DVD and Poster analysis

I have been looking at both the poster and DVD cover for the crime film, American gangster. The poster is the siloete of a male whom is wearing a suit with a white shirt. This is slightly similar to how we intend our film to be as this suit is some kind of uniform for the gang that this gentleman belongs to. Another clever part of the poster is that the place that this film will be set in, America, is shown across the middle of the poster. It is positioned in the area that the heart would be on this male this could be intended to mean that this city is close to his heart and he is proud to be from there and all that he wants to do is protect the people. The man has a gun in his right hand which follows the convention of gangster films as most gangster films have this weapon which is associated with the genre. The title of the film is written in simple text which means that the person that is looking at the poster isn't distracted from what the producer of the film want them to see. The title is part of a very small amount of text that is included on this poster as there are only a few of the actors names and the names of the people and place that helped to produce the film along the bottom. This is what most posters that are created for films have. However some do have the names of actors that the producers think will help to bring the audience in in bigger writing. Overall this poster shows that simplicity can be very effective as it is also slightly mysterious and make the audience want to go and watch the film.

The DVD cover is very similar to the poster however there are a few difference's. The similarities that the DVD cover has with the poster are, the text that is used for the title of the film. This means that the person buying the DVD is able to recognise the film from the poster that they would have seen whilst the film was being marketed before release in the shops. Another similarity is the man in the black suit is still the main focal point of the cover. However this time he has been joined by another male who is wearing a white suit. This could mean that he is member of the rival gang or is the sole rival of an entire gang or this lone gangster. The differences that this contains include the fact that the names of two of the actors, "Russel Crowe" and "Denzil Washington" have been added to the DVD. On the DVD cover there is the age rating of the film this is both so that the person or shop selling the DVD are aware that they would be committing a criminal offence if they were to sell this to any person under this age, but also to allow the audience to anticipate what the film could contain as the age limit normally gives a good idea of what the film will be like.

Josh