced in the second poster with the image looking like a dream because in a dream anything is possible and nothing is straight forward. Moreover the second poster is set in the city which brings the action closer to the audience.

The theatrical posters do no give away much information on any character bar the protagonist, however for this film there are character posters in flow that give the audience an insight of their favourite actors in action.

As both posters do not give much away this could be a disadvantage because they audience might not understand the poster and opt out in going to watch the film. However it can be an advantage because it creates suspense and makes the audience speak about the film and watch it due to the curiosity. Also in this particular film/poster they have stated that the film is from the director of the dark knight whom done something similar in that poster. He is a trusted director and the actors are trusted so that alone will entice customers.

Theatrical posters

Albert Ndoka

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis Character posters

Albert Ndoka

These character posters are all from the same film ‘inception’ but their character posters so they include different key characters in the film. In each poster at the top is a statement/title of the character, the first

poster says ‘The Extractor’ , the second poster says ‘The Point Man’ and the third ‘The Tourist’. Apart from the statement at the top everything else is similar in these posters, the theme and the colour.

Moreover having a title at the top of the character posters makes the audience familiar with the character and their role in the film, this creates speculation and can generate sales through word of mouth. ‘The Point Man’ and ‘The Tourist’ both holding guns, this gives a clue to the audience of what themes the film will include and

in this instance its going to be a violent gun slinging movie. Furthermore bringing the audience closer to the characters will reduce the time spent during the movie trying

to empathise with the characters they feel as if they know them.

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis Albert Ndoka

Building Posters

Billboard Posters

These building posters are very effective as they are placed in built up areas. In

addition they are very eye catching as they look extremely real and that can amaze the

potential cliental into viewing the movie

These billboard posters are very big and in your face, they are normally placed in heavy built up area where the numbers of passers

by is high. Usually placed near a train or commute area, this is important as the

customer sub-consciously sees the image then later when deciding what to watch their

mind would replay ‘inception’.

‘Inception’ Film Poster Analysis Albert Ndoka

Bus stop posters Bus posters Toilet posters

Leonardo himself

admiring the poster!!!

The marketing department would of allocated much of their budget into heavy in your face marketing. They will ensure to place the film ‘inception’ everywhere possible to

reach out to as much customers as possible. Moreover by having a poster on a moving bus that will attratc customers in further away and quicker. They will also ensure to put it

anywhere their target audience are sure to attend, this could be cinema’s...