Design in Film Posters 1-'In the Loop': Zeitgeist for Hope and Change!

As I've mentioned before I am a Film Studies major and movies are a big thing for me. The last few days I've been thinking about how I could incorporate that passion for film into this blog about design. This is the first entry of what I am planning on making a weekly tradition about film posters and the design behind them. I'll be taking posters from some of my favorite movies and some posters of movies I've never seen (like today's poster) but I understand and really like the design behind them.

Movie posters are, on a very basic level, advertisements for the films. But beyond that I think that posters are really artistic pieces, I have quite a few of my favorite posters hanging on my walls. What makes these pieces so interesting to me is that a poster must, in a single static image, convey the spirit and feeling of the film it advertises. Many posters are simply images or stills from the movie with a title and a release date thrown on it. That works when your movie is "Clash of the Titans" and your poster can be a still from the final action-packed climax. But take, for example, a movie like "Dr. Strangelove", a black-and-white film made when color was the norm, and a movie that mostly takes place in rooms where men talk. A still shot from any of that would not attract an audience, thus comes in the designed and stylized film poster.

Today's poster comes from a British 2009 comedy called "In the Loop". A comedy about the American President and British Prime Minister who through mistake end up in a war that they never wanted to have in the first place. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

The poster from "In the Loop" is a zeitgeist, clearly referencing and parodying the now iconic Obama "Hope" campaign poster. Here we have the "In the Loop" poster that has the British Prime Minister looking aloof and unsure compared to the often distinguished and pensive Obama. The slogan for the movie further parodies Obama's campaign slogans such as, "Yes we can!" and the ideas of Hope and Change. The poster immediately sets the film up as being a political satire but also being something current and relatable. The film, like the poster, will play off of people's expectations of government and politics, in fact the plot of the movie is a direct satire of the circumstances surrounding the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003. This poster is simple, using modern iconography. A simple play off of a very famous poster from current events. But in its simplicity it is able to capture the essence of the film in a single, static shot. It's an incredibly effective poster that not only advertises the film but works as a great piece of design.

*Photo courtesy of 4outof10.com