The Kings Speech Film Posters

What is 'poor' about its design and who do you think the poster was aimed at?

The original poster, the graphics have been written in the font Serif which looks official and professional, also it looks old which also connotes that the film is set in a different era and therefore will attract the people who are interested in that. 

However the poster is heavily photo shopped and was criticised for this as the poster looks fake, this makes the stars look unreal and therefore doesn't portray the film properly - no realism. You also cannot tell who the king is from this poster.

The big stars' names are before the title of the film and therefore may be the first thing that you read and will make you want to see the film as they are well known for good films and they wouldn't be in the film if it wasn't good and therefore this persuades people to see it.

There is a quote at the top of the poster however it is hard to read as it is a handwritten font.

Also the characters in the poster are looking different ways and therefore it connotes that it isn't very planned, also some people could think that it is a comedy as Rush is looking at the other two characters however not turning his head, also they are all smirking as Firth is looking serious and therefore the audience cannot tell what genre of film this is.

The colours used are gold and black mostly which are royal colours and so they are relevant to the film and could connote some royal appearances in the film, this is a good aspect of the film, I also think that the gold being in the foreground with the black behind it stands out much more. The unique selling point of the poster would be that it includes the big stars in the front, also their names and therefore people might go and see it just for this.

This was the improved poster, how much more effective was this?

In my opinion I think that this poster is less effective as the stars are not included in the poster but we just see the mouth of Firth. Even though their names are underneath the title in the poster we don't automatically draw to the poster because of the images and therefore it is less effective. The colours are gold however looking like a yellow, and therefore connotes royal appearances and therefore could draw people in, it also includes red which is the title which stands out on the gold background, and is also a royal colour. The names are placed again underneath the title and therefore you read this secondly and might make the audience go and see this. I think the images have been chosen because it shows the storyline of the film and the image chosen is right at the end of the film and therefore gives chance for the audience to guess what happens throughout. The target audience would be middle aged/ elderly because they will relate to this and they will understand without the need of seeing the stars on the poster, and so it does not appeal to all four quadrants. The text on the page is a quote from a newspaper saying how good the film is, this text is easy to read and stands on its own on the page and so the audience for the poster will read this first and therefore it should interest them.

I think that the unique selling point for this poster is the quote from the well known newspaper as the film has already been viewed, which shows to the public that the film will have probable success.

Explore the layout of these two banner posters for THE KING’S SPEECH

The layout for both of the posters are similar as the title and the name of the stars are positioned in the same place and all of the information below is the same. However the poster with Rush includes quotes from well known companies that could connote success and therefore could be more persuasive, however the other poster with Firth includes the well known star and we can see that he is a king as we see all of his medals and therefore connotes royalty and therefore more people will go and see this film because of that. The balance between image and text in the left poster is not good in my opinion there is too much text and therefore it protrudes his face and to some people this could be confusing however on the right poster there is less writing. Also in the right poster the mention of "king" is also anchorage as it links with the image of the king in the background.

The way the posters are they are serious in which the actors pull serious faces and therefore the public will think that it is a serious matter. Also because of the text and the images we can see that it is about royalty and therefore this could bring in a wider range of audiences as it is "typically British" and therefore it could go worldwide in places such as America.

This poster and film were designed BEFORE the Kings Speech, what similarities are there? 

The similarities are easily visible, there is an image in the background and text in the foreground which gives the audience a slight glimpse at what the film might be about. The text used is also in the same font which makes it stand out on a slightly darker background. I think they would have done this because of the age that "The Social Network" was aimed at teens, and was very successful therefore by using this poster the audience for this film may recognize it and then be persuaded to go and see the kings speech, this will consequently widen their audience.

This is the US poster for the film. Analyse and explain how and why it differs from the UK poster.

 

finally this is the American poster for the film, this differs from the other posters because of layout and images. We can see a happy family in the image, this is not edited and therefore we see that it is real. We can also see the title is large in the center of the poster so that they are able to see that it is about a king and therefore monarchy and it is classed as a typical British film and will attract the American audience. The colours are gold and white which is similar to the other posters, which connotes royalty. However we can also see that it says about the Academy Awards and that it has won, this will persuade people to go and see the film as they already know that it is a good film. We can also see that the film has already done well in England from this and from the image because it is a scene from the film- this gives the audience a glimpse into the film and the story. We can also see the big stars' names above the title also to advertise the success and to persuade the audience to go and to see the film. The target audience would be a national audience as it shows that it was a good film and typically British.