Film Poster Semiotics

The denotation of the Star Wars film poster suggests that this film is based in space, due to the title 'Star'. The second part of the title 'Wars' indicates imagery of conflict, resulting in a battle. This further stimulates imagery of fighting. To reinforce this, the characters situated at the top of the poster look as though they are holding sword-like weapons, along with the characters below them carrying guns.

 In addition to this, the character in the background is wearing a mask, which connotes thoughts that he could represent the evil in the film. Also, because you cannot see his face, it creates mystery, and could suggest that a big part of the film is finding out who is under the mask. The character is a darker colour than the rest. When we see darker colours, it is usually for negativity and could provide us with a reason to believe this film may have an unexpected ending.




In this film poster, the girl is centered in the middle of the poster, evoking ideas that she is the main character, leading us to believe the story line could be based around her. It could connote that in this movie, we see her the most, and she is the character the directors want us to feel closer to.

Another one of the main denotations is the use of red and blue colours. The connotation of the red colour is often a representation of blood, anger or hatred. It can also be a way of connoting fear. However, the blue is a more calming colour, stimulating more relaxation and less fright. The contrast between the two colours holds the connotation that this film presents the typical 'good vs evil' element.

Moreover, in this poster, there is a denotation presented by the use of the light-sabers, the space ship and having the setting in space, all of which convey the connotation of this film falling into the Sci-Fi genre.