Anna Mortimer

What colour represents in film posters

Different colours and images react differently within our brain, producing different emotions
and thoughts and advertisers use this to influence us with their products. For example, when
people see the red and yellow arches of a McDonalds’ sign, their brain
is alerting them to emotions of hunger and happiness. This is due to
red being a colour linked with hunger and energy and yellow being
linked with happiness and fun. For my project I will be examining how
colour and image affects us in film advertising.
I chose this topic as I am interested in how colour and image can affect us and make us react
differently. I found it fascinating how things like this can make us think of something. For
example, it would be seeing the iconic 1970s Superman logo with the classic colours of red,
yellow and blue. It makes me feel nostalgic and happy as it takes me back to my childhood
when I read Superman comics. Studies have shown that babies as young as two weeks can
already distinguish the colour red. This is because red has the longest
wavelength which means it appears nearer than other colours and
grabs our attention first. Blue has a shorter wavelength which means
it is less noticeable and easily overlooked. This could also be because
of its relevance and association with nature and the sky; things we
see every day. Using my research, I’m going to explore colour and
what affect it has on us in film posters.
Ever wondered why certain colours are used on film posters? It’s not
always just because it looks right. Some colours are related to traits
or emotions; this is used to make us think a certain way about
characters. The colour deep purple in a lot of films signifies evil and in
the film ‘Sleeping beauty’, Maleficent’s cloak is black and purple
which tells us she’s evil as her deep purple colour is related to power,
royalty and ambition, traits related to villains. As
well as her green fire, this colouring makes it so
that even young children can understand she is the
‘baddie’. In this ‘Sleeping Beauty’ poster, an acidic green background is
used on Maleficent’s side but is less prominent than Aurora’s blue
background; this shows that the happier colour of blue is the good side’s
colour. Blue is related to feelings of calm and happiness so it is
understandable that it would be used for the
princess. These colours make us think about the characters
differently, even if we haven’t met them yet.
Another obvious villain colour is dark red. Red impacts our nervous
system more than any other colour, our blood pressure rises and it
grabs our attention first. It gives off emotions of power and
strength, but it’s also seen as an aggressive and fearful colour,
probably due to its relation to blood and fire. In ‘Aladdin’ the villain,
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Jafar is always dressed in red and black, signifying his evil nature. It’s because of these colours
we think of characters in the way we do and automatically identify them as evil.
A study by author Sarah McGuire showed the
most prominent colours related to Disney
villains, to no surprise the most used colours
were dark red, purple and black. The colour
red is used by villains but
can also be used as a
colour of strength and
power for heroes such as
Mr. Incredible from ‘The
Incredibles’ or sidekicks
like Sebastian from ‘The
Little Mermaid’. Black is
considered a formal, elegant and prestigious colour to most, which suits the characters of
Ursula from ‘The Little Mermaid’ and Scar from ‘The Lion King’ well. Both characters were
ambitious and wanted to be important or the leader of
something, traits related to the colour purple and red.
I found it interesting to see from Sarah
McGuire’s study that green was more
popular with heroes than villains as I
would consider green an evil colour
and researching into it I found it was more lime green colours that
were related to villains and ‘happy’ summer greens that heroes
used. Lime green can be a bit harsh on the
eyes in some cases and the fruit is definitely
harsh on the taste buds. Most villains have green eyes, magic or skin like
the classic witch rather than costumes. Many villains are jealous or
envious of the hero of the story, similar to the phrase “green with envy”;
this is true for the evil step-mother in ‘Cinderella’ (1950) and the Evil
Queen in ‘Snow White’ (1937). I imagine this is
so there wasn’t too much green and we didn’t
relate it to nature like we might with a hero’s costume or use of green.
As well as blue, these nature colours are closely linked to Disney
princesses like Aurora and Snow White who have a love for nature. In
this setting these colours are
considered happy and calming.
Shrek, from the 2001 film of the same name, shows the
protaganist as a green ogre, a colour fitting for the character
but confusing in terms of his personality. A green ogre like
Shrek would immediatley be seen as an antagonist, at least
compared to the beauty of Princess Fiona. As the film
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progresses, Shrek is seen as a protaganist, relating to the popular phrase ‘Don’t judge a book
by its cover’. We also see Princess Fiona wearing a vibrant green dress, this shade of green is
similar to nature unlike the lime green of a villain. This shade reflects a bright green meadow,
relating to the theme of nature associated with the colour green.
While looking into the different Disney movie posters, I found
many of the posters focused primarily on the hero colours. I
wondered if this was so children found it more appealing as from
a young age we learn dark colours can be seen as evil. I did find
some darker Disney posters but they were posters I had never
seen advertised before, whether it be on advertisements for the
new films or my old DVD cases from the classics. It’s as if they
are trying to hide the darker parts of the films or maybe the
darker posters are just not as appealing, I myself, admit the
‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs‘ poster shown here does
look quite frightening and not the idyllic princess life we know
of.
Moving on from Disney films, I had a look at some Sci-Fi film
posters. I noticed a very common theme of electric blue, vibrant
green and black. Researching green, I found that it was related to
harmony, safety and reassurance which I thought was odd as
these traits are the complete opposite of most Sci-Fi Films.
Thinking more in-depth I realised the common alien image, a
major Sci-Fi icon, is almost always seen as green or grey. I
wondered if these colours could also signify the unknown or
toxicity as I think of these colours when I think of this and they are
closely linked to Sci-Fi films which often focus on fear or
exploration of the unknown. Coincidentally, both these colours
are said to be bland or dull and give off these emotions. Sci-Fi film
posters are often not very bright or vibrant, apart from a small
focus and they are usually very dark with muted grey tones.
Four out of five times, the main colour in sci-fi posters is blue.
Teal, a colour belonging to the blue family, is clearly favoured
but a clear blue hue is often seen as well. A good example of a
film with strong colour usage is the film ‘Tron Legacy’, as it’s set
in a virtual world where the colours can be as bright and vivid as
they want. The poster features a dark ominous background with
neon teal blue and white taking the focus. This bright blue is
seen throughout the entire film. Blue usually signifies nature but
in this style, it’s shown as lightning or electricity. The film is
based around modern technology where blue is the preferred
colour. Tech companies tend to use blue in advertising as it
symbolises precision and intelligence; companies such as ‘Dell’,
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‘Intel’ and ‘HP’ use blue in their logos. The bright blue and white contrasts the dark
background and highlights the centre characters, making it a very eye-catching poster. This
blue and black colour scheme is used in many other Sci-Fi
Film Posters like ‘Avatar’ and ‘E.T’; in these settings, it
suggests mystery and the unknown.
It is not uncommon for Science
Fiction posters to use a small amount
of a warm colour to accentuate something and create a focal point,
demanding the viewer’s attention and keeping the poster from
becoming dull. This is not seen much in the ‘Tron Legacy’ poster apart
from the striking white in the centre. As for the ’Avatar’ poster, the
bright green eyes definitely create a more interesting poster and bring
life to an otherwise dull image.

