Movie Poster Trends: From Art Form To Boredom

Each genre has its own poster conventions which achieve the goal of stating, categorically, what you are about to watch. It is a testament to the times we live in, that we have to reduce the art form to such basics in order to register the necessary information within the brief second that we might look up from our smart-phones, or glance up from the pavement as we rush to our next appointment. It needs to tell us about the film instantly, as we blindly scroll past the image on our online social networks, or page down through the ‘What’s Showing’ section of the multiplex website. Unfortunately, the result is – rather obviously – that there is then nothing distinctive about them at all, and they all blur into one.

Grading is the influence of colour grading on film posters, which has gradually seeped through from the over-bearing colour grading trend in the films themselves. Many commentators have bemoaned the domination of the orange/blue colour palette in modern cinema, and it is certainly the case that it can be seen – particularly in studio productions – being used excessively and unnecessarily. Many trace the trend back to the Coen Brothers film, O Brother Where Art Thou, which was the first feature film to employ a Digital Intermediary for the entire movie. This process involves scanning the whole film into a computer, allowing the cinematographer and colourist determination over every aspect of the image. It was used by the Coen Brothers and their cinematographer Roger Deakins on that film, because they were keen to achieve a sepia, ‘old photograph’ look to the production, which was being filmed in a very green Mississippi. However, this advancement – quickly then used in Chicken Run – opened the door for filmmakers to play at more extensive colouring in.

Again, rather than use this opportunity to test the limits of film and the use of colour in it, many filmmakers began to employ ‘complementary colour theory’ to make images ‘pop.’ This means that, since the range of human flesh tones occur on the orange spectrum, the complementary shade – according to colour theory – is blue (or, more specifically, teal). Colour grading is important, because the motivation behind complementary colour theory is that colour affects our mood. This explains why a film like Superman Returns leaves us feeling dejected. It’s not just because it’s disappointing – it’s because the whole film looks like this:

So, thanks to complementary colour theory, and its domination in filmmaking, our modern movie posters have followed suit. The result is, not only are the images themselves limited in design, but colour choices are limited, too.