Junjie

Mar 182019
 

Similar movie posters are plagiarism or tribute

Thousands of movies are released every year around the world, and the design style of each movie poster is closely related to the type of film. Even in a creative design world, it is inevitable that there are references. These similar movie posters may be really imitated, maybe just coincidence, but in any case, it’s fun. The looking of some movie posters in recent years is very similar, whether it is composition, color or style, even the text on the poster is similar. Most of these posters are interpreted as tribute to a classic movie but looking at too many such posters will naturally feel boring, so I want to know if the designers of these posters are not inspired or really pay tribute a movie, or other reasons makes these posters so similar.

What is tribute and what is plagiarism

The boundaries between plagiarism and tribute seem vague, but this is not the case. To put it simply, when I see an element in a poster, I think of the object of tribute, and then I immediately understand the designer’s intentions, and even feel subtle about this way of expression. Such a poster must be a tribute. And when I think an element is familiar, but it does not express it in a subtle and natural way, it is more like a different person telling the same joke, so I will think it is a poor imitation, even plagiarism.

Wang-PropRevision

 Posted by on Tue, 3/12 at 9:07pm  proposal  No Responses »
Mar 122019
 

Junjie Wang

Ph. Julia Mason

Advanced Exposition

February 28,2019

The secret of movie posters

Many people today are under the pressure of busy life and work, and they must release pressure in a timely manner, so entertainment is an indispensable part of life. Watching movies is a modern entertainment choice for the majority, but how to attract customers to the theater and watch movies depends on the application of poster design elements. Therefore, this paper studies the related issues of poster visual design, using well-known movie posters as an analysis sample. The research questions include the application of design elements such as the color, text, image and layout principles of the movie poster, whether the film information is correctly conveyed, and the similarities and differences between the posters of each movie are integrated. The results of the study show that some of the representative posters have some common design elements. All kinds of movie posters are mainly “Expressing the story”, “emphasizing the characteristics of the film” and “creating the overall sense”. Each poster is applied in its design elements. It has its own features to highlight the difference between the film.

The film poster completes the re-creation of dynamic images and sounds in a static, flat and silent way. Excellent posters can lead to topic discussions during the film creation and distribution stages, evoking the audience’s viewing expectations and have collectible value. Through research, excellent movie posters include four elements: The priority for movie posters to be introduced to the market is to be eye-catching. Secondly, the poster is a super-concentration of the theme and content of the film and is the punchline of the film. Thirdly, the movie posters need to be novel. The fourth is unforgettable. Movie posters should have a long-lasting aftertaste and a visual aesthetic that is difficult to forget. Understanding the elements of these movie posters can understand the artistic beauty of the film between enrichment and sublimation, simplicity and complexity, realistic and freehand, the artistic realm of the film, and the means of highlighting the commercial value of the film.

Subject/POS – Movie Poster

 Posted by on Tue, 2/19 at 11:45pm  subject-POS  No Responses »
Feb 192019
 

a)

Subject: The picture of a movie poster is usually two main characters back to back and smiling.

Points of significance: Most of the themes of such movies are about love, family or friendship, and may also bring some comedy elements.

Subject: This kind of movie poster is usually based on the seaside. The backs of several people are on the beach, and the photo of the protagonist is put into the sky.

Points of significance: This kind of film is usually based on the protagonist’s life, and the understanding of life is achieved by recalling his own experience.

Subject: This kind of poster will use the key elements in the movie to form a face. The expression of this face can be varied.

Points of significance: This kind of film usually focuses on the psychological description of the protagonists and explores human nature.

Subject: This type of movie poster usually depicts a person running in a dark street, and there will be light at the end of the street.

Points of significance: This type of film is dominated by suspense and adventure.

b)

Subject: Movie posters are used to make viewers interested in various compositions

Points of significance: The theme of the movie is revealed in the poster.

c)

What different composition of poster designers use to express the theme of different types of movies?

Feb 122019
 

In movie posters, slogans are sentence used to make people curious about the film itself. The sentence itself can be expressed in a variety of ways, it can be used to summarize the plot, or used to describe the protagonists’ psychology, can also be used to introduce the story background, and so on. A successful film poster promotion must be based on the most attractive features of the above elements, but most of the slogans are to assist the picture in the movie poster to achieve the effect of promoting the film. Posters for upcoming movies will be placed in every movie theater, and you can also see movie posters on web pages, TV shows, magazines and newspapers.

Heuristic#2

 Posted by on Tue, 2/5 at 10:24pm  underappreciated heuristic #2  No Responses »
Feb 052019
 

Identify and Describe Patterns in the Genre’s Features

  1. What content is typically included or excluded? How is the content treated? What sorts of examples are used? What counts as evidence (personal testimony, facts, etc.)?

The text of a movie poster usually includes the release date of the movie, the issuing company, the official website, the name of the actor, the nationality and the participating works, and information about the director and the screenwriter. This type of text usually does not describe the details of the movie but may use the lines of the protagonist. These lines all represent the central idea of ​​the whole movie, which may not be obvious when it first appears, but this line is usually repeated many times throughout the movie.

