Case Study 2

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Case Study: Matilda poster – Jersey Films/Tristar

Personal Response

The Yellow is what hit me first about this poster – it’s very bright, almost like a warning sign. But what breaks away from the Yellow is the four characters shown to the left, and the large, red title. The personalities of the characters are shown very well through their posing and expression; The Teacher is shown looming overhead, with a creepy look on her face, the adoptee Mom looks shouty and angry, the adoptee Dad looks confused and surprised, if also a little aggrivated and finally Matilda looks confident and happy, if even a big smug. The way the characters are put together is a comical portrayal of their positions in the films plot, Matilda being the centre of attention and the Teacher being a looming, disturbing threat – the look on her face is really unnerving. The floating cake is really bewildering, but it is an indication to the film’s plot so it’s welcome.

Form

Yellow is clearly the main colour here. I’m not sure why – There’s no reason which can be gathered from the film itself or the people displayed on the poster, but it does a very good job of drawing attention to the poster. The red also does a good job of drawing attention to itself, and also compliments the Yellow quite nicely. The collaboration of the characters, and the emotion they show, are both good introductory factors to who they are and their roles in the film. Matilda taking centre stage in this setup makes it clear that the name in the title belongs to her, and the looming Teacher is obviously displayed as the villain. Landscape format of the poster I feel makes the poster seem larger than a standard, portrait sized poster, as the content is more dispersed across the sheet. Displaying the names of famous actors (that I’ve never heard of) across the top of the page would likely draw more of an audience to the Film – those who’d like to see these actors’ performances. The inclusion of the cast list is also important in keeping the Film Poster a Film Poster.

Content and Context

The poster advertises ‘Matilda’ an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book of the same name, concerning a young girl who joins a school run by a battleaxe of a teacher, but somehow discovers she has the power of telekinesis and saves the day. The poster advertises a lot of these aspects of the plot pretty well. For example, the floating cake, for example, shows Matilda’s magical ability. And of course the expressions and poses of the characters reflect their moods and personas in the film very accurately. The title ‘Matilda’ is very simple, but portrays the largest aspect of the film – Matilda herself. The inclusion of a Credit Block and the names of Actors establish that this is a film production being advertises.

Process

The four characters shown appear to have been photographed separately, and put together using some sort of digital means – it may not have been Photoshop, due to the date this film was released (1996), but may have been an earlier program. This is clear due to the positioning of each of them, and also the different lighting the adoptee Mom and Dad are treated with. The title may have been written using traditional methods and edited using computer software to  give it a more vector-like aesthetic. The rest of the text looks as if it is typed in a custom font for the poster, as all the lettering other than the title shares a very similar look.