DAI 323- Movie Poster Design

Lines- The most important element in this movie poster is lines. The lines give movement and direction to the image to help us understand the context of the image. The stripes of the flag in the poster make something of the imagination visible. They express mood and have a huge amount of visual energy. Although lines rarely exist in nature, they can be used to express the juxtaposition of two tones. The stripes in the poster are basically a representation of the soldiers.



Tone- The most basic element of this movie poster is tone. The profile of the face with legs sticking out is the juxtaposition of tone. We see this shape in the image because there is a relative presence/ absence of light. As Dondis says, "We see what is dark because it abuts or overlaps what is light, and vice versa." We see the face because it is dark or we see the face because it is light around it.



Color- Color is in someways just an aesthetic of visual processing, but it can be very important as well. Generally speaking most movie posters use a lot of color with one of the elementary hues (yellow, red and blue)to act as almost a fill for the image. I found this poster to be very striking because of its careful use of color. All of the image is desaturated except for the eyes and the moth on the mouth. The saturation directs the eyes where to look and essentially is a very meaningful way of communicating information. Upon closer examination you can see a classic image on the moths back of the nude women forming a skull. Perception of color is one of the most emotional parts of the visual process.