  1. What rhetorical appeals are used? What appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos appear?

This type of text usually uses a very simple sentence. This sentence has nothing to do with the name of the movie on the surface, and even has nothing to do with the picture on the poster. All it needs to do is to attract your attention. For example, the mission impossible III poster has only a string of numbers indicating the date of the release. If it is placed on another poster, it is nothing, but it is placed in front of Tom Cruise and is displayed in the bomb countdown. The audience can get a lot of information when they first see this poster, and in the process of global screening, there is no need to worry that the poster does not express the author’s original intention due to different languages.

  1. How are texts in the genres structured? What are their parts, and how are they organized?

This type of text is based on the theme of the movie or the emotions of the protagonist. As for what is specific, it is determined by the director’s direction, and such text can represent multiple meanings. For example, the text of the Avengers III is infinite war. The word can have many meanings. We saw a lot of battles in the whole movie. On the earth or in aliens, there are more or less people, even real and predictive. And at the end of the movie, the defeat of the superheroes indicates that the war is not over yet.

  1. In what format are texts of this genre presented? What layout or appearance is common? How long/big is a typical text in this genre?

Such texts are written in less common fonts, usually homemade fonts. The fonts are related to the plot of the movie. For example, the text of a horror film usually has blood, and the text of the science fiction film uses steel as the carrier of the text. The words on the posters won’t be long, because the text is not the only form of expression on the poster, but the text is usually very obvious. The text on the poster is the title and sentence in addition to the actors and published information. The title must be particularly obvious, and the sentence generally surrounds the title, smaller than the title but contains a lot of information.

  1. What types of “sentences” do texts in the genre typically use? How long are they? Are they simple or complex, passive or active? Are the sentences varied? Do they share a certain style?

There are many kinds of text on the poster, there are sentences, words, numbers, symbols and even homemade text. Sentences are usually simple sentences and have no common style. Such sentences can be imperative sentences or passive sentences, or they may be interrogative sentences. In short, any sentence patterns and words may appear on movie posters.

  1. What diction is most common? What types of words (or symbols, images, etc.) are most frequent? Is a type of jargon used? Is slang used? How would you describe a typical writer’s tone?

Adjectives are the most common of the movie posters I have seen. Generally speaking, more formal sentences are used, and slang is rarely used. The author’s tone is also determined by the film, such as a movie about family, the tone will be very warm. A movie about war, the tone will have a sense of glory. Often these sentences will leave doubts for the reader so that the reader can become a viewer to find the answer in the movie.

 

Analyze What These Patterns Reveal About the Situation and Scene

  1. What do these patterns reveal about the genre, its situation, and the people who use it?

The success of these words reveals that a successful movie poster was the first to attract viewers before the movie trailer. The audience may not have seen some famous actor directors or filmmakers. It may be difficult for the actors to identify after makeup, but they have heard of these people. The text on the poster can remind them that the film has the participation of these professionals. The quality can be trusted. Some people don’t even have time to watch the trailer. The authors of these words should use the simplest words to directly express the theme of the movie.

  • What do participants have to know or believe to understand or appreciate the genre?

The type of film is very important to the audience, science fiction film. Superhero, suspense or horror. It is very dangerous for a heart patient to go to a horror movie without knowing the type of movie. Knowing the type of film is also through the text and pictures on the poster. A moviegoer can find the movie he wants to watch faster after understanding the movie type.

  • Who is invited into the genre, and who is excluded??

Everyone is invited to read this kind of genre. However, there are usually text reminders, such as pornography or violence, which is not suitable for minors to watch. The audience can choose the type of movie they like, but the people on the poster who are not suitable for viewing are rejected.

  • What roles for writers and readers does it encourage or discourage?

The author usually encourages viewers to watch the movie through text, but they don’t say it straight [hey~ come and watch it, this movie is very good], they will use different words or questions to mobilize the enthusiasm of the audience.

  1. What can you learn about the actions being performed through the genre by observing its language patterns?

You can understand the synopsis of the movie story through genre, such as the location in which the age occurred and the protagonist’s work in the movie. In addition to this you can also learn about the director of the film, the screenwriter and the production company.

  • How is the subject of the genre treated? What content is considered most important? What content (topics or details) is ignored?

The theme of this kind of text always depends on the content of the film. The theme of the film is the most critical, and the theme is more critical than the story. Such texts may also describe the background of the film. For example, some movies are adapted from novels or real historical events, and they also introduce the honors that this novel has won. Due to the limited space and the propaganda of the film, such words cannot describe the appearance of the actors in the play and the ending of the film, and even the narrative method will not be mentioned.

  • What values, beliefs, goals, and assumptions are revealed through the genre’s patterns?

There are many purposes for the film, such as environmental protection, remembering history, caring for vulnerable groups, promoting a person, fighting terrorism, fostering a sense of justice, religion, love, family, etc.

  • What actions does the genre enable? What actions does the genre constrain??

