Shank: Poster Analysis

• The thing which is most eye catching on this poster is the films title as it is placed slightly off centre  in bold, bright red text right above the main photograph, behind some of the characters head giving them priority in terms of importance. Length wise the text is in the middle, but not height as it is placed above the characters. The title, followed as a brand identity, is extremely clever and effective because as part of the letter 'A' there appears to be a silhouette of a person holding out a knife, linking in with the title and the red foreshadows the amount of blood loss during the film (as re connotes blood and danger). The silhouette could further suggest to the audience that a particular character may get involved in a dangerous situation as the films story line unravels. 

• Just like Adulthood's film poster, Shank's main photograph is one of the main six characters possibly from a scene in the film. It also suggests the importance of each character through their placement as they are standing in a line. Shank features one of Adulthood's main cast members who is in fact Adam Deacon, well known for that particular role in Adulthood, Adam is standing on the far left. Along with Adam, there is another extremely familiar face on the poster and this is of Bashy (standing next to Adam) who is a rapper well known in the UK ( and as previously mentioned on my blog, Bashy's music was used on the film's soundtrack). Shank's audience members are most likely those of both Kidulthood and Adulthood and will therefore most likely be interested in getting more insight on these characters roles, expecting them to have important ones throughout the film. Their positioning is further effective because it both supports and neglects this idea because it could be argued that as they are not in the centre their roles may not be as important as other characters. However, Bashy's body language suggests that his role in particular is quiet important as it is almost suggested to us as though he is leading the rest of the characters and it further looks like he is ahead of the rest. This makes the audience members intrigued and further makes them want to watch the rest of the film to see if their roles are in fact important or not. 

• The main photograph of the six characters is an action shot and appears to capture them either running away from or even towards something, suggesting to the audience what this film will be like and what type of characters these people have. This, along with the mise-en-scene (costume and 'props') further gives insight to those looking at this poster what the themes of the film are. The costume that they are wearing captures an element of teenage life within the gang culture. We are able to see that it is a violent youth film because of their clothing (hoodies) along with the dog that is with them which is a bull/terrier which are in fact banned in the UK fir their violent nature. Behind the characters, in the background there is a big group of people dressed in all black with hoodies again showing themes of gang culture. The tagline "The gangs have taken over" further supports this and suggests to us as an audience that these characters aren't part of a gang but are however, exposed to the features of gang life.  

• Above the title, in bold fonts are written the names of each main character and next to the title is the name of the director again in bold and big enough font for it to stand out against the background. At the bottom of the poster, are the billing blocks is a convergence link of the films website which enables viewers to further gain information on the film if they want to.  The blurb on top of the tagline is put in place in order to show the audience what previous success they have contributed towards. It is especially effective because Kidulthood is another film within the same genre, therefore attracting both a wider but also an already established audience.

•  As stated on the poster, Shank is from the distributors of Kidulthood (and Adulthood) so this films poster, especially the portrait one (and this one, even though it is landscape, follows the generic conventions of film posters) has almost the same exact layout as the Adulthood poster in terms of text and photograph. Because this poster I am analysing is the landscape one as mentioned before, it does differ slightly to their portrait one as in this one they were not able to include any reviews the film got. However, this doesn't mean one is any better than the other. As a whole, I think this poster is extremely effective as it is eye catching as the colours used work well together and the information they wanted their audience members to get does in fact stand out.