NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN- theatrical poster.

No country for old men was released in 2007, under the crime thriller genre, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and star’s some notable actor such as Tommy Lee Jones. The film soon became an immediate success within the mainstream media film industry, it gained excellent opinions and recommendations; The Chicago Sun-Times labelled it “as good a film as the Coen brothers...have ever made.” The film also gained a large number of highly regarded awards these being three British Academy of Film awards, 2 golden globes and four academy awards (including Best Picture) and the best adapted Screenplay. Additionally it was one of a few highly regarded classical reminiscent. 

Due to this film obtaining such a high level of quality, and maintain a reputable reputation, it would be of key importance to deconstruct and analyse in depth its methods and ways in which it has used new media technology such as photo editing and manipulation, the shots conveyed within the actual film. Henceforth we could (with the input of our own ideas) incorporate some of the skills that have been used for example the timings into the trailer of the film in which we will be making. When analysing the poster which is most likely to be from a promotions ‘package’ that has been established in the upcoming months to when film is about to be realised, normally accompanied by the trailer, I will be using the M.I.G.R.A.I.N model, then after this I will be writing about other aspects of the poster which have not been covered and my personal opinions.

Firstly when looking at the poster my initial thought is about the faded eyes in the background which obviously those are of the murder, by exercising this technique it conveys a sense of fear and gives the impression that the antagonist is looking directly at you, which makes it more personalized, establishing a relation with the poster and the viewer these types of posters are the ones which works best in my opinion. Plus the character who is holding the briefcase which i assume is the protagonist, is running away, in hurry. Again by having the eyes positioned behind him it makes it appear to the viewer that the antagonist will get him... there's not doubt, and just by looking at them you can tell that they are "murderers eyes" only highlighted with the thick bushy eyebrows and the heavy bags under his eyes.

The name of the film is what i am secondly drawn to 'NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN' as i have not watched the film yet it is quite vague and mysterious, which would also attract customers. The words within the title seem to be of different sizes the most emphasis is on the NO and OLD.

-COLOUR-

The colour used in the poster are also an important part of his effect. The antagonist eyes and upper face are dark, which is quite frightening and when looking at the eyes they directly look at you back! By using the black colour it makes things appear more sinister and unnatural. As his face fades out there is a orangey/reddish colour, first i thought this was the horizon but after much thought it also could be the flames of a fire, which could be associated with power and violence. The title sees to be a plan colour, but the effect that has been used seems to make it stand out and by using another colour would be too much. Lastly a silhouette has also been used within the poster, as we can se the man is running away on what seems to be the wilderness, as I could tell from the top of the silhouette there are bushes etc, this is why the red line could also be a horizon.

The slogan: the sloan positioned at the top of the poster is white and a plain font is used, however after reading it, it creates such an effect, that can make up for it!

At the bottom of the poster, as with all theatrical posters there is a list of the actors, directors etc names which are in a yelllowly brown colour, again rather plain as they are not ment to be a prominent feature of it. However some parts are "a coen brothers film" is highlighted in white as these are the people that have created it, and the award that it has won is also highlighted, to mark it's success.

-FONT-

The main piece of font that needs to be analysed is the title. By capitalizing, it makes it more impact and is easily singled out within the poster. By having a light colour on black it also stands out more and by having a different style of text for this it makes it an important characteristic within a poster. The actors/actresses that are positioned above are also in white within capatilized surnames so the viewer can familiarize themselves with them, plus by having these names pictured above the title, it could in many ways widen the target audience for example; No country for Old men might only initially attract horror movie fans, but by having these it may attract Tommy Lee Jones fans.

-FOCUS IMAGE-

As mentioned above the main focus of the poster is to do with the eyes and the character running away, as i stated earlier the eyes are dark and sinister and the man running away is showing much desperation, and with the motto "THERE IS NO CLEAN GETAWAYS" gives prominence to the concept that he will never run away and that he will be caught in the end.