This type of text is also constrained. First of all, it can’t be a lie. If you use fake propaganda just to attract the audience, the film will be resisted by the viewer. In some countries, such texts may not be anti-government or satirize the leader of that country, otherwise the film may not be released.

Feb 052019
 

Introduce Your Genre

  1. Identify your tentative “underappreciated” genre (or subgenre)

The genre I want to introduce is the words on the movie poster.

  1. What is interesting to you about this genre? Or, why might it be significant or otherwise worth paying attention to?

The plot of a movie is very long, and the movie poster must have a few short words to summarize the whole movie. So the words on the movie poster is very important.

  1. Tentatively, define/describe your corpus (collection of texts/examples)

Most of the words on the movie poster use the simplest words, homonyms or numbers. But the producer can achieve the purpose of summarizing the movie through the change of the font.

  1. Provide links (and/or titles) of five samples. (Try to gather samples from more than one “place” [or type] in order to obtain a diverse and accurate representation of the genre. For now, choose samples without significant deviations).

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Superman-Returns-POSTER-Movie-C-27×40/128411782

http://www.impawards.com/2006/mission_impossible_iii_ver3_xlg.html

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183505/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362227/

Describe the Context

  1. Setting: Where (in what context or medium) does the genre appear? How and when is it used? With what other genres does this genre interact? How?

This genre must have appeared on the movie poster. It is a sentence composed of very simple words, or only words. This kind of genre needs to consider the feelings of the audience. The audience did not usually see the promo before they saw the poster, so they didn’t know the plot of the movie. However, the information used to display the posters is very limited. Only the contrast between the pictures and the text can give the audience some hints about the plot.

  1. Subject: What topics, issues, ideas, etc. are common to this genre? When people use this genre, what are they communicating about?

When producers write the words of a movie poster, they most want to show the central idea of ​​the film to the audience, and at the same time let the audience have an interest in the film. Due to space limitations, the audience did not have the patience to read large sections of text, so many viewers understand that these sentences require savvy. The viewer may be interested in an exaggerated picture on the poster, but a picture cannot summarize the story or control the rhythm of the movie. However, sentences that are too difficult to understand will only confuse the audience, so being simple and easy to understand is the most critical.

  1. Writers: Who writes the texts in this genre? Are multiple writers possible? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must writers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do writers write the genre (e.g., in teams, on a computer, in a rush, for their profession? for fun?)?

The authors of these words can be many people, a team and even people who do different jobs in film production. The director or screenwriter is most likely the author of these words. Sometimes they just have an idea, and the real implementation requires the cooperation of the designer. The authors of these words must first understand the theme of the film and the emotions of the entire film. He needs to understand the character of the protagonist and the direction of the story. A few simple words are the key to the film’s profit and loss, so this is a very difficult job.

  1. Readers: Who reads the texts in this genre? Is there more than one type of reader for this genre? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must readers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do readers read the genre (e.g., at their leisure, on the run, in waiting rooms)?

Anyone can read these texts. They may be the weekends when they want to watch a movie but have no goals, or the advertisements they use when browsing the web at work, or even the inadvertent glimpse of their driving through the cinema. First of all, readers of this text are interested in movies. A person who doesn’t like to watch movies is never a poster that needs to be attracted.

  1. Exigency/Purpose(s): Why do writers write this genre, and why do readers read it? What purposes does the genre fulfill for the people who use it?

A good text can attract viewers who are not interested in the movie to buy movie tickets. I think the most concise and powerful text is Superman Returns. There is only Superman’s “S” logo in the poster. The text is even cooler. There is only one “Returns”, so that everyone will wait for the Superman to come again in the summer. The text of such super commercial movies is usually the simplest, mostly the release date. For example, “The Mission’s Impossible III” will directly write “The mission begins 05 05 06”. The last three rows of numbers originally meant to be released on May 5, 2006, but the three rows of digital writing and arrangement seem to be like a bomb. The set explosion time also implies the rhythm of the movie, which makes the audience more immersive. This explosion scene is absolutely amazing. Looking at the trailer, Tom Cruise was blown up and hit by a car and knew that the film must look good. The previous works of Jim Carrey have extremely precise skills in the text. The poster in “The World of Truman” is a picture of Jim Carrey sleeping on a big TV wall with a pillow. This time the copy is quite playful. On the TV wall, “On the air, unaware” is written, not only in the meaning of the message, but also ingeniously telling that the film is a film that steals the privacy of other people, and the effect of homophobic sounds is more impressive. The text of the other “Dumb and Dumber” is also very good. Just on the left side of the picture divided into half, there is a “FROM GENTLE TO MENTLE”, which is a good sentence with both meaning and sound.The text of The Terminal is “Life is waiting”. Indeed, people who have been to the airport will know that waiting in the airport has become a necessity, waiting for registration, waiting for take-off, waiting for landing, countless waiting is the epitome of life, but also the voice of the film’s leading actor Tom Hank. He was trapped in the airport waiting to return to the country, or to enter the United States, his life seems to exist only to wait.