A strong Sci-fi subgenre is superhero or comic films such as

‘Captain America’ or ‘Transformers’. These films use the colours
red, blue and white or black a lot, probably relating to the
American flag from which most of these films originated. The 2007
film ‘Transformers’, is a film about robots
which explains the metallic grey colours
and sharp imagery in the poster. There’s
the classic blue hue used in sci-fi films,
mixed with grey to make the sky seem
darker and more ominous. The red colours
in the poster come from the fire; the fire is
there for obvious reasons as this is a film
about death and annihilation. Red in action films is very strong as it
can represent fire and blood as well as strength and power. It’s a warm
colour so it attracts the attention and prevents it from being a dull
poster with all the cool hues.
Romantic comedies are a lot more light-hearted and fun than sci-fi films. They focus a lot on
light, warm colours like pink and orange and lots of white is used. They use dark colours to
create contrast and make the imagery more interesting as well as
using the protagonist as the main image on the posters. Often the
main character is a well-known actor or actress and entices the
audience with their appearance on the poster.
The film poster for rom-com ‘Love, Rosie’ features the two main
characters, who are both well-known actors. Light beige flesh-
tones make up the background with pink and white typography.
Pink symbolises love and happiness and is related to things like
bubble-gum, flowers and cotton candy. It’s also seen as sweet,
cute and feminine. Like red, it’s seen as a romantic and charming
colour often being referred to as the sweeter side to red. Red can
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mean heat, lust and passion whereas pink is known as a more loving, charming and romantic
colour. Like most rom-coms the characters look happy or in love and are close together
signifying their love or appreciation of each other.
The film ‘To all the boys I’ve loved before’, is a story about love
letters, so the paper page background really suits this poster.
The title typography is a light pink colour in a doodle style and
the poster features the protagonist with a light purple doodle
heart background. These light pink and purple colours symbolise
happiness and fun and add to the pastel colour aesthetic of the
poster. Purple is a mix of the calming qualities of blue and the
passion of red. It’s associated with creativity, independence and
ambition which suits this film perfectly. The film is aimed at
teenagers and the doodle typography of the poster gives a
young feel to the image, creating a young, teen setting for the
film and matching the target audience. Compared to a Sci-Fi film
with its harsh tones, the typical rom-com poster is very much
fitting for the romance themes within.
The subject of tones in colour is interesting as some colours like blue give off the same
emotion with almost all tones. The exception is darker tones which no matter what colour,
tend to be more dark and pessimistic. If we look at red; light red is very popular with romance
as it’s more related to love than lust. Darker reds however can signify darkness and danger or
lust and passion. I would say it depends on the complete image to define which meaning the
tones of colours have.
In conclusion, it’s safe to say different genres of film
posters have their own unique styles and colours
associated with them. It’s these colours that change
how we think of different genres and characters in film.
Designers use these colours to influence our emotions
and thoughts on a film and decide whether we see the
film or not, of course still within the boundaries of
what we do and don’t enjoy watching. They don’t have
to follow these ‘expectations’ for genre film posters
and if they want to add a prominent bright pink colour
into a science-fiction film poster they can; there are no
set rules in the colour of film posters. Sci-fi films are
usually the darkest and include lots of blue tones and the action films use more red, warm
hues for fire and chaos as this is what is expected within these posters as it’s what we’ve
known from personal experience. Rom-coms are typically more feminine and it would seem
quite odd for a romance to include fire and chaos, it’s usually pinks and reds are used because
of their relation to love and romance. I think advertising for film posters has always had the
basic outline of colour schemes and that’s what we’ve come to expect and maybe that’s the
reason we feel those emotions and thoughts.
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Bibliography
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